chickdigger802
Banned
You can 'walk' in this game??
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Star Wars: The Old Republic |OT| EA: "Let's blow this thing and go home!"
- Thread starter Emitan
- Start date
Yeah. IIRC you just hit / on the numpad to toggle.
BattleMonkey
Member
Yea it's the /
Ramocalypse
Member
Anyone have any idea when they are going to allow server transfers? Peak time on the republic fleet for me is 30-50 people, most ive seen is 70 (Thandys Noori). So frustrating finding groups, and trying to sell/trade stuff. Totally agree with you guys, they really need to up the server population caps/merge.
Fixed1979
Member
Holy shit, that would be nice. =( Empire side?
BattleMonkey
Member
Raising server caps is not going to help server population balance issues. Almost no servers are full anymore and only get high pop at best in prime time. Server transfers aren't going to help much either if a bunch of Rep players go to the few servers where they have a decent population.
Eventual server merges will help, but empire population is going to be packed on said servers.
Yup.
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
I'm sure it's been higher; but playing on Keller's Void since Dec 13th, I don't think I can recall one time when the population broke 200 on Republic Fleet. Everytime I log in nowadays, it's in the 60-80 range at peak, and under 50 after about 11pm.
Francois424
Neo Member
Yeah, but there really is nothing you can do about the faction imbalances.
Personally as a player, I really don't feel an XP bonus would be an incentive to go to the other faction...
if anything it would drive me off the opposite side as I find this game already too generous with XP handouts.
New Republic-only Races woudn't work either because ppl arent going to go thru raising their main and support characters (if you use them) and redo the entire crafting receipies and stuff. Not to mention it would P*** off all of the Imperials (with good reason).
The best they could do is to try and balance as much servers as they can while the mergers are happening... and then again, what about players with toons on both side ?
Tough break for Bioware.
BattleMonkey
Member
With most servers being empire dominant, even if they try to merge smart, it really wont work out since Empire is in majority. Offering incentives is likely not going to have much impact as it usually doesn't, but its better than doing nothing as some players will take advantage of it, plus it helps entice players who have alts to level up faster to join the endgame stuffs. My Sith is maxed and been putting time into my Rep main, but doing end game stuff takes time away from finishing my rep toon. Give me an incentive might get me to spend more time to level my Pub.
They said Legacy system will have some kind of incentive also, imagine they will do something like you unlock something Legacy wise by maxing out a character of the opposite faction or so.
Incentives like XP bonuses are also kinda more for getting new players to roll on one side more so than getting people to make an alt
Xp bonus would make me roll a republic alt. In fact i think that should be a part of legacy. Sped up XP so that i only have to do class quests and some light pvp or flashpoints. I shouldnt have to do the same filler 7 more times to see all the story.
I want to give a special shout out to Kelzor for all his help as of late for getting me through some flash points. Like people pointed out in the guild it's a pain in the ass to get some of these mid level ones done even with 140+ people online on the fleet at night.
Last night was especially entertaining though, because I think both myself and him crashed to desktop 3 or 4 times each trying to do Cademimu. On the upside every drop obtained was new gear for my Operative, so I never have to run it again yay.
Thanks to Nessus the other night too for helping clear Mandy raiders. Really helps guys like myself who only get a few hours here and there, and don't want to miss out on this kind of content so the game remains fun and fresh.
<3 GAF.
This is Kelzor. I was more than glad to help and gratz again on your new gear.
Cool Escalator
Banned
Dark Reaper Republic Representing son!
Our population has gotten much healthier since launch. We cap out at about 140~ on the fleet, didnt pass 100 a few weeks ago.
Ilum is a mad house tonight, 2 instances on our server for the first time since i can remember honestly.
A lot of doom and gloom about server populations on MMORPG.com and even the official SWTOR forums, so I am really glad that my always standard server is actually getting healthier!
I still think they need to get rid of about 20 servers in the US.
Our population has gotten much healthier since launch. We cap out at about 140~ on the fleet, didnt pass 100 a few weeks ago.
Ilum is a mad house tonight, 2 instances on our server for the first time since i can remember honestly.
