So yea, I received an email this morning from the site, saying I was chosen for a 3 day trial to test it out. Totally stoked! (but could also suck, as Ill have to use the wifes Laptop to play it, which means Im sure Ill want to buy a new PC now) ANYWAYS, just wanted to say HAHA! Also, Ill give my honest opinion of the game, at least what I can see of it anyways. I get to start on the 11 (man that day is just getting better and better) through the 13th.

So a few days from now, youll get a review!

Booo I says! Boooo!

Im honestly really surprised! Ive applied to test more online/MMO games then I have fingers to count And lucky me, I get one that I REALLY want to play

Think this one was a mass invite working up for stress tests.

I got the invite yesterday.



only 41 days from "Official Release"

Which means early access should only be around 36 ish days away.

i give it a couple weeks and it should be open beta or a ton more invites.

I got an invite too! I'm so excited!! And I just can't hide it!!

Jealous...
What casses you gents playing for this then?
You'll have to keep us in the loop.

Ill be doing a Jedi Type from my time playing Galaxies.

i think i was the 5th one on my server to unlocked back when perma death was around.

Then did a 2nd jedi a few months before CU.

I've been in the beta for a little while now, it's defiantly a good game. My recommendation: play the mirror class of what you plan on playing during release.

(For example, if you plan on playing a Jedi Knight, play a Sith Warrior)

Ill most likely be a smuggler. I mean, Id be playing a counts as Hans Solo here!

KingCracker wrote:Ill most likely be a smuggler. I mean, Id be playing a counts as Hans Solo here!

If you want to play a smuggler on release, play an Imperial Agent.

Story line and all that.

Shrike325 wrote:My recommendation: play the mirror class of what you plan on playing during release.

(For example, if you plan on playing a Jedi Knight, play a Sith Warrior)

Good advice. I was actually kind of concered about getting into the beta (still no invite) and ruining some of the newness of it when the game is released.

Shrike325 wrote:

KingCracker wrote:Ill most likely be a smuggler. I mean, Id be playing a counts as Hans Solo here!

If you want to play a smuggler on release, play an Imperial Agent.

Story line and all that.

Whats so good about the story line for the Imperial Agent? Can they dual wield? Not that that matters, as Ill only have a couple days to have at it

That is one beta I hope NOT to get invited to. I'd play it up like there was no tomorrow and totally spoil my release gaming...My mind is weak :(

KingCracker wrote:

Shrike325 wrote:

KingCracker wrote:Ill most likely be a smuggler. I mean, Id be playing a counts as Hans Solo here!

If you want to play a smuggler on release, play an Imperial Agent.

Story line and all that.

Whats so good about the story line for the Imperial Agent? Can they dual wield? Not that that matters, as Ill only have a couple days to have at it

I think the idea is to play the mirror so you get a feel for the play style (though not 100% mirrors of course, so it won't be exactly the same) of the job you want without ruining the story line so when you play your main you wont be doing redundant cutscenes.

Am I the only one whose interest in this game has disappeared?

Ahtman wrote:

KingCracker wrote:

Shrike325 wrote:

KingCracker wrote:Ill most likely be a smuggler. I mean, Id be playing a counts as Hans Solo here!

If you want to play a smuggler on release, play an Imperial Agent.

Story line and all that.

Whats so good about the story line for the Imperial Agent? Can they dual wield? Not that that matters, as Ill only have a couple days to have at it

I think the idea is to play the mirror so you get a feel for the play style (though not 100% mirrors of course, so it won't be exactly the same) of the job you want without ruining the story line so when you play your main you wont be doing redundant cutscenes.

That is exactly the idea. If you are thinking to yourself "Man, I really want to play a Smuggler" then you should play an Imperial Agent during beta. This way, you can determine if you enjoy the play style of the class without "ruining" your main story.

Platuan4th wrote:Am I the only one whose interest in this game has disappeared?

Probably not; many people don't like fun games.

KingCracker wrote:So yea, I received an email this morning from the site, saying I was chosen for a 3 day trial to test it out. Totally stoked! (but could also suck, as Ill have to use the wifes Laptop to play it, which means Im sure Ill want to buy a new PC now) ANYWAYS, just wanted to say HAHA! Also, Ill give my honest opinion of the game, at least what I can see of it anyways. I get to start on the 11 (man that day is just getting better and better) through the 13th.

So a few days from now, youll get a review!

Sweet


I'm in this weekend as well, send me a PM if you want a party member

Ahtman wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:Am I the only one whose interest in this game has disappeared?

Probably not; many people don't like fun games.

Spoiler:

Just kidding

INTERNET RAEEEEG!

Shrike325 wrote:

Ahtman wrote:

KingCracker wrote:

Shrike325 wrote:

KingCracker wrote:Ill most likely be a smuggler. I mean, Id be playing a counts as Hans Solo here!

If you want to play a smuggler on release, play an Imperial Agent.

Story line and all that.

Whats so good about the story line for the Imperial Agent? Can they dual wield? Not that that matters, as Ill only have a couple days to have at it

I think the idea is to play the mirror so you get a feel for the play style (though not 100% mirrors of course, so it won't be exactly the same) of the job you want without ruining the story line so when you play your main you wont be doing redundant cutscenes.

That is exactly the idea. If you are thinking to yourself "Man, I really want to play a Smuggler" then you should play an Imperial Agent during beta. This way, you can determine if you enjoy the play style of the class without "ruining" your main story.

Ahh that makes sense actually. I just might do that then. That or a trooper. Decisions lol

Ma55ter_fett wrote:

KingCracker wrote:So yea, I received an email this morning from the site, saying I was chosen for a 3 day trial to test it out. Totally stoked! (but could also suck, as Ill have to use the wifes Laptop to play it, which means Im sure Ill want to buy a new PC now) ANYWAYS, just wanted to say HAHA! Also, Ill give my honest opinion of the game, at least what I can see of it anyways. I get to start on the 11 (man that day is just getting better and better) through the 13th.

So a few days from now, youll get a review!

Sweet


I'm in this weekend as well, send me a PM if you want a party member

I will then

If i get it i'll play a Sith Agent/Republic Trooper...
No lightsabers for me.

KingCracker wrote:So yea, I received an email this morning from the site, saying I was chosen for a 3 day trial to test it out. Totally stoked! (but could also suck, as Ill have to use the wifes Laptop to play it, which means Im sure Ill want to buy a new PC now) ANYWAYS, just wanted to say HAHA! Also, Ill give my honest opinion of the game, at least what I can see of it anyways. I get to start on the 11 (man that day is just getting better and better) through the 13th.

So a few days from now, youll get a review!

Yeah, they are inviting for the weekend betas now. They should have one every weekend for now. Just a heads up, the NDA is still up. So a good and proper review is against that. Only the Press NDA was lifted, or that was the last I heard.

Also, you guys have your own weekend servers, you don't get to play with us full time beta testers :(

Oh, also. Just a tip, if you are wanting to play, say, a Republic Trooper as your main at release, you should play the Bounty Hunter instead. So you do not spoil the story for the class.

I don't know if story spoilage is a real issue, arn't their choices and stuff?.

Unless you are suggesting that the game has zero replayability?


Maybe play through as an evil mofo on the beta and play as a good guy for realz.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:I don't know if story spoilage is a real issue, arn't their choices and stuff?.

Unless you are suggesting that the game has zero replayability?


Maybe play through as an evil mofo on the beta and play as a good guy for realz.

How many times are you going to restart playing the same job in an MMO to see every possible outcome from any cutscene? Do you really want to take a Jedi all the way through to endgame content multiple times just for cutscene variations?

Ahtman wrote:

Ma55ter_fett wrote:I don't know if story spoilage is a real issue, arn't their choices and stuff?.

Unless you are suggesting that the game has zero replayability?


Maybe play through as an evil mofo on the beta and play as a good guy for realz.

How many times are you going to restart playing the same job in an MMO to see every possible outcome from any cutscene? Do you really want to take a Jedi all the way through to endgame content multiple times just for cutscene variations?

So you only played kotor once then? (assumeing you played it at all?)

You realize there is a difference between a single player RPG and an MMORPG right? This is the latter, not the former.

And yes, I played KoToR.

Ahtman wrote:You realize there is a difference between a single player RPG and an MMORPG right? This is the latter, not the former.

And yes, I played KoToR.

Different philosophies I suppose.

I personally will welcome the freedom to dick around with the morality system. Knowing that nothing I do matters when the game comes out means I can choose the crazier options that I normally wouldn’t.

Plus with only a weekend to play, I don't think I'll get that far in the story.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:

Ahtman wrote:You realize there is a difference between a single player RPG and an MMORPG right? This is the latter, not the former.

And yes, I played KoToR.

Different philosophies I suppose.

Different genres, not philosophies.

Ahtman wrote:

Ma55ter_fett wrote:

Ahtman wrote:You realize there is a difference between a single player RPG and an MMORPG right? This is the latter, not the former.

And yes, I played KoToR.

Different philosophies I suppose.

Different genres, not philosophies.

Oh you

I meant that we evidently have different ways of approaching games.

But since this is being lauded (by the devs) as a new type of mmo which puts story first and foremost and has many game altering choices to make, I assume there will be a fair deal of replay ability even if you play the same class twice.

Sorry if I was less than clear, which evidently I was.

