Re: SWTOR beta impressions
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Originally Posted by
Gelatinous Cube
Oh, man.. WoW took away an entire year of my life.
NEVER type the /played command in WoW. That way lies only pain and regret... :clown:
Had another go on the SWTOR beta today.
First off, I played a Sith Warrior - only up to level 3, waiting for the US servers to come back up. However, I would say that it was infinitely better than the Jedi Knight, even though the classes are mirrors - have exactly identical abilities. The warped Sith world is just so much more interesting to roam in than the bland Jedi one. I had great fun being "light side". One quest was to interrogate three prisoners and decide their fates (with "off with their heads!" being the default Sith option). I saved all I could, prompting the bemused jailor to ponder "Hmm, you are an interesting one..." I did get some dark side points interacting with my "rival" student on Korriban. (Best web comment so far about the Sith warrior:
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Originally Posted by Vectorketh
As a Sith Warrior, you've been raised in a highly competitive society and you must compete against your peers to see who is most worthy to advance. Everyone around you is potential competition, and even your friends must be regarded as rivals. It's a lot like living in the Pokemon world, except that you are your own Pikachu.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...410871&page=67
Playing as a Sith you seem able to have a lot of fun, wilfully oscillating between good and evil, whereas as a Jedi you feel more in a moral straight jacket. (Worst case of the latter was my ratting out some padawans for being romantically involved). I briefly encountered Vette, one of the Warrior's companions, who is voiced by the girl who did Mission in Kotor. She looks to be a lot of fun as a companion. However, I think I will have to stick with the Jedi: I just can't see myself roleplaying a person who would volunteer to join the Sith.
Later, I went back to my Jedi Guardian and got him to level 12, including doing the first flashpoint (i.e. dungeon). It reminded me of why I love WoW: the party instances. I was invited by three random chaps and we had a blast, good humouredly blasting through a very story based quest, with lots of dialogue and even some interesting story twists. It was everything you could hope a WoW style instance in a Star Wars universe could be.
I picked up some crafting skills, but have not tried them yet. I'm trying to sort out a proper "rotation" or how to use the plethora of combat abilities I already have. I confess I resorted to clicking in the instance: it's probably optimistic to try to fix on key binding until you have a better idea of your core abilities.
Anyway, bottomline: last night, it was a 10/10. Tonight, it's going up to 11. :2thumbsup:
Re: SWTOR beta impressions
A few more impressions:
- Coruscant, the second Jedi planet, is fantastic: all street mobsters and corrupt Senators. I love it.
- I tried crafting: it is great fun. Aside from the usual related gathering and crafting skills (I went artifice for crafting mods for lightsabers and force armor; and archaelology to get the crystals to make them), there are mission skills that you send your companions away on to get rare components for crafting, lockboxes and companion gifts (I went treasure hunting to get rare crystals). A nice innovation is reverse engineering: you make green quality items, you can reverse engineer (destroy) them in the hope of discovering the schematic to make blue quality ones. And I gather you can reverse engineer blues to make purples, but that seems very expensive in terms of rare components.
- I met the second Jedi Guardian companion, a feisty female padawan working with Coruscant security, Kira. She has not joined my party yet, but from the story quests, she's very likeable. My R2-D2 robot companion has ground on me. R2-D2 in the movies did nothing for me - I guess Lucas put him for young kids in like Jawas, Ewoks, Jar-Jar etc. But in the game, he has two virtues. One, he is very "good" Republic oriented: so every dialogue option I make raises his affection for me. And he is quite. Questing alongside other classes, their shouts and repetitive inanities get on my nerves. I want to quest with Kira, but if she gets too loud, I can see myself returning to my robot. It's like questing solo, but with backup. (And as a ranged dps class, he compliments a melee tank very well. He can also tank and buy me some time against a strong solo mob. Unlike me, he can "die" without it being the end of a fight, so even though I am a tank and should tank, I think he may be useful as a good meatshield in some situations.)
Re: SWTOR beta impressions
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Originally Posted by
econ21
I had a go on the Star Wars the Old Republic Beta last night. It's a game I've been looking forward to for a long time (to the extent that for a long time it's probably the only game I've been looking forward to) and it did not disappoint. Some first impressions (only got to level 7):
- It is a shameless WoW clone. If you have an antipathy to conventional MMOs, move along - this is not the thread you are looking for. :bow: I still cannot quite believe how utterly and wholesalely it has stolen WoW mechanics. This is not a bad thing, IMO, as I think WoW mechanics are solid and I suspect you get a better game if you add new content to an existing ruleset rather than try to re-invent a game system from the ground up. That's one reason I think the Kotors were so good - they took the well established D20 system and added Bioware goodness to the content. But it is still surprising. With WoW having changed or about to change many of its mechanics (threat is virtually gone now; talent trees are being binned), I think soon playing SWTOR will be more like playing WoW than WoW will be.
