What's going right/wrong with launch...

[March]

Also, has anyone noticed the utter lack of healers? I mean, the tank to DPS ratio is actually really respectable and something like a 1:2, but finding a healing SPECCED healer is like trying to find a unicorn.

There's no clique. TOR doesn't even have mouseover macros. Lots of WoW healers won't deal with that.

This and no dual-spec.

Unless I'm permitted to stand around like a pylon, I don't think I have enough hands for targetting, healing, and moving.  I guess some folks can, but I can't...at least not for any sort of challenging content.

[01101010]

Also, has anyone noticed the utter lack of healers? I mean, the tank to DPS ratio is actually really respectable and something like a 1:2, but finding a healing SPECCED healer is like trying to find a unicorn.

There's no clique. TOR doesn't even have mouseover macros. Lots of WoW healers won't deal with that.

This and no dual-spec.

Unless I'm permitted to stand around like a pylon, I don't think I have enough hands for targetting, healing, and moving.  I guess some folks can, but I can't...at least not for any sort of challenging content.

I used the focus target option quite a bit in beta when I became aware of how it works. Strangely, it works rather smoothly, but only for one player. So defaulting it on the tank while keeping the target as primary does in fact work well. Definitely need to hotkey that modifier to something in the opposite hand or thumb though... made that mistake first group I tried it in. 

[sam, an eggplant]

Right, if you spec healer you need to level as a healer too. That's actually possible, with a tank companion, but certainly much slower. And you're spending your time micromanaging and healing a NPC rather than killing the mobs yourself-- no thanks.

[kildorn]

I'm actually leveling as a healer with a dps companion right now, and tanking the mobs myself.

Scoundrels get kind of absurd at 30 with their instant heal.

[Murgos]

So far I've ran Eselles, Hammer, and Athiss and yeah I'm kinda disappointed at the lack of interactive story stuff in the latter two.

I ran Eselles for the first time last night and I was very impressed with the story aspects of it.  Once it was over I commented about how cool it was and then immediately got my hopes dashed with, "Yeah, the rest of the flashpoints aren't like that."  For a few minutes there I thought I would be spending more time grouped than I've grown accustomed to.  Also, since it seems you can get the flashpoint boss drops for commendation trade-ins there isn't even the siren's song of phat-lewts to get you in the door.

[Miasma]

Unless you want to miss wide sections of each zone where the best xp, missions and loot rewards are you will probably be grouping.  I am enjoying the game but I really don't like the "forced" grouping.  Perhaps it's just because everything is new but I also find that the classes don't work well together, at all.  I don't have a coherent way of explaining that, it is just the way it feels to me.

[luckton]

Unless you want to miss wide sections of each zone where the best xp, missions and loot rewards are you will probably be grouping.  I am enjoying the game but I really don't like the "forced" grouping.  Perhaps it's just because everything is new but I also find that the classes don't work well together, at all.  I don't have a coherent way of explaining that, it is just the way it feels to me.

I disagree.  From my experience thus far across five planets, each one is broken down into sections/quest hubs.  Each hub has at most 1 maybe 2 Heroic quests which require either 2/4 people.  None of the heroics have any impact on your story progression or even on planet progression.  They've all been independent stand-alone quests, where if you do them, great!  If not, it's not that big of a deal.

[Zetor]

Yeah, the heroic 2/4s should be skippable... flashpoints too.

I've done Esseles, Hammer Station, the Ord Mantell heroics, maybe 3 Coruscant heroics, and 1 Taris heroic... didn't touch any group content after that. I was still consistently overleveling the current planet the class questline sends me to by 2-3. I just hit 41 and I'm still overleveling them by 1. I used to do the bonus objectives of the 'solo' missions religiously, but got too lazy to do that once I hit Quesh and Hoth.

Haven't done any space combat either, and only a handful of warfronts.

[kildorn]

So today I learned that if you have anyone over level, you can burn through flashpoints in seconds because even squishy classes are simply impossible for even the bosses to hit.

So if you're bored one day.. and know a cybertech... you can basically put all your companions in at-level oranges in an evening. :P

[Ingmar]

There's no forced grouping at all, I dunno what to say about that.

[apocrypha]

Um, when I log into swtor.com and go to My Profile, I can click on Subscription, then Show Billing History, then there's an EDIT option by the credit card, and clicking it pops up a sub-window that lets me fully change everything - name, address, etc.  Alternately, under swtor.com My Profile, I can click on the left on the Contact Information Complete!!! graphic and change my address, phone number, etc.