Ahtman wrote: Do you really want to take a Jedi all the way through to endgame content multiple times just for cutscene variations?

Yes, yes I do

I hope my intentions are now clear.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:

Ahtman wrote: Do you really want to take a Jedi all the way through to endgame content multiple times just for cutscene variations?

Yes, yes I do

Well good for you. I didn't state it couldn't be done, just that I think it will be more tedious than I think you are prepared for as there is a difference between an MMO and single player RPG. Play as you like, of course, but they aren't the same game and they don't play the same. In fact I think it would probably burn you out on the game faster and make you dislike it as you will spend all your time in limbo while others move on and do different things. You won't even see the other parts of the story becuase you will only being doing one part of it over and over.

Im going to have what class im playing and everything picked out before.. and farther i can get in beta storyline the better.

I have 8 days off in a row from holidays on release.

I plan on getting high level as i can in these 8 days if possible on my main character.

Wife is due in Jan, so i need to have my main max level so i can do endgame with friends when i have time to play instead of leveling.

Ill go back and play the storylines later on as i get time.

You know beta characters get deleted right? This isn't the head start. If you are just rushing through to see storyline that is fine, but it sounds like you are trying to make your 'main'.

I know beta characters arent kept :p

This is probly my 3rd mmo beta

If i can play the class im doing as a main, i can go through it in beta as i look for bugs and glitches.

Then on Live, i can power through what ive already done and not feel like ive missed much.

Of course.. main goal is to find bugs and such

Anyone having problems downloading this? I have yet to try it out, as its been downloading since probably noon today. I swear it seems like when its done downloading, it just redown loads it or something. Still waiting...............

I got the same mass invite. Don't know if I am going to bother with it, or not.

Well Im going to let it continue for another hour or so and if it starts downloading again, Im going to say feth it and just ignore it. Because this is just stupid

A friend of mine that signed up for the beta on a whim and has no intention of getting the game got into the beta and I am still waiting out here in the cold. So alone...so aloooooooone.

KingCracker wrote:Well Im going to let it continue for another hour or so and if it starts downloading again, Im going to say feth it and just ignore it. Because this is just stupid

Check and see if it is downloading different files. For example "English Assets 1" versus "English Assets 2" as these are main files + patches. Also... this is a 30+ gb game, it's going to take awhile to download.

Oh well maybe thats it then. But uh....if Im allowed only 3 days (half of 1 day wasted to downloading) why the hell would they shoot out the ENTIRE game? Thats annoying right off the bat. Do a WoW thing, and give me a stream lined version, I dont need the whole fething game at once!

So I just got the email that I got invited to a weekend test of the beta.

Did you guys get a code or anything to redeem in the mail, or how do you start the DL or whatever?

I am at work so I haven't tooled around the account/site, but figured if my buddies here already figured it out, I should mooch your knowledge!

May da Schwartz be wit you.

I just recieved that email as well. It doesn't say where to get the beta code or where to download the beta client. I went to the actual website and logged in and there were no messages so i don't really know what to do either at this point.

It had a "More info to come" vibe.

I am wondering if maybe we will get info soon and aren't necessarily in THIS weekend...

Go to your account on the page, go to beta testing, there should be a link to download the client.

Site is down 'for scheduled maintenance'.

Here's a direct link:
http://www.swtor.com/tester

Just a heads up, if you aren't a tester, you can waste your time downloading the client, but you won't get in

Even more direct link:
http://cdn-client.swtor.com/install/Small/SWTOR_setup.exe?downloadKey=1321137588_05d15f04d8fc10468c8258d6bbb2d4a6

Hmm for some reason i can't get on :(

Now I'm getting a 'high volume of traffic' message. I imagine all those people who got emails toady are trying to all go at once. Of course this may be the intention of the test.

I also got the invite. What server are you joining?




On a side note I can not wait to choke the crap out of some people...

Ahtman wrote:Now I'm getting a 'high volume of traffic' message. I imagine all those people who got emails toady are trying to all go at once. Of course this may be the intention of the test.

It is entirely the intention. And on top of that, they are stress testing the servers tonight and have asked all beta participants to log on.

Shrike325 wrote:

Ahtman wrote:Now I'm getting a 'high volume of traffic' message. I imagine all those people who got emails toady are trying to all go at once. Of course this may be the intention of the test.

It is entirely the intention. And on top of that, they are stress testing the servers tonight and have asked all beta participants to log on.

Yeah, I meant to be more specific that it was testing not just the game servers, but also the website for high volume. Hopefully this will make this one of the smoothest MMO launches in some time.

Seems I got the invite as well, going to go double check shortly, if so will leave it downloading overnight, worth a look, Beta might turn me around on it.

Oh my god, this download is fething brutal. So far, Im going to give them a bit of a negative review, at least on this part, because holy mother of GOD! I just want to choke someone in real life right now

I got an email saying I was in but when I log in to the website I get nothing to indicate such an event has occurred.

I wonder if this is another mistake like last time where it mass mailed out invites instead of just to the people supposed to be in the beta.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Apparently there are 2 emails going out. One is telling you that you are in the beta and what to do to get started and the other is essentially a teaser telling you that you will be in the beta. It isn't that clear about it though, so if you got an invite but your account doesn't show beta access, you got the later.

Ok the wife is playing it right now as a bounty hunter and I must say, Im impressed. We turned the graphics down a bit just to keep it running smoothly and the game still looks really good. The intros, are seriously top notch, those were "Impressive.....most impressive" So its still VERY early in the game but I have to say, I cant buy a new PC fast enough. Simply wow.

So cons: The few day demo is WAY to damn big. WoW did do something right with there limited trial thing, that only takes like 5 minutes tops to download. It took half a day to get this done. Sheesh.

Pros: This view is very limited so far, but there is alot of Pros so far. Im really digging the dialect options, and how pretty/massive this game is.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alrighty, I played as the Imperial Agent for a bit. I can tell you, this game will be a great play for sure. Why? Because I have ZERO interest in being an Imperial agent, and for the 2ish hours I played, it was still rather enjoyable. And so far the missions seem to be making sense. And what I mean by that, in WoW, you get alot of "well go out and kill 50 boars and Ill tell you something" and that gets SO boring to me, because it doesnt make sense at all. As the agent, I was getting alot of things like "Well your end mission is *this* but the vital thing was stolen, so you need to get said thing back before we can proceed" And that makes missions more believable to me, NOW I understand why/what I have to do.

So took a break, and later will be trying something I actually WANT to play, and see how it goes. Big Thumbs up in my book. So much so, I might actually try and push to get a new PC at tax time this year. Uhg.....why StarWars....why?!

Sounds good, and yeah, on closer inspection it seem my email was of the latter variety Ahtman.

A email to let me know I will be getting a email to try out the Beta.

I got a beta invite--but am not doing it.

I've found that when I beta test things...I may/may not go slightly overboard during it and burn out any interest I might have.

I have got to say its fething fantastic!


Sure its a 20+GB download. But its all worth it when you realize you don't have to read a thing since its all voice acted!


Anyone that wants to play with me I am on the Shadow Hand server for Light Side.

I am going to pick a server for Dark side in a bit I will edit this post then.

Agreed, the download was pretty huge, and annoyed me greatly, but once I got to play it, I was very glad I stuck with it.

Anyone get to the crafting system yet?

Nope, and I wont have time, tonight is my last night, and Im making dinner (stir fries for everyone!) and hanging with the wife, since she had a double shift today. So basically, rather then enjoying my last bit of time with this game, I just had to get a few hours in earlier, and be happy with that.



But I can say, Bounty Hunters fething OWN! Seriously, Im so inlove with the Bounty hunter class its not even funny. So awesome

I got Sith Inquisitor to 10, Imperial Agent to 11, Bounty Hunter to 10.

So far.. im amazed on how fun Imperial Agent was, i really didnt care about the class till i played it. Now i might keep it as a main.

Well at least we can play next weekend. From what I hear its a stress test every week till launch

Spyder68 wrote:I got Sith Inquisitor to 10, Imperial Agent to 11, Bounty Hunter to 10.

So far.. im amazed on how fun Imperial Agent was, i really didnt care about the class till i played it. Now i might keep it as a main.

I have yet to find a class that I did not enjoy, and that's getting most things to the third planet.

This is also the first MMO i do not want to rush through.

I went through the inquisitor story.

After that i started spamming spacebar through the other classes. I dont want it spoiled for release on my main character.

Id go through it more, but i only got invited for the weekend (stress testing), so could care less.

I'd be very cautious about what you say concerning the game (as far as reviews/previews) because of the NDA. If you ever want to have a shot at future Beta tests, be careful. You've been warned.

(That being said, I'm glad it sounds like a good game!)

Wyte, although there's a NDA, once they start opening things up as much as they do for the weekenders, NDA is basically out the window.

Agreed. Not to mention, pretty much everyone that has posted, has left it pretty vague as far as whats in the game.

Woot! Check your mail guys anyone that tested before should have another invite for the long weekend

Yeah I got in as well, just finished the 20something gigs download. Looking forward to it, it'll be what decides my preorder.

NDA is out btw.

dont forget from what i read.

This weekend is NOT unlimited access.

They are letting so many start testing on Friday, adding more Sat, adding more Sun adding more Mon.

Then its over.


They are simulating pre order logins with this.

But so far once your in your in.

Supposed to be another email coming when you can start.


btw, got to 16 vanguard, 11 shadow, 11 Sage, this week.

