**OFFICIAL** Star Wars: The Old Republic Thread

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zokudu

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2009
4,364
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Whenever I run the game I just get a black screen. Sounds work and I can see my cursor but nothing else.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
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I've played for a few hours of the weekend beta, and I don't think I'll be buying. I'm not a fan any of the story lines I've seen so far. It's kinda nice that you can adjust what you say and do some quests multiple ways (killing a guy vs taking a fake head instead) but it still feels like you are stuck playing "on rails" following the exact path the developers intended, and your choices don't really change the final destination.

Other than the "choices", the questing is about the same as WoW, which is not what I want. Even worse, it's the same as cataclysm WoW, where every quest is tuned to be easy enough to complete in your sleep, basically. All in all, it felt like questing involved 90% running around and waiting through boring cut-scenes or speeches, and 10% clicking 1 button a couple times to kill a mob that can't even get your hp bar halfway down. Look at your stats at level 1 was a laugh too. 600 hp? Why? Just feels so inflated and dumb, is it 600 at level 1 just so it can reach 100,000 at max level or something? A number is just a number, but watching blizzard make a real effort to collapse and reduce the stat inflation makes me wonder just how stupid bioware is to start out with the numbers already inflated so high for no reason.

I can already predict the replies "don't worry, it gets more challenging later". I'm sure it does, but I won't pay money for a game based on it maybe becoming fun only after you invest 20 hours into it to reach the "fun" part. Does it ever get to the point where questing or solo activities are hard, or is the hard stuff limited to 5+ player dungeons or raids?

I could see giving the game another chance if it went free to play, but I am neither willing to pay $50 on the hopes that it might get more fun at higher levels, or kill myself to level up as fast as possible during my limited 2 day beta.
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,521
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www.the-teh.com
I think I'm getting sucked in. I hated WoW and EQ2 making it to level 10 and 25 respectively before quitting the very repetitive tread mill. Before that Dark Age of Camelot & EQ sucked a ton of non-productive hours from me.

While SW:ToR is essentially a treadmill as well it's the gift wrapping, cherry on top way they did it that makes it feel like you mean something to the game. It's very much like Dragon Age without the advanced character customization. Voice acting quests are very engaging and beats the pants off of reading pages of text to find out what your objective is.

So as a Sith Warrior it's been awesome to know that I'll soon be required to kill my master so that I may ascend in power. In any other MMO that is sacrilege. Running into other NPCs that want to help me 'take care of a little problem' is really simple, but really awesome to have presented to you. Basically there's a story being told and your the star.

The graphics are very WoW like, but not cartoony. The sound as expected is suburb, as is the music.

And while it is based on the patented treadmill scheme somehow dieing 6x at the hands of a boss battle didn't piss me off. I proceeded to come back with different tactics and sometimes equipment changes until I laid the beast to rest. So in some parts I leveled fast and in other slow, which is a nice change from that constant grind feeling.

One thing I really like is the map. Holy cow someone figured out how to make a useful one. You pull it up and if you start moving it dims just enough so that you can see what you're doing while keeping enough of the map visible so that you can still see where you want to end up.
 
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Merad

Platinum Member
May 31, 2010
2,586
19
81
I can already predict the replies "don't worry, it gets more challenging later". I'm sure it does, but I won't pay money for a game based on it maybe becoming fun only after you invest 20 hours into it to reach the "fun" part. Does it ever get to the point where questing or solo activities are hard, or is the hard stuff limited to 5+ player dungeons or raids?

Everything I've read is that combat difficulty starts to ramp up more after level 30ish. But it's an MMO, so general solo quests are never going to be a huge challenge...
 

Wordplay

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2010
1,318
1
81
I did the first instance for each faction. What I don't like is how long they take to do because of the dialogue. What should've taken about 30-40 minutes tops to clear took about 1.5 hours each. Now that's fine if you have the time to play but if you only have an hour to play or less... you don't have enough time to do anything. This can become a major issue with the players that want to play the game even though they don't have a lot of time to spare IMO.

WoW's graphics were dated back then even compared to other MMOs. It was utterly and completely outclassed by SWG and EQ2 at the time in terms of graphics.
Even though WoW's graphics weren't the best what made WoW look good was how colorful the world was compared to other MMOs at that time.
 
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velillen

Platinum Member
Jul 12, 2006
2,120
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I did the first instance for each faction. What I don't like is how long they take to do because of the dialogue. What should've taken about 30-40 minutes tops to clear took about 1.5 hours each. Now that's fine if you have the time to play but if you only have an hour to play or less... you don't have enough time to do anything. This can become a major issue with the players that want to play the game even though they don't have a lot of time to spare IMO.

i ended up just skipping 90% of the quest cut scenes. Just hit space bar, select an option. Doesnt really make a difference and made it go so much faster
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
Everything I've read is that combat difficulty starts to ramp up more after level 30ish. But it's an MMO, so general solo quests are never going to be a huge challenge...


