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

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paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
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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.

I don't know of any other MMO that puts you in the role of a up and coming star, rolls out voice acting character to guide you and then sets you off on a mission. All along the dialog you choose to interact with makes it feel like what you pick matters. Cripe even the loading screen says, "Paperfist has been dispatched to the blood mines to capture the escaped Jedi and interrogate him."

It's really simple (I'm sure at a great dev cost) but it's way better then reading two pages of a WoW quest or one page of an EQ2 quest. I swear after doing 3 quests with either game those text boxes can't be clicked through fast enough.
 

velillen

Platinum Member
Jul 12, 2006
2,120
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Turn on subtitles and hit space when you're done reading.

Edit:


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.

But you can still skip all the dialog and just pick the options with the light side/dark side options. it show them in the radial for choosing. So skipping through and picking your response choices makes it easy and fast. I noticed no difference in just picking option A vs B in the lower level quests (i did two jedi consulars from 1-10....one on the 11/11 test and one this weekend). i was light level 3 and level 21 or so when i stopped playing this morning and i only watched the main story line cut scenes and skipped the rest


On cut scene....i will say doing the group cut scenes kind of blew. It didnt flow at all in either of the two groups i was in. Like person would say/do something then you pick an option then there was a 5-10 second delay "waiting for party members". Kind of made it less fun and more just annoying.
 

Balt

Lifer
Mar 12, 2000
12,673
482
126
So I've spent a couple of hours playing the beta for the first time this weekend.

I first tried a Republic Trooper and found it pretty boring. I don't think I'm going to like ranged/blaster classes in this game.

Then I tried a Sith Inquisitor, which I hear is basically the most popular class, and I really enjoyed playing that a lot more.

I can understand the criticisms about the graphics. Visually I felt like I was playing KOTOR, which is a pretty old (albeit awesome) game. It wouldn't prevent me from playing it, though.

I haven't really played it enough yet to decide whether I want to buy it. I don't think I have the time to be anything other than a casual, and when it comes to MMOs that's not much fun.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
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I tried out a Jedi Knight earlier, and it seems sort of like the stereotypical Warrior from what I can see (especially with the jump move you get at level 2). My only complaint about the game is that there's no anti-aliasing (it appears to be disabled). Is this just for the beta, because the game has a terrible case of the jaggies!?
 

zokudu

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2009
4,364
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I don't know of any other MMO that puts you in the role of a up and coming star, rolls out voice acting character to guide you and then sets you off on a mission. All along the dialog you choose to interact with makes it feel like what you pick matters. Cripe even the loading screen says, "Paperfist has been dispatched to the blood mines to capture the escaped Jedi and interrogate him."

It's really simple (I'm sure at a great dev cost) but it's way better then reading two pages of a WoW quest or one page of an EQ2 quest. I swear after doing 3 quests with either game those text boxes can't be clicked through fast enough.

But its still the same quest content :confused:

Its nothing new, not that I would really expect it to be anything different but its no huge leap forward in anything. I'll give you the voice acting but every new MMO in development has that feature, albeit SWTOR is the first of these "next gen" mmos to be released. I just don't get the fuss it feels like any standard MMO to me no better or worse.
 

micrometers

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2010
3,473
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But its still the same quest content :confused:

Its nothing new, not that I would really expect it to be anything different but its no huge leap forward in anything. I'll give you the voice acting but every new MMO in development has that feature, albeit SWTOR is the first of these "next gen" mmos to be released. I just don't get the fuss it feels like any standard MMO to me no better or worse.

how hard would it have been to make an MMO version of mass effect? (mass effect is effectively KOTOR 3 in many ways).

I don't think it would have been too difficult honestly. Instead, it seems like they consciously aped WOW's design. I think they were being a bit cautious.
 

zokudu

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2009
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how hard would it have been to make an MMO version of mass effect? (mass effect is effectively KOTOR 3 in many ways).

I don't think it would have been too difficult honestly. Instead, it seems like they consciously aped WOW's design. I think they were being a bit cautious.

Thats the thing. I feel like at its core this game is a well put together wow clone. Bioware can make good games with different systems and I could see them scaling those up to an MMO style gameplay but they didn't they took the tried and true wow clone and it will sell.