A lot of doom and gloom about server populations on MMORPG.com and even the official SWTOR forums, so I am really glad that my always standard server is actually getting healthier!
I still think they need to get rid of about 20 servers in the US.
Just open up the servers and condense at the same time that way they just can say they added server capacity as opposed to losing subs.
Nobody has any reason to visit anything that doesn't have an instance on it, or ilum. At this point almost everyone you see elsewhere is probably datacron hunting casually or playing an alt.
Ramocalypse
Member
There have been several instances (at least 4 i can think of off the top of my head) with my companions where it looks like they are about to give me a quest, and then they sort of go off on their own and come back essentially saying "mission complete".
I checked on two of the instances on Torhead (database site) and it looks like i should have been able to tag along with them, and get some kind of quest.
My guess is that Bioware has decided i am too over-leveled to do this content so they just change the script so that i am not given it.
If this is the case i have to say im a little disappointed in the design decision there. I would have at least liked the option to accept or decline the quest, as i really like the companion aspect of the game, and feel like i am missing out on content involving their character development. Why couldn't they just scale the difficulty of these, so the player doesn't miss out on the content? I would have still like to do them if they where grays too, but now i'll never see that content as far as i know.
I checked on two of the instances on Torhead (database site) and it looks like i should have been able to tag along with them, and get some kind of quest.
My guess is that Bioware has decided i am too over-leveled to do this content so they just change the script so that i am not given it.
If this is the case i have to say im a little disappointed in the design decision there. I would have at least liked the option to accept or decline the quest, as i really like the companion aspect of the game, and feel like i am missing out on content involving their character development. Why couldn't they just scale the difficulty of these, so the player doesn't miss out on the content? I would have still like to do them if they where grays too, but now i'll never see that content as far as i know.
Yup, good luck on any heroics.
BattleMonkey
Member
Why would there be tons of people there? Once you do the quests there you dont go back usually.
Heroics being completely optional and lack of unified lfg channel really is the problem. Planets in tor are just mmo zones, but a person cant communicate with others in other zones or those looking to group. Simple chat channel additions would help alot.
chickdigger802
Banned
I always thought that they didn't have time to implement some of the companion side quests and they didn't have time to change up the script... so... it all happened during commercial break!
And no1 is on corellia cuz you hit 50 like in the first zone there ;P
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
Just rushed through all the story quests for my JK on Hoth. Split it up between last night from about 8-10p and tonight from 10-midnight.
There were four people on the entire planet yesterday, and six this evening. I passed one person... on a planet that is 50+ sq km. It's just absolutely, positively... barren. Empty. It all feels so dead. Like I'm goofing around with a character long after the game has been forgotten about and everyone has moved on. Yet, it's only two months after release. I mean, the game sold well and I imagine subs are doing at least halfway well. But I've concluded that the low server limits/too many servers was stupid. A very dumb design decision that Bioware had to see coming. It makes running around so fucking boring. So much so that I don't think I'm going to bother with an alt unless something is done. Which is a shame, because that means I'll probably only sub for another month or so; rather than the year or so that I expected to. I want to play the other classes, and experience their stories; but not if that means I'm playing in a fucking ghost town for 100 hours each.
Though, I will say, I enjoyed the story toward the end, and I'm really liking how the dominoes are lining up in my JK story. It's pretty decent, and I can't help but think shit is going to hit the fan soon!
There were four people on the entire planet yesterday, and six this evening. I passed one person... on a planet that is 50+ sq km. It's just absolutely, positively... barren. Empty. It all feels so dead. Like I'm goofing around with a character long after the game has been forgotten about and everyone has moved on. Yet, it's only two months after release. I mean, the game sold well and I imagine subs are doing at least halfway well. But I've concluded that the low server limits/too many servers was stupid. A very dumb design decision that Bioware had to see coming. It makes running around so fucking boring. So much so that I don't think I'm going to bother with an alt unless something is done. Which is a shame, because that means I'll probably only sub for another month or so; rather than the year or so that I expected to. I want to play the other classes, and experience their stories; but not if that means I'm playing in a fucking ghost town for 100 hours each.
