Star Wars: The Old Republic (MMO)

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Nixl

Edit: @Keroko, meant to ask what class did you pick?

Everything? Currently my mains are a juggernaut and an operative, but being the alt-hopping scavenger that I am I also have a knight, inquisitor, smuggler, sage, trooper and a mercenary.

None of 'em higher than 15. My mains are around 30-ish.

[Nixl]

Originally Posted by MeisterBabylon

I'd be back in SWTOR for good once it matures.

I would tend to agree with you, but ever since yesterday I am actually worried for TOR. I literally thought TOR would be fine until yesterday. Simply put, I do not think Bioware's mentality is healthy for the game at the moment. If 1.1 is Bioware's standard procedure I do think TOR will be a short venture. I know that sounds grim if not grasping at straws, but I think 1.1 was far from successful and furthermore Bioware's response created a distrust in their ability to manage TOR. From now on I think Bioware will be under an even greater degree of scrutiny for any mistake just because of this one bad response. They need to focus on making sure the content works, especially before trying to add even more untested instances and mechanics.

edit: Keroko, which story do you like the most so far? the least?

[Simonsy]

Originally Posted by Nixl

I have been following the graphs too, the way they explained the data seems valid. Although we will not truly know until Wednesday/Thursday when the free month it up. Based on sales, TOR did well, but I do not know if it did as well as intended. I know BW said they would be profitable at 500k, but I feel that they would suffer a backlash from EA, even if the backlash is unwarranted. Hard to tell.

Well, I was going to hold off until tomorrow, but I do want to know how many of you are 50 yet? The reason I ask is that I wanted to know what you think about the story of TOR.

Essentially, what would you have done different if you were a writer (if anything)?

For instance, I feel that Bioware could have taken their dialogue wheel/choices to the next step with a faction system. Take WoW: Burning Crusade with the Aldor and Scryers faction that you built reputation with. I think such a reputation/faction system would have fit TOR perfectly. I mean, you already have a choice system and you have at least companion reputation gain. It you want to give players choices, let them choose to controls a sector or the council, etc. As it stands you cannot seem to change the political situation at all. If not now, I think that is a feature that Bioware should look into for future expansions.

Another thought is that rather than do 8 mini-stories that branch in, I think BW should have started starting at a singular point that branched out, so that your character is undeniably linked to the war. For example, I think they could have started at the battle of Alderan with which Malgus and Shan faced off in that cinematic. The text prologue could say that as Republic you were a refugee from Alderan whereas with the Empire you could have been a slave taken by Malgus. This may seems trivial, but I think they could have done more to make your character feel like the second generation of Republic/Empire to be dragged into the war.

Edit: I just found an article that *speculates* that EA has invested close to $500 million into TOR.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ele...7?pagenumber=2
http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/1064...n-dollars.html

Again it is speculation, but this sounds a tad bit more plausible coming from the Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co compared to EA Louse (who claimed $300 million). I know Reid has denied this figure, but as with anyone spokesmen they spin news, we will probably never know. Ultimately, it could be $500 million in total, but spread out between marketing, production, and setting up the physical location of the Bioware studio. I do remember a news story stating that EA set up a new studio location just for TOR. If EA did open a new location, a new studio with new equipment and new offices to rent could add up easily over time.

Nonetheless, whether TOR actual costs range from $80 to $500 million, it seems like an expensive venture.

Here is what I would have wished. You can change sides. Have that light dark actually do something besides be able to equip different gear. Have at the start be the same as it is now, but for example lets say you start out as a sith. If you stay on the dark side the quests remain the same as they are now, BUT if you start going light side then slowly less and less imperial quests are available and slowly more and more rebel quests are available. THEN at max light side you then are considered a full rebellion. Vise versa for the other side, as you gain dark points you slowly turn to the imperials.

Now the question would be on skills. How does a sith sorcerer be a rebellion and a jedi sage be an imperial. Do they get to share skills or at some point do you just have to respec as a sage or sorcerer. Ditto on other classes.

