I didn't notice anything in the forums about this recently, but bioware's new Star Wars MMO is slated to be released sometime this year in 2011.
Main site:
http://www.swtor.com/
Cinematic trailer:
http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/hope-cinematic-trailer#comments
Hungry Star Wars nerds:
http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/pax-east-2011-highlight-video
I'm not a huge SW fan, but I like bioware style RPGs so I'll give this a shot.
I like the looks of the republic commando class.
Gameplay vid from E3
I like how they are handling dialogue choices if you are in a group. That was the one thing I was concerned with. I thought this game would be mostly a single player questing experiencing, with the dialogue choices made by group leader. But, they are using a roll system. I like the way they described it, saying it is similar to pen and paper RPGs where you might have a friend roll playing an asshole character and decides to be a jerk by killing an NPC.
It's a full timeline of the Star Wars Lore, via storybook style FMV on the official SW:TOR website. I can't embedd it, because it's a sliding timescale and each timeframe shows a different FMV. I will provide the link instead. It's definately worth the watch if you're not familiar with the non-movie star wars lore.
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/timeline
Pre-order for SWTOR is now avaliable.
You can opt for the collectors edition. If you get the physical collectors edition (disc and all) it comes with:
Pre-Order Exclusive:
Early Game access (Play the game before the actual release date. Pay to be a Beta tester, lol)
Color Stone (virtual item) (changes your light saber or blaster color)
30 Days Game Time included
Limited Collector's Edition Includes:
Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue
Game disks collectible metal case
The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural as annotated by Satele Shan
The Old Republic galaxy map
Custom Security Authentication Key
Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
High-quality Collector's Edition box
Includes 7 Additional Digital Items:
Flare Gun
Training Droid
HoloDancer
HoloCam
STAP
Exclusive Mouse Droid
Exclusive Collector's Edition Store
Altogether its about 150 buck. The digital edition includes all the ingame goodies, minus the tangible bonuses. It's 75 bucks. The Pre-orders for The Collectors Edition are already sold out for the physical copy on EAs official website. I am sure other retailers still have it in stock.
Here is the link to show what the ingame goodies are: http://www.swtor.com/preorder
I pre-ordered already. Oddly enough, there is no release date, but people are expecting a Sept or Oct release.
150 bucks? Eat a dick, Lucas.
You mean EA, Lucas didn't have anything to do with it, besides the statue alone with 50 to 60 bucks. beats the the tiny spartan helm you can't wear with the legendary halo's
I think the Halo legendary editions are just as stupid. Maybe if you're the type to spend 60 bucks on a statue of something this is a good deal, but it just seems like an excessive cash in to me.
Not to mention 60 bucks for an unproven MMO game. EA try to pull some weird shit for their digital pre-sale. Put up warning that their are limited quantities. Really? On a digital distribution service? What are they trying to pull?
Here is the Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue. Really, it's for the fans of starwars and we all know they will pay 150 bucks for a CE. The statues run about 60 bucks, so if you factor in everything it's about right. Hence the reason it sold out. I don't trust EA with most anything they do, so I am sure they intentionally sold-out their products for the purpose of creating more hype. The retailers have way more in stock. I don't see how the digital CE version can be limited quantities either, when it's FUCKING digital. EA is pulling some shit, where you might not be guaranteed an early play-through period on the CE purchases and the normal purchase. If it's digital, there in theory can be no limitation of product. Moral of the story, just buy the regular edition, unless you're into collectibles.
I'd rather have the Shae bust in the CE edition, but that's just me:
I think its limited due to not wanting their servers crashing, etc, due to load issues from downloads, look at recent mmo's such as Rift and it's issues. This is their first mmo, so I can see the caution with digital preorders. Also they could be throwing a bone to the retail outlets.
Comic Con panel. Seems they are banking on the game being more of a multiple playthrough type of MMO (rerolling alts); as in creating new characters to experience the other classes/storylines or play again with same class to make a different choice. Rather than focusing solely on endgame content. Seems quite ambitions, not to mention when you add in its fully voiced acted. If it is actually hundreds of hours per class that is unique as promised I'm down. Lots of content is always good. But, I want to hear more about actual multiplayer content of the game instead of adding additional players (grouping) to what is basically a single player experience.
