BattleMonkey
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I want to ride a Rancor at endgame.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic [Releasing Date: Dec 20 NA/EU - NDA Lifted]
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BattleMonkey
Member
syko de4d said:
Make it a CE exclusive then. Let us buy rancors in the VIP lounge
Ill post some impressions from leveling a Jedi Consular / Shadow and a Sith Inquisitor / Sorcerer to 20. Some minor early game spoilers.
Story / 1st (starting planet) and 2nd planet
1. There's no going around this, Sith story lines and quests are much better than Jedi one's. Ill explain....
One of the first quests you get as an inquisitor involves you interrogating a traitor, you can choose to convince him with dialogue, you can choose to shoot lighting at him... after i "juice" him up, i can do it again just to make sure he isn't lying, to the applause of the sith interrogator.
Jedi consular starting planet quests revolve around some silly ancient ruins, much like the sith ones on korriban, but without the backstabbing campy evil silliness of the sith power struggles.
Overall, had much more fun playing a sith, but that's down to personal choice, maybe.
Again , much more fun as a sith.
3. Companions, as a Jedi you get a lizard that worships a scoreboard, as a Sith you get the last member of a long lost race of Jedi eating cyborgs... who keeps addressing you as "tiny sith", "little sith" or "food".
Class balance
1. The jedi consular is a class that literally throws the kitchen sink at enemies, its the WoW mage without the cool spell effects. Its overpowered, but slightly boring class to play. The advanced class i chose was the shadow, an assassin style stealth class, with a double bladed light-saber... that continues the trend of yawning due to the almost non existent double bladed animations and the messed the lack of ranged skills.
2. The inquisitor shoot's lighting, a lot of it... the sorcerer continues the trend with the added badassery of a "bubble" shield spell, ridiculous heals and a tank companion that eats force sensitive characters. You can easily solo most heroic quests and look bad-ass while doing it.
Again, the sith was way more fun to play.
Space and beyond
1. you can't have other players on your ship, which you get at the end of the second quest planet.
2. space combat sucks... it really does, its a mini-game with "whack a mole" game-play mechanics. Its either too hard or, as of lately, too easy, there is no balance, there is no fun involved and no impact on the game world in terms of meaningful rewards.
3. Tie fighter 20 years ago was way more complex and/or fun to play. Might as well remove it completely and save themselves the shame of having the worst space combat in a computer game.
Some random thoughts
1. The game will be fun to play if you enjoy quest grinds, that's all it is, nothing more.
2. It plays and breaths like WoW, but with light-sabers.
3. It will probably be a massive "failure" in terms of subscriptions, when compared to its big brother and inspiration. This is a very "niche" game for a very specific audience. Having played the beta, i found myself playing less and less, as the game-play didn't evolve beyond doing quests ad-nausea.
4. The UI is one of the worst i have had the displeasure of using in a mmo, no customization, silly instance mechanic (zones have several instances of themselfs, but if you change to join a group for an heroic quest, it teleports you to your binding point, even if its miles away from your current quest location).
Any questions, ill be happy to answer.
Story / 1st (starting planet) and 2nd planet
1. There's no going around this, Sith story lines and quests are much better than Jedi one's. Ill explain....
One of the first quests you get as an inquisitor involves you interrogating a traitor, you can choose to convince him with dialogue, you can choose to shoot lighting at him... after i "juice" him up, i can do it again just to make sure he isn't lying, to the applause of the sith interrogator.
Jedi consular starting planet quests revolve around some silly ancient ruins, much like the sith ones on korriban, but without the backstabbing campy evil silliness of the sith power struggles.
Overall, had much more fun playing a sith, but that's down to personal choice, maybe.
2. The story from the second planet revolves, for the jedi, around finding a magical aspirin for your sick master, for the sith... you get to join a cult of revan, you get to find revan´s mask, you get to kill a Sith master by using his body guards against him as well as shooting a lot of lighting at anything that even remotely looks at you funny.
Again , much more fun as a sith.
3. Companions, as a Jedi you get a lizard that worships a scoreboard, as a Sith you get the last member of a long lost race of Jedi eating cyborgs... who keeps addressing you as "tiny sith", "little sith" or "food".
Class balance
1. The jedi consular is a class that literally throws the kitchen sink at enemies, its the WoW mage without the cool spell effects. Its overpowered, but slightly boring class to play. The advanced class i chose was the shadow, an assassin style stealth class, with a double bladed light-saber... that continues the trend of yawning due to the almost non existent double bladed animations and the messed the lack of ranged skills.
2. The inquisitor shoot's lighting, a lot of it... the sorcerer continues the trend with the added badassery of a "bubble" shield spell, ridiculous heals and a tank companion that eats force sensitive characters. You can easily solo most heroic quests and look bad-ass while doing it.
Again, the sith was way more fun to play.
Space and beyond
1. you can't have other players on your ship, which you get at the end of the second quest planet.
2. space combat sucks... it really does, its a mini-game with "whack a mole" game-play mechanics. Its either too hard or, as of lately, too easy, there is no balance, there is no fun involved and no impact on the game world in terms of meaningful rewards.
