cartoon_soldier
Member
I would buy 2 collector's edition if it got my a beta invite 
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Star Wars: The Old Republic [Releasing Date: Dec 20 NA/EU - NDA Lifted]
- Thread starter Blackface
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MaddenNFL64
Member
Jedi Knight Companions & Abilities video - Spoilers ahoy
Though I don't think it's too bad to see the companions, they may spoil some surprises.
Though I don't think it's too bad to see the companions, they may spoil some surprises.
kyo_daikun
Member
MaddenNFL64 said:
Not really keen on any of those companions, was planning to go Sith anyway but im glad I am.
So I wasn't able to log any signficant time into the new/old build and was only able to get to level 22, but I was much more impressed with it this time around. The Republic/Imperial Fleet Station does WORLDS of improvement to the overall feel of the game. I also noticed they tweaked a couple of cutscenes so they flow alot better. The quests themselves(atleast for the JK) are pretty boring still and I have a feeling that's going to be a sticking point for alot of people come January. Also still not happy with texture quality of clothing.
Jarmel said:
I have the opposite opinion about the stations, they are unnecessary and a time sink for the player. This is the typical player router through a station.
1) Go to Space Port
2) Go to Ship Bay (load)
3) Get in Ship (load)
4) Exit Ship (load)
5) Exit Ship Bay (load)
6) Exit Space Port
It´s lazy design from bioware.
Acidote
Member
I've been checking around the faction selection of players (at least on word), and I think I won't even be there on release date until I see if it's balanced. Right now I have the impression that most people will select the Empire and I don't want to end in heavily unbalanced server like I did with other mmos.
Acidote said:
Empire quests and story lines are generally more fun, add to that the best looking race selection and class armors / visual effects... you get a major imbalance.
If the game was not 90% solo quest grind with some grouping and pvp thrown in, people wouldnt attribute so much importance to quest quality and fun factor, for each of the factions.
BattleMonkey
Member
Acidote said:
Server imbalance is not going to have much impact on the game the way it is set up.
Kem0sabe said:
It's really no different from traveling between cities in any other MMO, the whole thing is simply just a centralized hub.
maabus1999
Member
Kem0sabe said:
What? It is 10x better then what it was in the previous builds...
maabus1999 said:
Every world should have a star port with one load or 2 at most.
Starport -> Ship Bay -> Ship
or ideally, Starport -> Ship.
The need for these "hubs" is non existent, as the services provided are a duplication of those on planet´s, and those that are unique, like some of the quest npc´s for "dungeon´s" can and should be moved to planet´s.
This will only serve to divert population from where it should be... planet´s. As SWG proved at one point, cantina´s and planet based settlements are a great way to socialize and get services.
But thats just my way of looking at things, i just hate the profusion of loading screens and unnecessary steps.
BattleMonkey
Member
Gvaz said:
You don't need the hubs to get to your ship. This is just a centralized nexus for going places.
Kem0sabe said:Every world should have a star port with one load or 2 at most.
Starport -> Ship Bay -> Ship
or ideally, Starport -> Ship.
The need for these "hubs" is non existent, as the services provided are a duplication of those on planet´s, and those that are unique, like some of the quest npc´s for "dungeon´s" can and should be moved to planet´s.
This will only serve to divert population from where it should be... planet´s. As SWG proved at one point, cantina´s and planet based settlements are a great way to socialize and get services.
But thats just my way of looking at things, i just hate the profusion of loading screens and unnecessary steps.
It's pointless to have seperate ports when no one is going to use them since as with most theme park style of MMO's, players have no reason to stay in a particular area once you level up. Over time all the individual ports are going to become ghost towns as everyone is high level and the higher level ports/hubs is where everyone hangs out... as what happens with every themepark style MMO.
It worked in SWG because there was no level based world theme park, everything was all mixed up.
Yeah, you need toBattleMonkey said:
Kem0sabe said:
Just to go into your ship and out on a new planet.
I'm saying I want to be able to teleport to my ship from anywhere, then just pick a destination, and get off.
Also ideally I'd like my hearthstones to be saved on a per planet basis, so if I save at the end of the line, that the hearth remembers that the next time I come over. But no it resets to the base place.
BattleMonkey
Member
Gvaz said:
This is something that has been argued about alot especially with how WoW did things, as people like to magically jump to everything, it further kills the whole world aspect of the game as it completely kills the need for any type of traveling. Players just teleport everywhere. Port to ship, port to planet, port to bind location, port back to ship, port port port. For those who care about just going places quick to get through their stuff sure I can see it, but then people complain about how sterile and unlived in current MMOs feel like.... yea well no one has to live in the world as you just port everywhere.
I can imagine EVE online must be murder to some of you.
