Star Wars: The Old Republic

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Anyone else playing? I've put a few hour into it now. Still on the fence about this game. Graphically it's nothing amazing, but I guess being an MMO it needs to be scaled back.

Game play wise, I'm not that impressed either at present. I've never played an MMO but I've been told this is pretty close to how WOW works. The combat seems a bit boring to be honest. There are action keys, but I feel like my actions are a bit disconnected with my player. Dragon Age origins used action keys as well, but you could pause combat and create magnificent set pieces, this however doesn't happen here. I feel like I'm just spamming the action keys, with no real strategy. To be fair I'm only a level 5 Sith Warrior, I've been told it gets more interesting once you get over level 14 and specialise. I'll slog it out and rank up more in the hope that I do get a little more into it.
 
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Anyone else playing? I've put a few hour into it now. Still on the fence about this game. Graphically it's nothing amazing, but I guess being an MMO it needs to be scaled back.

Game play wise, I'm not that impressed either at present. I've never played an MMO but I've been told this is pretty close to how WOW works. The combat seems a bit boring to be honest. There are action keys, but I feel like my actions are a bit disconnected with my player. Dragon Age origins used action keys as well, but you could pause combat and create magnificent set pieces, this however doesn't happen here. I feel like I'm just spamming the action keys, with no real strategy. To be fair I'm only a level 5 Sith Warrior, I've been told it gets more interesting once you get over level 14 and specialise. I'll slog it out and rank up more in the hope that I do get a little more into it.
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Since getting access on thursday night I think I have about a day and a half of playtime in already. I hit level 24 on my Sith Warrior (juggernaut tanking spec) last night before logging off. At your level you only have a few damage dealing abilities so it's going to feel like that for a while. Later on though as more things open up there is a bit more strategy to it, whether its using a certain rotation to optimize damage per second, or maintining aggro as a tank. I played a Warrior tank in WoW for 5 years so I feel right at home on this character. I knew I enjoyed that style of play going in so I stuck with it. You may just need to get to a higher level, or you may end up finding that you prefer a ranged or healing class over melee combat.

I will say that later on, tanking is one of the most strategy intensive roles in these games. Trying to keep multiple targets focused on you, timing your taunts, interrupts, defensive abilities. Its a lot of fun in my opinion.

Graphically its pretty much what I expect from an MMO. I think they have done a good job of making the game look/feel like the Star Wars universe should.

Anyway, stick with it a bit. Once you start getting companions, and a spaceship, and more abilities I think you'll start enjoying it more. The companions also bring a little more strategy to the game.
 
You guys should read all the utter disappointment which taints the entirety of the SWTOR forums :lol:
 
Bram Turismo
You guys should read all the utter disappointment which taints the entirety of the SWTOR forums :lol:
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When you mix MMORPG trolls with Star Wars fanboys the results aren't good for a forum. Anyways I'm not too concerned with what other people are disappointed in. I'm having plenty of fun playing this game with my friends. If it was as horrible as they all make it out to be they would stop playing it.
 
dchPSUone
Since getting access on thursday night I think I have about a day and a half of playtime in already. I hit level 24 on my Sith Warrior (juggernaut tanking spec) last night before logging off. At your level you only have a few damage dealing abilities so it's going to feel like that for a while. Later on though as more things open up there is a bit more strategy to it, whether its using a certain rotation to optimize damage per second, or maintining aggro as a tank. I played a Warrior tank in WoW for 5 years so I feel right at home on this character. I knew I enjoyed that style of play going in so I stuck with it. You may just need to get to a higher level, or you may end up finding that you prefer a ranged or healing class over melee combat.

I will say that later on, tanking is one of the most strategy intensive roles in these games. Trying to keep multiple targets focused on you, timing your taunts, interrupts, defensive abilities. Its a lot of fun in my opinion.

Graphically its pretty much what I expect from an MMO. I think they have done a good job of making the game look/feel like the Star Wars universe should.