3. Tie fighter 20 years ago was way more complex and/or fun to play. Might as well remove it completely and save themselves the shame of having the worst space combat in a computer game.
Some random thoughts
1. The game will be fun to play if you enjoy quest grinds, that's all it is, nothing more.
2. It plays and breaths like WoW, but with light-sabers.
3. It will probably be a massive "failure" in terms of subscriptions, when compared to its big brother and inspiration. This is a very "niche" game for a very specific audience. Having played the beta, i found myself playing less and less, as the game-play didn't evolve beyond doing quests ad-nausea.
4. The UI is one of the worst i have had the displeasure of using in a mmo, no customization, silly instance mechanic (zones have several instances of themselfs, but if you change to join a group for an heroic quest, it teleports you to your binding point, even if its miles away from your current quest location).
Any questions, ill be happy to answer.
MaddenNFL64
Member
Your 3rd random thought is pointless, but other than that, i'm fine with all the rest.
TheKem0sabe said:
Revan
I don't see the point of spoilering criticism in regard to the game mechanics but yeah the fucking instance tied to the hearthstone cooldown and sending you to your bind point is fucking stupid.
MaddenNFL64 said:
The reason why i wrote "failure", is because it will be perceived as such by a lot of people, because of the money spent. It will probably be the largest western mmo after WoW, at least until GW 2 is released, it will also probably be the last "great" "AAA" subscription mmo to be released.
The model is used up, and this game proves it, its tired, more of the same imitation.
MaddenNFL64
Member
okey dokey.
And ya, no need to spoiler tag your gameplay criticisms. were posting beta footage for petes sake.
And ya, no need to spoiler tag your gameplay criticisms. were posting beta footage for petes sake.
Kem0sabe said:
I can vouch for this. It's not quite as bad as posted, but the UI does need a lot of work.
Rest of the stuff is on the mark too, give or take. The non force classes have a hell of a lot better storyline than the force based ones. I don't think it'll be a failure tho, but I don't think it'll be a WoW killer.
MaddenNFL64 said:
Fixed.
Anyways, anyone planning on buying it on day one? I can see myself "maybe" buying it after im finished with Skyrim, if nothing else for the single player story quests and to find out what happened to Revan.
Let´s see how the population pan's out after launch, Bioware's post release support in terms of patching and added content (no one's said officialy how they will be dealing with the added production cost and development time for non-paid content due to the obligatory voice overs), and especially, how they plan to deal with several key features that they still refuse or delay to implement... like UI customization/modding and a robust LFG tool and quest log.
MaddenNFL64
Member
The Trooper has one of the best wtf moments, so ya i'd agree that the Jedi's start of reeeal slow compared to everyone else.
BattleMonkey
Member
I tried to play both Jedi classes and they made me sleepy. Such boring story starts. Everyone else is pretty interesting and has unique/fun characters you interact with.
cartoon_soldier
Member
Kem0sabe said:
Isn't that most MMOs?
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
I like the UI. Or at least the aesthetics and how it's structured. I look at screenshots of LotRO, WoW, RIFT, etc. and have to hold back from gagging.
Or at least the aesthetics and how it's structured. I look at screenshots of LotRO, WoW, RIFT, etc. and have to hold back from gagging.BattleMonkey
Member
Andrex said:I like the UI.
The UI is real nice, but it needs to allow customization.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
Billychu said:
I think we agree on a lot of things, it's just the stuff we don't is really annoying.
I played about 10mins of PVP this weekend at ComicCon, so I'm not expert.
But is it just me or is the combat really off in the game? Like, I imagine there are two sides of the spectrum for MMO combat - Warcraft's auto attacking/laggy combat on one side, and DC Universe's action oriented on the other.
Old Republic manages to be some bastard child of the two. Having to face your enemy/be in very close melee range makes it feel like WoW but the lack of auto-attack makes it feel like DC. It feels very off, at least for Melee.
But is it just me or is the combat really off in the game? Like, I imagine there are two sides of the spectrum for MMO combat - Warcraft's auto attacking/laggy combat on one side, and DC Universe's action oriented on the other.
Old Republic manages to be some bastard child of the two. Having to face your enemy/be in very close melee range makes it feel like WoW but the lack of auto-attack makes it feel like DC. It feels very off, at least for Melee.
Andrex said:I like the UI.
The layout isn't bad, but it's got a lot of issues. For example, the UI is scaled horribly. The right side screen action bar goes partially into the minimap, and the companion's action bar when expanded goes into the chat log.
It's also lacking a lot of standard features, such as being able to link items and quest descriptions.
IPoopStandingUp said:
What class were you playing? I find Jedi Consular was very awkward to play.
BattleMonkey
Member
The combat feel nice and solid, only time it doesn't feel right is when you get lag and then you get an obvious disconnect from your actions.
Perhaps some people are just used to auto facing in MMO's and auto attack. Compared to majority of other MMOs to come out recently, it's very fluid and responsive and not laggy as some recent shit to come out.