Hope they don't have the same issue as Galaxy with large planets. The problem with that game was the huge planets had very little content outside the city hubs.
This game is fucking amazing! Looks like I will be playing this and WoW for the time being.
Only bad part is the races sucks ass. In The Old Republic it's like "here is a human with horns, ohhhh here's another human with tentacles." In WoW each race has it's own identity which enhances the social aspect and banter of the game ( For the Horde/Alliance, or Gnomes deserves to be punted like footballs, Blood Elves are fairies). Not to mention in WoW you know you are looking at a freakin Orc or Tauran, and the armors fit each race. Here I can see everyone looking to same. Unless they really flesh out the social, specialty, and light side/dark side items.
Will this beat WoW? It potentially can. Really comes down to what endgame is looks like. As far as level-up content goes, this game is everything WoW is and better (Dat Bioware!). Coming from someone that can't stand level-up content (I'm a raider) this stuff is pretty fun. And it's mostly due to the fact you have dialogue choices, optional objectives, and the choice of light side or dark side outcomes. Not only that but combat is fluid, the sound is great, and the animations are top notch. I can just quest and kill things where I am not even looking at my exp bar or quest log to see how many of "X" have I killed.
Sad I only get to play for this weekend and have to wait until mid December to play again.
Weekend beta is officially over! I danced my way til' the servers shut down.
Ki'ta Kren is an east coast PvP server. It's the one i'll be on, and I'll be headed to the empire!
Is the empire the good guys or the bad guys?
Empire is the Sith, the badguys. I'll be on the Republic side on the Bondar Crystal server
We should probably pick some official AT server before the games release. I'll be on the east coast server, most likely. My main will be on the Jedi side, but I will also roll an empire character too.
Like WoW you can play on either faction, with the Republic being the Jedi and the Empire being the Sith.
I'm trying to find a server too as long it's East Coast. Most likely do Sith because I want to play Imperial Agent. But, I played Smuggler in beta, and don't mind playing that either. PVP or PVE don't matter too me. A few in my WoW guild are going to be playing too, so I might start an Old Republic guild for doing stuff on off-nights when we are not raiding on WoW.
I'm pretty much promised to Ki'ta Kren since I guilted loads of folks there already to try and keep the people I know local and on one server.
I'll just play wherever the hell Wiryu is.
I'm sad I can't be a chewbacca.
I'll most likely end up on a west server sith side. Play with some of the coworkers and local ex wow people I chill with. Though with as much as I love the lore and story stuff of the game I am sure ill have one of everything.
I am getting an early invite, So i'll let u guys know the servers that are initially up.
Screenshots show the exisiting servers that are up. Ki'ta Kren isn't currently a server option that is available. I am not too picky about the server so long as no one takes my character name. I will absolutely not play on a server where my character name is taken, so let's be quick about it. Is PVP versus PVE a big deal for some of us?
They changed Bondar Crystal to pvp from the beta, looks like I'll go elsewhere for pve. Went ahead on Shii-Cho
Most of the dudes I know headed to "Saber of Exar Kun" however I havn't received my invite yet.
I'll see where the majority of you all end up. I may be able to get squeezed into early access. I decided late that I wanted to try this. I also appear to be the point man for a handful of friends that are getting this. A PVP server is fine with me.
If you pre-ordered late, you're guaranteed to get early access for at least 1 day before release. I am already leveling my character on Saber of Exar-Kun, especially if Wiryu has people there already and him and crush will most likely be there, it's probably a good place to start for the AT on the PVP side.
I got my Early Access today! I guess I'll go Saber of Exar-Kun so I can run into you guys. Are you guys doing Empire right?
I actually rolled Republic. I think a few of us are doing republic. Although I intend have an empire character as well.
Ok rolled republic on Saber of Exar Kun
I have a 21 Sith Sorc on Space Slug. Had to pick the server for the name. lol
I'm on Saber of Exar Kun with Wiryu.
I really have to say this game does start off kind of slow for the first 10 levels, as it eases the player into basic MMORPG mechanics. But once you leave the noob area holy shit things get amazing.
