Predictions: 1m+ players 3 days out; how about in January 2013?

[Fordel]

Mercs and commandos don't get interrupts, vanguards and powertechs do.

e: the most interrupt-heavy encounter I had so far was the last fight in the trooper storyline. Two silver elites who SPAM heals at each other. Ended up having to get one to temporarily LOS the other and use all my interrupts in succession (incl. charge and harpoon), my long cooldown that resets my stun and use the stun again so the interrupt was up again. 'Course then I wasn't specced for the 6-second interrupt, would've made it easier.  I suppose commandos deal with that encounter by CCing one of the mobs and bursting the other.

Interrupt, Cyro, Interrupt, 20minCyro, interrupt, PBAE, interrupt, Charge, there you killed one  . You only have to interrupt one consistently, it takes both of them to out heal your DPS. Dorne is another interrupt with her channeled freeze.

[Zetor]

Yeah... part of the problem was that I did it at level 48 [may have been 49] as full tank spec, so I wasn't hitting them very hard. This was also one of the 3 times in the game ever where the Blitz skill (big damage to a stunned non-elite mob) was useful.

[Fordel]

Blitz is always useful against silvers and trash. Try using it on trash, toss a Sticky Grenade then Blitz it, usually mean instant explosion 

I did it twice at 50 now as a tank spec, the extra two levels really makes a big difference. Like the difference between being 1 level under, even con and 1 level over is very noticeable in this game.

[Nebu]

That's a good point.  Fighting epics is MUCH easier if they are the same level.  Being -1 to an epic makes things uphill.

[Sjofn]

Only one of my sage abilities has a "long ass wind up time," and it is an equally long-ass wind up time as a sorcerer. It's the AE knockback. My rock fliinging has to travel to the target, but it cannot be interupted in an infuriating way like the knockback can. The interupt is the same, the instant DoT is the same, the stun is the same, etc.

Project has a long-ass windup time for Consulars but the Inquisitor mirror is instant.  While it can't be interrupted, it is possible, comically enough, to use space vanish to prevent the rock from hitting you if you can activate it before the rock actually reaches you.  Compare to Telekinetic Throw, which is also rocks but those arrive functionally instantly.

It's also a problem because Project has a lot of talents that modify it or have procs associated with it.  Two that don't play well with the animation and travel time are Particle Acceleration procs and Force Potency charges.  Both of those only trigger when the damage is applied to the target, not when the ability is cast.  Because of this, the proc or charge can expire before the target is actually hit and thus not apply, even if you cast the ability before the buff wears off.  That may sound like a nitpick, but it happens a lot more than you think when you're having to deal with that 1.5 second global cooldown, and it's something Inquisitors don't have to deal with.

This sounds like assassin/shadow bitching, which has nothing to do with the number of sorcerers.


As for the "feel," I vastly prefer bouncing rocks and urns off people than spitting purple lighting. Has more weight, and less annoying sound effects. The constant brrrzzzzzzzt of my manquisitor assassin gets on my nerves after a while. I also don't feel at all weird doing the storyline as an assassin, it's not like assassins don't spam shock constantly, so all the "<brrrzt>" conversation options still make sense, and all force users are all about mystical bullshit, so that aspect is fine by me too.

[Nevermore]

This sounds like assassin/shadow bitching, which has nothing to do with the number of sorcerers.

It has to do with the number of sorcerers because the disparity is exacerbated at least in part by herd mentality.  The type of people who rush to the end as fast as possible are likely also the people who played a lot in beta and/or look for leveling tips on forums and such.  So when it becomes known that the major difference mechanically between Sages and Sorcerers is one of them has a long-ass cast time on a bread and butter ability while the other's is instant, the people for whom this is important all pick Sorcerer and the lemmings follow when it's known that Sorcerers are 'better'.

That and more people prefer lightning to rocks.  Personally I get a bit bored with the LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLT but it still seems more people like it aesthetically than the rocks.

[Nebu]

That and more people prefer lightning to rocks.  Personally I get a bit bored with the LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLT but it still seems more people like it aesthetically than the rocks.

What makes you feel more like a hero: shooting lightning out of your hands, or slinging a few pebbles?

I don't know what Bioware was thinking there.

[Fordel]

They were going for the effects Satele does in the second trailer.


It just didn't translate as well as you would hope. Invisible Force is kind of hard to display apparently. 

[Margalis]

One of the dangers of making nearly symmetrical classes is that it's a lot easier to directly compare and find one strictly inferior.

[ajax34i]

Doesn't need to be invisible; they could so some sort of concussion wave that has a white or blue-ish glow instead of the boulder, and they could do Matrix-style bullet shockwaves (just the shockwaves not the bullets) instead of the pebbles.

Anyway, moving on...

[Sjofn]

Actually, speaking of "coolness factor" I feel fucking retarded as a sith warrior. My jedi knight equivilents (that aren't exactly the same) feel a lot less stupid.