So far the game is great.

Downloaded the Beta client a couple of days ago, allowed to play from around 5pm Sat afternoon, looking forward to giving it a go.

Will be interesting, as of right now I am not getting it, not sure it is going to be that different from WoW to warrent a second MMO.
A bit of luck, allowing me to somehow get a Beta invite will allow me to decide if that intial feeling is correct or not.

Eitherway, as with other Beta's I will test as much as I can, report any issues, bugs etc.

Going to have to think on what to try, although I have no real idea what class combos/races are, will be interesting just to get on the creator screen.

Disappointed, I am, this game makes me.

juraigamer wrote:Disappointed, I am, this game makes me.

Because? All the other posters that got to try it a weekend or two ago had positive things to say about it.

I am in the 10am Friday start time and this will be my first chance to try the game.

I've played the beta, I've played all the classes to level 5.

It just feels stale. The combat, the skill usage, the questing, hell even the star wars theme is stale. Personal story doesn't cut it.

Granted, if it lacked a monthly fee, I would be happy playing it. As it stands, this is a game I will completely pass up, which is a shame as it had so much promise.

Level 5 is about 3/4 quests done in the tutorial area, with hordes of new players, competing for spawns etc. Not to mention it's extremely linear and cramped. As an agent I went from 5 to 8 in a group for the heroic area and once I got back to the trainer my number of abilities had doubled. I think if you went a bit further in the game you might get a better view. That's why I am still undecided on the game. I also went the way of multiple classes but then I realised the tutorials were more or less the same and I want to see the actual game beyond the newbie area.

The game runs great (but then again I knew it would, the computer is a beast, 100fps on average with full details, although AA is off) and while completely Wowish the gameplay seems to have a few things added over.

As an example, while running with the group I mentioned we ended up completing the main quest and headed back to turn in. I took down a few stragglers then helped a duo that aggroed 2 packs and fell behind. The rest of the group had returned and talked to the npc. I got a window asking me if I wanted to join the conversation through holocom and when I did I witnessed and participated to the dialogue through a holographic image of myself. The same system is used for most questlines progressing outside of quest hubs. It's nothing new, Wow also allows to go through questlines "in the field" but instead of the questbook just popping in front of you witnessing the actual discussion adds alot to the immersion (to me that is).

Of course this also means that the pace is much slower. These conversations take time (but are simpler than say Mass Effect, I have yet to have more options than the standard Up/Mid/Low answer, no options to try to get more informations on any subjects..Maybe later in the storyline?). I doubt it will be a problem for me, but I guess not everyone is into it (I still rarely if at all skip any parts in Mass Effect 2 despite finishing it 3 or 4 times).

I also like taking on groups of enemies instead of single pickings every time. Combat as an agent took a bit to get used to, the cover mechanic being a bit weird at first. Once I understood that I needed to target the enemy in order to have valid cover positions show up I started rolling from cover to cover unleashing sniper fire and grenades onto anyone foolish enough to stand before our group. Some abilities are usable only when in cover, but if there's none available you can still just crouch wherever you are and use them, you just won't get any defensive bonus against the target.

This went on a bit longer than I first intended, but I'll say one last thing : the atmosphere seemed to me a bit too tame for a galaxy at war. Even as a sith the first few quests I made were pretty basic both in content and feel. Then one of the first secondary quests of the agent ended with me shooting a man in the face at point blank in front of his kid, in order for his mother to ship him off to Korriban to become a sith (or die trying). That wasn't unexpected as the option clearly said "Kill him" but the actual execution was very explicit.

More later after I add a few more hours into my agent

Just as a point of fact:

What we're seeing right now isn't "a galaxy at war". It's "a galaxy at cold war".

The Old Republic novel "Deceived" illustrates this well.

Really enjoyed it, had a strong feel of Mass Effect, for obvious reasons, which is a big positive in my book. The fully voiced quests in the same style as Mass Effect is also a huge boon. (As in you don't just repeat what you are clicking on.)

Quests are fun, and the characterisation from having full dialogue really helps maintain your interest while playing, felt much more like I was playing a single player RPG, with blue names running around on occasion, which was nice. The Individual instancing for quests was a genius move by the way, as it allows you to feel the story is focused on you, and you are not just in a queue behind thirty other fellas waiting to speak to the large Hutt.

Combat seems smooth, and tricks you into thinking there is more going on than repeating the same button clicks, with plenty of attack and parry animations. In General very polished, although that really is something that needs to be the case.

I've seen folks say it again and again with MMO launches, its not fair to comapre it to 7yrs of WoW polish, its only just out, and its never saved any MMO from a bad launch. Nope, its not fair, but thats what's flexing up on the other side of the room, you can either make certain the game is as good as it can be, or hope a few patches will solve your problems quick.

From my brief introduction, if TOR can maintain that level of performance on launch day, and doesn't crash and burn like other high profile launches in reccent years due to horrying bug issues and lag. Then I can see it doing well, its seems if nothing else the launch of WaR has shown EA 'potentially' what not to roll out in the first week.

Hopefully with a Star Wars licence, and a game thats seems polished as this, more folks will come into the MMO genre. The more the merrier, as there is nothing as sad as a empty MMO.

As to me purchasing it, damn now I'm torn. I'd really like to give it a go, but alot will deend on if Aurelia likes it as we tend to play MMO's together. At this moment, I am thinking there is enough in it that I would consider a CE if I was to go in, going to have to have a think over the next few days.

The biggest problem they had for Friday and Saturday early on was that you couldn't Log Out or Exit Game without Alt-F4ing.

That's okay, I wasn't planning on it anyways.

Yea, you cant honestly give an opinion if you only played the classes for such a short time period. The quests get alot better, and the skills multiply fast.

Just in case it was missed, the NDA has been lifted.

With that said:

I'm pretty happy with this game. My Trooper is 20 at this point, and I've been playing the Commando. I'm kinda sad though, as Commando isn't as fun entirely as I had hoped--the Vanguard is a surprise hit for me though.

The Good: Full voice-acting is fantastic. I quite enjoy the fact that Tim Omundson of Psych is the voice for the Trooper's first companion.
The crafting system is pretty nice as you do not actually have to sit down and do it yourself. After I got my ship and my Robobutler, I just send the droid on gathering and crafting missions--no downtime there.
The Space Missions are quite fun. They play very arcadey.
You do very little in the way of autoattacking, which is again awesome.

The Bad: At points, it feels like you're playing a Single Player game with multiplayer options.
FPS can take a major hit in some locales.
Gathering can be very hit or miss. Quite often you'll get a huge excess of stuff that you do not need/want--and very little in terms of the other.

So i have a Level 42 Jedi Shadow, and a Level 42 Jugger.

The Jugger was bugged so i could not load in with him.


Now for the shadow (of course my least favorite class)

I took the time with her and went to see the other planets..

Sooo Wide open.. i went to Hoth, and i loved it at first sight.

With this being stress test weekend. I rolled new characters to play.

I took BH to level 20, and then Jugger to 14

I was thinking, this is going to suck with mass players this weekend, every server setting at full.

But.. i had no issue getting my quests done, i also never once found myself fighting for Mobs to kill.

The only issue i could have seen is Republic Jedi starting zone freeing people from cages could have been a tad cramped.


The Alt-F4 bug to exit came up last week during closed beta. Its not a long standing one, just one that popped up.


I had Zero Lag this weekend on top of it all.


As for crafting/Gathering.

I love it. Having your companions do it for you is good stuff to me.

I cant wait for all 5x Companions, you can send all 5 gathering.

So who else pre-ordered?

The day it came up for preorder.

Now that some personal friends of mine got into this past beta weekend, I'm definitely going to pick it up. They enjoyed it as much as I have been for the duration of the tests and I had even more fun questing around with everyone (as well as seeing the other classes' story missions).

I absolutely love the dialogue options and the way quests can change slightly depending on what you pick and when you're in a group it can be decided by any party member.

Here is my prediction of SW:TOR.

First month out they will see huge numbers of players in the game, so much so they will add additional servers to keep up with the capacity after the servers crash. After a few game play tweaks and bug fix patches, the devs start working overtime to get more content in the game and to squash gold-sellers. Estimated players are 3 - 4 million in US alone.

Second month out 75% of players have hit max lvl on main toon and are working on alts, grinding pvp or finishing mastering the raids. The devs have a massive hiring frenzy to help complete additional content and features. The game gets negative reviews on a few of the hardcore MMO sites, with complaints ranging from "It doesn't feel like Star Wars","Its a WOW clone with spaceships"," This isn't an MMO, Its a co-op with PVP" to other complaints ranting about how it was doomed from the start and EA just wants your money. Estimated players are 5 - 6.5 million world wide with an increase in china due to gold farming.

3 to 4 months out the first "major" patch comes out with some interesting features and new "dungeons". 500k players have left because to them it was an ok game but it really wasn't for them or they've seen or played something to similar to it or just game burn out. EA start to get worried because most of the profits are going to LucasArts and they're just making enough to keep up with the server fees and dev staff support. The hardcore MMO sites start reporting horror stories of awful customer service, accounts getting deleted because they players were mistaken as being bots and or gold farmers, videos detailing bugs that have been in the game since release and youtube rants of people with anger issues just ripping into the game and Star Wars in general. Estimated players are 4.5 to 5.5 million.

