IPB

Welcome Guest ( Log In | Register )

6 Pages V  « < 2 3 4 5 6 >  
Reply to this topicStart new topic
Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMOs meet Lightsabers & creet deepz
Oddies da Nerfed
post Dec 21 2011, 10:14 AM
Post #46


Pray for Mojo.
********

Group: Paragon Caste
Posts: 378
Joined: 25-June 04
Member No.: 165



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.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Knightsword
post Dec 21 2011, 09:31 PM
Post #47


Mistress of Red Magic
************

Group: Arbiter Caste
Posts: 1466
Joined: 24-June 03
From: Minneapolis, MN
Member No.: 53



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
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Scan_Man
post Dec 22 2011, 03:53 AM
Post #48


Grand Armor
*********

Group: AT Certified
Posts: 510
Joined: 23-October 03
Member No.: 71



QUOTE(Knightsword @ Dec 21 2011, 10:31 PM) *
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



Most of that was artificial difficulty and artificial longevity, which is usually considered bad game design by today's standards. There is a reason that type of stuff rarely exists in games in this decade of gaming. A game should test actual skill and not be a bladder bending endurance match. Nor should you have to take days off work in order to progress. Consequently games are not suppose to be a substitute for work or cause health issues, like holding your bladder for the 3 hour marathon boss. Cause let's be honest all that crap was designed that way to keep players playing longer, which equals more money in subscription fees. It's generally understood the old model had flaws because it was designed to keep players playing because of length, with psychological placement of rewards, that kept you on the hamster wheel. To be fair WoW has it's own hamster wheels that needs to go out the door too.

Seriously, do you miss that? I would be with you if I were my younger self, but at some point we get older and are not able to do that anymore even though we enjoyed it back in the day. That's where I am at and coming from. The game industry has realized this too because a lot of the gamers who made gaming mainstream are getting older, however they are still buying games. Some of those people are taking the helm of game design while the Miyamoto's of the world will be retiring in the near future.

I am not saying you are wrong to like that design, just it is unfair to say WoW players are incapable of something that takes that long when in fact the demographics and numbers say they have no desire to participate in that kind of gameplay. It's like trying to score points against a team that has no interest in showing up.






QUOTE
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.



First off, I was never originally talking about addons, I just realized this might be a misunderstanding based on your response. When I said the "option to change it," I meant in the preferences. As in something you check off to change how buffs display. I worded it that way because I thought that while I don't like how the UI displays information I am used to, it may not be fundamentally broken. To determine that would require a sample of people completing multiple Operations over different types of mechanics (1 tier is not enough imo).

In other words Bioware may not think their UI is broken in this regard. Therefore, they may not want to force a straight up change on everyone just because I THINK and many others think it will be better for endgame, you know. Like, I don't think being able to move the UI is that important, but you do. Different preferences vs Bioware's design choices and implementation.

The only tuning Blizzard made because of mods was it challenged them to try and come up with new types of mechanics that could not be overly-simplified with mods (Wrath had this problem). They have gotten better at this. This is not a bad thing. But, they did in fact add stuff to the UI because they felt information was not available right away to the player. It was brought up in Blue posts with the reasoning behind the Dungeon Journal as a relevant example.

Some ex-WoW players are failing at healing in SWTOR because they don't have mods, especially Healbot and even more so Grid as examples? I understand where you coming from. However, those two mods work functionally the same as what you can do with the Operation frames in SWTOR (minus buff/debuff filtering and incoming heals). Even if you do think mods are the issue, you must also consider the problems with SWTOR's UI you and I have mentioned; not able to move it and even resize it to where the UI would work optimally for those players coming from a different UI setup. Maybe those people are looking for health bars in the wrong place because they are used to finding it in a certain place out of long term habit?

That or they are just typical bad WoW players. I've ranted about how most WoW players are bad at gaming before. They are a bad demographic example to measure any type of skill in a MMO. So saying "fail WoW healer" is not saying much because there is a ton of those people out there with and without mods: and they've been waiting to jump on the next MMO SWTOR hotness.