Not sure why it's not working for you.

Interesting, there's no Billing History option for me, and I can't edit the CC address in any way - just checked again. I can edit my home address, but that doesn't change the billing address. Different implementations in different regions maybe? Doesn't really matter, I've submitted a support ticket detailing the issue, they've got 29 days to respond and rectify, that will surely be sufficient.

 

[Rasix]

This is going to be your paypal thing all over again, isn't it?

[Evildrider]

There's no forced grouping at all, I dunno what to say about that.

I was one of the first hanful of 50's on my server and I did it all solo.  There was just no one around to do the heroics and stuff with anyway.  I spent over 90% of the time on a planet by myself or with one other person.  lol

[rattran]

Healing as a heal specced merc is tough. Focus target will likely help, but trying to heal 3 randoms in a pug just made me say 'Fuck you all' and drop group. So I'll heal in BC groups, but anyone in a pug I'll claim to be dps.

[apocrypha]

This is going to be your paypal thing all over again, isn't it?

Lol, I hope not! If it is I'll just keep it to myself, don't worry.

I feel bad for even posting about it in here cos it's such a minor thing compared to how much fun I am already having with the rest of it. I just thought it might be useful for people to know about so they can be extra careful not to make typos in their CC address entry for now.

[Tannhauser]

Healing as a heal specced merc is tough. Focus target will likely help, but trying to heal 3 randoms in a pug just made me say 'Fuck you all' and drop group. So I'll heal in BC groups, but anyone in a pug I'll claim to be dps.

Yeah Merc healing isn't so great.  We have Kolto Missile, which is a ground aoe, which is a pain to use in an intense firefight.  I am thinking of speccing out of Bodyguard, at least for a while.   The shield is nice, but it's on a cooldown and only lasts like 12 seconds.

Then if you overheat you 'run out' of healing.  You can shoot your healing bullets without heat, but the healing amount seems a little too low.

[amiable]

Healing on BH's/Agents is all a mana-management game, if you are good at it you can do it literally forever.  You can burst, but you better make sure your instant energy/heat return is up so you can get back into a good regen area.  Also, it is far easier to level a healer than a dpser, because your downtime goes down to zero and dps pets are usually pretty good at dpsing.

My only complaint so far is that in 2 person groups pets do not show up on raid frames and are a bitch to target, and the raid frames are borked in the battlegrounds so you never know who needs healing.

[Lantyssa]

First big complaint:  When I got my box I entered my code.  I've been playing fine.  Today I log in and it says I need a subscription to continue playing, but it says I only have 27 days left.

So because they didn't have the billing stuff set up pre-launch, it's counting down my time but locked me out of the game.  And their site isn't responding at six in the morning....

[01101010]

Seems they finally released a security app for android. Their site mentions certain android devices... no clue wtf that means, but the Market has it up. Downloading and installing now... we'll see what kind of clusterfuck this will bring...

[ajax34i]

First thing I did when setting up the UI keybinds was to remap "Target Party Companion 1" to F7 and "Target Party Companion 2" to F8.  Doesn't help that they don't appear in the frames, but it makes it easier to target to check them.  You can also enable overhead nametags (and health bars) I think.

As far as the subscription, I think they considered a 2-day leeway to be sufficient for everyone.  They figured all of us would put in our code and set up a credit-card subscription on the 20th, and their 2 days grace period was an unnecessary favor.  I bet the boards are going to be full of complaints today, and maybe they'll learn.

[luckton]

Seems they finally released a security app for android. Their site mentions certain android devices... no clue wtf that means, but the Market has it up. Downloading and installing now... we'll see what kind of clusterfuck this will bring...

Maybe it doesn't support 2.1 and earlier Androids or some stupid shit.

[Fabricated]

This has the potential to cause friction in the future. EX: New guy gets invited to a dungeon run and gets dropped from group because he won't spacebar spam past the cutscenes. 

I hate people.

I already predicted this like months ago in the closed thread.

[01101010]

Seems they finally released a security app for android. Their site mentions certain android devices... no clue wtf that means, but the Market has it up. Downloading and installing now... we'll see what kind of clusterfuck this will bring...

Maybe it doesn't support 2.1 and earlier Androids or some stupid shit.