Anyway, stick with it a bit. Once you start getting companions, and a spaceship, and more abilities I think you'll start enjoying it more. The companions also bring a little more strategy to the game.
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Thanks for the info. I’ll definitely stick with it for a while yet, not going to throw in the towel just yet. I noticed a lot of empty spots for the action keys, so I assumed there will be more in the way of combat than just the hack and slash that you start with. I’m just a little unfamiliar with this style of game play with the exception of Dragon Age Origins which handled it a little differently. I’m still pretty unfamiliar with most of the MMO lingo but I was looking at developing my character as more of a tank. I’m going to try and play this mostly as a single player experience so I want my character to be quite a high damage dealer as well. I gave the smuggler a quick go the other day as an experiment but quickly found out that I didn’t enjoy the ranged attacks as much as the melee so I went back to playing with my Sith Warrior.
I found the game a little daunting at first as well. The tutorial system is a bit lacking (the messages on the side of the screen are okay but not quite enough), I found I would run off in the wrong direction easily and get lost. Especially since I’m a total MMO noob, I was struggling with what was an information overload on my screen. I’m starting to understand more and more of it with each play, but I think a slightly better tut for total beginners like me might have elevated a lot of pain.

One thing I’m not understanding is when I have to make some moral choice I then get either a blue or red have with what I assume is points I earn displaying on screen. I’ve gotten one blue one but lots of red ones. I’m not sure if it’s my characters alignment (like in Mass Effect) or if it’s penalizing me for a wrong choice. I’m choosing to be ruthless so I hope it’s more of an alignment thing.

Bram Turismo
You guys should read all the utter disappointment which taints the entirety of the SWTOR forums :lol:
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I think anything with Star Wars attached to it will garner additional criticism above and beyond the normal. SW fans are a special bread, I should know, I’m one. That said, and I know I’ll probably cop a lot of criticism for it, but I quite like all the clone wars stuff and the newer movies. I grew up with the original series as a child and loved it, but I really enjoy some of the stuff they have done with it since. Sure I’d like nothing more than to see Jar Jar Binks cop a pick axe to the eye, but the rest was light hearted entertainment in the theme of SW. A lot of fans will call themselves purists etc and feel the need to criticize George Lucas for what his’ done to the franchise, but most people seem to forget that it’s his creation to begin with and if he wants to, he can do whatever the hell he wants with it. Anyway I stray a bit off topic there. This game was always going to be looked at in a highly critical manner, it’s also the only real serious contender to the WOW. I know there are some massive MMO’s out there, but this is probably the biggest threat to WOW’s dominance over the genre adding further reason for people to nit pick.
 
I wouldn't go by the SWTOR forums, they have a fairly small (in the grand scheme) vocal minority who have been disapointed with the game long since before they got to play it, also take into account that everybody with a forum account has already been invited to to test the beta, which has been ongoing for over a year, compare it to the GT5 forums, full of people complaining, especially around patch launch times. In the game i've only seen people who say things in general chat like "this game is awesome".


It is a lot like wow, yet it is much worse and better at the same time. I'l try to explain why.


SWTOR is all about storyline, voice acting and a story driven journey, bolted onto an MMO game system, heavily based on that of WoW. The problem with SWTOR is that outside of this storyline it is actually more outdated than the 7 year old (but much updated) WoW.

SWTOR combat system is good, but I wouldn't say it is as smooth as WoW, think of it as a tweaked copy of that of wow. The higher the level you get the better the SWTOR combat becomes, you will have a fairly large list of abilities on different cooldowns and using it effectively is down to how and when you use different abilities (much like wow, but with more complexity). When you get further up the talent tree of your choice, it will really start to make sense, and your talents really improve how effective you can play, I personally do like it now, much more than I did at lower level.

The UI in SWTOR is definitely worse than WoW and it becomes limiting once you get a lot of abiltiies, it also lacks addon support and macros (that wow has) which further restricts you. The game also doesn't come with a combat log, something that is key to the competitive pve play and many addons in WoW. Outside of that, the game has a very limited (and buggy) guild system, no ingame achievements system, for doing dungeons there is a group finding system but one that is similar to the version that WoW had dumped over 2 years ago. PvP wise, the game lacks any high level ranking or progression structure (WoW has a rated arena and rated battleground system).