6 to 7 months out the "Off The Rails" patch hits, offering players total space freedom to fly around in, servers crash and remain down for 5hrs to 6 days, angering MANY players. Servers are back up but no compensation (free days) is given on order for either EA or LucasArts. 300k to 560k players rage quit, 9.5 out of 10 reviews on MANY gaming websites drop down to 7.5 of 6 due to negative responses from players. Lay-off occur due to cut backs or re-organizing, many sites record this as the beginning of the end for TOR. Estimated players are 3.25 to 4 million

9 to 11 months out EA and/or LucasArts tweak to game a bit to appeal to a broader (younger) audience, alienated the hardcore Star Wars fans and leading to massive rage quits. EA starts to consolidates servers and merge player groups due to costs. Estimated players are 1.5 to 3 million.

14 to 15 months out LucasArts sues EA/Bioware for botching everything up, wins the case and sells the game rights to Activision/Blizzard. Estimated players are 350k to 700k on two of the surviving servers.

24 to 36 months out after some TLC and a few mini expansions the game sees a modest resurgence. Estimated players are 2.5 to 3.75 million and remain stable.

Kanluwen wrote:With that said:

I'm pretty happy with this game. My Trooper is 20 at this point, and I've been playing the Commando. I'm kinda sad though, as Commando isn't as fun entirely as I had hoped--the Vanguard is a surprise hit for me though.

The Good: Full voice-acting is fantastic. I quite enjoy the fact that Tim Omundson of Psych is the voice for the Trooper's first companion.

My desire to get this game just went from a 0 to 9.5 after I read this sentence.

Kanluwen wrote:The day it came up for preorder.

Same

Coolyo294 wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:
I quite enjoy the fact that Tim Omundson of Psych is the voice for the Trooper's first companion.

My desire to get this game just went from a 0 to 9.5 after I read this sentence.

Lassie!

mondo80 wrote:Here is my prediction of SW:TOR.

First month out they will see huge numbers of players in the game, so much so they will add additional servers to keep up with the capacity after the servers crash. After a few game play tweaks and bug fix patches, the devs start working overtime to get more content in the game and to squash gold-sellers. Estimated players are 3 - 4 million in US alone.

Second month out 75% of players have hit max lvl on main toon and are working on alts, grinding pvp or finishing mastering the raids. The devs have a massive hiring frenzy to help complete additional content and features. The game gets negative reviews on a few of the hardcore MMO sites, with complaints ranging from "It doesn't feel like Star Wars","Its a WOW clone with spaceships"," This isn't an MMO, Its a co-op with PVP" to other complaints ranting about how it was doomed from the start and EA just wants your money. Estimated players are 5 - 6.5 million world wide with an increase in china due to gold farming.

3 to 4 months out the first "major" patch comes out with some interesting features and new "dungeons". 500k players have left because to them it was an ok game but it really wasn't for them or they've seen or played something to similar to it or just game burn out. EA start to get worried because most of the profits are going to LucasArts and they're just making enough to keep up with the server fees and dev staff support. The hardcore MMO sites start reporting horror stories of awful customer service, accounts getting deleted because they players were mistaken as being bots and or gold farmers, videos detailing bugs that have been in the game since release and youtube rants of people with anger issues just ripping into the game and Star Wars in general. Estimated players are 4.5 to 5.5 million.

6 to 7 months out the "Off The Rails" patch hits, offering players total space freedom to fly around in, servers crash and remain down for 5hrs to 6 days, angering MANY players. Servers are back up but no compensation (free days) is given on order for either EA or LucasArts. 300k to 560k players rage quit, 9.5 out of 10 reviews on MANY gaming websites drop down to 7.5 of 6 due to negative responses from players. Lay-off occur due to cut backs or re-organizing, many sites record this as the beginning of the end for TOR. Estimated players are 3.25 to 4 million

9 to 11 months out EA and/or LucasArts tweak to game a bit to appeal to a broader (younger) audience, alienated the hardcore Star Wars fans and leading to massive rage quits. EA starts to consolidates servers and merge player groups due to costs. Estimated players are 1.5 to 3 million.

14 to 15 months out LucasArts sues EA/Bioware for botching everything up, wins the case and sells the game rights to Activision/Blizzard. Estimated players are 350k to 700k on two of the surviving servers.

24 to 36 months out after some TLC and a few mini expansions the game sees a modest resurgence. Estimated players are 2.5 to 3.75 million and remain stable.

And where did all this come from?

KingCracker wrote:


And where did all this come from?

He's just guessing. He is describing the same format WoW had in terms of how it has run, the only problem is... TOR is far too over hyped. Too many people will pick it up, just to put it back down. His prediction doesn't even factor in other games that will come out in the future.

TOR is just going to be a stepping stone for mmo players, and the first step on the road to redemption for wow players.

juraigamer wrote:
TOR is just going to be a stepping stone for mmo players, and the first step on the road to redemption for wow players.

I still don't get why some folks hold such a torch for WoW, I mean its not like it came round your house and whizzed all over your cornflakes. I could understand it if you've had something annoying happen, like being banned for no reason, the game blue screened your PC to death, but most of the time it seems to be 'its cool to knock WoW, so I'll join in' with no real rhyme or reason behind it.

If you don't like it I can dig that, but this continued whining and actual hate on how bad it is and how all players must be trapped in limbo having their souls drained away by evil wizards of Blizzard, is getting really old. Time to let it go folks, will keep your blood pressure down. Most folks I know who play have been doing so for thre or four years plus, have all done the year sub deal as they aren't going anywhere and are looking forward to Pandaria.

Not sure why its rubs folks up so bad, but in general I've always lived by the thought if you going to hate something, make sure its actually worth the energy.. I really can't see where folks are coming from, hating a game for being popular.

I like WoW tbh, and occasionally I go back and play for a month here and there. My problems with it are, it gets old, the game itself is REALLY showing its age on many levels, and the community is mostly complete asshats. Id say my personal odds, would be for every 1 good/helpful player, Ill run into 3 total jerk offs. Its a fun game and all sure, but Im looking for that newer looking, newer playing MMO that I can get myself into. Is StarWars that MMO? I dunno, maybe? Not really sure TBH, Ill figure out what that is when I find it though. I REALLY just hope, that when Dark Millennium drops, it doesnt get stale fast, Ill be SO bummed if I get an Ork halfway there, and just want to go play angry birds instead

juraigamer wrote:He's just guessing...[later on]...TOR is just going to be a stepping stone for mmo players, and the first step on the road to redemption for wow players.

There seems to be a lot of guessing going on.

juraigamer wrote:TOR is far too over hyped.

WoW had about the same level of hype leading up to it.

Disclaimer about wow: It's not the game that I hate, it's the majority of it's players and their (plus the games) effect on the mmo market. (creating clones and ignorance)

TOR is going to pull all the bored wow players, the games are far too similar for that not to be the case. TOR is also going to have all the old SW galaxies players and the KOTOR players in addition to that. Just those alone is a massive amount of players. Add to the picture everyone else who is looking for a game, and the fact the game is coming out just before Christmas, and that's a lot of players.

Ok keep with me. Let us say that 2.5 million play the game within the first month. Low ball average here. Removing the average that would be lost for paying to have the discs and whatnot produced, from just these players alone the company would have made 125 million dollars. Their current development cost was listed at above 135 million, so they are still short.

Now considering the average time it takes anyone to play one characters story and reach max level, we can assume 3 months play before people start leaving the game. That's two months of monthly fees, which comes to 75 million. TOR's team has stated that it would take half a million subscribers to keep the game profitable, so keep that in mind.

But why am I saying all this? Simple: to give you the figures so you can understand how much money the game would make from just sales alone, as opposed to monthly fees. Long term, monthly fees will make them more money, but not many are going to really be playing it for more than 3 months based on the information available.

The real reason TOR is going to tank shortly after release is a combination of monthly fees, gameplay, and the fact that it is effective wow with a star wars skin in gameplay. Star wars fans will keep it going longer than anyone else, the KOTOR fans will keep up with it for less time, but the main target audience, the wow crowd, will drop this quickly.

Now if the game didn't have a monthly fee, it would do amazing. Look around, every game that has gone from monthly fee to free to play has made massive profits, and TOR doesn't need to go free to play, they just need to do away with the monthly fee.

But why do they need to do away with the monthly fee? The reason is simple: the game is marketed and shows that you can just play it as a single player mmo (aka KOTOR 3) with the option to play with others. If you have many people playing solo, how long will they stay around? Not much more than 3 months average.

Why do I say 3 months? Because max level is currently 50, and players can reach close to that (level 25-30) in a single weekend of play on one character.

EA is using hype to sell the game, just as they do for the FPS games. No other mmo has been hyped to this magintude to date, not even wow, since the mmo market has grown substantially since wow's release. Using hype to sell a game gives it greater returns in the short run, but not in the long run.

So adding up all the above, I'll go ahead and just stated my educated expectations for TOR: In 4 months time, we will hear about the player count lowering. In 12 months time, an expansion will have come out by then or before this point, but it will only be taking a defibrillator to a dead horse. In 18 months time, we will hear about the game going free to play, and in 24 months time It should achieve that. On month 25-26, news about their amazing profits will emerge, and the game will slowly gain back new and old players from month 24+.