Probably true. Of course, now that their website is giving me the finger and putting me behind the velvet ropes with the rest of the rabble, it'll be awhile before I get a chance to test drive it.

[Lantyssa]

As far as the subscription, I think they considered a 2-day leeway to be sufficient for everyone.  They figured all of us would put in our code and set up a credit-card subscription on the 20th, and their 2 days grace period was an unnecessary favor.  I bet the boards are going to be full of complaints today, and maybe they'll learn.

It was plenty of time to enter my code, which I did, back around the 16th.  That I need a sub to play my 30 free days, however, is silly.  And that they're counting down despite not letting me access the game.

[Amaron]

They didn't even take any useful steps to make it clear that I'd have to enter CC info.   I put in my product code days ago and thought that was that.   They should of forwarded me to the payment page right away when I put in the code.   Now they have everyone trying to do it all at once with the expected results.

Also why have the forethought of putting in a web page queue but not adding it to the subscription pages? 

[ajax34i]

Yeah, unfortunately, the "counting down days even if you can't access the game" is par for the course for MMO's.

Their account registration webpage had big graphic buttons, in order, for Create Account, Answer Secret Questions, Type In Game S/N, Set up Credit Card payment, Add a security keyfob, but you had to "get" the mindset of the web developer to understand what was mandatory and what they wanted you to do.  I'm getting the same feeling from their UI - like, what's missing isn't functionality, but rather the fact that in WoW you could do each action in multiple ways (casting a spell for example, could do it from the spellbook, from the action bar with mouse or keypress, with a macro, or could type /cast x), and in SWTOR there's ONE way to do something, and if you don't guess it, you're SOL.

For example, when you set up keybinds for the action bars, the UI does differentiate between 1-0 and numpad-1-0, but no indication is given.  It is, however, quite possible to have the bottom bar set up with 1-0 and the right bar with the numpad keys.

[Ghambit]

This has the potential to cause friction in the future. EX: New guy gets invited to a dungeon run and gets dropped from group because he won't spacebar spam past the cutscenes.  

I hate people.

I already predicted this like months ago in the closed thread.

I guess you could modify the social dicerolls during the cutscene dialog wheel choices.  You spacebarred?  -15 to diceroll.  It has no effect except for who gets to decide for the group though, so they'd have to add some carrot-on-a-stick mechanic to it I'm sure.

[Lantyssa]

Well, a -15 would be a stick since you get more social points for winning the roll.

[Amaron]

This is just becoming full on retarded.   They put in a website queue but the actual subscription service is through EA's account system.   So they are trying to throttle people getting into the EA site except that isn't working because of a few hundred thousand people clicking "continue" over and over.   Then of course the whole process craps out and you go back into the queue all over again.

[kildorn]

Hm, so I won't have access when I get home? I figured the grace period was "time to enter your live code", not "time to feed us a credit card that we won't charge anyways"

I should probably set all that up then.

[Paelos]

How are you people having these issues? I got on last night at 5PM and had zero problems with the site to enter in my info or my CC or my keys?

[Amaron]

Hm, so I won't have access when I get home? I figured the grace period was "time to enter your live code", not "time to feed us a credit card that we won't charge anyways"

I should probably set all that up then.

You not only won't have access you won't be able to enter your credit card info for about 5 hours.   I've been trying to do it for 2 hours now.   What's going to happen at 5pm is going to melt their whole system right down to the PCB's.

How are you people having these issues? I got on last night at 5PM and had zero problems with the site to enter in my info or my CC or my keys?

They shut off access for people who haven't entered CC info this morning.   Of course you could do it fine when nobody was trying to do it.

[kildorn]

How are you people having these issues? I got on last night at 5PM and had zero problems with the site to enter in my info or my CC or my keys?

I was on last night, but there was a note saying that at 2am EST we had to have our codes entered. I assumed that just meant "code entered" and not "feed me sub info"

[Paelos]

People that wait until the last minute get kicked in the teeth. Film at 11. 

[ajax34i]

No, they announced "grace period to enter your code", I think, but what they meant was "grace period to enter code AND credit card."  It's stupid, because you should be able to play for 30 days w/o a CC, and the game should just stop letting you in once that expires in January.  And it's rated G so it's not like they need your CC to verify your age or whatever.

I have a feeling the real reason why they've done this was to confirm to the suits how many actual subscriptions they actually had, as a way to justify the more servers they added.  Riccitiello must be terrified that it'll be a flop like WAR, or something.