In short, SWTOR is a great storymode RPG game built on a game engine/system that is more comparable to WoW a few years ago, so it is out of date. People coming from playing wow will be thinking "where is this feature" "why can't I do this" "why is this not working properly" and everything inbetween. All of these things can be added in and changed, but when this game is already launching on the backfoot, Bioware has a lot of work to do (and not a lot of time) to get the games basic infrastructures and functionality up to the level of WoW.


One of the arguements is that wow has had 7 years to develop to what it was, but if you look at competitors Rift (the current 2nd in the market). Rift released a year ago with it also being a copy of wow on a game system/engine level but it featured everything and even improved apon many of those things, while as a game Rift wasnt that great (certaintly not compared to SWTOR or WoW) its game systems and infrastructures were well polished, on release.


I've played it to level 33 with a Jedi Knight so far (and to 26 with a Sith Warrior on beta) and I really like the game, but for it to survive on an endgame level (rather than you just playing the storyline and putting it down, like a single player RPG) it is going to need to be able to atleast compete with what World of Warcraft can do.
 
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I found the game a little daunting at first as well. The tutorial system is a bit lacking (the messages on the side of the screen are okay but not quite enough), I found I would run off in the wrong direction easily and get lost. Especially since I’m a total MMO noob, I was struggling with what was an information overload on my screen. I’m starting to understand more and more of it with each play, but I think a slightly better tut for total beginners like me might have elevated a lot of pain.

One thing I’m not understanding is when I have to make some moral choice I then get either a blue or red have with what I assume is points I earn displaying on screen. I’ve gotten one blue one but lots of red ones. I’m not sure if it’s my characters alignment (like in Mass Effect) or if it’s penalizing me for a wrong choice. I’m choosing to be ruthless so I hope it’s more of an alignment thing.
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Just keep bringing up the map a lot! Also if you feel like you have too much going on at once you can bring up the mission log with and turn off the tracking for the quests that you aren't currently focusing on. Might help, might not. In general the interface could use a little work, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. If you do the Juggernaut tank spec (Immortal skill tree as your primary) you wont do the most damage but you'll be able to take a beating.

As for the choices - the white/blue one is telling you that you'll get light side points (for being good) and the red triangle is for dark side points (for doing the evil selfish stuff). Your light or dark level will determine some of the gear available to you throughout the course of the game, and the decisions themselves often affect your relationship with whichever companion you have with you.
 
Wow I didn't know this thread existed till I randomly saw it pop back up here. That's great there's a few players in here.

I'm sort of a MMO newb myself in that I haven't played one seriously since SWG for a year after it launched (quit for good after the NGE). I had some friends at work that really got into Rift so I sort of followed them into it and they showed me the ropes of good PVP'ing. Then they got all excited about SWTOR with me after their guild decided they were going in full force.

I got to play a couple beta-weekends last month so I could get my bearings in order a bit before early-access.
So now I've been playing it for a couple days and started as a Sith Warrior (did Bounty Hunter on beta) and it's a ton of fun. I'm going all dark points through my story.

I'm only level 12 atm, but after reading dch's post it seems like I'm crawling at a slow pace so I was wondering if you had any tips as to how to best get leveled up. I just got to planet Kass after picking Marauder since I know I'm not ready for tanking.

btw I'm on Jung Ma.

Cheers guys, hope to maybe see one of you online at some point.
 
I think if i remember right, the marauder is the class mirror of the jedi sentinel (dual wielding lightsabers), and does not have a tanking spec, it's a pure damage class. The Juggernaught (sith) and Guardian (Jedi) are the tanking classes.

I'm not sure about tips, a few people mentioned that doing the space battles is good for fast leveling, others have found that PvP is good for it. Personally i've just been powering through the storyline quests and leveling my crew skills (artifice for me) to help keep my gear up to date.

Its likely that we all chose different servers, I'm playing on Chuundar EU (PVP) server, currently we are limited to playing with only the people on our servers.
 
Yeah but there's nothing stopping us from making alternates on one chosen server.

but thanks for the tip. I'll see what I can do once I'm able to launch into space.

And yeah Marauder is a dual wielder so, DPS all the way.

I've yet to try PVP but will soon.