So to blame mods and say WoW's player-base is handicapped without them, which is largely made up of non-gamers that wipe on the new "brain-dead-just-hit-buttons-collect loot" mode Looking For Raid, is not taking a hard look at that specific demographic as a whole. It just does not hold water if you've actually pugged easy as hell content, or spent time recruiting for progression. No mod can fix a "not paying attention" handicap. No mod can fix a "not putting enough time in to learn the game or understand encounters" handicap. All of this is regardless how idiot proof mods, like DBM, are or Blizzard's updates to the UI seem. These people are just handicapped when it comes to gaming. I am speaking based on my experiences with other WoW players, WoWProgress statistical data, and why certain nerfs were made.

You do know now in WoW that if you die to something the game whispers you info on how you died and what to do about it? YET PEOPLE STILL FAIL THE NEXT ATTEMPT! Now you got me started, sorry.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It just takes some adjustment, that's the heart of that issue I think. I'm playing Jedi Sage healer for my guild and I have no problems healing and moving out of shit. It feels exactly the same as WoW, in which I've healed on and used Grid and mods. Indeed, there is no mouse over functionality on the Operation frames like I'm used to in WoW. So clicking on frames then pressing my heal is a bit inefficient for my taste. But, it's still not an issue if you are worth your salt.

However, there is self-targeting and focus target modifier bindings in SWTOR which do in fact work functionally the same as mouse overs or mouse clicks in HealBot. Good for flashpoints and main tank healing and keeping yourself up. I am going to play around with those more this week.


Anyway, I found the the color of the UI in SWTOR can be an issue for some too. My guild leader is color blind and is having a ton of issues with the reds on reds for the health numbers on the bars. So if he was playing a healer he would have a very hard time. He's really struggling. So some color blind options should be in the game.

Other things, let's see, I don't understand why you can't display all of the map icons on the World Map. You can only do one at a time. They have the magnifying glass that can show everything in area, but that is an extra step to show information that should be available at a quick glace. The mini-map has proper filters but not the World Map. It's odd design choice.

One thing I like that bothers other people. I like not being able to queue up for individual Warzones. Fixes issues of people gravitating to one Warzone over the others, and even people farming the easiest Warzone. It's also a plus that PVP is pretty damn good, as is the maps.

Stats stats stats! Very simple stats and formulas. Once you get around the language barrier of it being Sci-fi Star Wars instead of fantasy is quite easy to understand. You don't need to be a number cruncher to understand how much of something you need. For example, I need 20% more accuracy to hit 100% of the time with my attacks. WoW is unnecessarily complicated with stats. The equivalent in WoW is I need 791 Expertise rating to get my Expertise to 26 which will translate into a percentage of how often my attacks will not be avoided. Very good how stats are handled. Though I don't quite see why there needs to be a Power and Force Power stat, when Power handles everything. My best guess right now is how they itemized things at endgame, as it could possibly upset the balance on what certain classes can obtain loot if they got rid of Force Power.


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
HC82
post Dec 22 2011, 11:44 AM
Post #49


Badass Billionaire Extraordanaire
***********

Group: Paragon Caste
Posts: 968
Joined: 13-December 02
From: NYC
Member No.: 4



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.



QUOTE(Scan_Man @ Dec 22 2011, 04:53 AM) *
Anyway, I found the the color of the UI in SWTOR can be an issue for some too. My guild leader is color blind and is having a ton of issues with the reds on reds for the health numbers on the bars. So if he was playing a healer he would have a very hard time. He's really struggling. So some color blind options should be in the game.

Other things, let's see, I don't understand why you can't display all of the map icons on the World Map. You can only do one at a time. They have the magnifying glass that can show everything in area, but that is an extra step to show information that should be available at a quick glace. The mini-map has proper filters but not the World Map. It's odd design choice.


Personally I want Macros for this game. It needs them

I never considered a color bind UI function. I won't make a cynical response about it, but you definitely don't want to downgrade a feature to appease the minority, yet take away from the flexibility of the majority. Something like adjusting color or add different textures to stat bars would be an option.