Gvaz said:
This. It's mindblowing they haven't done it yet. I know why in that they want people running around and not teleporting everywhere. However it's such an utter pain in the ass sometimes that I would love the ability to jump straight to the ship.
They really need to overhaul how they approach the ships and just space travel in general.
MadraptorMan
Member
This isn't Star Trek there's no teleportation! >:O
BattleMonkey
Member
MadraptorMan said:
It's ironically worse in Star Trek online since you have to tons of traveling and bouncing between land to ship... fly long distance to place, then port to planet and then walk your ass.
BattleMonkey
Member
Jarmel said:
Walk through a dead world as everyone teleported away.
BattleMonkey
Member
Effect said:
They are trying to go for a more single player game like approach, which basically is the same thing and forces you to party up with companion characters as well. The odd thing though of course that bugs many is that you got players with the same companions in a MMO.
Course it's not hugely different from how theres hundreds of clones of your character basically in the early levels or in end game when everyone is wearing the exact high tier sets of armor.
More customization options for everything are hopefully added, especially character visuals
BattleMonkey
Member
vaelic said:
It's what lot of people want in the game, but of course you have many folks complaining that it's too much of just another MMO with a sprinkle of single player like elements and that they want more single player stuff especially the story content. The game pretty much has all your regular multiplayer components already with more still to be added before launch.
BattleMonkey
Member
I want to manually calculate hyperspace routes. Make it happen Bioware
BattleMonkey said:
Hopefully something we will see when/if they do actually expand on space flight. I would actually prefer less quick travel methods than what most MMOs have right now (even though this is a game with space flight lol) if only to encourage people to actually do world PvP.
FieryBalrog
Member
BattleMonkey said:
Yes, because what people liked about vanilla WoW was the loading screens. You know, the immersion they brought.
BattleMonkey
Member
FieryBalrog said:
Porting doesn't change the amount of loading screens you go through, you just do it in faster succession.... woot
FieryBalrog
Member
If you could port directly to ship it would be 1 loading screen.BattleMonkey said:
Personally I'm not a fan of the insta-porting of modern WoW. Kills immersion. The alternative is not, however, to make the player run through 4-5 loading screens to get to the ship and back. That's missing the point. The whole charm of old-school WoW was physically running through a nearly seamless world to get from point A to point B.
BattleMonkey
Member
FieryBalrog said:
Cutting down on them would help of course, but theres going to be lots of them by nature of being a space set game. The hubs if anything shouldn't be manditory and just give more flexibility. They are trying to force things it feels... can imagine the complaints at launch will force them to change it around. I just hope they don't go port crazy but seems to be the nature of the theme park MMO
Vigilant Walrus
Member
I have become very optimistic since reading some Betacake (negative) articles with regards to PvP.
And I saw these Alderraan Warzone PvP videos that actually sold me on them(not new I think) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhLze4EKgps&feature=relmfu
Basically the Sith Maruder is decent, but I saw some things I liked about this... I think this sort of battleground will suit me more.
1) People don't seem to get 1 shotted. This makes people needing to work together more, but it did not look so bad that 1 vs 1(except for a few tank vs tank instances) where dragged out affairs.
This is great because WoW was a major source of frustration when people where so imbalanced across uber gear.
2) Everything seems to be a bit more rock / rock / rock balance instead of rock/paper/scissor. I had no idea that every single advance class had three trees each. This is cool! This somehow slipped my mind. (Ok one shared tree.. but still). There is a lot more room for uniqueness here than I thought.
3) No vehicles in PvP. The commentator in the video says that he think the speedbike-back-into-action takes to long.(around 10 seconds). I think that's great.
It's a good idea that you can instantly respawn without having to watch a 60 seconds countdown. You can respawn and run around and buff yourself. The slight delay in getting directly into the action is good, because it becomes the death penalty.
If there is no little time death penalty what happens is(like in COD... ) that death becomes so insignificant, that you become careless about dying because the game does not give you a punishment. You want punishment. but you want the sort of punishment that keeps you playing, and does not alinate you with frustration.
4) immersion looks good. (not the same for Huttball thou). These animations, when used while running, jumping and twirling are really good. It looks almost as fluid as Force Unleashed. They really have improved their animations for lightsabers.
I also like how it does not look over the top. WoW has reached the point where it's one big zoo circus of crazy clowns with shoulder pads made for giants. it was always like that, but they have taken it so far now. (not talking about the cool pandas!)
5) no vehicles inside the warzone. if you cant do vehicle combat, what is the point? they become this crazy transportation that looks weird when they all over the place dismounts and mounts people out of thin air. it really frustrated me in wow how you had to go on a mount to go where the action was, instead of designing an all-foot experience with good level design with decently placed chokeholds.