Well now that you put it into detail, I have to say, thats a pretty solid guess, I can get aboard that one. Not to mention, I have started playing the free trial of WoW lately, and my brother and I are getting back in it here shortly Im such a traitor to myself, but I have to say, I havnt played it in a long time, and the changes they made to the game are pretty damn good IMO. So we are thinking, we will get the wives to play along with us, and that gives us 4 right off the bat for dungeons. My brother wants to be a tank, the wife is a hunter fan, his wife will probably be some spell caster, so Ill more then likely play healer. Leaving us with 1 DPS slot to fill, which will be easy peesy.


But thats a different MMO entirely, so Ill stop throwing my own thread OT

How do you figure 3 months and people will quit? I don't necessarily disagree with this, but it seems like a rather random decision. Especially since the story lines are so vastly different for different characters let alone factions.

I'm not sure basing the speed of leveling around poopsockers is the best way to go. I know I won't get anywhere near 25-30 levels in a weekend becuase I don't spend my entire game time just grinding out levels, and I am not the only one.

I also don't think the crossover with Star Wars Galaxies will be all that great as many of the SWG players aren't interested in going from a wide open sandbox game to a theme park style. Certainly there will be some crossover, but the games are radically different. On top of that there is still bitterness over the patch that radically overhauled SWG and killed the fan base.

My buddy was the hugest naysayer about this game, he got into the beta played it and still griped... then he played it more and got his ship. I havent seen him this pleased in a long time with MMO's (he quit WoW in WOTLK when everything went into easy mode).

I guess after you get your ship, the game literally opens up

Ahtman wrote:I'm not sure basing the speed of leveling around poopsockers is the best way to go. I know I won't get anywhere near 25-30 levels in a weekend becuase I don't spend my entire game time just grinding out levels, and I am not the only one.

I also don't think the crossover with Star Wars Galaxies will be all that great as many of the SWG players aren't interested in going from a wide open sandbox game to a theme park style. Certainly there will be some crossover, but the games are radically different. On top of that there is still bitterness over the patch that radically overhauled SWG and killed the fan base.

I read about that in a GameInformer when that happened. I agreed with the outrage. Apparently it used to be pretty lengthy/tough to become a full fledged Jedi for example. And that patch made it pretty damn easy after wards, so the people that actually spent TIME becoming one, basically got the middle finger on that one. And they killed off some really popular classes and all kinds of WTF are you doings?

KingCracker wrote:

Ahtman wrote:I'm not sure basing the speed of leveling around poopsockers is the best way to go. I know I won't get anywhere near 25-30 levels in a weekend becuase I don't spend my entire game time just grinding out levels, and I am not the only one.

I also don't think the crossover with Star Wars Galaxies will be all that great as many of the SWG players aren't interested in going from a wide open sandbox game to a theme park style. Certainly there will be some crossover, but the games are radically different. On top of that there is still bitterness over the patch that radically overhauled SWG and killed the fan base.

I read about that in a GameInformer when that happened. I agreed with the outrage. Apparently it used to be pretty lengthy/tough to become a full fledged Jedi for example. And that patch made it pretty damn easy after wards, so the people that actually spent TIME becoming one, basically got the middle finger on that one. And they killed off some really popular classes and all kinds of WTF are you doings?

That was the FIRST of the terrible overhaul patches. Although, I admit I kind of liked the combat update patch (the one you are referring to). The one that broke the camel's back is the new game experience, where they tried to just turn it into any other MMO.... and failed miserably.

I dont get why MMO companies do things like that. Alienate their fanbase by basically hoeing everyone playing Oh well, lessons learned?

Probably not, it's SoE that screwed all that up. I can't think of a good MMO from them.

Shrike325 wrote:Probably not, it's SoE that screwed all that up. I can't think of a good MMO from them.

EverQuest and its expansions, which pretty much helped define the genre?

But really. The patches for SWG came when the game was already dying, and were in response to fan complaints. It's just a perfect example of the fanbase not liking what they asked for.

Kanluwen wrote:

Shrike325 wrote:Probably not, it's SoE that screwed all that up. I can't think of a good MMO from them.

EverQuest and its expansions, which pretty much helped define the genre?

Derp. I don't know why, but I always forget that EQ was done by SoE.

Maybe because it was actually alright? SoE is where MMOs go to die.

Well, now it is yeah. But that's more because they focus on silly minor aspects rather than the entire game.

SWTOR is not just a stepping stone.

There is a ton of content.

There is endgame.

Operations (Raids) Have *3* different difficulties.

Normal, Hard, Nightmare

You have the modding system.

If you read the Dev tracker on forums, you can have modded gear as good as endgame purps.

And before you complain on that.. read how its done...


There will be expansions, and with the content they have, i have good hope.

Beta ran smooth, they Moved the Early access date to the 13th instead of 15th.

Classes in the game are decently balanced for a new to release mmo. (yes Jedi knight and Sith warrior need some work)

The game will be fine, and its going to be around a good while.

Unlike most mmo's

You have people in it just for star wars.

You have people playing it as a Story alone.
(If people will pay $60 for a xbox game for 1 play through, swtor is a hell of a deal for contect for the price you pay for a few play throughs)

That on top of its a rather good mmo will make it do well.

Look at galaxies.. It lasted how long ? and devs screwed it up how bad ? I that game wasnt star wars, it would have shut down.


"its Freaking star wars"

I'm a Recovering MMO addict and I've been clean for about a year now. I've been feeling the MMO itch for about two months now. I played them all. WOW, WAR, DDO, EVE, Maplestory, Guild Wars, Everquest, Endless Online, Runescape, DAOC. All through Middle and High School( and even after high school, I still played for 6 months before I quit) I did nothing but MMO. I would go to school(or work), go home, Play for 14 straight Hours. Power nap in between load Screens, take a quick Shower and head back to School/work. I quit thanks to my Coworkers and close friends.

Now one of those friends is getting SWTOR and wants me to play with him, Saying that He'll keep me in check and I won't return to the Dark times. I'm resisting as much as I can, but if my Laptop can run it with Game Booster on, and there's a Free Trial, It'll only be a matter of time before I go back to the dark times...

Iur_tae_mont wrote: and there's a Free Trial

See you in 2 years.

Anyone know what server they will be playing on? I know I'll either be starting on the 13th or 14th.

Whatever RP servers there are on launch.

So, considering that the early access has started, is there a group of Dakknauts on a server somewhere?

Thought early access started Thursday?!

My buddies and I will be running a guild, sith side, and all my dakka buddies are welcome!

I will have a server when we roll the chars.

Thinking the guild name will be Perdition.

I should be playing with friends on Daragon Trail server.

osumicrobio wrote:Thought early access started Thursday?!

Got my email today, then again, I pre-ordered the day pre-orders went up.

Oh crap! That is awesome. I preordered through BB and haven't heard anything. I think I may order digital through Origin tonight and just say I wasted $5...

I started reading up and have heard nothing but horror stories about BB's preorders.

Did you register it on the webpage? You need to if you haven't yet. And if you do now, you'll probably be late in the pre-release.

Shrike325 wrote:Did you register it on the webpage? You need to if you haven't yet. And if you do now, you'll probably be late in the pre-release.

There is this, plus they are staggered invitations to keep everyone from logging on all at once. More people who will be added each day.

I'm on Port Nowhere server.

Port Nowhere? Is that where we want to set up?

Is that a PvP server?

osumicrobio wrote:Port Nowhere? Is that where we want to set up?

Is that a PvP server?

It is a PvP server, and I have no idea on the former. Are we even going to try and have dakka people on a server? Not necessarily a guild, but just a common server.

I'm on Mind Trick, personally.

Kanluwen wrote:I'm on Mind Trick, personally.

As opposed to metaphorically or philosophically?

You deserve many beatings for that, purplefood.

Many beatings.

MrDwhitey wrote:You deserve many beatings for that, purplefood.

Many beatings.

That is probably what Kan would say...

So i got a code for Early Access and trying it out..... Ad soon as I can figure out why the screen is black. I can see everything( interface wise) but the game itself. >.<


Updating all of my drivers and I'll try again.

KingCracker wrote:I like WoW tbh, and occasionally I go back and play for a month here and there. My problems with it are, it gets old, the game itself is REALLY showing its age on many levels, and the community is mostly complete asshats. Id say my personal odds, would be for every 1 good/helpful player, Ill run into 3 total jerk offs. Its a fun game and all sure, but Im looking for that newer looking, newer playing MMO that I can get myself into. Is StarWars that MMO? I dunno, maybe? Not really sure TBH, Ill figure out what that is when I find it though. I REALLY just hope, that when Dark Millennium drops, it doesnt get stale fast, Ill be SO bummed if I get an Ork halfway there, and just want to go play angry birds instead

I'm really looking forward to Dark Millenium, if theres one thing THQ doesn't lack, it is in imagination and innovation. When you look at TOR, you see health bar, action bar, and click to attack. That's pretty much the same thing with other the other 1000 mmorpg's that came out. Once you see that type of interface, you know how everything plays out in the game. Sure, there are alot of successful MMO's out there, but the difference between WoW and the others was that it is the first one to utilize this type of gameplay/interface and be what it is with it. TOR will be a success and make quite a few dollars, I have no doubt. The game is polished and the story is good, but like all other mmorpg's and their creators, they lack innovation. They're too afraid to try something new. They follow in WoW's and Everquest's footsteps knowing that this style of gaming is safe. That is what annoys me about TOR the most, the story and setting is different, but the game is the same.