Cheers
 
Looking at purchasing this today but I need to know whether the game has options for your character to be a craftsmen/trader/doctor etc. Can you also still build houses and have storefronts to sell items?
 
You have crew trade skills, where you can have 1 crafting skill and 2 gathering type skills where your companions will do the work (though you can gather out in the world too) that you give them. As for selling items you do that via the auction house system.

Should be noted that this game has nothing to do with the Star Wars Galaxies game, and is developed by different people. It is heavily based on the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games and feels a lot like those, while being bolted onto a World of Warcraft style mmo game engine.

In other words, its nothing like Star Wars Galaxies.
 
That's a shame because I loved Star Wars Galaxies until I came back to it after the combat upgrade. From what I'm reading on the official forums it seems like there isn't much community/role playing going on. Because it's story driven people seem to be talking as if you should replay with another class once you hit level 50.

The thing I loved about Galaxies was the complex skills system and just being part of the galaxy. This seems to be Knight of the Old Republic in a MMO disguise.
 
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Mark T
This seemss to be Knight of the Old Republic in a MMO disguise.
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Thats exactly what it is, what it was always meant to be. Personally I like it a lot! Most of the people who are in the game rather than on the forums do too! Galaxies was more of a sandbox type game, and was not largely successful, probably why for this next Star Wars MMO they have gone down the more mass market friendly theme park model that World of Warcraft perfected.

Though I'd say there is a lot of work to be done before it has the functional quality of WoW.
 
Bigbazz
Thats exactly what it is, what it was always meant to be. Personally I like it a lot! Most of the people who are in the game rather than on the forums do too! Galaxies was more of a sandbox type game, and was not largely successful, probably why for this next Star Wars MMO they have gone down the more mass market friendly theme park model that World of Warcraft perfected.

Though I'd say there is a lot of work to be done before it has the functional quality of WoW.
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I'm definitely a sandbox style gamer and I'm disappointed they haven't managed to combine the sandbox and theme park style.

I'm still really tempted to buy the game but I hate the thought of there being an "end" to the storyline. I know there'll be expansions and I'm sure there's plenty of sidequests and dungeons. I used to enjoy the town areas of SWG with people gathering to sell and organise hunts.
 
Just bought this game. Let's see if it runs as smoothly or smoother than the Beta..
 
Saw this video highlighting the state of Ilum PvP after last night's 1.1 update:


Not a good look for BioWare :irked:
 
:ouch: Although I have to admit I kind of chuckled when I saw that clip earlier today. Mind you I'm yet to venture into PVP.
 
Been playing for a few weeks now. Currently sitting at a Level 31 Sentinel Jedi Knight.

Server Name: Empress Teta
Character Name: Clavinos

If my chance you are on the same PVE server, add me up...would love to hit some Flash Point missions with fellow GTP'ers.

I find this game highly addictive. I even find that I forget how bad the graphics actually are and even more surprisingly, find myself saying, "Wow, that looks cool". The scale of the game adds to this.
 
Pako
I find this game highly addictive. I even find that I forget how bad the graphics actually are and even more surprisingly, find myself saying, "Wow, that looks cool". The scale of the game adds to this.
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Well, yeah, it's a BioWare game. There are one of the few companies that only makes really awesome games. They all kinda feel the same and some, like the Star Wars games and Mass Effect share a lot of the same elements, they're all freakin' awesome. Playing through their library feels more like playing through an MMO than different games, which is actually really nice, because you pretty much know what to expect when it comes to a BioWare game.
 
This game will be going free to play, meaning you can play a majority of the game without paying the subscription. Might be worth giving it a try again, I enjoyed it for the short time I played it leveling a Jedi Knight Sentinel to 50, but didnt continue further.


Announcing a Free-to-Play Option

I want to reach out today to share my thoughts on our recent announcement to expand our game to offer a Free-To-Play option this fall. I’d like to give you some insights into why we made this decision, how it benefits you and how enthusiastic our team is about this new direction.

Since launch, our team has spent a lot of time trying to find new ways to be able to bring the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ experience to as many potential players as possible. We quickly became aware that our subscription only model was a major barrier for a lot people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic universe. In fact, many players who have left the game said they would happily come back if they could play without the commitment of a monthly fee.