Though, I will say, I enjoyed the story toward the end, and I'm really liking how the dominoes are lining up in my JK story. It's pretty decent, and I can't help but think shit is going to hit the fan soon!
Just rushed through all the story quests for my JK on Hoth. Split it up between last night from about 8-10p and tonight from 10-midnight.
There were four people on the entire planet yesterday, and six this evening. I passed one person... on a planet that is 50+ sq km. It's just absolutely, positively... barren. Empty. It all feels so dead. Like I'm goofing around with a character long after the game has been forgotten about and everyone has moved on. Yet, it's only two months after release. I mean, the game sold well and I imagine subs are doing at least halfway well. But I've concluded that the low server limits/too many servers was stupid. A very dumb design decision that Bioware had to see coming. It makes running around so fucking boring. So much so that I don't think I'm going to bother with an alt unless something is done. Which is a shame, because that means I'll probably only sub for another month or so; rather than the year or so that I expected to. I want to play the other classes, and experience their stories; but not if that means I'm playing in a fucking ghost town for 100 hours each.
Though, I will say, I enjoyed the story toward the end, and I'm really liking how the dominoes are lining up in my JK story. It's pretty decent, and I can't help but think shit is going to hit the fan soon!
Next month there will likely be a ton of re-rolls and leveling due to the Legacy System (and it's new races).
That being said, while most planets are nice to look at it - they're all static, lifeless, and completely barren. It's even more glaring when people aren't on, or your server is just dead. Don't expect anything to change in that department.
cpp_is_king
Member
Just rushed through all the story quests for my JK on Hoth. Split it up between last night from about 8-10p and tonight from 10-midnight.
There were four people on the entire planet yesterday, and six this evening. I passed one person... on a planet that is 50+ sq km. It's just absolutely, positively... barren. Empty. It all feels so dead. Like I'm goofing around with a character long after the game has been forgotten about and everyone has moved on. Yet, it's only two months after release. I mean, the game sold well and I imagine subs are doing at least halfway well. But I've concluded that the low server limits/too many servers was stupid. A very dumb design decision that Bioware had to see coming. It makes running around so fucking boring. So much so that I don't think I'm going to bother with an alt unless something is done. Which is a shame, because that means I'll probably only sub for another month or so; rather than the year or so that I expected to. I want to play the other classes, and experience their stories; but not if that means I'm playing in a fucking ghost town for 100 hours each.
Though, I will say, I enjoyed the story toward the end, and I'm really liking how the dominoes are lining up in my JK story. It's pretty decent, and I can't help but think shit is going to hit the fan soon!
The planets will unfortunately continue to get deader and deader until you reach 50, and Ilum.
Belsavis is an exception, but even if there were 30 people on some of the larger planets, you'd still never see anyone.
What they should have done is GREATLY, GREATLY speed up the amount of time it takes to travel from one planet to another. I'm talking almost like click a button in Fleet and you're in Hoth type of speedup. Then require certain planets to only be accessible from certain other planets. So like maybe Fleet doesn't take you everywhere, only to a few, and you have to go to the other planet, travel to another checkpoint, then go to antoher space station and boom click transported to a third planet, etc.
Then at least you can get some people on the planets, and your overall travel time would probably still be about the same due to the current abomination that is the airlock and orbital station.
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
The Legacy system will hopefully help. That's a very good point, and I'm looking forward to hopefully being surprised.
But I still don't think it's going to make a huge difference. Since December, I have yet to see more than 80 people on a single planet. Heck, Nar Shadda put up a second instance on Keller's Void... when there was only 40 something on the first instance :-/
I know it sounds like I'm bitching. I don't hate the game, or am calling it inept or anything. I guess... I dunno... I just hyped the game up for so long, and in my head I always invisioned these massive battles that just happen randomly and could only be possible in an MMO. Chilling in a cantina with 20 other players on a random planet, say Tatooine, playing Pazzak. And then a buddy telling me him and his group randomly encountered a hidden world Boss on Hoth, and they need help, quick, before another guild of 10 people get to the boss first. So me an my buddies pack our bag and go fly to Hoth, and meet our friends. And when the 20 of us arrive, we come to the realization that we still can't take on the boss ourselves. And so we ask that other, competing guild for help. Together, the 25 or 30 of us fight this beast till its death. All the while, it's such a specatcle that experienced players stop to survey our strategies as we battle; and the new guy who's rolling his low level character stops questing for 20 minutes to watch in amazement. Slowly ~10 or 20 spectators are just enjoying the show and congratulate us when we take the beast down.
