Pre-release thread discussion

[Rokal]

I'm kind of amazed that the reactions are THIS different.

I chalked it up to "Star Wars fan or not", but maybe not.

[Numtini]

I'm all in for SWTOR.  I went into this weekend not wanting to play too much and ended up catassing the last two days.  

I experienced a similar phenomenon.

Same thing here. Then I did a second weekend and got bored out of my skull and canceled my preorder. This thing is going to break sales records, both in boxes sold, and in used servers on ebay a few months later.

[Sjofn]

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a "Star Wars fan." This is sort of turning me into one though.  

I mean, I don't dislike Star Wars or anything, but I was never hugely into it. I enjoyed the original trilogy, but I think I only ever saw it two or three times, if that. And I didn't get the toys growing up or anything, so I don't have that nostalgia factor either.


That said, I was surprised how "whee!" I was when I finally got my damn lightsaber.

[cironian]

Put me down as really liking what I saw. I can live with the combat mechanics being nothing novel. They still work well enough, apart from the interface problems with targeting. The stories, and how they are presented, are of course the main attraction. I think I'll play an even mix from both sides, with one of each mirror class for a start.

 - Trooper storyline is, indeed, intriguing.
 - Sith Warrior makes playing an evil, arrogant asshole really, really fun. (Every companion character should come with a shock collar )
 - Agent seems interesting too, although I only did the very first few missions there.
 - A consular should serve well as my good force user. Plus I'm interested to see how the "tempted by the dark side" story works out.

Will I still be playing it in a year? Depends on how well they do at adding content I guess. But I'm pretty sure I'll play through some of the class storylines before I put it down.

[lamaros]

Put me down as still haven't check it out, still don't care to and wont ever play it.

Also I'm still on the whole: "story" is a waste of resources for a MMO.

[Tale]

There are a number of us on this board who liked SWG, as there are many who hated it. What do people who liked SWG think of the SWTOR experience?

[Sheepherder]

Synthweaving is the one that confused me. I turn this crystal into a .. cloth belt?

LOL asbestos armour.

[Shatter]

There are a number of us on this board who liked SWG, as there are many who hated it. What do people who liked SWG think of the SWTOR experience?

They are nothing alike.  I enjoyed SWG and quit before NGE but Im also ok with the thempark MMO style so TOR will work out ok for me.  Ive been in beta a while and I know what the game offers and while its not mind blowing for me I have fun with certain aspects and want to expand on them more live.  I do want to try some of the end game a bit and see the world PvP to a greater extent.  I'll probably invest at least 2-3 months into it and will see by then what they've added, fixed, changed, etc.  If I get bored Ill move on to GW2 or something so in summary Im keeping my CE order.

[trias_e]

Does anyone have an idea much time played it will take to get through one story arc?   To be honest, that's how I'm looking at this game.  I'm not pretending in any way to be here for the MMORPG, although I may do a little PvP or a few flashpoints to alleviate the WoW-questing drudgery.  I would prefer it to be as quick as possible, so what classes are overpowered in solo PvE/have movement speed boosts/are interesting to play?  I'm hoping a Sith Marauder could be fun, but word is that they aren't so hot at the moment unfortunately.

[Mosesandstick]

Hardcore players finish it in around 2.5 weeks, so I think it'll take around 150 hours.

[fuser]

So my ongoing woe from unlocking my account. Brief recap, 3+hrs on hold various calls. Hung up on and dropped calls before and during beta weekend. Finally got an agent who said my account would be unlocked in an hour which never happened. Agent said if there was further issues to email. Emailed about the issue two days ago to support@swtor.com. Oh happy joy I got an email tonight

I am Protocol Droid L1-f9 of Human Cyborg Relations.

Thank you for contacting us regarding your Security Questions. However, we regret to inform you that we cannot deal with your request through email. In order to protect your account, all Security Question issues are dealt with via our Customer Service telephone support.