I honestly thought that this would just be WoW in space with light sabers, but it's so much more. And if you enjoy the traditional single player Bioware games, this game will be worth it. They really captured the feeling of being in the Star Wars universe and that your character and story is important. As a Jedi Knight you feel like your walking in the footsteps of Skywalker or Obi-Wan.
I love the presentation of quests and heroic instances. It's really immersive and makes you feel like your playing out an episode from the films.
Haven't had this much fun in a MMO for a long time. Also, Force Leap. Force Leap everything.
For me the game is still mostly holding up to my first impressions during beta, mostly. Though there is a lot of archaic design choices, mostly in the UI and how the game tracks buffs/debuffs and DoTs/HoTs. It's going to make endgame raiding a bit annoying for seasoned raiders. Hopefully, Bioware listens and makes these minor changes or at least give the option to change it.
But this game feels great. Have not been this sucked into an MMO since classic WoW. And man the combat is awesome, feels dynamic. I think it is the fact there is no auto-attack helps. A lot more twitchy, which is what I like. PVP feels a lot better to me because of it. Very satisfying to force push someone into a pool of acid, then combo into a stun to make sure he dies.
If anyone ends up sith side on space slug (pve west), you can catch me on oddrei or mistmoore.
I hope they don't allow ui mods. They ruined wow raiding so bad. Let us move the ui around and call it done.
So now that the game is officially launched, who else is planning to join? What's the status Crush, Dive, Wiryu?
I'm in. Still trying out classes but I have rolled a few on Saber of Exar Kun. I'll be keeping these characters for the long run and deciding on which one to use as a main.
Sith Empire:
Dive - Sith Marauder
Cryptman - Imperial Operative
Galactic Republic:
Caliban - Trooper
Divewire - Jedi (still deciding on type)
Bounty Hunter on Exar Kun named Wiryu. Lovin it. ;)
I still don't have it, I want to play but I don't really have the time right now
Scankid - Jedi Shadow on Exar Kun
Using this character mostly to learn the game and run into you guys. People in my WoW raiding guild will be getting the game this week or next so I will be rerolling to start SWTOR version of my guild on another server.
I disagree on mods ruining WoW raiding. The problem with the default UI in WoW initially is it did not convey important information properly to allow the player to perform optimally in order to down the more challenging content. A lot of stuff that was in mods has been implemented into the default UI because Blizzard realized hiding, or not properly displaying, information from the player is bad game design and very 1990s. For example, before buff/debuff filters were added to the default if you played a Warlock (DoT class) good luck figuring out which DoT is yours if you play with another Warlock or more in a sea of 100s of debuffs on the boss.
But I do agree the game does not need mods. It does need buff/debuff filters and better visual cues for procs. The only way to discover your procs is through buff/debuff searching in a sea of dozen; not to mention the icons are tiny. It really takes you out of the game to have to search the buff/debuff area after you hit an ability that may proc something important to your rotation.
Just started Sith assassin, Mistmoore, on Exar Kun.
Blizzard added those mods to default because they tuned to raid encounters around the assumption players had them, leaving anyone without handicap. Watch some of the ex wow players in swtor try to heal without healbot and grid, its pathetically hilarious. Let alone if there are instances where you have to move out of the fire and no DBM to yell at em to move. I agree buff/debuff filters are needed, specially for chance proc stuff. Moving the UI elements is a biggy as well, beyond that I would prefer the game not be reduced down to a point that wow is at where enough addons and you're only 1 step away from the game playing itself. Also, as a former EQ hardcore raider, there are no challenging raids in wow.
Let alone the endgame shit in FFXI, I would love to some wow players fight that crap, they moan about fights lasting long then 5 minutes, let alone the 3 hours some bosses had
Characters:
Dyne :Jedi Guardian
Adol: Jedi Sage
It would be good to see if we can create an Apocalypse Tribe guild on both the republic side and empire, but that's going to depend on the population of ATer's that jump on this *cough getthefuckoncrush&DJ cough*. Don't let FF14 traumatize you, this game is actually really good.
Well yeah the color blind issue, like in WoW, Blizzard has ini file settings to change how the game displays colors for the different types of color blindness.