LumenPraebeo wrote:

KingCracker wrote:I like WoW tbh, and occasionally I go back and play for a month here and there. My problems with it are, it gets old, the game itself is REALLY showing its age on many levels, and the community is mostly complete asshats. Id say my personal odds, would be for every 1 good/helpful player, Ill run into 3 total jerk offs. Its a fun game and all sure, but Im looking for that newer looking, newer playing MMO that I can get myself into. Is StarWars that MMO? I dunno, maybe? Not really sure TBH, Ill figure out what that is when I find it though. I REALLY just hope, that when Dark Millennium drops, it doesnt get stale fast, Ill be SO bummed if I get an Ork halfway there, and just want to go play angry birds instead

I'm really looking forward to Dark Millenium, if theres one thing THQ doesn't lack, it is in imagination and innovation. When you look at TOR, you see health bar, action bar, and click to attack. That's pretty much the same thing with other the other 1000 mmorpg's that came out. Once you see that type of interface, you know how everything plays out in the game. Sure, there are alot of successful MMO's out there, but the difference between WoW and the others was that it is the first one to utilize this type of gameplay/interface and be what it is with it. TOR will be a success and make quite a few dollars, I have no doubt. The game is polished and the story is good, but like all other mmorpg's and their creators, they lack innovation. They're too afraid to try something new. They follow in WoW's and Everquest's footsteps knowing that this style of gaming is safe. That is what annoys me about TOR the most, the story and setting is different, but the game is the same.

There's no reason to "innovate" when something works. That specific interface is one of the easiest to use.

It is a good UI...
Easily modified and simple to use.

I can;t post in the CS forum there for some reason >.<

Can anyone help me out?

I have tried for two days to get the game working to no avail. The screen goes black when I start it up. I can watch the Videos, and can see the UI, but the Game itself is black screen. In Theory, I could play just using the Minimap ( no lag at all, perfect response. I even competed the first few missions JUST using the minimap)

I've updated everything, I've turned off the ATI CCC, and I've changed the settings that people with similar problems have said to change in the CS forums.

It very well might be a problem loading the textures. It happens to me sometimes, but I give it a few minutes and am okay.

Kanluwen wrote:

LumenPraebeo wrote:

KingCracker wrote:I like WoW tbh, and occasionally I go back and play for a month here and there. My problems with it are, it gets old, the game itself is REALLY showing its age on many levels, and the community is mostly complete asshats. Id say my personal odds, would be for every 1 good/helpful player, Ill run into 3 total jerk offs. Its a fun game and all sure, but Im looking for that newer looking, newer playing MMO that I can get myself into. Is StarWars that MMO? I dunno, maybe? Not really sure TBH, Ill figure out what that is when I find it though. I REALLY just hope, that when Dark Millennium drops, it doesnt get stale fast, Ill be SO bummed if I get an Ork halfway there, and just want to go play angry birds instead

I'm really looking forward to Dark Millenium, if theres one thing THQ doesn't lack, it is in imagination and innovation. When you look at TOR, you see health bar, action bar, and click to attack. That's pretty much the same thing with other the other 1000 mmorpg's that came out. Once you see that type of interface, you know how everything plays out in the game. Sure, there are alot of successful MMO's out there, but the difference between WoW and the others was that it is the first one to utilize this type of gameplay/interface and be what it is with it. TOR will be a success and make quite a few dollars, I have no doubt. The game is polished and the story is good, but like all other mmorpg's and their creators, they lack innovation. They're too afraid to try something new. They follow in WoW's and Everquest's footsteps knowing that this style of gaming is safe. That is what annoys me about TOR the most, the story and setting is different, but the game is the same.

There's no reason to "innovate" when something works. That specific interface is one of the easiest to use.

I agree with Kan there. I personally like the way that WoW is set up as far as how it plays, its very intuitive. Thats not the part that shows age to me. That would be like changing the way one plays a FPS after Halo dropped. Halo, just NAILED how the controls work for a FPS. Ive played a few FPS after Halo that changed the controls and it was just too awkward

I ordered this after viewing a few videos of Sith Inquisitors.

I am looking forward to joining the good side.

Couple of friends have been #1450 in login Qs this week.
Fail ahoy methinks.

KingCracker wrote: I agree with Kan there. I personally like the way that WoW is set up as far as how it plays, its very intuitive. That's not the part that shows age to me. That would be like changing the way one plays a FPS after Halo dropped. Halo, just NAILED how the controls work for a FPS. Ive played a few FPS after Halo that changed the controls and it was just too awkward

But its not about the interface being easy to use or not, people see it as an mmorpg, and with a game like that, people will compare it to WoW, because WoW is of course the most successful title to have a game like this. But it's common sense that TOR is NOT a game like WoW, it is a game set in the star wars universe, and yet when you look at the game, tell me how can people NOT compare it to WoW? THAT right there is the reason why it frustrates me, a game like Warhammer online, LoTRO, and EVE online (well, eve online cant really be compared to all the other mmorpg's, but you've got to admit they could do alot of stuff differently, I mean come on, its a space mmo, there are like a hundred ways to make that game revolutionize the mmorpg genre) who have such enormous potential and capability, but they don't use it, they go back to the familiar because it is easy. And while it is easy, when they do the same thing other people have done, they sacrificed the games potential to be so much more.

It's a fact when I say different story, same game.

Ratius wrote:Couple of friends have been #1450 in login Qs this week.
Fail ahoy methinks.

I've been in 0 queues since early access started. Fail anecdotal evidence methinks.

I noticed that Civilization V used a mouse and keyboard, and CoD uses a mouse and keyboard, that is when I realized they are the exact same game and thus no reason to get Civilization V. It is a fact they both use a mouse and keyboard for interface.

Ahtman wrote:

Ratius wrote:Couple of friends have been #1450 in login Qs this week.
Fail ahoy methinks.

I've been in 0 queues since early access started. Fail anecdotal evidence methinks.

I noticed that Civilization V used a mouse and keyboard, and CoD uses a mouse and keyboard, that is when I realized they are the exact same game and thus no reason to get Civilization V. It is a fact they both use a mouse and keyboard for interface.

All PC games use mouse and keyboard, THAT is a fact...and just as you can name similarities with two different categories of games, I can name as much differences, but that still doesn't change the fact the people are going to compare WoW and TOR to each other because of the action bar and point to click way of playing.

LumenPraebeo wrote:

Ahtman wrote:

Ratius wrote:Couple of friends have been #1450 in login Qs this week.
Fail ahoy methinks.

I've been in 0 queues since early access started. Fail anecdotal evidence methinks.

I noticed that Civilization V used a mouse and keyboard, and CoD uses a mouse and keyboard, that is when I realized they are the exact same game and thus no reason to get Civilization V. It is a fact they both use a mouse and keyboard for interface.

All PC games use mouse and keyboard, THAT is a fact...and just as you can name similarities with two different categories of games, I can name as much differences, but that still doesn't change the fact the people are going to compare WoW and TOR to each other because of the action bar and point to click way of playing.

So you admit your criticism is so generic as to be a bit silly.

Did I say such a thing? I didn't admit to anything.
What do you think the point I was trying to make is in my first post?
And if it IS silly.......so?

LumenPraebeo wrote:Did I say such a thing?

I didn't say you used those exact words, but when you best argument is that "we can name as many similarities as differences and it doesn't matter", then you really don't have a coherent, thought out argument about why a well tested interface makes a game bad just becuase it is a well tested and useful interface. Personally I would never compare it to WoW, I would compare it to Dark Age of Camelot.

And your criticism seemed to be that becuase it uses a common, well known interface method that it somehow is a bad game becuase ti didn't try to be radically different just to be different. EVE online is niche in appeal it hurts, and while you can do ok with a niche market, if you are going for a large fan base you don't need to go that route. Going with an odd control scheme just to appear innovative isn't really innovation. There needs to be a compelling reason to do something different and 'other games use a similar interface' is not a compelling reason. Having a solid, but common interface doesn't make a game good or bad.

The Old republic will fall, not because of the sith, not because of disaster, not because of system failure, and not because of rebels. It will fall because the evil overlords made a game that's WoW, but star wars, and has a monthly fee so they can make massive profits. It's a single player MMO, with crappy PVP and the same old dungeon grinds.

Did I mention the monthly fee yet? That's the main reason it will fail. You can make a good wow clone all day and people will play it, but not for long if you charge them.

And don't try to defend the monthly fee. Plenty of other MMOs without it provide more content with updates, just as good tech support, and more. The monthly fee is an illusion. How many times has WoW's servers been down for maintenance? Quite a few times. Guild wars, on the other hand, never had a server outage from release onwards of 4 YEARS. That's right, no monthly fee, 4 YEARS of constantly available servers. Does your pay to play mmo do that? I think not.

juraigamer wrote:The Old republic will fall, not because of the sith, not because of disaster, not because of system failure, and not because of rebels. It will fall because the evil overlords made a game that's WoW, but star wars, and has a monthly fee so they can make massive profits. It's a single player MMO, with crappy PVP and the same old dungeon grinds.

Did I mention the monthly fee yet? That's the main reason it will fail. You can make a good wow clone all day and people will play it, but not for long if you charge them.

