Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMOs meet Lightsabers & creet deepz Options

[HC82]

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-c...railer#comments

Hungry Star Wars nerds:
http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/pax-ea...highlight-video

[tanshin]

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?