I ask around in general chat what's going on in the galaxy. A big bunch of high level guys are being jerks on Tython. There's 100 or so people back on Tatooine taking part in faux speeder races while an audience of another 100 or so take bets. And of course, there is lots of action just throughout each planet as thousands of players strive to complete their story quests while striking up conversations with people all over.
Unfortunatley, it's nothing like that :-( My imagination got the best of me. But looking back, my expectations don't seem so ridiculous. What's the point of the Star Wars IP, with a rich history and a variety of well-known planets. A huge galaxy with hundreds of species and a massive fan base... if planets are just going to be barren wastelands, and completely devoid of other players?
***
Also, cpp_is_king; I like your idea, too. Moving from planet to planet takes WAAY too long. And the airlock and orbital stations is just pure, unadulterated, poor design.
But I still don't think it's going to make a huge difference. Since December, I have yet to see more than 80 people on a single planet. Heck, Nar Shadda put up a second instance on Keller's Void... when there was only 40 something on the first instance :-/
I know it sounds like I'm bitching. I don't hate the game, or am calling it inept or anything. I guess... I dunno... I just hyped the game up for so long, and in my head I always invisioned these massive battles that just happen randomly and could only be possible in an MMO. Chilling in a cantina with 20 other players on a random planet, say Tatooine, playing Pazzak. And then a buddy telling me him and his group randomly encountered a hidden world Boss on Hoth, and they need help, quick, before another guild of 10 people get to the boss first. So me an my buddies pack our bag and go fly to Hoth, and meet our friends. And when the 20 of us arrive, we come to the realization that we still can't take on the boss ourselves. And so we ask that other, competing guild for help. Together, the 25 or 30 of us fight this beast till its death. All the while, it's such a specatcle that experienced players stop to survey our strategies as we battle; and the new guy who's rolling his low level character stops questing for 20 minutes to watch in amazement. Slowly ~10 or 20 spectators are just enjoying the show and congratulate us when we take the beast down.
I ask around in general chat what's going on in the galaxy. A big bunch of high level guys are being jerks on Tython. There's 100 or so people back on Tatooine taking part in faux speeder races while an audience of another 100 or so take bets. And of course, there is lots of action just throughout each planet as thousands of players strive to complete their story quests while striking up conversations with people all over.
Unfortunatley, it's nothing like that :-( My imagination got the best of me. But looking back, my expectations don't seem so ridiculous. What's the point of the Star Wars IP, with a rich history and a variety of well-known planets. A huge galaxy with hundreds of species and a massive fan base... if planets are just going to be barren wastelands, and completely devoid of other players?
***
Also, cpp_is_king; I like your idea, too. Moving from planet to planet takes WAAY too long. And the airlock and orbital stations is just pure, unadulterated, poor design.
Holyyyyy fuck. If only.
HarryDemeanor
Member
If they can get Popcap to do Pazaak and Swoop Racing I will be in heaven.
BattleMonkey
Member
Theme park MMO's always have the zones become empty later down the line, and sadly players will just hang out mostly in a hub like fleet. Only thing they can do is add more diversions for high level players to go to these older planets again, but that is not going to suddenly make the planets alive. Even if the number in the corner of the screen goes up with players locally, your still not going to be seeing any of these players as the planets are huge mostly and at high level said players are going to be only going to where they have to be. They are for the most part aren't going to be helping low lvl players also. Planets are just quest zones like in most MMOs, and once they are done players rarely go back. As others have said, they just go to the fleet and rarely leave at 50.