And don't try to defend the monthly fee. Plenty of other MMOs without it provide more content with updates, just as good tech support, and more. The monthly fee is an illusion. How many times has WoW's servers been down for maintenance? Quite a few times. Guild wars, on the other hand, never had a server outage from release onwards of 4 YEARS. That's right, no monthly fee, 4 YEARS of constantly available servers. Does your pay to play mmo do that? I think not.

Yeah but does your MMO have lightsabers?
I think not.

LumenPraebeo wrote:Did I say such a thing? I didn't admit to anything.
What do you think the point I was trying to make is in my first post?
And if it IS silly.......so?

It your logic is silly then it's worthless and invalid as a criticism. Having actually played ToR, I can tell you that Bioware has indeed made a good game worthy of time and money if a.) you enjoy MMOs and/or b.) you enjoy RPGs. They've said this is essentially KotOR 3-##, and that's what it feels like when you play the main quest. Better and more interesting if you've partied up with a friend and you're witnessing both stories and doing all the mundane quests in concert.

Here are some numbers from 2 weeks ago about pre-order numbers for ToR, only including purchases at brick & mortar stores. This doesn't include what is likely to be ToR's biggest selling point, Origin. That's a damn good start if you ask me. EDIT: It also doesn't include any markets other than the U.S., so odds are they're doing even better than this implies.

purplefood wrote:

juraigamer wrote:The Old republic will fall, not because of the sith, not because of disaster, not because of system failure, and not because of rebels. It will fall because the evil overlords made a game that's WoW, but star wars, and has a monthly fee so they can make massive profits. It's a single player MMO, with crappy PVP and the same old dungeon grinds.

Did I mention the monthly fee yet? That's the main reason it will fail. You can make a good wow clone all day and people will play it, but not for long if you charge them.

And don't try to defend the monthly fee. Plenty of other MMOs without it provide more content with updates, just as good tech support, and more. The monthly fee is an illusion. How many times has WoW's servers been down for maintenance? Quite a few times. Guild wars, on the other hand, never had a server outage from release onwards of 4 YEARS. That's right, no monthly fee, 4 YEARS of constantly available servers. Does your pay to play mmo do that? I think not.

Yeah but does your MMO have lightsabers?
I think not.

/threadwon

Lightsabers conquer all.

epy346 wrote:

LumenPraebeo wrote:Did I say such a thing? I didn't admit to anything.
What do you think the point I was trying to make is in my first post?
And if it IS silly.......so?

It your logic is silly then it's worthless and invalid as a criticism. Having actually played ToR, I can tell you that Bioware has indeed made a good game worthy of time and money if a.) you enjoy MMOs and/or b.) you enjoy RPGs. They've said this is essentially KotOR 3-##, and that's what it feels like when you play the main quest. Better and more interesting if you've partied up with a friend and you're witnessing both stories and doing all the mundane quests in concert.

Here are some numbers from 2 weeks ago about pre-order numbers for ToR, only including purchases at brick & mortar stores. This doesn't include what is likely to be ToR's biggest selling point, Origin. That's a damn good start if you ask me. EDIT: It also doesn't include any markets other than the U.S., so odds are they're doing even better than this implies.

This is how Im looking at it. Just because the interface is a tried and true interface, doesnt mean its a friggin WoW clone and therefore is fail. Seriously Lumen, you need to relax and take a better look at life if your going to get so worked up over something as trivial as a similar interface.

Ahtman wrote:
Ratius wrote:
Couple of friends have been #1450 in login Qs this week.
Fail ahoy methinks.


I've been in 0 queues since early access started. Fail anecdotal evidence methinks.

True, I was in a bad mood.
Having said that Q times dont seem to have improved at all.
Disconcerting to say the least that its not offically out yet and they have such issues. Surely these things should have been planned and put through their paces ad nauseum before release?
Really needs to get sorted quickly for the launch to go well and get people onboard.

Didn't one of the devs post that people who didn't preorder the game "may have to wait up to a month" to play due to excessive numbers of players?

Ratius wrote:

Ahtman wrote:
Ratius wrote:
Couple of friends have been #1450 in login Qs this week.
Fail ahoy methinks.


I've been in 0 queues since early access started. Fail anecdotal evidence methinks.

True, I was in a bad mood.
Having said that Q times dont seem to have improved at all.
Disconcerting to say the least that its not offically out yet and they have such issues. Surely these things should have been planned and put through their paces ad nauseum before release?
Really needs to get sorted quickly for the launch to go well and get people onboard.

We'll have to see, but I wouldn't be suprised if there a lines for a bit. When WoW luanched it was crashing all month from overload. Even when you are ready for it a million (roughly) people all trying to log in at once is a lot to handle.

How is tanking in the game?

In regards to que times:

We know there have been questions about the queues on the servers, so we wanted to take a moment to give you some insight.

In order to ensure that the service would be smooth and stable, we staged how we brought people into the Early Game Access program, adding people in waves. As you know, there are a lot of folks who want to play the game right now and we want to make sure they have lots of people to play with. Balancing this with figuring out when to bring new servers online to help alleviate the size of the queues is part art and part science. On one hand, you do not want people to wait too long – on the other hand, you want to make sure that people have a dynamic, engaging community to play with for long after launch. Either way, we have one clear objective – to make sure folks have fun.

While we can’t promise that there won’t ever be queues, we can promise you that we are taking this matter seriously and constantly reviewing them to make sure that they are manageable and reasonable.

Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer – Live Services

@ Malfred:

Tanking is a lot of fun, IMO. I only tried two of the tanks in beta (Bounty Hunter/Trooper and Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior) and they had interesting play styles (ranged vs melee) and it was engaging as most fights are multiple enemies. I'm working on leveling a Sith Assassin/Jedi Shadow which I'm taking tank, which should be an interesting combination (stealth and tanking...whaaaa?)

I watched some hourlong videos on youtube while I painted today.

I have some friends who are interested, so I guess I'm in.

We know there have been questions about the queues on the servers, so we wanted to take a moment to give you some insight.

In order to ensure that the service would be smooth and stable, we staged how we brought people into the Early Game Access program, adding people in waves. As you know, there are a lot of folks who want to play the game right now and we want to make sure they have lots of people to play with. Balancing this with figuring out when to bring new servers online to help alleviate the size of the queues is part art and part science. On one hand, you do not want people to wait too long – on the other hand, you want to make sure that people have a dynamic, engaging community to play with for long after launch. Either way, we have one clear objective – to make sure folks have fun.

While we can’t promise that there won’t ever be queues, we can promise you that we are taking this matter seriously and constantly reviewing them to make sure that they are manageable and reasonable.

Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer – Live Services

Cant say I buy that tbh.
My interpretation is that they are fearfull in 2-3 months of having ghost servers with low pops overall and a lack of community.
However, that is solved much easier with forced server migrations, than having pretty woeful Q times at launch.

is part art and part science

Part art?
Its basic math.

juraigamer wrote:The Old republic will fall, not because of the sith, not because of disaster, not because of system failure, and not because of rebels. It will fall because the evil overlords made a game that's WoW, but star wars, and has a monthly fee so they can make massive profits. It's a single player MMO, with crappy PVP and the same old dungeon grinds.

Did I mention the monthly fee yet? That's the main reason it will fail. You can make a good wow clone all day and people will play it, but not for long if you charge them.

And don't try to defend the monthly fee. Plenty of other MMOs without it provide more content with updates, just as good tech support, and more. The monthly fee is an illusion. How many times has WoW's servers been down for maintenance? Quite a few times. Guild wars, on the other hand, never had a server outage from release onwards of 4 YEARS. That's right, no monthly fee, 4 YEARS of constantly available servers. Does your pay to play mmo do that? I think not.

I love trolls like this, SWTOR is not WoW, actually play it and you will see that the game feels much different, even if as an onlooker, it does seem similar if your watching over someones shoulder, rather then playing the game yourself.

guild wars was, is, gak, their servers had so many issues due to their lack of maintainence, and they never release content for free either, they always made you pay for expansions for content.

Guild wars Skimped on Server costs, and 'content updates' to make the game 'free', you get what you payed for, GW was a terrible title rife with issues that so many people overlook purely due to its 'free mmo' point of view.

my pay to play MMOs provide quality, Reliable, servers, which, save for the weekly mantiance, never had a fraction of the issues that the GW servers had.

Been dabbling in this the last few days.
Have to say Im very pleasantly surprised (thusfar at lvl10).
Wasnt holding out a lot of hope for it but its pretty engaging.
It almost feels like a single player quest driven game in an mmo world if that makes sense.

Can imperial assassin main tank, or can they offtank at best?

malfred wrote:Can imperial assassin main tank, or can they offtank at best?

Neither really, as Agents have either Healing or Damage trees, they have no defensive tree at all.

The following have defensive trees:

Bounty Hunter Powertech
Jedi Counselor Shadow
Jedi Knight Guardian
Sith Inquisitor Assassin
Sith Warrior Juggernaught
Trooper Vangaurd

After making this list I realized it would have been easier to say each class has a tank spec except Scoundrel and Imperial Agent.

You realize that the "Assassin" advanced class is in fact the tank/dps spec for the Inquisitor right Ahtman?

I mean, you even put it into your post.

Anyways, Malfred: They can do either one well. They're very different to the other tanks(Powertech, Guardian, Juggernaut, and Vanguard) as both they and the Shadow are what would be termed as "dodge" tanks rather than pure damage mitigation.

