Pre-release thread discussion

[Reg]

Yeah, the last time I played KOTOR I had to give up on the wide screen and just play it in a window.

[Sky]

I got KotOR working in widescreen but the mods to get the UI workable was....less than desirable.

[Wolf]

got both the widescreen and the UI to work, just had to run it under XP compatibility and had no further issues. Unfortunately still unplayable, bioware have come some way from kotor to swtor as far as dialogue goes "I don't care what's your name and I won't tell you mine!" 

[Sand]

I found myself getting disturbingly attached to a purely evil-as-fuck Sith Warrior.  To the point I wondered if different "darkside" choices actually were more "darkly."  I do believe in the climactic beginning treachery that your disposition creates more/less darkside alignment.

I'm sure the minmaxers will have all this stuff mapped out in a week or so for sure.

Upon playing a BH though, I took a fairly "professional" outlook and ended up pretty neutral... sometimes darkly, sometimes lightly, but balanced in the end.  My M.O. was simply honoring the jobs given to me and not backstabbing even if more credits were available.  It got me wondering...  is there ANY benefit to leading a balanced existence?  If not, I'd say the alignment mechanic is fairly broken for RPing your typical BH/smuggler.  Gear should not simply be dark/good.  If you can maintain a shade of grey near the endgame you should be adequately rewarded.

From the 400+ page thread someone told me the dark/light dialogue choices and levels were just for cosmetic differences. Now Im hearing they effect which weapons and such you can use?
So there are consequences to your choices!
Anything else? Any other consequences other than equipment you can use?

 

[Mosesandstick]

Currently there are very few items with alignment requirements AFAIK, mainly weapon colours I think.

[Sky]

Not sure how it works for drops, since at least two of us have seen the dark side saber drop off the Esseles boss (Kira seemed to be able to use it fine, for some reason).

But for vendor gear it's mirrored. You can buy a dark or light piece with the same stats. Forget if there was also a non-morality piece, there should be. All cosmetic differences.

I only saw two other people running around with red sabers this weekend, I was kinda surprised. A few more Vicious folks, but only one other Sinister (which is where I left off at 18, maybe 2400 dark side pts).

[kildorn]

I haven't seen any alignment tied to low tier weapon colors. It seemed to just be drops that had light/dark requirements. Would be neat if quests were also tied to both.

[AcidCat]

I found it telling that with all this talking in the cutscenes, out in the world -  you know the actual game part of this game, I perform the laugh emote and my character is completely silent.

But these talking puppets have some kind of pull obviously, they have entranced many people who don't seem to care that as soon as you exit them you're in a game that is as rote and by-the-numbers as MMOs come.

[Mattemeo]

Gosh, if only you'd brought us this revelation 400+ pages and another thread ago! We'd all be feeling a whole lot less silly right now, I can tell you. It's unwavering realists like yourself that need to take charge of this increasingly ignoble situation where people enjoy a well crafted MMO experience despite all logic to the contrary. Egg is indeed in the vicinity of our faces.

[AcidCat]

Yes I'm just grumpy that I now have no new mmo to play this month. I'm sure you guys will be loving your well-crafted interactive puppet theater.

[kildorn]

It's by the numbers mechanics. I knew this the second torhead went up.

I'm strangely okay with that, though I wish they'd gone with a slightly more up to date version of the mechanics to copy. I'm more surprised that me, the man who adamantly refuses to read quest text in MMOs and just likes the mechanics, actually finds the character interactions and world somewhat interesting and sticky.

I can actually tell you my consular's plot line, and give you some insight into how they view the world and their place in it. That's something I don't do in MMORPGs. I played all the stories for 2-3 missions just to get a flavor for the character, and didn't actually dislike any of them off the bat. Some aren't my style, but they all seem pretty well done.

[Sky]

I think I should just park it here because further progress is just a pointless minefield.

Yes, you should've.

[Mattemeo]

You can buy a dark or light piece with the same stats. Forget if there was also a non-morality piece, there should be. All cosmetic differences.

There definitely needs to be neutral allignment gear if that's the case. I'd argue it's just as hard to stay in the grey as it is to lean toward an extreme. I certainly plan to play my Smuggler and Bounty Hunter as neutral as possible. Getting locked out of gear/rewards/whatever because of that would be somewhat irritating.

[Evildrider]

You can buy a dark or light piece with the same stats. Forget if there was also a non-morality piece, there should be. All cosmetic differences.