Reading some of the tester feedback on the beta forums i get the impression most of the testers were expecting this game to re-invent the wheel (despite all indications it would be a traditional mmo model). I remember one tester said with confidence that I would start to hate the game when I got to Balmorra, the level 15 planet. "Bad story, long runs, terrible grind quests!" he shouted at me. Imagine my surprised when i got to Balmorra, learned sprint (basically like travel form from wow, free 30% movement speed boost out of combat) and got really pulled into the story. Not really sure what I was supposed to dislike.
But then again, I played Aion. There is no game in existance that can beat that game when it comes to awful structure. Don't even talk to me about bad grinds. You know nothing. Nothing.
Being that my expectations were so low going in, i can safety say I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed my time in the beta weekend. Swtor feels like what would happen if you took kotor and wow and made them have a baby. Really interesting fusion of styles.
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Nonetheless, it is still Kotor3. It feels like Kotor: the graphics, the size and design of the areas etc. The voice acting has been hyped but in all the automatic feedback I was prompted for last night, the voice acting was the one thing I consistently rated as excellent. If you have played the Kotors or other Bioware games, you know what to expect but you won't be disappointed. Even "kill 10 boar" type quests are bookended with interesting dialogue and characterisation. I thought I would be clicking through dialogue as I do in Skyrim[1], but I am not tempted so far (which is probably good as I don't think you can click through it). [1]I swear if Lydia says she is sworn to carry my burdens one more time, I till throttle her!
My heart swelled a bit when i realized they reused the music from KOTOR2 for the Nar Shaddaa in Swtor. Yes, the game absolutely does have that Kotor feeling. I wish dialogue was more varied, but i get the feeling they have kept it deliberately strict due to the massive amount of voice-acting required.
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- The lightside/darkside mechanic is fun, imo. I played a Jedi Guardian and the first time I hit that mechanic, I was floored. I had met a boss and he was monologuing, saying he was going to kill me. So I decided to cut the dialogue short and choose the option that was bracketed (attack). Cue ominous red marker on a black screen across my computer. Aargh! I got 50 dark side points. I was distraught. But it made me reflect on the Jedi way and was rather cool as the kind of thing that might arise with a young padawan. It really helps with role-playing and immersion. I think it could cause me a lot of grief or at least amusement, because I suspect the Jedi are far too passive aggressive for me: I was rather appalled to infer from elsewhere that the backstory is that after the Sith destroyed the Jedi temple on Coruscant, the Republic made peace! It's as if FDR backed down after Pearl Harbour. I am strongly tempted to go dark side Republic. May be on an alt.
I agree, i really like the morality mechanics. Though I wish there were some rewards for remaining neutral. Right now the game only recognizes your efforts if you are a saint or if you are :daisy: evil. Not that's much of a bad thing since being evil is so much delicious fun, but some love for the middle ground would have been nice.
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I picked up some crafting skills, but have not tried them yet. I'm trying to sort out a proper "rotation" or how to use the plethora of combat abilities I already have. I confess I resorted to clicking in the instance: it's probably optimistic to try to fix on key binding until you have a better idea of your core abilities.
Crafting seems lackluster right now, hard to describe it but its largely due to the lack of immediate rewards that mean anything. Wow had the same problem, it would take ages to get your skills to the point where you could see usefulness come of them. Thankfully crafting is something easily fixed in content patches.
I was really shocked by how fun/challenging the instances were. I did Hammer Station (lvl 16-19) with some random pugs - and imagine our surprise when we had to think about our pulls and manage boss mechanics! As a healer i absolutely love that. I like the fact that I and my dps need to be thinking about what we're doing and where we need to be standing so early in the game. As my tank said "Its really good they are teaching these mechanics so early" and i couldn't agree more.
Big negative for me is the UI. What a mess. It really feels cluttered when I have all the action bars on (i'm a healer, i need them all.. dont look at me like that). It's also hard to describe but everything just feels slightly off in regards to it. I am really itching for the ability to just re-arrange everything, because as it stands it is barely functional for me.
Overall.. I don't know. Feels like a solid game with a surprisingly stable beta client and some good solid foundation to build from. I got to level 22 on my Bounty Hunter and experienced only 4 quest bugs and a single crash to desktop.. that's actually really good for an MMO. The nature of the genre leads me to believe the launch is gonna be slightly messy, but all in all I think swtor is gonna carve out a bit of a niche in the market and happily chug along, just like Rift has. The story alone was good enough to keep me hooked until i hit 22 and I'm still wanting more - and I'm still in the first chapter (out of five). I've pre-ordered it, surprised that i'm actually anticipating launch.