Kanluwen wrote:You realize that the "Assassin" advanced class is in fact the tank/dps spec for the Inquisitor right Ahtman?

I mean, you even put it into your post.

I read it as Imperial Agent, as there is no such thing as Imperial Assassin

But yes, Sith Assassin can tank, though I think for bigger stuff late in the game they will be off tank for adds more than the bbeg.

What servers are people on? I need a home for my Empire characters.

I got what he was meaning, but yeah there's no "Imperial" Assassin.

Outside of it being part of the Sith Empire character set that is.

Right. That's what I meant

Ahtman wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:You realize that the "Assassin" advanced class is in fact the tank/dps spec for the Inquisitor right Ahtman?

I mean, you even put it into your post.

I read it as Imperial Agent, as there is no such thing as Imperial Assassin

But yes, Sith Assassin can tank, though I think for bigger stuff late in the game they will be off tank for adds more than the bbeg.

What servers are people on? I need a home for my Empire characters.

Soresu.

Jek Jek tar

or something like that...

I believe you mean Jekk'Jekk Tarr, a bar from KotOR II: The Sith Lords located on Nar Shaddaa.

PAZAAK! - sorry cant help myself

Playing with some friends on Bondar Crystal to get accustomed to the game, etc.

Likely to start playing on an RPPvP server in the near future as well.

Is anyone finding melee slightly overpowered to shooting to date?
PVP wise of course.
Shotting just seems 0.5 of a second slower or less sharp?

Somewhat.

What I'm finding more annoying is that the Bounty Hunter's abilities are knocking Agents out of cover in Huttball, while the Trooper's abilities are not.

There is a simple reason for this.

Empire is better.

MrDwhitey wrote:There is a simple reason for this.

Empire is better.

This is so true. I played a Jedi Sentinel to 25, got bored with class quest and zones, and rerolled a Sith Assassin. Leveling to 22 has been blast. Being evil is so much more enjoyable.

MrDwhitey wrote:There is a simple reason for this.

Empire is better.

There's an even simpler reason for this.

Empire is where all the "hardcore" players have gone. It's not surprising. But those same problems were happening during the beta for the Trooper and Bounty Hunter both, and I reported it multiple times within the beta while playing my Trooper.

I guess the Bounty Hunters didn't.

This is so true. I played a Jedi Sentinel to 25, got bored with class quest and zones

I've read similar accounts elsewhere, that the Empire quests, stories and general feel had more work put into them than the Republics.

Whatever. I hate the Empire quests. Every NPC is a douchebag.

malfred wrote:Whatever. I hate the Empire quests. Every NPC is a douchebag.

Not entirely true, but in general they are quite "HAIL THE EMPIRE AND KILL ANY WHO SAY OTHERWISE"

I'm a lightside sith, but I feel some of my conversation options
default to evil. It's kind of annoying.

Kanluwen wrote:Somewhat.

What I'm finding more annoying is that the Bounty Hunter's abilities are knocking Agents out of cover in Huttball, while the Trooper's abilities are not.

Entrench?

Nerivant wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Somewhat.

What I'm finding more annoying is that the Bounty Hunter's abilities are knocking Agents out of cover in Huttball, while the Trooper's abilities are not.

Entrench?

Let me spell this out for you.
The Bounty Hunter's equivalent to "Mortar Volley", "Missile Blast" is knocking Agents out of cover.
The Trooper's "Mortar Volley" is not. It is also not knocking anyone back, as the knockback effects for these abilities apply to "weak and standard" enemies. Player characters are counted as "Strong" or "Champion" enemies.

The knockback should not be occurring, at all, to player characters. But it's not just Missile Blast doing it. Damn near every single one of their ability's is causing this to happen, in addition to their abilities which "cannot be used against a target in cover"...being usable against a target in cover.


Entrench should not have to be used, as they are not supposed to be performing this knockback in the first place.

Kanluwen wrote:

Nerivant wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Somewhat.

What I'm finding more annoying is that the Bounty Hunter's abilities are knocking Agents out of cover in Huttball, while the Trooper's abilities are not.

Entrench?

Let me spell this out for you.
The Bounty Hunter's equivalent to "Mortar Volley", "Missile Blast" is knocking Agents out of cover.
The Trooper's "Mortar Volley" is not. It is also not knocking anyone back, as the knockback effects for these abilities apply to "weak and standard" enemies. Player characters are counted as "Strong" or "Champion" enemies.

The knockback should not be occurring, at all, to player characters. But it's not just Missile Blast doing it. Damn near every single one of their ability's is causing this to happen, in addition to their abilities which "cannot be used against a target in cover"...being usable against a target in cover.


Entrench should not have to be used, as they are not supposed to be performing this knockback in the first place.

Maybe that's because Mortar Volley doesn't knock ANYTHING back, it's an AoE knockdown, and isn't the Trooper's analog for Missile Blast.

Knockbacks don't interact properly or consistantly with cover. I've been knocked back by the single-target Trooper ability multiple times.

That's my bad. I'm using "knockback" when I should be mentioning "knockdown".

You are right though. Explosive Round is the equivalent to Missile Blast...and it still doesn't do its knockdown. I keep thinking Missile Blast when I mean "Death from Above".

What I will say though is which Trooper knockdown are you referring to?

On my Trooper(14...yeah he's low, but he's a continuation of the one I played to 46 in the beta), I have never knocked down an Agent who's in cover using Explosive Round or Mortar Volley. On my Agent(38), I have not been knocked down by those abilities. The only knockdown or knockback I've had triggered on me by a Trooper is the upgraded Stockstrike and the Concussion Charge...and if I get knocked back by Concussion Charge it's my own damn fault because I let a Trooper get right up on top of me without me blowing my Cover Pulse or an Ambush with Heavy Shot first.

I've never been knocked down, no, but I have been knocked back while in cover, both entrenched and normal, portable and hard cover, by Explosive Round. And about every other ability in the game. Whether or not you get knocked back in cover is an equation that factors what kind of cover you're in, whether you're immune to CC, whether your entrenched or not, where the cover is, what angle the enemy is, whether your Expertise is a prime number and the current weather patterns in Brazil.

My clearest memory is when a Sniper ran next to me in Huttball, we both took portable cover facing each other, Entrenched, and Cover Pulsed.

He stayed where he was and I was thrown into the fire.

Ive been thinking of getting this game but am having a hard time deciding which class I want to be. I already decided I want to be republic, im a good guy on RPG games, killing innocents and bringing misery isnt my thing. I cant decide between trooper and Jedi Knight. Firstly I want heavy armour but both classes have this so its not an issue. But the main concern is my preference of combat is ranged (in sci fi games anyway, its the complete opposite in fantasy) but i feel not having the force would be a disadvantage. Is it possible for a jedi to duel wield a lightsaber and a pistol?

vodo40k wrote: Is it possible for a jedi to duel wield a lightsaber and a pistol?

No, even though it would be awesome. Also troopers are very fun to play and the story is pretty fun so far.

vodo40k wrote:Ive been thinking of getting this game but am having a hard time deciding which class I want to be. I already decided I want to be republic, im a good guy on RPG games, killing innocents and bringing misery isnt my thing. I cant decide between trooper and Jedi Knight. Firstly I want heavy armour but both classes have this so its not an issue. But the main concern is my preference of combat is ranged (in sci fi games anyway, its the complete opposite in fantasy) but i feel not having the force would be a disadvantage. Is it possible for a jedi to duel wield a lightsaber and a pistol?

Class Breakdown

1.Jedi Knight = Sith Warrior, same abilites, different names and animations

Advance Classes:
Jedi Guardian/Sith Juggernaut
Uses 1 Lightsaber and wears Heavy Armor. Role is Tank/Damage

Jedi Sentinel/Sith Marauder
Uses 2 Lightsabers and wears Medium Armor. Role is Damage.

Strictly IMO, the early Sith worlds (levels 1-20) are more interesting. I haven't played a Sith Warrior, so I can't comment on their class quest. Jedi Knight class quest is okay. Typical heroic story with typical Star Wars companions. First companion is an astromech droid.

2. Bounty Hunter = Trooper. Use different resource mechanic, but they function identically. Same abilities, different names and animations.

Depending on your choice of AC, you will be able to tank, heal, or damage. Bounty Hunters are imo much cooler, (rocket punch ftw), but Troopers can choose to wield massive miniguns and sport very nice looking armor. My BH is level 11, I've tried to level a Trooper 3 times and just keep deleting them. Their class quest is cheesy and the quests on their starting planet were very immersion breaking for me. I don't think it's a good fit.

I got Trooper to 14 and had a lot of fun with it, expeccially once I got my 'minigun' at 10. They are a treat in battlegrounds as well.

I'm enjoying the feth outta this game.

In terms of game play, it is absolutely nothing new. This is exactly what I expected. However, I am a sucker for a good story line, and this game has it, presents it well, and makes me feel like my character is an important part of what's going on, which was sorely missing from other MMOs. The group content actually isn't as good, IMO, as the solo story line content, but it's still pretty fun.

I think I'll be playing it for quite a while. Got a Powertech Bounty Hunter to 50, pure Light Side the whole way. Bouncing between a Commando and a Juggernaut right now, though I may check out a different server; Empire on Twin Spears makes baby Jesus cry and I've never been that fond of PvP servers anyway.