All those WoW gamers are definitely adjusting to SWTOR's UI, mostly because it doesn't hold your hand. Learn to play, as they say. As for me I have ZERO issues with the UI as it stands, minus the stat-debuff visibility/awareness, which to me would be a nice bonus. Even then I don't "QQ" about it, because I do this radical thing... I look at my buff and debuff bar often *gasp*. On the healer side, there will need to be something to show them larger and more pronounced, since many of the icons are reused and it can be tough for healers. If you have skypee/vent, a quick shout out doesn't hurt either "oh shit I am bleeding Heeelp" or "taunt it off me". I don't always need a UI to tell me taunt something off a team member. Shouldn't I be paying attention to their health bars too? Maybe if I had ADD I could justify the need for giant words popping up on my screen. I am like the one dude in WOW who tried to use as little mods as possible. I would see screenshots of certain people's Mods and I'd think they're on the deck of the starship enterprise, with all this added crap on their screen. After they made the UI changes in Cata, I shut off all my mods and just manned up. Look guys and gals, the SWTOR UI is not perfect and IMO it could use some changes to make things easier, but in the mean time were just going to have to be more visually aware of what's going on and communicate.

To me I always saw Mods as a luxury and shouldn't of been mandatory to play well. I do agree that through the evolution of WoW, changes had to be made to the UI to reflect the increased complexity, but things like deadly boss Mod just totally made boss fights easy. Also, getting one shot wiped because your eyes were in a different part of the screen for 2 seconds isn't exactly "fun" either, so for that purpose I could justify its use.

As for the mini-map vs the world map. Yeah, it annoys me that the world map is so vague, but it seems like it is intentional, as a reason to go out and explore.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Scan_Man
post Dec 22 2011, 03:08 PM
Post #50


Grand Armor
*********

Group: AT Certified
Posts: 510
Joined: 23-October 03
Member No.: 71



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.


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Knightsword
post Dec 23 2011, 12:23 PM
Post #51


Mistress of Red Magic
************

Group: Arbiter Caste
Posts: 1466
Joined: 24-June 03
From: Minneapolis, MN
Member No.: 53



QUOTE(HC82 @ Dec 22 2011, 11:44 AM) *
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.


From my understanding it just takes 4 players to start a guild, and requires 4 to keep the guild going, oh and a one time 5k credit fee. So we should have enough to start one now.

QUOTE(Scan_Man @ Dec 22 2011, 03:08 PM) *
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.

Some? Taris' were just plain evil, though not all are required, just the ones that boost your main stats (about a 5th of them), and the matrix ones are optional too, since you can get relics from crew skills and vendors.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Scan_Man
post Dec 27 2011, 05:04 PM
Post #52


Grand Armor
*********

Group: AT Certified
Posts: 510
Joined: 23-October 03
Member No.: 71



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...01Xqqj_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?


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
HC82
post Dec 27 2011, 10:14 PM
Post #53


Badass Billionaire Extraordanaire
***********

Group: Paragon Caste
Posts: 968
Joined: 13-December 02
From: NYC
Member No.: 4



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.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Scan_Man
post Dec 28 2011, 02:43 AM
Post #54


Grand Armor
*********

Group: AT Certified
Posts: 510
Joined: 23-October 03
Member No.: 71



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.


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Kari
post Dec 30 2011, 08:51 PM
Post #55


c σ м р ℓ є т є !
********

Group: Neophyte Caste
Posts: 355
Joined: 16-December 03
Member No.: 106



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.


--------------------
IPB Image
ℓєt γσυя sнσят ℓєgs cαяяү үσυ αωαү ωίtн үσυr тєℓєscσрє єүєs, мєtαl тєєтн.
ί cαn'т bє sєєn ωiтh үσυ

Kari - Newman Force - level 36
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Wiryu
post Jan 11 2012, 07:02 AM
Post #56


This is my custom member title.
************

Group: Paragon Caste
Posts: 1169
Joined: 11-February 04
From: Massachusetts
Member No.: 121



Started a consular on the republic side of exar kun. Went simple with the name "Wir" add me!
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
tanshin
post Jan 12 2012, 06:25 PM
Post #57


Drunken Ninja Master Thug
*********

Group: Paragon Caste
Posts: 536
Joined: 31-October 03
From: Kyoto, Japan
Member No.: 80



I'd like to start this post with a shout out to Vitamin D. May he keep being that awesome guy that he is. guitarist.gif

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...! sniperer.gif 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. crushinated.gif 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. crushinated.gif It took me like 10 tries, and a run back to a medic droid, when I finally won. cya.gif 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. untitled-2.gif

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. beigesleep.gif They give a completely inconsequential amount of experience, since we only get a truly tangible amount to levelup.png 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 woend.gif . 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! beigelaugh.gif Either move the freaking enemies, make them fun, or at least make them worth plowing through. guns.gif

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! plasmabeam.gif 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. beigerolleyes.gif 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 ewj1hy.gif , 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! ctf.gif 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. beigesigh.gif


Also, anyone see the screenshots of people being divebanned.gif for using curse words while casually talking to friends via whispers in the game? What the hell is that?

Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Knightsword
post Jan 12 2012, 07:38 PM
Post #58


Mistress of Red Magic
************

Group: Arbiter Caste
Posts: 1466
Joined: 24-June 03
From: Minneapolis, MN
Member No.: 53



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 Magenta. 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.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
tanshin
post Jan 12 2012, 08:56 PM
Post #59


Drunken Ninja Master Thug
*********

Group: Paragon Caste
Posts: 536
Joined: 31-October 03
From: Kyoto, Japan
Member No.: 80



QUOTE(Knightsword @ Jan 12 2012, 05:38 PM) *
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 Magenta. 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.


Yes sir, I'm aware of the ranking of enemies. Apparently the "higher ranked" ones just require me to hit them a bunch more times. It's the same fight as with a lower ranked guy, just drawn out a bit more. They are less tedious, but only because the champion mobs are usually in a place where you aren't forced to engage them over and over. No one ever said we should be grinding on mobs to level up. But if we were, at least being forced to kill a billion boring things would have some point to it. I like the questing, and love the story. I'm glad that (so far) I haven't needed an 18 man party to advance at any point in the story, too. Those were the days, haha.

Logically, you may be right on about the space stations maybe having some kind of mass transit (which by definition the speeders are not). But relatively speaking, that is a very small space station, definitely not "city in space" size. You're telling me it doesn't seem out of place with how it should be, or doesn't at least urk you a little bit when someone pulls up to the the bar in the cantina to talk to the bartender with a big, hulking, sand-spewing speeder thingy? You've got no problem with the 50 speeder bikes piled into one another at the auction house terminal? It just shouldn't work like that. I don't see how you can rationalize that. I'm not sure how you thought my argument was about money instead of how crappy the speeders are... I have no trouble making money in the game (and I doubt anyone does, since the game experience can seriously be likened to walking through a halloween haunted house in a tightly packed line), and I have enough credits to buy the stupid license, I just don't think it's worth it at all. I'm entitled to that. Did you see how fast speeders are in Return of the Jedi? Sorry, I can't help but be disappointed, no matter how many numbers and percentages you tell me. I guess I'll feel pretty foolish when I'm eating the sand you kick up from the clean polished metal floor in the space station, as you laugh and (very slowly) ride away into the distance like a mall-cop on a segway.

I'm also entitled to think it's stupid that a fully aesthetic feature is an end game item. If I wanted a purple saber (which I don't) I don't even think it would be worth having anymore if I already hit the cap. Just because I think this about aesthetics, doesn't mean I think everything should be handed to us on a silver platter. That is a gross over generalization. Save this carrot-dangling crap for gear with stats so people that care about that crap can donate their life to the game for them. Aesthetics are something that should add flavor to the story, and development of your character. A color should not represent some kind of hollow trophy to stand holding with your saber out in the most crowded spot you can find, along with the 500 other people that have the same thing you do, and don't give a shit. The "excuse" of "it's an MMO, deal with it" doesn't satiate my outrage, because the game is obviously meant to be more than just a typical MMO. And you made my point for me when you said "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." It's as I said in my last post. This game feels to me like it would be better if it weren't an MMO at all.


I'm glad that screenshot was a hoax. Oh, is that what the existence of the chat filter is for? Thanks to your impeccable and objective deductive reasoning, now I know!


--------------------

dueling, remade for modern audiences
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Scan_Man
post Jan 13 2012, 09:00 AM
Post #60


Grand Armor
*********

Group: AT Certified
Posts: 510
Joined: 23-October 03
Member No.: 71



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.


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post

6 Pages V  « < 2 3 4 5 6 >
Reply to this topicStart new topic
2 User(s) are reading this topic (2 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)
0 Members:

 



Lo-Fi Version Time is now: 18th March 2024 - 11:44 PM