Re: SWTOR beta impressions
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Originally Posted by
Monk
Though I wish there were some rewards for remaining neutral. Right now the game only recognizes your efforts if you are a saint or if you are :daisy: evil. Not that's much of a bad thing since being evil is so much delicious fun, but some love for the middle ground would have been nice.
I noticed on the Coruscant (second Republic planet) that there were excellent vendor (commendation) lightsabers but only for those light 1+ or dark 1+; grey's definitely were losing out. The other weapons (for non-Jedi classes) had no alignment restriction.
One thing I only noticed when my son pointed it out was that mousing over a dialogue option reveals if it gives you LS or DS points. I guess that makes sense from an MMO mechanics point of view, where there is no save and reload. But the moral choices before I knew this were much more vivid than after. (My first DS points came as a kick in the gut: I got DS points for that?!? I was just being enthusiastic! :clown:)
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Crafting seems lackluster right now, hard to describe it but its largely due to the lack of immediate rewards that mean anything. Wow had the same problem, it would take ages to get your skills to the point where you could see usefulness come of them.
Yes, I like the crafting mechanics - the reverse engineering, the crew doing the work etc - but as artifice never made anything of more than marginal utility. Part of the problem was that the awesome commendation lightsaber came with a full array of the best mods, making whatever I could craft look pathetic. I'll check out the synthweave recipes, although I suspect you are right: it might be like WoW, you outlevel your crafting too fast for it to be useful. I like crafting as it is another dimension of "stuff" to level, but the utility is lacking right now. As with WoW, I probably should check out the end-game advantages - right now, the bio stuff (ever lasting flasks?) sounds like a winner for that, but I just don't like the aesthetics of herbalism.
Re: SWTOR beta impressions
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I noticed on the Coruscant (second Republic planet) that there were excellent vendor (commendation) lightsabers but only for those light 1+ or dark 1+; grey's definitely were losing out. The other weapons (for non-Jedi classes) had no alignment restriction.
I was more referring to the alignment vendors. On the Republic/Sith fleets there are vendors devoted solely to the Dark/Light side. If you get your points high enough in one direction you can buy some equipment for straight credits, most require Dark/Light II or higher. What i'd like to see would be something to reward players for walking the line. Something that would be restricted to neutral alignments. The first kotor had those but they were more or less hidden items.
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One thing I only noticed when my son pointed it out was that mousing over a dialogue option reveals if it gives you LS or DS points. I guess that makes sense from an MMO mechanics point of view, where there is no save and reload. But the moral choices before I knew this were much more vivid than after. (My first DS points came as a kick in the gut: I got DS points for that?!? I was just being enthusiastic! )
Heh, fair point! Though I like knowing what i'm getting into before hand in that regard. I'm not sure about the Jedi route, but the Bounty Hunter story is about as morally bankrupt/ambiguous as it gets.
Bounty Hunters.. we don't need their scum. :smug:
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Yes, I like the crafting mechanics - the reverse engineering, the crew doing the work etc - but as artifice never made anything of more than marginal utility. Part of the problem was that the awesome commendation lightsaber came with a full array of the best mods, making whatever I could craft look pathetic. I'll check out the synthweave recipes, although I suspect you are right: it might be like WoW, you outlevel your crafting too fast for it to be useful. I like crafting as it is another dimension of "stuff" to level, but the utility is lacking right now. As with WoW, I probably should check out the end-game advantages - right now, the bio stuff (ever lasting flasks?) sounds like a winner for that, but I just don't like the aesthetics of herbalism.
Yeah, from what i have heard the top crafting recipes aren't that much better than the things you can get from end-game drops. Going for utility would probably serve you way more than going for gear, at least until Bioware beefs up the options.
Re: SWTOR beta impressions
First wave bugs should be worked out when I first get a chance to play come april. that being said, can I have ur low level stuffs? K thnx
FYI If too bored I will buy two copies and make a highly offensive throw away character, and we can track in the Arena how long it takes me to be banned and my subsequent pleas on the forum to be unbanned. Should be a good time
Re: SWTOR beta impressions
Still waiting for them to announce battlefront three ): but i'm not realy into mmo,s so not a buy for me
Re: SWTOR beta impressions
Love the KOTOR games but I'm going to avoid it as the plague. Not touching any mmrpg's I'm afraid I will like them too much. If I can't sleep I sometimes still think of how to build the perfect Diablo2 character