I SAY NO. Let a sorcerer keep his lightning, BUT once he reaches a certain point he can no longer learn new dark side powers and only learn light side. Thus he could have say half lightning, half whatever sages do. Like in the skill tree it looks like the sorcerer skill tree up until he switches sides, then all skills he has not learnt yet switch to how they look on the sage's tree. He keeps his old, but can only learn the new sage things. The skills still work together for both. The opposite moves on each side even though different names and animations still get same bonusses from each other thus its not a handicap.

As it is right now i find it dumb. I mean you can be the meanest most evil rebellion jedi in the universe and on one seems to care, they still just give you new missions. They should be lie "woah this guy is evil, he is sith" Ditto on other side, you saving everyone and walking grannies across teh stree will not sit well with the sith, they would disown you and try to kill you.

SWG did th game pretty well imo, back when it started. You got to chose which side you wanted and drop it and choose another at will. while thats not perfect, i would prefer if this light/dark scenerio i stated above worked out, its still something. I also liked how you could chose your fighting style more. Now its soo stuck on using a certain weapon. Why as a BH am i restricted to using a pistol. Why can't i use a blaster rifle if i want, or a sniper, or a vibrostaff, or any other weapon i want to specialize in.

But as for the skill tree, something like this. A sorcerer initially gets like 10 skills as a sith, then it switches over to sage and avaiable skills now are related to that tree.

[Nixl]

I think we can agree that a choice system without impact or consequences defeats the purpose. Or at least Bioware could take it farther.

I am not sure I would have the ability to change between Jedi and Sith, though it does kind of fit (Fall to the darkside/redemption) in Star Wars in that regard. Although, the Jedi council in Kotor 1/2 did have some rather nasty members. Letting the Mandalorians slaughter trillions because it wasn't their problem yet seemed pretty mean to me. That and, wanting to cut the Exile from the force just to protect their powers seemed far from patience and understanding.

[Simonsy]

Well haven't played much since the 1.1 update only was on and in my ship or the fleet doing crew skill stuff. BUT since the update when I'm at the fleet sometimes it will randomly go to the loading screen for a few seconds. Quite annoying.

Is this happening to anyone else. Never had this happen before.

[Simonsy]

Originally Posted by Nixl

I think we can agree that a choice system without impact or consequences defeats the purpose.

I am not sure I would have the ability to change between Jedi and Sith, though it does kind of fit (Fall to the darkside/redemption) in Star Wars. Although, the Jedi council in Kotor 1/2 did have some rather nasty members.

Well I'm sure it could be worked out good somehow for skills. i mean hell we saw in movies that even yoda could handle lightning so its not far fetched for a light side to have that ability.

BUT like you said the choice system is pointless right now. If you could switch like I said it would create a crap load of new gameplay stories for people. Each person would change at different times, they could do the entire story as light side and get to lvl 50 before going dark, or they could get switched over as soon as lvl 10. And anywhere in between. each persons story would be different then, each could have done so much light and so much dark. You try and compare stories and some be like, what i never did that, ect.

THEN COMPANIONS. Dependingo n when you switch as well you could get different companions. You may have the first 3 rebel companions, but last 2 are imperial ones.

Just feels like it would be nice to not have every counsiler do the exact same storyline and have the exact same companions regardless of how they chose their decisions in the game.

[Kyral]

Originally Posted by Nixl

the Exile

You mean Meetra Surik? xD
Glad I never read the book... but I liked Revan in game, was nice talking to him before we crossed blades and you can even argue if he is dead or not.

Originally Posted by MeisterBabylon

Wow takes priority simply because I've been playing it longer, have so much going for me, AND unlike them hater-players I do like the game.

You know, WoW is a good game no doubt. Wouldn't have spend years on it if it wasn't.
But sadly it offers me nothing anymore, with Deathwing the last old WarCraft character I liked died.
Now there there are non left I care about (except my own). The WarCraft Universe feels empty now.

Originally Posted by Simonsy

You may have the first 3 republic companions, but last 2 are imperial ones.

Fix'd that for you. :3

[Kyero Fox]

^not to mention their pulling out pandarans from the joke box and making them real.