There definitely needs to be neutral allignment gear if that's the case. I'd argue it's just as hard to stay in the grey as it is to lean toward an extreme. I certainly plan to play my Smuggler and Bounty Hunter as neutral as possible. Getting locked out of gear/rewards/whatever because of that would be somewhat irritating.

They said neutral gear is coming, it just won't make it for launch.  Dark and Light gear is only different in looks.

[Rasix]

Yes I'm just grumpy that I now have no new mmo to play this month. I'm sure you guys will be loving your well-crafted interactive puppet theater.

That's splendid!  Be happy, they released about a thousand samey first person shooters recently.  You should be knee deep in 6 hour railroaded experiences.

[Ingmar]

You can buy a dark or light piece with the same stats. Forget if there was also a non-morality piece, there should be. All cosmetic differences.

There definitely needs to be neutral allignment gear if that's the case. I'd argue it's just as hard to stay in the grey as it is to lean toward an extreme. I certainly plan to play my Smuggler and Bounty Hunter as neutral as possible. Getting locked out of gear/rewards/whatever because of that would be somewhat irritating.

Note that you accumulate both light side and dark side points, they don't offset each other, so really you will probably end up being able to use both to a certain extent if you are splitting the difference on your decisions.

[murdoc]

You can buy a dark or light piece with the same stats. Forget if there was also a non-morality piece, there should be. All cosmetic differences.

There definitely needs to be neutral allignment gear if that's the case. I'd argue it's just as hard to stay in the grey as it is to lean toward an extreme. I certainly plan to play my Smuggler and Bounty Hunter as neutral as possible. Getting locked out of gear/rewards/whatever because of that would be somewhat irritating.

Note that you accumulate both light side and dark side points, they don't offset each other, so really you will probably end up being able to use both to a certain extent if you are splitting the difference on your decisions.

Aren't they based on your LS/DS level? Like Darkside 1? The scale works that if you have 2400 DS points and 1000 LS points, you're still just Darkside 1 (1400 DS) not DS 2/LS 1.

[Sky]

Kildorn brings up a good point, something I'd been thinking about after logging out last night.

Both my Consular in the 367 weekend and my Knight this past weekend were actual characters. They made choices, had a certain way they acted and grew over the first 20ish levels. They disliked some npcs, they liked others. They had good times with other players, who were actually memorable because you interacted with them in the story. In no other mmo since UO has casual roleplay created such memorable characters. I couldn't tell you a single thing about my Rift characters I took to 50, there was the big purple guy and the little guy with the limp bizkit haircut. In EQ2 I played a pale wizard. In both games they did some stuff. Were they good, evil, what did they think about the quests they were accepting?

My black sphere evolves to a purple parallel.

[Sand]

I think I should just park it here because further progress is just a pointless minefield.

Yes, you should've.

Agreed.

[eldaec]

My CoH guys had a bit of character about them, less because of the content than because the character generator had room for so much personality.

In general you are right ofc.

[tmp]

I found it telling that with all this talking in the cutscenes, out in the world -  you know the actual game part of this game, I perform the laugh emote and my character is completely silent.

Wait, what? It's not possible for a Sith to perform an actual, audible evil laugh whenever they feel like it?

That sucks.

[kildorn]

I know my guildmates made backstories and such for CoH characters. I don't know about WoW characters as much.

Personally I didn't. I may have had a theme going for them, but I mostly cared mechanically how they played and made really boring costumes. I sort of need my hand held the way SWTOR does to get me to give a shit about my character's motivations.

So far I dislike all my companions however. I want a droid just in the hopes that they shut up.

[Fordel]

You can buy a dark or light piece with the same stats. Forget if there was also a non-morality piece, there should be. All cosmetic differences.

There definitely needs to be neutral allignment gear if that's the case. I'd argue it's just as hard to stay in the grey as it is to lean toward an extreme. I certainly plan to play my Smuggler and Bounty Hunter as neutral as possible. Getting locked out of gear/rewards/whatever because of that would be somewhat irritating.

Note that you accumulate both light side and dark side points, they don't offset each other, so really you will probably end up being able to use both to a certain extent if you are splitting the difference on your decisions.

Yes they do, your Dark side point total is subtracted from you light side total or the other way around.


You can laugh all you want, it just gets buggy and doesn't play a sound/animation some times.


Kildorn is a soulless creature if he doesn't like T7.

[tmp]

You can laugh all you want, it just gets buggy and doesn't play a sound/animation some times.

Ah, alright then. Crisis averted.

[kildorn]

I never got T7. I want him. As a romance option.

All the non droids are just.. complainy. Even in the space game they're all "Don't get us killed!" when I haven't even taken damage yet.