 

[Merusk]

There are a number of us on this board who liked SWG, as there are many who hated it. What do people who liked SWG think of the SWTOR experience?

Wasn't a fan of SWG but wasn't a hater, either.  I was more annoyed that it was UO in space and sim-beru instead of a rollicking action adventure.   My good times there were all about social interaction despite the game mechanics.

I'm not a fanboy of TOR but I'm enjoying it a lot more than SWG.  I haven't interacted with people beyond chat and I'm still having a good time.  Part of it is learning new mechanics part of it is loving having a story to follow.

I'd say this is probably because I like guided games loads more than open ones.  I'm an Achiever and not shy about it.  Giving me an "open" game like SWG or UO is - to me - saying "I was too lazy to give you something to do once I built all these tools. Entertain yourself."  No, I want to consume content when I play games.  If I want to build or create something I do it offline so I have a finished object that doesn't go away when the servers do or my subscription lapses.  Online time is all about consumption.

[Furiously]

I tried a consular because everyone said the jedi storylines were bad and I had no interest what-so-ever in playing one in release.  It wasn't too bad. I just wish I could have logged into my bugged level 10+ BH and Agent.

[Sobelius]

... a few flashpoints to alleviate the WoW-questing drudgery...

I've tried out all 8 classes (some several times) to level 5 or so and have a Trooper to 13. So far nothing I've done has felt like true drudgery (the kind where you sigh at just the thought of doing what you're asked to do and start to wonder how quickly you can get through it -- I'm looking at you LOTRO deeds). I winced at first when one bonus in the Trooper story line had an enemy count of x/50, but there were so many enemies I had to burn through on the mission that I barely noticed the count.

[Mrbloodworth]

Good stuff, but replay value has me wondering.

[TripleDES]

There seem to be points in the story mission, where they force you to group. At least that's the impression those tanked hard hitting bosses give me. Fuck that. Like I'm spending god knows how much time LFG'ing to clear a damn mission.

[Mosesandstick]

Your story missions are all solo and practically always instanced.

[Merusk]

There seem to be points in the story mission, where they force you to group. At least that's the impression those tanked hard hitting bosses give me. Fuck that. Like I'm spending god knows how much time LFG'ing to clear a damn mission.

Trooper and having problems with those goddamned Sith blaster guys where there's 2 of them?  It's a balance problem, you just have to focus their minions and take a few deaths to move past that first group. After that it'll be close but you should be ok to kill the rest of the groups.

[TripleDES]

Right now, I'm fighting two minions that I can get down easily, and then that main dude with like 4500HP, resists as fuck and lots of damage. I don't seem to be getting anywhere, expect dying a lot.

Unless Bioware is telling me to go level more and try next time.

--edit: Smuggler, in Dock 87, trying to get past that cantina dude.

[Draegan]

The only shitty thing about this game is the UI.  It's horrid and archaic.  Other than that, this game is a great story driven DIKU.

[Kageru]

Sounds a bit like the positive responses are the star wars fans and bioware RPG fans who are focused on the story, while the MMO fans look at the mechanics and despair.

The test will be pre-release content and retention, because holding on to the story fans is going to be tough / impossible. Though they're lucky that Blizzard dropped the ball for them and there's few other players of note on the field.

[Margalis]

I'm kind of amazed that the reactions are THIS different.

The reactions are actually pretty similar across the board, the only thing different is what different people are looking for.

Pretty much everyone agrees that the game is a by-the-numbers MMO in terms of mechanics and systems with some Bioware story stuff. Some people like that and some people don't, but I don't really see anyone anywhere claiming that the game is better than other games mechanically.

Sounds a bit like the positive responses are the star wars fans and bioware RPG fans who are focused on the story, while the MMO fans look at the mechanics and despair.

This. For some people the mechanics are good enough but I don't see many claiming that they are anything more than that.