Yeah, that is just too long. Sure, make levels 1-3 easy as a tutorial of sorts, maybe even 1-10. But 30 levels, WTF?

i ended up just skipping 90% of the quest cut scenes. Just hit space bar, select an option. Doesnt really make a difference and made it go so much faster

I wish I knew that. I tried ESC, but that just forces you to watch the whole thing over. Why would they make the skip button space instead of ESC? Argh.
 

micrometers

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2010
3,473
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I played an hour or two of the Jedi Knight.

I am very unimpressed.

To start off, performance was pretty bad on my machine. This same machine handles Mass Effect 2 like a champ at high settings and high resolution.

Secondly, I lost the quest chain pretty easily. It does not help that they clutter up the map with venders and stuff, making it harder to find quest givers.

Lastly, the art style just isn't that interesting. And it's got the standard MMO respawning enemies just standing around doing nothing. and the controls aren't so responsive I found, and no better than WOW's combat.

I liked WOW a lot more. I liked Mass Effect 2 a lot more. This one is a stinker. I hope it doesn't bring down bioware, because given the investment that would be a shame.
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,521
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I played an hour or two of the Jedi Knight.

I am very unimpressed.

To start off, performance was pretty bad on my machine. This same machine handles Mass Effect 2 like a champ at high settings and high resolution.

Secondly, I lost the quest chain pretty easily. It does not help that they clutter up the map with venders and stuff, making it harder to find quest givers.

Lastly, the art style just isn't that interesting. And it's got the standard MMO respawning enemies just standing around doing nothing. and the controls aren't so responsive I found, and no better than WOW's combat.

I liked WOW a lot more. I liked Mass Effect 2 a lot more. This one is a stinker. I hope it doesn't bring down bioware, because given the investment that would be a shame.

Not sure what your specs are, but I have everything maxed including resolution. The game isn't very taxing, I bet you suffer from lag ;)

The mini-map has all your quests lined up and you can turn them on/off if you want to reduce clutter. On the dark side at least vendors and objects are pretty sparse.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
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To start off, performance was pretty bad on my machine. This same machine handles Mass Effect 2 like a champ at high settings and high resolution.
ME2 was the least demanding AAA title in years. In fact, ME2 was significantly less demanding than ME1.

Don't be fooled by the minimum specs: you really want a Battlefield-level CPU (quad or SB i3) for good TOR performance. The recommended specs say as much, but they're hidden in the program's readme.
 

micrometers

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2010
3,473
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I doubt it. The connection is pretty fast. Team Fortress 2 plays fine for instance.

You might be able to turn it off. I dunno. I went over the starting areas like 3 or 4 times and I can't find the quest giver. It must be a bug.

But compared to WOW where you have a full quest log of like 3/4 with each new starting area you go into, this one is lacking.

And the MMO aspects are annoying, far more so than ME2. It's kinda too bad this is where KOTOR's story is going to die, since MMO stories always end up being drawn out.
 

micrometers

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2010
3,473
0
0
ME2 was the least demanding AAA title in years. In fact, ME2 was significantly less demanding than ME1.

Don't be fooled by the minimum specs: you really want a Battlefield-level CPU (quad or SB i3) for good TOR performance. The recommended specs say as much, but they're hidden in the program's readme.

ME2 also looks significantly better than this game. which might be a reflection of the GPU.

It might actually be the CPU. But I'm running a quad core AMD phenom 2.3 ghz.

I dunno, I also found the starting areas to be fairly sparse compared to WOW's starting areas.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
81
ME2 also looks significantly better than this game. which might be a reflection of the GPU.
Yeah, but that's like saying Crysis/C2 looks better than BF3. Crysis doesn't have dozens of other PCs running around in it.

The recommended spec, if people are interested:
RECOMMENDED
----------
OS: Windows 7 64bit SP1

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Processor 2.4GHz or better
AMD Phenom 2 X4 Quad-core 2.5GHz or better

RAM: 4GB RAM or higher

Video: ATI/AMD Radeon HD 4850 or better
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or better
512MB minimum video RAM
Shader 3.0 or better fully compatible graphics card
Latest drivers for your video card

DVD-ROM Drive: 8x speed or faster

Disk Space Required: 30 GB
 

Merad

Platinum Member
May 31, 2010
2,586
19
81
I did the first instance for each faction. What I don't like is how long they take to do because of the dialogue. What should've taken about 30-40 minutes tops to clear took about 1.5 hours each. Now that's fine if you have the time to play but if you only have an hour to play or less... you don't have enough time to do anything. This can become a major issue with the players that want to play the game even though they don't have a lot of time to spare IMO.

Turn on subtitles and hit space when you're done reading.

Edit:
i ended up just skipping 90% of the quest cut scenes. Just hit space bar, select an option. Doesnt really make a difference and made it go so much faster

Definitely does make a difference. It affects how quests and storylines play out. This is, after all, a story-based MMO. And, all of your light/dark points come from dialog options, and your light/dark alignment affects gear choices.
 
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micrometers

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2010
3,473
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Yeah, but that's like saying Crysis/C2 looks better than BF3. Crysis doesn't have dozens of other PCs running around in it.