Thing about DBM is that if you are a progression guild, like mine, DBM does not even work properly for hardmodes because top guilds do not submit their combat logs until weeks after stuff has been cleared. So you do it the old fashion way, look through combat log, figure out visual cues, and boss emotes. But WoW is not hard. It really comes down to paying attention, understanding the fight, execute the strategy. Stable connection is a plus too. I wonder why no one mentions boss videos on youtube as to ruining WoW raiding? How do you tune a boss that the majority of raiders are going to just watch a video on how to beat?
A good portion of in my guild use default. I think more than one would think does. A lot of justification for it is that when you pushing new content you don't want stuff breaking in the middle of raids. Or even worrying about updating stuff because it's broken. Me, I just change the look and move stuff out the way to the sides. I keep a clean UI. I don't even need an ability bar because I have the bindings to my abilities memorized. So I keep that out the way and reduce the size.
Another weird thing in SWTOR is when you hold CTRL as if you were using it as a modifier you cannot move. It's because they have CTRL + A bound that can't be unbound currently in the preferences. CTRL + A is a non-functioning Ambiance toggle setting. Me, people in my guild, and a lot of folks on the forums bind their Push-to-talk to CTRL. Freakin annoying at first. Can't DPS or move while talking. I know this will be changed eventually. None of the other modifiers like Shift and Alt work that way.
Who else loves datacrons? Man I love "gamey" stuff in MMORPGs. That's my problem with a lot of MMOs is they don't feel like games to me, but chat rooms with graphics. DC Universe Online added "gamey" stuff with it's challenge mission. Platforming and environmental puzzles in an MMORPG? Great stuff. Even if you have a guide on their location, it still can be challenging to get them. Really good design imo. Though kinda bad design that they are mandatory for endgame. Also, annoying if you roll alts I can imagine. Some of them are a real pain in the ass.
So how do people feel about the combat responsiveness?
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=84943
There is a ton of agreement of forums saying there is a big issue with the game. I have not noticed. It feels very responsive to me much like WoW. There is some buggyness animations sometimes where there is a delay, kind of like the animations queue up then follow the last animation. I think this is really what people are noticing, however your instant spells still hit the target even though the last animation is still played/delayed. I don't buy there is a .5 delay in being able to hit abilities because you have to wait for the animation to finish. That is just not happening with me, and I'm playing a Sage that has cast times, instants, and channels.
Here is an example though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXlX59rdtls&context=C3ce99d5ADOEgsToPDskKYVwnLv01Xqqj_g-bLhNjO
He shoots one target in then throws grenade at other. See how the animation for the throwing of grenade happens after the blaster fire ends. If you take a look at the health of the mob he throws the grenade it actually loses it's health when he hits the ability, however the animation and the floating combat text happen when the grenade lands.
Maybe the reason I do not notice it is because other games I've played behave this way? Aint it standard that when an animation ends the next one for your next action starts? The argument is they want the responsiveness of WoW where animations can clip over others if you hit your next ability. I don't know, both styles feel the same to me in terms of responsiveness.
If it is not a bug, then appears to me like just how Bioware decided to do the animations. The important thing is damage is still instant at the time you hit your ability. However, if possible I do think Bioware should try to tighten up the animations with what is actually happening on screen a bit.
Edit: I don't understand how this kills the game either. Is it really that big of deal for a lot of people? Or is it a vocal minority thing?
When you queue an ability or attack that is not channeled, regardless of your attack animation it will go through. So If I cast Slash (which is slow to start), it will deal its damage even if the animation doesn't finish. Gamers need to understand that the animation time is meaningless. The move will deal damage regardless, so it's wise to move on to your next rotation regardless of a slow cast animation. I do feel that the responsiveness of some movements needs to be fixed.
I've spent some time testing this on my Jedi Sage. For most abilities, the ones that have a .5 longer cast time after the cast bar is finished, if you cast something then queue up an instant, the instant will clip the animation of the previous abilities animation; just like in WoW. There is no delay. Cast Deliverance then compare when you cast Deliverance followed by Rejuvenate; watch your character's hand for the animation. Rejuvenate, as well as other instants, will clip the .5 leftover animation of Deliverance. If you do back to back casts of a cast time ability it will finish the first animation then speed up or truncate the second animation to sync up with the cast bar, just like WoW (I tested on my Priest).