They could do things to get players to go to other planets, but it's not going to really change anything. Adding global chat channels I think would be the most beneficial thing they can do. Adding casino games would be great, but thats just going to have players in the casino not out in the world, same with any other little diversions they add. Been doing datacron hunting now that we hit 50 once in a while with the GF, but once we have cleared a planet doing that, were not going back any time soon and were not really making the game world alive.
Also they need to start rolling out some live events and such to spice things up. RIFT did good with that in constantly having something new going on for players to run around the world doing besides the usual.
Perhaps the planets should have been made smaller, for example Quesh which is really small and players only are there for a very short time, you see players alot more because of it's small size even though there might be less than 20 players on it. The planets being large is cool, but for theme park MMO I think it kinda hurts the game.
They could do things to get players to go to other planets, but it's not going to really change anything. Adding global chat channels I think would be the most beneficial thing they can do. Adding casino games would be great, but thats just going to have players in the casino not out in the world, same with any other little diversions they add. Been doing datacron hunting now that we hit 50 once in a while with the GF, but once we have cleared a planet doing that, were not going back any time soon and were not really making the game world alive.
Also they need to start rolling out some live events and such to spice things up. RIFT did good with that in constantly having something new going on for players to run around the world doing besides the usual.
Perhaps the planets should have been made smaller, for example Quesh which is really small and players only are there for a very short time, you see players alot more because of it's small size even though there might be less than 20 players on it. The planets being large is cool, but for theme park MMO I think it kinda hurts the game.
I was thinking about illum. They should shrink it and make it a circle around the center. This would make capping points much less of a drag. Also they should allow companion use for the outnumbered faction. They just need to do all they can to promote pvp. The only time pvp is fun is when it is reasonably balanced.
On my server, I have had pretty decent battles in Ilum, and when we're outnumbered we could always depend on kiting imps to the good old turret.
Class balance is an issue in Ilum, I think marauders/sentinels are a pretty good place in pvp except for Ilum. It's just turned into an aoe ranged/heal fest and welp, their is nothing they can do there.
Unbalanced sides are a huge issue, as there is no incentive to rolling on the less popular side right now. More access to pugs, easier to dominate in Ilum, a stronger, more mature Auction House.
I still think Bioware can influence the steamrolling issue. For example, one incentive that they could do on extremely unpopular sides is to up the valor gain and have trade missions give more rewards.
Class balance is an issue in Ilum, I think marauders/sentinels are a pretty good place in pvp except for Ilum. It's just turned into an aoe ranged/heal fest and welp, their is nothing they can do there.
Unbalanced sides are a huge issue, as there is no incentive to rolling on the less popular side right now. More access to pugs, easier to dominate in Ilum, a stronger, more mature Auction House.
I still think Bioware can influence the steamrolling issue. For example, one incentive that they could do on extremely unpopular sides is to up the valor gain and have trade missions give more rewards.
BattleMonkey
Member
It's not really a population issue, as even at launch with packed servers people had same complaints. Problem largely is that the planets can be very large and are basically equivalent to leveling zones you find in most rpgs. Course you can't walk between zones like you can in a fantasy RPG so the planets are isolated by level ranges. A planet in TOR is generally several times the size of a similar leveled zone in another game, so players doing questing are really spread out.
Population issues don't really affect the leveling experience though as the game largely can be played as a single player game. Group content areas are generally optional for some extra rewards, getting a group for them with random players in an area is a mixed bag of success depending on largely luck of ppl being there and wanting to do them as well. Game is very liberal with giving out rewards/xp so a player is not disadvantaged much by not doing group content.
Biggest issue is that world pvp doesn't really happen and people don't like not seeing lot of other players running around in the world.
I wish Illum on my server would have some actual battles. People there are just now doing kill trading groups. Any time i've gone and found enemy pubs, they will start asking me to help form a trade group instead of actually battling. How lame. Illum needs lot of work
i agree 100% on the lack of marauder utility on ilum. unless i stay back and spam my buff, there is not a whole lot i can add (other than act as fodder for the other team).
Jbird34
Member
Well speaking for the Republic on KV, when I am on Illum I have yet to see any kill trading, it's either we are rolling the imps or they are rolling us and that makes for some intense and fun PVP!