We feel that flexibility and choice in playing our game is important for all current and future players. For that reason, we began the exploration of expanding the game to include a Free-to-Play option.

Starting this Fall, there will be two ways to enjoy the game. First, you can continue as a subscriber, which gives you unlimited access to all game features and future Game Updates at no additional charge. Second, you have the option to play free to Level 50, with game play restrictions that limit game options and access to certain game content. Our goal is to ensure that our current players continue to receive the AAA content they are used to and enjoy the new rewards. To that end, I am proud to say that we have a lot of great new content coming your way, and that it will be coming more frequently. We have a great lineup in development including: a new Operation, Terror From Beyond, a new heroic mission series on the planet of Belsavis; a set of level 50 space combat missions for those looking for the ultimate challenge mode; introduction of a dangerous new Companion to accompany you; and for our PvP fans, a new warzone, Ancient Hypergate!

Starting today, you’ll be earning rewards as part of our new rewards program, making your current subscription more valuable than ever. Current and lapsed subscribers will earn 150 Cartel Coins for every paid month prior to today (July 31, 2012) and then 200 Cartel points from August 1st until the Free-to-Play option launches. For those who purchased the Collector’s Edition, we have an additional bonus reward of 1000 Cartel Coins for you. With Cartel Coins you can purchase convenience items, boosts, visually unique gear, collectibles, and more. The new Cartel Market gives you the option to add to your game play experience with items that fit your play style and allow you to customize your character.

Our team is extremely excited about this new plan. We are working hard and having a lot of fun preparing new content and items for the game. We believe that this is the right direction for our game – more choices, more options and more ways to customize your play experience to suit your play-style. We want to be able to keep our fans excited, engaged and having fun every time you login. We look forward to hearing your thoughts, suggestions and feedback.

Thanks for your support over the last seven months. We have the best fans in the business!

May the Force be With You.

Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer – Star Wars™: The Old Republic™
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This game is so addictive. I am not an MMO person and rarely an RPG person, in fact KOTOR is one of the only RPG's I actually played. But this game is just so much fun and icnredibly immersive.
 
So, anybody still playing this? I recently acquired it and man, does it absorb a lot of time, and I haven't even done anything remotely social/multiplayer yet. :lol:
 
NLxAROSA
So, anybody still playing this? I recently acquired it and man, does it absorb a lot of time, and I haven't even done anything remotely social/multiplayer yet. :lol:
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Not any more unfortunately. The story was fantastic but the grind in this game really killed me in the end. I couldn't see through a single character story line till the end due to it. How are the servers? Are they busy now that it's free to play?
 
F2P is so restrictive it might as well not even exist, so I don't think the servers are any busier than they were before. Servers were consolidated a long while ago to manage server populations - the US region has eight servers total (down from 40-odd), EU nine and Oceania still has the three it launched with.

I reactivated my (paid) sub a few days ago, planning on playing it for a bit again across the Christmas holiday period - last played pretty much exactly six months ago so I have a lot of catching up on class rebalancing/new & removed game features etc to do!
 
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Not any more unfortunately. The story was fantastic but the grind in this game really killed me in the end. I couldn't see through a single character story line till the end due to it. How are the servers? Are they busy now that it's free to play?
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Like mentioned above, they cut down the number of servers. Instances appear to be filled most of the time. So far, I haven't done any grinding at all, but then again, I'm only level 19 or so. :D

Anyway, been playing it for the last couple of days and I think it's awesome. 👍 I did the first two planets (one completely and the other 90% or so), and damn', was I surprised to find a whole universe after that! :D
 
NLxAROSA
Like mentioned above, they cut down the number of servers. Instances appear to be filled most of the time. So far, I haven't done any grinding at all, but then again, I'm only level 19 or so. :D

Anyway, been playing it for the last couple of days and I think it's awesome. 👍 I did the first two planets (one completely and the other 90% or so), and damn', was I surprised to find a whole universe after that! :D
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Yep it is good fun for something different. I,ve been a fan as long as I can remember:guilty::dopey:
 

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