[Nixl]

Surprisingly, if I still played WoW, I would okay with Pandarens. I still remember Chen Stormstout the Brewmaster from TFT, which was fun to use. Compared to say Gnomes, Draeni, and Worgen, Pandaren seemed like a better choice. Then again, the races matter little compared to the gameplay. If the Mists of Pandaria actually has good gameplay then the amount of furry races they continue to add seems irrelevant.

Edit: As of right now forum posting is disabled on the TOR forum.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...46#edit1866046

Well that makes no sense to me.

[Kyero Fox]

Makes plenty of sense to me, their aware of the loads of trolls on gamefaqs, so they don't want douche people spamming the forums with "Lol i Unsubbed dur herp"

[Nixl]

Perhaps, but there was the forum feedback on Ilum that being were voicing out on. Furthermore, 1.1 had a lot of bugs and issues being compiled and so this seems like a delay on cataloging future fixes.

The forum may be a cesspool, but it is also an invaluable tool for feedback and finding glitches. Additionally, I still think Bioware may need to mend the fence so to speak with their reply from yesterday.

Edit: I am beating around the bush Kyero Fox, I am internet forum couch potato and so this effects my internet slouching.

[Kyral]

Then this was really temporarily.
I just posted and people are doing what they were doing.

[Nixl]

Oh good, I was about to do something productive. Back to slouching.

[Kyral]

You'r welcome :3

But it seems they patched it finally.
Let's see what it did.

[Nixl]

Hmm, it seemed like it set the Imperial players back a little distance wise from Republic areas, but that seems to only delay the inevitable due to the faction imbalance. Overall, I do not know if they kept the bonus valor for captured/completed objectives. If they did keep captured objectives that award bonus valor, it seems like a flawed decision in the face of faction imbalance. Consider bigger side has more people to zerg locations and thus more easily and consistently dominate the bonus valor. In turn that leads to Imperials receiving better gear at a faster rate, thus putting them ahead in gear as well as a numeric advantage.

Ilum probably would be a great idea if TOR had 50/50 faction divide. I do not know how to solve that. That throws a lot of potentially interesting world PVP objectives to the side.

[Tenchi Hou Take]

Originally Posted by Nixl

Hmm, it seemed like it set the Imperial players back a little distance wise from Republic areas, but that seems to only delay the inevitable due to the faction imbalance. Overall, I do not know if they kept the bonus valor for captured/completed objectives. If they did keep captured objectives that award bonus valor, it seems like a flawed decision in the face of faction imbalance. Consider bigger side has more people to zerg locations and thus more easily and consistently dominate the bonus valor. In turn that leads to Imperials receiving better gear at a faster rate, thus putting them ahead in gear as well as a numeric advantage.

Ilum probably would be a great idea if TOR had 50/50 faction divide. I do not know how to solve that. That throws a lot of potentially interesting world PVP objectives to the side.

They just need a system that buffs the weaker side. e.g if your faction is outnumber two to one all your stats are doubled. Of course it's not nearly as simple as that but that's the concept that needs to be applied.

[Nixl]

Like the tenacity buff in Warcraft? Interesting, that could work. Although, is Ilum comparable to Wintergrasp? I really know nothing of Ilum's layout and whether it is instanced or not.

One thing I have heard is that there are turrets for defense, but you can be stunned in the turret and as a result knocked out of the turret. That seems like it needs looking into to.

[JagdPanther]

I'm now suddenly extremely glad that I canceled my pre-order at the 11th hour.

[Skane]

If Wintergrasp is any indication, you can buff the "Spartan" side up the wazoo till they have Raid-Boss stats, and they will STILL fall to the "Persian" side simply due to sheer raw numbers (also, good luck capturing objectives). CC-reduction is meaningless when the enemy side have enough people to literally rotate their stuns every second.

A gated system might be better where if one side starts to outnumber the other side by say... 10 players, the bigger team is locked in until the smaller team gets more members or players drop out of the bigger team.

Cheers.

[Kyero Fox]

New trailer out about some new stuff, Custom UI, more warzones and flashpoints,and.. LEGACY!

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/...s-old-republic