[Kageru]

Throwing pebbles and rocks? Child's play (CoH gameplay)

You get a decent view of a thrown object at 1 and 1:15 minutes in. And there's actually some subtle light effects at work now I look closely.
 

[Sky]

Actually, speaking of "coolness factor" I feel fucking retarded as a sith warrior. My jedi knight equivilents (that aren't exactly the same) feel a lot less stupid.

You haven't seen my Jugg, then. He's coolness incarnate, drenched in sarcasm and blood.

Come to think of it, so I my JG, since he's going DS. And I recreated my beta JG who is a recreation of my KotOR JG...3rd row, 1st column:

[Sjofn]

You misunderstand, my sith warrior looks fine if she's standing around not doing anything, but almost all of her fighting animations are doofy (she looks like she's just flailing wildly with her lightsaber, which is kinda lame), and her regen animation makes her look like she's trying to fart.

I also feel like the Empire, for the most part, has way shittier looking armor, too.

[tmp]

Doesn't need to be invisible; they could so some sort of concussion wave that has a white or blue-ish glow instead of the boulder

Like the one they already have for the Sprint, e.g... just aim it the other way.

The TK throw in its current form indeed isn't very spectacular. Project quite makes up for it though, imo.

[DraconianOne]

Relevant-ish towards discussion: from Georg Zoeller:

We're not done improving combat responsiveness!

   

• As mentioned in my blog a few days ago, there are some additional fixes currently on our public test server as part of patch 1.1.1, which will roll out as soon as we're satisfied with that patch.
• We've heard your mixed feedback regarding the new cooldown animation that was part of patch 1.1, and we have improvements to the readability of that UI coming down the pipe.
• We're looking into improving the accuracy of cast bars. Their behavior should already be significantly improved with today's patch, but we believe there is still room to improve.
• We're also working on improvements to the responsiveness of individual ability animations, including faction specific timing differences and issues where shortening an ability activation time does not properly shorten it's animation.

[Ashamanchill]

You misunderstand, my sith warrior looks fine if she's standing around not doing anything, but almost all of her fighting animations are doofy (she looks like she's just flailing wildly with her lightsaber, which is kinda lame), and her regen animation makes her look like she's trying to fart.

I also feel like the Empire, for the most part, has way shittier looking armor, too.

Actually, speaking of "coolness factor" I feel fucking retarded as a sith warrior. My jedi knight equivilents (that aren't exactly the same) feel a lot less stupid.

Thank you for someone finally saying what I was thinking. I'm playing a JK (Guardian), and a SW (Marauder), and the latter feels fucking stupid. From the Dragon Ball Z esque "POWERING UP" for his health recharge move, to the plot line feeling (at least at the start) like I'm an errand boy, to the "I'm so filled with RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE" emo dialoge responses, right down to the fact that his armor looks like he mugged a bunch of cosplayers outside an oldschool Battlestar Galactica convention.

[Merusk]

Er.. you ARE an Errand Boy.  Darth Baras is pretty clear about it if you question him on it at one point early-on on Drommund Kaas.  You're the hammer to his anvil, a blunt instrument to be used. (And discarded if you get too uppity or troublesome.)   That's the Sith way.  You're on a very short leash to a much more powerful and connected guy than in any of the other story lines. 

Story stuff:
... and yes, the recharge animation is lame.

[ajax34i]

Sith Warrior story is errand-boy, true, but I think the way the dialogue is delivered is better than for Jedi Knight.  I've only had one chuckle moment with the Knight (up to level 30), and I've had 3 thus far with the Warrior (level 15).  Also, both sides are pretty boring and dull if you go with the default responses (Jedi - good, Sith - evil), but if you try to build light alignment as a Sith and dark as a Jedi, I think the Sith quests are better coded to allow you to do that in a way that makes sense within the story arcs.

Also, Jedi Knight you're also errand-boy by necessity, cause
I gotta say, though, the Empire color pallette and architecture are ugly, but that makes sense.

[Lantyssa]

I also feel like the Empire, for the most part, has way shittier looking armor, too.

Hit up Vhashik when I'm on.  I've still got a lot of patterns to go, but I'm collecting some good oranges and can make some nice outfits.  (Plus I can show you what she wears to see if you like it.)

I do wear a light armor headpiece, because I don't like any of the medium helms, and I like the look of the circlet.

[Paelos]

The Jedi Shadow Dark responses are the best so far for either Jedi that I've done. Whether you're taking bribes from Hutts or telling people how badass you are, the female VO is spot on funny.

[Outlawedprod]

LOL @ the comments
http://www.heroengine.com/2011/11/heroengine-meets-starwars/

[Nebu]

LOL @ the comments
http://www.heroengine.com/2011/11/heroengine-meets-starwars/

This one had to be my favorite:

Good to see that Bioware made the choice of using the Hero Engine for its superior technological capabilities and well-functioning design and not because it was made by a friend of the guy running the company… oh wait.