The oddity I did test was like in the video with Smuggler. The grenade does indeed come out after the Charge Burst animation is finished, but does in fact do the damage instantly. Other instants will properly clip or fire at the same time during Charge Burst: start with Charged Burst then switch targets and queue up Flurry of Bolts or Sabotage Charge to see what I mean.
The grenade issue is a problem because it has a knock back component. In a dire situation where you may need that knock back ASAP to come out, I can see that being an issue. I understand the wind up for throw and the knock back happening when the grenade lands from a mechanic standpoint, but it should properly clip the Charge Burst in the middle of it's animation like the other abilities do. It's like Charge Burst's full animation with damage from grenade going out at the same time is correct. Then when Charge Burst is finished the grenade is thrown, thus you are waiting for the knock back to occur. This needs to be tightened up to be on par if you were to use the grenade normally, non-queued. The grenade should be thrown during Charge Burst in order to feel fluid.
I only tested Smuggler and Sage so I am not discounting other abilities that may also function like the oddity as others have claimed. Sage works fine from what I tested. I even moved when Deliverance cast time was done with a queued up instant and it's fluid with both abilities landing at the same time as I moved. The only issue here is the cast bar incorrectly showed it canceled the Deliverance at 2.5 seconds (talented) when in fact it landed. Should be a simple fix for that.
I feel like assigning some kind of priority or duplicity to the Smuggler animation issue would make my life a lot easier. The further I get in the game, the more frustrating the knock-back delay becomes. It really has nothing to do with aesthetics! My Sage is only level ten, so I can't comment on that particular dynamic, but I'm glad to hear it's not prevalent. I have no idea what the ETA would be on that kind of fix, but I'm probably putting Smuggler on the back burner for a bit until I forget how frustrated I am, or it's fixed.
Started a consular on the republic side of exar kun. Went simple with the name "Wir" add me!
I'd like to start this post with a shout out to Vitamin D. May he keep being that awesome guy that he is.
I've had tons of fun with this game. I love it so far. I spent the first 20 levels or so of the game looking for something wrong with the game, and I couldn't find it. I'm not going to pretend to be a professional game critic, start a blog, and then rant about animation responsiveness or other trifling matters, just for the sake of having something to complain about, but...! I did, however more recently find some stuff that is nagging at my gaming experience as a whole on SWTOR. As of this post, I'm a level 25 Sith Warrior Juggernaut. I could probably a bit higher but I'm reluctant to sink more effort or time into my character at the moment. I've boiled it down to three issues.
First issue: The game has been relatively easy, and I never really felt as though my character were under or overpowered at any given time. That's fine. During a class story mission, I killed a room full of republic soldiers, lieutenants, blah blah. Didn't break a sweat. Then I had to fight the boss in a separate fight afterward, same instance, and my life bar shot down almost instantaneously, killing me. I thought it might have been a fluke, and maybe if I popped off a med pack, I'd be okay. Nope. Died slightly slower. It took me like 10 tries, and a run back to a medic droid, when I finally won. Even then, I think it was luck. I'm not here to whine about overall difficulty; If they wanted the game to be hard, that's fine. But why was everything in the entire game up to that point (including in that same instance, same story, same room) super easy, and then suddenly crushingly difficult on one dude? At least ramp it up a little gradually, right? But then everything after that fight, bosses included, have been super easy again, so who knows what they want from me.
Second issue: The mobs are pointless. At least at the point I'm at in the game, so far. They were fun at first, I guess, but they have become tiresome. They give a completely inconsequential amount of experience, since we only get a truly tangible amount to upon completion of quests or missions. They aggro on your presence and are always, always in the way. You HAVE to fight them, and aside from maybe completing bonus objectives, the fight is always a complete waste of time. They are always extremely easy and have no chance of killing you, and they always stick around just long enough to be inconvenient . If they drop anything at all, it's always shitty, outdated gear or an item that says in its own description that it's useless! Either move the freaking enemies, make them fun, or at least make them worth plowing through.