Melee suck (I guess except operatives since they can sit back and aoe) in general for giant ilum battles, because it's just a giant aoe lagfest; where melee are usually the ones dying on both sides, because they gotta man up and suicide if they want valor. At least we got a 9 second invincibility for some valor before we die
.
CAW
Member
This might be old but, what? Seems the holodancer tech has improved
The dancer seems to act as a companion now. No doubt a bug:
http://www.twitch.tv/molsonwarrior/b/309402935 (sorry bout the music in the vid, I streamed it while I was leveling a bit this morning).
BattleMonkey
Member
Melee suck in general for giant ilum battles, because it's just a giant aoe lagfest; where melee are usually the ones dying on both sides, because they gotta man up and suicide if they want valor. At least we got a 9 second invincibility for some valor before we die
It's an issue with world pvp that is likely never going to get fixed. Ranged and aoe is always going to be there and really not going to add anything to the melee users to counteract this. Since world pvp generally breaks down into two clumps of players blasting away at each other. In WARhammer where you had tons of giant pvp battles, it was the same issue as well as you had two sides just lobbing aoes at each other while the melee users would just get murdered as they rush foward. Only way to survive is to team up with a healer to be a little team
Does this mess with communication as well? Sometimes I can deal with being in an area by myself as long as I see talk between players via chat channels taking place. It's why I had a hard time with FFXIV in regard to how their chat system was setup. I stayed in Everquest 2 for as long as I ddi because there were chat channels that were server wide. That planets are leveling areas I would assume chat is planet/zone wide but are there other options (don't recall from the beta) that make players feel like they are still playing along side other players even if they aren't in the same area other then guild chat.
BattleMonkey
Member
Thats kinda the core of the issue in that the game has no global chat channels set up. Many servers have had players set up their own LFG channel that a person can jump on, but not everyone uses or knows of these. It's a boneheaded decision to not have some global chat channels set up, at least give us the option. Currently general chats are locked into the planet you are on. So for group instances, players just go to fleet hub. Adding a LFG chat channel is often asked for and hopefully they wise up and give it to use eventually.
It's basically the main reason why things can feel isolated. In other MMO's you will often have only a handful of players in your same zone, but at least you had chat channels that were global and also you could find players to group with in. Here you can only talk to those in the same planet/zone which limits who you can group with. Lack of grouping tools don't help either. They are supposed to be working on LFG tools and such, but who knows when we will get anything. Lot of new stuff and features coming in next months update, but don't think new lfg stuff is part of it sadly.
Wow. I don't understand how any MMO can be designed without any type of LFG system and other key systems. Especially after the disaster that was FFXIV's launch which they had to be watching. It didn't even dawn on me to pay attention to that in the beta phase I was in because I just assumed it was there. It's such a standard feature now. There are more then enough MMOs out there to draw design ideas from. Especially since the game was coming off somewhat WoWish from the very start.
I don't understand how any MMO can be designed without any type of LFG system and other key systems. Especially after the disaster that was FFXIV's launch which they had to be watching. It didn't even dawn on me to pay attention to that in the beta phase I was in because I just assumed it was there. It's such a standard feature now. There are more then enough MMOs out there to draw design ideas from. Especially since the game was coming off somewhat WoWish from the very start.BattleMonkey
Member
Wow.
Game obviously launched unfinished, especially noticeable at end game early on when the 2nd operation was missing parts, npcs had no names, etc. The PVP planet Illum didn't even get "finished" till late in the beta and even then it wasn't done and got almost no testing, they even admitted it wasn't really done yet and that more work had to be done on it.
The game has lot of neat things going for it, but it's obvious that alot of the MMO features got left out and that it wasn't really finished (no MMO is to an extent....). Lot of features are basically in the works now while they still have lot of bug crushing to do. They obviously concentrated on the storyline (single player) aspects while other stuff kind of got ignored. If anything I would recommend ppl wait till at leat the big March udpate to check out the game now since a bunch of stuff is coming in that.
Wow.
This and ff14 have zero in common. This is a finely cooked meal to ff14s dirty sock. I was in both betas and both retail launches. Ff14 was a hindenburgh, swtor just needs fine tuning and a few features.