Some good lols in the comments, indeed.

[Mrbloodworth]

Hay look, people confused by the engine layer and the game layer.

[Fabricated]

Depressing that the last code drop they took was 3 years ago. I know that past a certain point that you've customized your code so much that it's difficult to integrate improvements but I imagine a rebuild of the client with current code could possibly take care of a lot of performance issues?

I mean, could you imagine if Troika were rematerialized and were able to fix/recompile Vampire: The Masquerade with the current version of the Source engine rather than the 0.0001 beta edition it was originally compiled with?

[ajax34i]

It may be more efficient to bring some of the Hero Engine devs over to add / patch in the "improvements" into whatever modified version SWTOR has.

Actually, I think it's more the case that Hero Engine "improvements" wouldn't have happened at nearly the same fast rate had they not had Bioware as a customer.  Before you can make improvements you need a large user base / tester base to test things out for you.  Which, even Bioware isn't getting until now.

[Sky]

It may be more efficient to bring some of the Hero Engine devs over to add / patch in the "improvements" into whatever modified version SWTOR has.

I was thinking the same thing. They're better off paying back some royalties to BWA/offset the Lucas tax; just taking the version BWA has axed apart and making that golden. I mean, versus what untested stuff they're sitting on?

[Mrbloodworth]

The rendering engine, is likely not the one that ships with hero engine.

[Sjofn]

I also feel like the Empire, for the most part, has way shittier looking armor, too.

Hit up Vhashik when I'm on.  I've still got a lot of patterns to go, but I'm collecting some good oranges and can make some nice outfits.  (Plus I can show you what she wears to see if you like it.)

I do wear a light armor headpiece, because I don't like any of the medium helms, and I like the look of the circlet.

Honestly, it's mostly the light/medium armor I was thinking of when I said that (I also turn off helmets 99% of the time). My IA has had a parade of fugly (already! He's only level 15!), and my manquisitor's gunslinger pal has had the same problem. I know there is SOME armor out there I don't hate (my IA has Hooligan armor sitting in his vault for when he hits level 24 and then he will look fine, for example), it's just dwarfed by all the ugly stuff. My sith warrior, on the other hand, looks okay at this exact moment (although her bp is still flippin' medium ><). My issue with her is pretty much all the terrible "I have no idea how to actually use this lightsaber" animations. And the regen animation, that is pretty awful.

I find the sith warrior story fine, I didn't really expect to be much more than an errand girl. I'm playing her cold-but-not-necessarily-cruel, which means Vette has no idea what to think of me (I'm nice to the Little People! Oh, except when they FORGET THEIR PLACE. I give people a chance to walk away! Oh, but I murder the fuck out of anyone who doesn't take that chance! It's a good time.). I also think I get along better with Zash not because of her rank, but because she has learned what so many Sith could stand to learn: You don't have to be a gigantic douchebag all the time. She's still a manipulative, backstabbing, kill her own grandmother if it gets her more power Sith, but there's no reason to be unpleasant about it.

[01101010]

Honestly, it's mostly the light/medium armor I was thinking of when I said that (I also turn off helmets 99% of the time). My IA has had a parade of fugly (already! He's only level 15!), and my manquisitor's gunslinger pal has had the same problem.

The chest piece for completing the Revanite chain is pretty nice though.

[Sjofn]

I didn't like it for my IA, but I did like the one my manquisitor got, yeah.

[Lantyssa]

I find the sith warrior story fine, I didn't really expect to be much more than an errand girl. I'm playing her cold-but-not-necessarily-cruel, which means Vette has no idea what to think of me (I'm nice to the Little People! Oh, except when they FORGET THEIR PLACE. I give people a chance to walk away! Oh, but I murder the fuck out of anyone who doesn't take that chance! It's a good time.). I also think I get along better with Zash not because of her rank, but because she has learned what so many Sith could stand to learn: You don't have to be a gigantic douchebag all the time. She's still a manipulative, backstabbing, kill her own grandmother if it gets her more power Sith, but there's no reason to be unpleasant about it.

Zash is lovely, isn't she?  Positively delightful until you get on her shit list.

My Marauder sounds like your Warrior.  She confounds people.

[CmdrSlack]

Zash is like a bad cold. Just when you think you're finally rid of her, she keeps lingering around.

[Sjofn]

Man, that is so fucking true. 

[Hutch]

EA reports SWTOR has sold 2 million units, and 1.7 million subscriptions.

(link lifted from massively)

The company launched “Star Wars” in late December, and reported it has sold through more than 2 million units of the game and now has about 1.7 million active subscribers playing the online multiplayer title, which Brown said represents a mix of users who already have signed up for a paid subscription and users who have given their credit cards over, but have not yet had their paid plans kick in.

I was pleased by their candor in saying that not all of those 1.7 mill are actually paying a sub yet.

This jives with the 1+ million from the beginning of the thread. We'll see where things stand in a year.