6) the warzone seems well balanced. it was close down to the last 30 seconds. pvp is always more exciting when you can change the tide of battle in the last moment. the match seemed short, and the idea of shooting down enemy ships, and putting such context in a traditional game mode is great. its so much better than regular king of the hill that would not have made sense.
I still hope we get world pvp, but the way damage and healing seems to be done in SWTOR reminds me a bit about warhammer, and I loved that about WAR. The pvp interaction in scenarios was splended. but unlike warhammer, the combat here looks fun!
I swore I would not do anymore hotkey MMOs, but this recent footage looks not as disjointed and horrible as all the underwhelming combat trailers that showed static generic combat that was out of sync. when its actually done by players moving around, it feels good. really good!
even if the pvp is traditional and does not break new ground. if they can just launch with it., that's amazing. that would really be something. if they have a good framework, they can really build on it, in meaningful ways.
its world pvp I am worried about. if its not there from the start I fear that people will never get a taste for it. it needs to be there day 1. it needs to be this "holy shit" this is dynamic and unexpected and it means something.
when blizzard tried to do it, it was too late. I think they only succesful thing they ever did with regards to that was Quel'Danas! But I dont think BW is interested in mixing world pvp up like that? but who knows!?
And I saw these Alderraan Warzone PvP videos that actually sold me on them(not new I think) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhLze4EKgps&feature=relmfu
Basically the Sith Maruder is decent, but I saw some things I liked about this... I think this sort of battleground will suit me more.
1) People don't seem to get 1 shotted. This makes people needing to work together more, but it did not look so bad that 1 vs 1(except for a few tank vs tank instances) where dragged out affairs.
This is great because WoW was a major source of frustration when people where so imbalanced across uber gear.
2) Everything seems to be a bit more rock / rock / rock balance instead of rock/paper/scissor. I had no idea that every single advance class had three trees each. This is cool! This somehow slipped my mind. (Ok one shared tree.. but still). There is a lot more room for uniqueness here than I thought.
3) No vehicles in PvP. The commentator in the video says that he think the speedbike-back-into-action takes to long.(around 10 seconds). I think that's great.
It's a good idea that you can instantly respawn without having to watch a 60 seconds countdown. You can respawn and run around and buff yourself. The slight delay in getting directly into the action is good, because it becomes the death penalty.
If there is no little time death penalty what happens is(like in COD... ) that death becomes so insignificant, that you become careless about dying because the game does not give you a punishment. You want punishment. but you want the sort of punishment that keeps you playing, and does not alinate you with frustration.
4) immersion looks good. (not the same for Huttball thou). These animations, when used while running, jumping and twirling are really good. It looks almost as fluid as Force Unleashed. They really have improved their animations for lightsabers.
I also like how it does not look over the top. WoW has reached the point where it's one big zoo circus of crazy clowns with shoulder pads made for giants. it was always like that, but they have taken it so far now. (not talking about the cool pandas!)
5) no vehicles inside the warzone. if you cant do vehicle combat, what is the point? they become this crazy transportation that looks weird when they all over the place dismounts and mounts people out of thin air. it really frustrated me in wow how you had to go on a mount to go where the action was, instead of designing an all-foot experience with good level design with decently placed chokeholds.
6) the warzone seems well balanced. it was close down to the last 30 seconds. pvp is always more exciting when you can change the tide of battle in the last moment. the match seemed short, and the idea of shooting down enemy ships, and putting such context in a traditional game mode is great. its so much better than regular king of the hill that would not have made sense.
I still hope we get world pvp, but the way damage and healing seems to be done in SWTOR reminds me a bit about warhammer, and I loved that about WAR. The pvp interaction in scenarios was splended. but unlike warhammer, the combat here looks fun!
I swore I would not do anymore hotkey MMOs, but this recent footage looks not as disjointed and horrible as all the underwhelming combat trailers that showed static generic combat that was out of sync. when its actually done by players moving around, it feels good. really good!
even if the pvp is traditional and does not break new ground. if they can just launch with it., that's amazing. that would really be something. if they have a good framework, they can really build on it, in meaningful ways.
its world pvp I am worried about. if its not there from the start I fear that people will never get a taste for it. it needs to be there day 1. it needs to be this "holy shit" this is dynamic and unexpected and it means something.
when blizzard tried to do it, it was too late. I think they only succesful thing they ever did with regards to that was Quel'Danas! But I dont think BW is interested in mixing world pvp up like that? but who knows!?
BattleMonkey
Member
CcrooK said:
Illum was in the past build, it just didn't have anything that made it unique turned on. Yea probably going to be in testing for the next build.
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