[Paelos]

So when do we find out when we get to take part in the early release?







Giggity.

[Fordel]

Par for the course with you Force users, baaaw baaaaaaw.  

[Pezzle]

Yea, Troopers have more fun.  Also smugglers.

[kildorn]

Smuggler's first companion is a bit of a pest, too. Second one I didn't get much time with.

So apparently only troopers get to have fun. With their helmets on.

[Mattemeo]

I honestly find it difficult to play a character I haven't invested any thought in regarding their background, personality and aspirations. CoX allowed me to actually display a bit of story for when someone inspected my characters but beyond that it was merely in my head or explained to friends who liked to RP occasionally. All my WoW chars have history, even if it's just something small to branch off from. SWtOR suggests that my characters have a past that I can then build a more personal take on; for example my Rattataki Sith Inquisitor is a rising alien slave according to the game, and the game story charts that rise from the moment I start playing but gives me plenty of space to flesh it out. I can't let go of the RPG, otherwise what's the point?

[Pezzle]

Corso is an awesome womanizer!  Perfect sidekick!

[kildorn]

The loot, Mattemeo! THE LOOT!  I desire to learn your daoc character's motivation for sitting through ML raids ;)

As for Corso, every time I talked to him, he was waxing poetic about his guns. I know far too many people from NH to find that at all appealing.

[DraconianOne]

SWtOR suggests that my characters have a past that I can then build a more personal take on; for example my Rattataki Sith Inquisitor is a rising alien slave according to the game, and the game story charts that rise from the moment I start playing but gives me plenty of space to flesh it out. I can't let go of the RPG, otherwise what's the point?

All my characters have backgrounds although as they're always the same character, it's always the same background. I have an aged, balding, beer-loving fat bloke character who has forever been some kind of melee/soldier class. So naturally, he was going to be a Trooper. Which comes with the background of being a young but gifted sergeant straight out of the Academy. Fucking Gearbox opens the story calling you Kid and I had no option to smack him in the face.

I cannot begin to tell you how irrationally pissed off I was about this.

The Smuggler story and dialogue, however, seems to totally fit the same character - even down to a "I don't really want to mingle with soldiers, I've got a reason to avoid them" response.    Not sure I want to be a pure DPS or healer though.  

Having been quite cool towards the game before level 8, I played another couple of levels and wow! I'm sold! Playing with a companion was alright but conversation choices adding affection points was something I like, no matter how insignificant. As a mini-game in itself I got me thinking about it - do I choose a response that the companion will like or go with what I think my character will like. Then my Consular got his lightsabre and I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. So yeah, done deal. I had fun and that's all I want.

EDIT: Added bonus - now my Trooper gets to be a woman and my FemShep lives on.

[Morfiend]

Kildorn brings up a good point, something I'd been thinking about after logging out last night.

Both my Consular in the 367 weekend and my Knight this past weekend were actual characters. They made choices, had a certain way they acted and grew over the first 20ish levels. They disliked some npcs, they liked others. They had good times with other players, who were actually memorable because you interacted with them in the story. In no other mmo since UO has casual roleplay created such memorable characters. I couldn't tell you a single thing about my Rift characters I took to 50, there was the big purple guy and the little guy with the limp bizkit haircut. In EQ2 I played a pale wizard. In both games they did some stuff. Were they good, evil, what did they think about the quests they were accepting?

My black sphere evolves to a purple parallel.

You know what. I found myself doing the same thing. I started a Bounty Hunter and decided to play a specific way with him. Basically the cliche of "Always honors his deals, even if offered more money". I had a great time with him.

[Merusk]

Kildorn brings up a good point, something I'd been thinking about after logging out last night.

Both my Consular in the 367 weekend and my Knight this past weekend were actual characters. They made choices, had a certain way they acted and grew over the first 20ish levels. They disliked some npcs, they liked others. They had good times with other players, who were actually memorable because you interacted with them in the story. In no other mmo since UO has casual roleplay created such memorable characters. I couldn't tell you a single thing about my Rift characters I took to 50, there was the big purple guy and the little guy with the limp bizkit haircut. In EQ2 I played a pale wizard. In both games they did some stuff. Were they good, evil, what did they think about the quests they were accepting?

My black sphere evolves to a purple parallel.

I had a story for my N. Elf Hunter and my DK in WoW, but they were PURELy in my head and not supported by the game at all.

Poor DK never got the $20 Arthas owed him, either.  Kill a man for his money and what do you get?
   Nothing because goddamn undead kings don't carry cash.