Same as RIFT but I feel like 6 7 months down the line only people who really enjoy Star Wars or just flat our prefer a scifi setting will remain.
 

Merad

Platinum Member
May 31, 2010
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Same as RIFT but I feel like 6 7 months down the line only people who really enjoy Star Wars or just flat our prefer a scifi setting will remain.

On the contrary, I think the game has the potential to be hugely successful. Hardcore gamers may skip all the dialog and pronounce that they've finished the game 2 weeks after launch, but they aren't the ones who will determine the long term success or failure of the game.

If Bioware plays their cards right the game should be extremely attractive to casual gamers - they're the ones who will give you big subscription numbers and so on. And Star Wars is probably the most popular sci fi franchise in existence, so they have huge numbers of potential customers out there.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
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I see how Bioware took a different approach with the story aspect of this game, but how exactly do they plan to have my Jedi affinity affect me when it comes to the real aspects of MMOs: PVE (raiding) or PVP?

I guess I just don't see the point in the robust story aspect of the game. It's almost like they threw a single player game into a MMO and it won't affect the actual MMO portion of the game. But I haven't done much research on this game, so I may be missing something.
 

coloumb

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I see how Bioware took a different approach with the story aspect of this game, but how exactly do they plan to have my Jedi affinity affect me when it comes to the real aspects of MMOs: PVE (raiding) or PVP?

I guess I just don't see the point in the robust story aspect of the game. It's almost like they threw a single player game into a MMO and it won't affect the actual MMO portion of the game. But I haven't done much research on this game, so I may be missing something.

True... about the only thing I can see [new] are pvp controlled areas on the planets [looks like they have "scanners" at pvp controlled zones/areas.

Yes - SWTOR *is* a single player game in an MMO world.

Just by reading the posts from weekend testers - a lot of people don't want a story based MMO - they want SWG2.
 

gommer

Junior Member
Dec 23, 2008
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I am going to build a rig just for this game. I have not gamed since I quit WOW in BC other than a little Command and Conquer Generals. Ya baby. But I think this game is going to rock. Dude I get to be Spike from Cowboy Bebop!?!! Seriously how fucking cool!!!! WOOOHOOO
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
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No, a lot of the people wasting their time posting in the official forums are butthurt that they didn't get SWG2.

Everyone else is either asleep or PLAYING THE GAME. Because they can.

how hard would it have been to make an MMO version of mass effect?
Heh, I *just* saw your ME2 thread. Now I get your complaint.

There are bits of TOR that are just as epic as the highlights of ME2... but they're in the middle and end, not the beginning. Remember that ME2 gets to start with a bang because we got all the slow exposition in the first one. And... TOR is still a MMO, an old-school genre built for a slow burn, not the hottest 45 hours of your gaming year. No way is anyone's weekend sample going to compare to your first experience of ME2.

By the way, it's widely believed that ME Online will be Bioware's next MMO. But that will be many years from now, several expansions into TOR, when other companies (and this ME3 co-op experiment) test out how many shooter mechanics can really fit into a real full-scale MMO.
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
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But its still the same quest content :confused:

Its nothing new, not that I would really expect it to be anything different but its no huge leap forward in anything. I'll give you the voice acting but every new MMO in development has that feature, albeit SWTOR is the first of these "next gen" mmos to be released. I just don't get the fuss it feels like any standard MMO to me no better or worse.

I never played Mass Effect, the closest and actually only Bioware game I'm aware of playing is Dragon Age. So context driven menus like what's in SW:TOR is new to me.

I see what you are saying, kill, kill, kill, level up, kill higher up spawns, kill, kill, level up.

I totally can't stand that, but somehow, someway my brain is processing this experience differently. The 'quest givers' with their regal voices and options sets they offer is what SETS it apart from WoW, EQ2, etc. Sure in the end I'm playing it just like you do WoW & EQ2, but it doesn't feel like work.
 

BenSkywalker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,140
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Anyone who is planning on playing this game at/after launch, save up 48K for when you hit level 25(training+speeder)- the planets start expanding quite a bit after Dromund Kass, but Tatooine is absolutely *huge* in comparison and from what I have seen, the worlds don't get smaller after that.