The recommended spec, if people are interested:

well,

playing the game, it is no more complex than WOW, and WOW ran fine on my old pentium M 1.6 ghz.

seriously, like the architecture and game world are less impressive than WOW. It's just bad engine optimization.
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,521
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I doubt it. The connection is pretty fast. Team Fortress 2 plays fine for instance.

You might be able to turn it off. I dunno. I went over the starting areas like 3 or 4 times and I can't find the quest giver. It must be a bug.

But compared to WOW where you have a full quest log of like 3/4 with each new starting area you go into, this one is lacking.

And the MMO aspects are annoying, far more so than ME2. It's kinda too bad this is where KOTOR's story is going to die, since MMO stories always end up being drawn out.

I don't mean lag caused by you, but by all the people playing on the servers which may be overloaded.

Both the map and the mini-map show vendors, quest givers, medial droids, trainers, etc on them. You just need to know what the symbols are and the map shows them.
 

Daverino

Platinum Member
Mar 15, 2007
2,004
1
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I really love the plot and cut scenes. I've only played Imperial Agent in the beta so far, but I really got sucked in. I felt like I was doing something worthwhile. This is in opposition to WoW where you just get a bunch of kill foo missions. I'd consider paying this game just to run through the plots of the different characters. The voice acting is superb.

The inventory system is a bit of a mess. I found it really difficult to figure out what was good equipment and bad. This was especially true for equipping companions, where it would only show your equipment for comparison instead of your companion's. There are no sort or filter options for the inventory that I could find.

Once you get to fleet headquarters, holy cow does the game blow up in complexity. I don't think the game really starts until then. You get companion skills, companion crafting, space ships, a second class that you can customize with a baffling number of options to choose. I gave up a little at this point because I had played all day and didn't want to spend more time figuring it out.

Anyhow, I liked it. The only thing I don't like is the monthly fee. I haven't played Witcher 2, ME2 or Dragon Age yet. Something tells me I could get the same intensity of plot in any of those. Then again, SWTOR is Star Wars. For me, that counts a lot.
 

zokudu

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2009
4,364
1
81
Update your video driver. I had the same issue with the system in my sig and Cat 11.9 and upgrading to 11.11 fixed it.

Yea that worked. I've been playing for the better part of my afternoon and I have to say I'm impressed. The game feels decently "tight" and fluid and the storytelling is pretty good. I still do not see a reason for myself to leave wow for it. It feels like wow in space to me not that its a bad thing but it doesn't give me a compelling reason to move on. I can see how sci fi fans will enjoy it.

I also dunno where people are getting the feeling that the questing is so much better than other MMOs. Its still Kill X of Y and go here right click that just with some voice over before hand.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
81
This was especially true for equipping companions, where it would only show your equipment for comparison instead of your companion's.
You can enable companion gear comparisons in the Preferences. Also, it will just compare to the companion if you also have the character screen open and the companion tab selected.
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,231
117
116
I don't know what you detractors are seeing, but damn, the game is still damn fun for me. I've just taken my second character (an Imperial Agent) to level 13 and it's just as fun, though not quite as boner-inducing. as a Jedi Knight.

The cut scenes are what do it for me, plus I love the various selections for dialogue (light side/dark side, gaining my companions respect, etc.).

My biggest issues with MMOs is not having a quality, linear storyline to keep me motivated throughout and so far this game seems to have that licked. If it can maintain that, I will be a happy camper.

KT
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,231
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116
You can enable companion gear comparisons in the Preferences. Also, it will just compare to the companion if you also have the character screen open and the companion tab selected.

This was not working for me. It was always comparing to my gear even if I had the companion tab open.

KT
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,655
687
126
To start off, performance was pretty bad on my machine. This same machine handles Mass Effect 2 like a champ at high settings and high resolution.

Not sure what your specs are, but I can tell you that it plays extremely well even on Core 2 systems with GeForce 8800s and I suspect that you might even be able to go as low as a 6800 series and have it play OK (7800 is the "minimum" IIRC).
 

RedArmy

Platinum Member
Mar 1, 2005
2,648
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I really think the game has performance problems on certain machines. I've seen people say that it runs fine on their machine, which has equal or lower specs than mine, yet I have points where it noticeably dips below 30fps for a few seconds and it becomes choppy. Does this game support crossfire? I've read conflicting reports. If it doesn't, that would be an incredibly bad decision on their part since other recent games Bioware has put out have supported that along with SLI.
 

micrometers

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2010
3,473
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Not sure what your specs are, but I can tell you that it plays extremely well even on Core 2 systems with GeForce 8800s and I suspect that you might even be able to go as low as a 6800 series and have it play OK (7800 is the "minimum" IIRC).

Phenom x4 2.3 ghz

Radeon 5670 1gb.

I think the CPU actually probably is the bottleneck. I've lowered graphics settings a number of times to no effect.

but a phenom 2.3 ghz should be able to handle this. It is not that complex, really.