Third issue: The "MMO" aspects of the game seem arbitrary and superfluous. This game feels like it would be better off not being an MMO at all. I feel like I'm playing Dragon Age or Skyrim with a bunch of other assholes in my way, spoiling things, or otherwise ruining my game experience and immersion. Since the game is so heavily story-based, I'd say player immersion is a key thing. An example is, I'm walking around the imperial fleet space station, looking around at the shops, or heading to the cantina to chill with my companion. I think, how cool, this is so starwarsy! Then suddenly 8 dudes on various barely-faster-than-running speeder bikes drive through my character, kicking up dust and sand out of nowhere from the metal flooring, as if we were in a desert or something. Oh. Right. It's an MMO. I'm not sure why they let people use their stupid speeders in that particular environment, indoors. (Also I refuse to spend the total 60k on a speeder and license, since they chug along slightly faster than my sprint , but that's a whole other issue) As for the arbitrary stuff, I'm talking about some items bieng rare for no reason at all, other than to dangle a carrot in front of our face. Omg rarez! For example, purple color crystals for light sabers. You can't really argue lore for that, because not only has purple has been freely available in most other Star Wars games, but the even more common yellow and orange crystal sabers don't even appear in the movies. I'm fine being stuck with a red saber for the entire game, it's just the principle that bugs me. I should be compelled by the fun content, thrill, and story to keep playing. But I guess those alone would be too much work for Bioware. I don't think you should have to be level capped, fighting end game monsters, and getting tied up in all that "second job" guild nonsense to change the freaking color of your saber, with a crystal that has the same stats as all the other colors. That, and tons of bad guy mobs use purple sabers. Gimme a break.
Also, anyone see the screenshots of people being for using curse words while casually talking to friends via whispers in the game? What the hell is that?
As for enemy difficulty, you are aware of the Normal - Strong - Elite - Champion ranking for them? As for mobs, lower level vs your level do take a chunk out of the xp rewards, but they exist to give ya something extra, but not required to do, grinding only to level on mobs is staple that should be sent back to the JRPG's that spawned it. Every Western made mmo, I've played, has always been Questing > Grinding for leveling.
As for Space stations, they're cities in space even in Star Wars, they could have mass public transportation and still be in line. In actual buildings, many tunnels, and ships you can't use them. Level 1 Speeders are 8k+ after the 40k training, and give you a 90% speed buff. Sprint if I recall is 30%. Level 2 speeders run 20k+ and 210k training, the buff is 100%. Finally Level 3 speeders are 50k to 1mil+, training is 300K and the buff is 110%. Like most MMO's mounts are luxury items and money sinks, And really credits are by far not hard to get, if you work at it. Space Mission's are just of one easy ways.
As for color crystals big woop, giving everything away for free to level one's isn't how MMO's work, so they made Purple a high level rare, there are still 5 other colors you use or like any other MMO in existence work your way to the goal. If you want to remain casual fine, but again this is still an MMO, and those that put in the time should deserve extra rewards. Also there are static (uncustomizable) Sith only pvp reward sabers with purple colors too. Also there is this one too http://www.theholocomm.com/2012/01/08/magenta-color-crystal-finally-found-in-game-heres-how-to-get-one/. Hell most of the time I have to buy darkside lightsabers to get the orange crystals I use, 15-20k a pop and then upwards to 2k to remove the crystal. There also is chance lower level purple will come available via the legacy system down the line so wait and see.
As for the banned thing, thats a hoax, as you can freely swear in any chat mode, hence the existence of the chat filter if it offends someone.
I think the difficulty is fine; for me at least. Though I think it is going to be annoying for casual non-gaming player; people that don't play anything but WoW or Star Wars fans. Though from what I understand the difficulty curve seems to be different for specific classes. For me it seemed to get increasingly harder at around 30+. So that is a balancing issue that maybe needs to be looked at.
The thing a lot of people may not be used to is that SWTOR requires you to use all of your abilities for midway and onward level-up content. Not to mention make sure your companion has the right abilities toggled on/off. It's a bit shocking to the players who have been only playing WoW-style MMOs where you just burn through everything and move on without much thought. I like in SWTOR that you have to learn your class. It's going to make endgame a lot more pleasant, at the cost of scaring away folks who have less patience and time to dedicate to the game. Mouse clickers must be having a really hard time.