Perhaps some people are just used to auto facing in MMO's and auto attack. Compared to majority of other MMOs to come out recently, it's very fluid and responsive and not laggy as some recent shit to come out.
MaddenNFL64
Member
I think people need to get used to being involved is all. I do see alot of standing around or not using abilities a ton in the public event vids. It's annoying.
IPoopStandingUp said:
Sith Warrior then. I guess that would be pretty awkward if you just jumped right in.
MaddenNFL64 said:
Fuck, I see this in the game itself. I was doing a heroic (group) quest, and the tank was largely using the default attack (the one that costs nothing other than a GCD to use), and completely ignoring the other mobs. Meanwhile, they proceeded to gun me and the other healer down once our Cryo Grenades wore off.
The_Squirrel_Menace
Member
Marrshu said:Sith Warrior then. I guess that would be pretty awkward if you just jumped right in.
Fuck, I see this in the game itself. I was doing a heroic (group) quest, and the tank was largely using the default attack (the one that costs nothing other than a GCD to use), and completely ignoring the other mobs. Meanwhile, they proceeded to gun me and the other healer down once our Cryo Grenades wore off.
Be prepared for the first few weeks even first few months to experience this kind of events a lot. SWTOR will bring its share of "first timers" in MMO and completly new to the mechanics involved. Tanking, and what not.
Not that is a bad things though.
The_Squirrel_Menace said:
It is most certainly a bad thing. Thankfully the game does a better job at teaching you than another MMORPG I can think about.
BattleMonkey
Member
The facing is what is going to cause lot of issues. My GF who is long term WoW person was so confused and had a while to get used to having to keep facing your enemy actively in combat. People not used to it are going to be a bit weirded out at first especially if they come straight from WoW or other similar combat systems.
BattleMonkey
Member
Marrshu said:The facing isn't really any different than WoW.
It's much much more strict on facing when attacking, especially in close combat. WoW almost has auto facing with how loose it is with ones aim. TOR requires you to be more precise with your facing for many of the attacks to go through so you will be smashing a button trying to hit a moving target and it keeps not working.
Makes the game force players to be much more active with the combat but for many it also is going to seem like it's less responsive since WoW was much more lenient.
BattleMonkey
Member
Marrshu said:
I have no issues as well but it's there, and it doesn't bother me as I adapted quick. You mainly notice it in PvP where players are more bouncy and mobile in combat compared to NPC's who usually stand still or move in straight lines. Some players are going to find things a bit janky perhaps when they start out in pvp?
It's also only melee I'm talking about, the ranged stuff auto compensates for movement, but up close in pvp melee you notice it.
BattleMonkey said:
Again, I haven't seen any facing issues at all in PvP. I've seen a lot of bad players who don't know to line of sight other players, and I've seen a lot of bad players who just right click and don't use other abilities as often as they should... but I have yet to have difficulty hitting a moving target. :\
FLEABttn said:
That's what I experienced as well.
BattleMonkey
Member
FLEABttn said:
Yea noted in my last post that ranged classes aren't affected, it's the melee ones. I'm not saying it's bad or anything, just that it's a bit different and some people are going to have a bit of an adjustment to make coming off other games.
Retrofluxed
Member
Kem0sabe said:
F2P can suck my butt. Most cash shops are horribly implemented and you end up spending more than 15 a month to keep up with the Joneses. I'd much rather pay 15 a month and get all the content.
bloodforge
Member
goat said:
This is exactly the way I feel. It's especially hilarious when people say they will never pay $15 a month for a subscription MMO because they think it's too expensive then end up spending that or more per month on a F2P.
I also find most F2P MMOs to be trash, unless they started as subscription and switched over.
The_Squirrel_Menace
Member
Marrshu said:
And why is that?
Everyone has been a "newbie" once. Even if its starting to date now, my first time playing a mmo, Asheron's Call in 1999. I was glad to find helpfull people teaching how to and what not to do. The people who were just rude were not helping at all.
I can understand in later content of the game it can be furstrating to find people who are not very good at playing their classes or making very bad move that cost you in the end one hour of game time due to their mistakes and the wipe that ensued just after.
Also for the funny story I started to play on the Darktide server on Asheron's Call, ignoring it was a full scale PvP server where your corpse could be looted if killed, no where to hide. All time high at risk. Not the kind of a pvp server you can find in recent mmo with "safe zone". Those didn't exist. If you are familiar to EvE online, think nullsec with empire not even an option.
Turned out, I found a group of helpfull players who helped me get my stuff together, in other words, taught how to play, get better and understand the mechanics of the game. If It were not for them I would have probably just never gotten into mmo at all.
Einbroch said:
LoL is far more simple than an mmo is, though I tend to agree with you in certain aspects of LoL's F2Play model. 20 dollars for a skin is fucking ridiculous but they do have other skins for like 5 dollars and they are purely aesthetic so you are not gimped gameplay wise if you do not buy the most expensive skin so I can't say I dislike it at all.
Aside from that, I have yet to see a decent MMO F2Play model. The deluge of MMO's that use F2Play are just not fun to play for more than a trial.
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