[Amaron]

I'm very pleased after trying it.   Even if the the post-release story is anemic this game will finally let me scratch my alt itch.  Other games I get too tired of the grind while leveling alts.  There's some problems no doubt but the only one I worry about is how long UI mods will take.   Everything else like LFG and what not I'm confident they'll fix soon.

[Shatter]

The only shitty thing about this game is the UI.  It's horrid and archaic.  Other than that, this game is a great story driven DIKU.

WTB target of target option

[Sobelius]

The only shitty thing about this game is the UI.  It's horrid and archaic.  Other than that, this game is a great story driven DIKU.

WTB target of target option

Isn't that what the "focus target" option does? Or did I misunderstand that?

[Numtini]

There are a number of us on this board who liked SWG, as there are many who hated it. What do people who liked SWG think of the SWTOR experience?

I liked SWG because I love UO. I quit because of the bugs, not because of the game--which I actually quite liked. I ignored the Star Wars part--it was bad for the game and bad for SW. This is more of a Star Wars experience, but I was bored in two beta weekends, nevermind full time playing.

I don't think it's whether or not you like Star Wars. After I logged off SWTOR, I went in the living room and watched Empire.

[AcidCat]

Thoughts? Did the Beta make you more or less likely to play?

Beta thankfully saved me sixty bucks. This game becomes tedious faster than any MMO in recent memory. At least Rift was worth the box purchase for a couple months' diversion. By the second day of this beta event I just want to tell these quest NPCs to shut the fuck up and get on with it. And everything outside that is pathetically generic, reminds me of Tabula Rasa. Aside from the talking heads it's just a game years out of date.

[Sobelius]

Thoughts? Did the Beta make you more or less likely to play?

Beta thankfully saved me sixty bucks. This game becomes tedious faster than any MMO in recent memory. At least Rift was worth the box purchase for a couple months' diversion. By the second day of this beta event I just want to tell these quest NPCs to shut the fuck up and get on with it. And everything outside that is pathetically generic.

i.e. you could care less about story or character, or you just don't care for *these* stories or characters?

[AcidCat]

That is a good question and I'm not sure. I know these stories offered (well, played a few classes close to level 10 so I can't make blanket statements I guess) are just trite saturday-morning cartoon drivel. But I don't know how much an MMO needs a force-fed personal story at all. I've always thought the story of my MMO characters was in my head, and the random things that happened, and people I met, more than some preordained path.

[Numtini]

you could care less about story or character, or you just don't care for *these* stories or characters?

I loved the storylines the first weekend, they totally drew me in. I was fascinated with how my character was developing. Then the second weekend, I started to figure out it was all an illusion. In most cases, it didn't matter what I clicked.

I can't remember what dialog line it was, but I did BT three times and each time we chose a different response ranging from snappy loyal Imperials to STFU and die and the NPC said exactly the same thing in response and there was absolutely no difference in outcome. That was the moment I saw The Great Oz and the quest stuff was over for me.

[Montague]

Played the crap out of the last two beta weekends, I would lifetime subscribe if they gave that option.

Unanimous rave reviews from my friends and former guildies, though most of them are big Star Wars fanboys/girls anyway so not likely a representative sample  

[Paelos]

Put me down as still haven't check it out, still don't care to and wont ever play it.

Also I'm still on the whole: "story" is a waste of resources for a MMO.

Awesome. Why did you post here again?

[AcidCat]

In most cases, it didn't matter what I clicked.

EXACTLY. It's all bullshit. You have zero choice in any of this story stuff, it is completely mindless.

[trias_e]

Ugh.  You guys are making me consider cancelling my pre-order.  Does anyone have anything good to say about the story/characters?

[Lantyssa]

There are a number of us on this board who liked SWG, as there are many who hated it. What do people who liked SWG think of the SWTOR experience?

I find SWTOR inferior in almost every way that matters to my tastes.

It's less buggy and better balanced, so bravo for that.  The mod system would be heaven if it applied to more styles of clothing.  At least I know I can deck Kira out in full social clothes and it looks pretty good.