I agree on the mob placement, it does get tiring. It seems like they are padding the length of the game in a lot of places. Same goes with the walking speed, the speeder speed, and the general amount of traveling you have to do. It sucks when something that should take 5 minutes takes 25 minutes because you have walk and keep clearing packs of mobs in your way. Then the turn in, and scream "please be the last quest here" then they give a follow up that is just as out the way. I mean there is a reason Blizzard has optimized WoW's flow over the years, so there is little traveling back and forth. There is a reason Skyrim and most modern RPGs have quick travel. There is a reason Guild Wars 2 will have quick travel. The reason is walking is not fun and is not the heart of what make an RPG engaging.
But again totally agree, when there are bonus objective they are fine, but when I have to clear them again and again just because they respawned quickly, or are in the way of the area I need to get to; it's not fun. Balsavis is probably the worst with this, with having tunnels and paths filled with mobs that you have to go back and forth between objective and turn-ins. Indeed make them fun or remove them. Let's not forget the mob packs that appear at first as single enemy, but 6 of his buddies rocket-pack in or come out of the ground like zombies. That gets old after a while.
I think lower the cooldown on the hearth to 10-15 minutes would be a nice fix to the above.
Mob placement overall reminds of City of Heroes, which was always odd to me and did not feel natural for the setting. Like stuff should be coming at me and not standing around (the flashpoints and story quest get this action right for the setting). WoW seems more natural with the packs of enemies, something about the art style makes it seem more alive. While Star Wars NPC mobs don't come alive until you engage them. Well, interior dungeon-like areas are fine in SWTOR, as are the exotic wild life. But in city areas, like Coruscant, stuff is just standing around lifeless.
I think the quest rewards then having mobs dropping mostly trash items and small xp is fine for the most part. The point is to discourage mob grinding and item farming (you know gold sellers). On another note the amount of enemies and their trash drops make the game seem more hack and slashy. It feels no different than Diablo where you sell most everything, but every now and then you find something good. At least I get into that mind set, and it does not bother me as much anymore. The way quest rewards are tailored to your class, and you get to pick between an upgrade now or a better badge item later is a nice touch. Choice is good.
So far Linka, HC82 and I are on the republic side of Exar Kun. We've mainly been doing our own thing while waiting for more AT'ers to funnel in over time, so there's no official guild set up yet. I can always set one up tho... in fact I'll do that tonight. I'll keep a look out for you guys, or you can just look me up when your on.
I'm a Jedi Sentinel named Kazicht.
Sweet deal. I'll do some adding tomorrow.
Establishing a guild requires a party of 4 people who aren't in a guild. I say we establish some kind of "AT meet-up" at a set time so we can all be on at the same time, add each other to friends, boogie down in space, etc.
I can log in at anytime, but if we want to go for an organized time, I could log in around say...... 6pm est for guild stuff? If that's too short notice, lemme know and i'll jump in whenever needed.
I'll be on tomorrow around 6ish est. For now though? Screenshots! :D
My bearded Bounty Hunter. He's pretty awesome! Sadly you can only see his face via portrait.
He is level 50 now and lives only to PvP, until his next adventure! It's worth adding that the Bounty Hunter storyline was magnificent!
Now is the time for a new story! Wir the Jedi Consular Sage! :D
Coming along quite nicely.
Really nice screenshots!
Can you get a Jawa as your helper?
Bounty hunters can!
So there I was, pokin' dudes in the dick with my lightsaber. There was no reason for me to be doing this, but then again there wasn't a reason not to. My companion started to say something, but then I activated her shock collar a few times, and saberhilt-whipped her. This game is fun.
But anyway, has anyone else gotten to the part where you find out you're darth vader's parent? I was like
Also I say we start a petition to bioware, to have them add a Picard as a playable class
So the Apocalypse Tribe guild is officially up and running on Saber of Exar Kun!
Will post some sweet pics later!
Whoever is on the server you can look for me, HC (Dyne) or Wiryu (Wir) for an invite.
I can't say I'd be too surprised with all the bad press SW has been getting, but am I the only one still playing? :o
Probably. Get back on Diablo 3.
I'm still playing, but not much left to do on my server, except to level alts
I kinda lost interest in this game after awhile, I enjoyed it when I first played and for the first month or so but after awhile it just stopped interesting me. It's too much the MMO I've played before so I went back to Eve with Jaecryme, thats been a blast but I'll most likely take a break from that for a bit once The Secret World comes out.
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