The character customization wasn't anything special and the character movements just weren't as fluid as they are in WoW. I guess I just didn't really like the feel of the game. Graphics didn't do it for me either really for some reason. I'm sad since I've been waiting a long, long time for this game to finally come out.

Uhm, huh, those are interesting things to look for in a MMO. I'd suggest Aion to you, in those areas that you bring up none of the other ones can come remotely close that I have seen. WoW's character creation, animations and textures are all blown out of the water by Aion.

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.

The game does not support Crossfire or SLI atm. Even when it does, it may take AMD a few years to get drivers out that support it. Had a 1800xt for over a year, never did get a set of drivers that would work with everything in WoW(ToR it seems to be very comparable, noone with nV seems to be having any trouble, everyone that hasn't updated to the latest 11.11b drivers seem to be having all sorts of issues with AMD atm unforunately).

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

MMOs are significantly more demanding on the CPU then normal games, by a large amount. That said, was dropping your graphics settings having no impact? That is the tell tale sign you are CPU limited in the game. Phenom class CPU can run this game fine for normal questing and such, I'm sure raid content is going to change the picture in dramatic fashion.

I totally can't stand that, but somehow, someway my brain is processing this experience differently. The 'quest givers' with their regal voices and options sets they offer is what SETS it apart from WoW, EQ2, etc. Sure in the end I'm playing it just like you do WoW & EQ2, but it doesn't feel like work.

The questing setup is rather brilliant in this aspect. The actual quest will be to go disable these three devices, but you'll get a bonus if you kill these mobs although you don't have to. Once given the option in that context, I pretty much always kill the mobs anyway. For the record- I AoE grind to max level for every dps toon and instance grind for every healer I have ever rolled in every MMO I have ever played, SWTOR is the first where I honestly wouldn't even consider doing it that way.
 
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Specop 007

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
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how hard would it have been to make an MMO version of mass effect? (mass effect is effectively KOTOR 3 in many ways).

I don't think it would have been too difficult honestly. Instead, it seems like they consciously aped WOW's design. I think they were being a bit cautious.

Which I think really demonstrates the point that all MMORPG's are going to share some fundamental concepts. If they dont have those concepts then they wont be MMORPG's.

Which is why so often people compare everything to WoW. WoW is really just another flavor of EQ. But none the less ALL of them have similar concepts.

Its like a tire. Theres a bunch of different tire manufacturers and they all make a round tire.
 

zokudu

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2009
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Which I think really demonstrates the point that all MMORPG's are going to share some fundamental concepts. If they dont have those concepts then they wont be MMORPG's.

Which is why so often people compare everything to WoW. WoW is really just another flavor of EQ. But none the less ALL of them have similar concepts.

Its like a tire. Theres a bunch of different tire manufacturers and they all make a round tire.

Theres also Guild Wars 2 in development that moves away from a lot of "staple" MMO concepts. I don't think any MMO can survive on the EQ/WoW model much longer. Even WoW is trowing out a lot of its staple MMO concepts (talent trees in MoP) and I'm sure thats not the only thing on the chopping block.

Someone is going to have to innovate to really bring in customers and right now my money is on Arena.Net
 

jaha2000

Senior member
Jul 28, 2008
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Played the game a TON this weekend..

IMO, its an RPG thats online and has groups. It feels a lot like a single player RPG honeslty. No way i will be shelling out 20 bucks a month for it!
 

flopper

Senior member
Dec 16, 2005
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its star wars feel.
be mindful of the present.
had fun and games are about to have fun.

smooth ride with the game even at this stage promise good.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
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played the game a ton this weekend as well. Made a new character and took it to level 29. I'll post back in a little bit with my summary of the weekend and my opinions.
 

s1njin

Senior member
Apr 11, 2011
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Okay, can somebody help me out here? For somebody who used to WoW, but has no interest in Raiding but rather the leveling experience and just playing w/ friends, how is this game shaping up? I understand the graphics are found wanting - are they at least as good as WoW? From what I can see, they don't come anywhere near touching Rift.

???
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
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Nov 30, 2005
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Played the game a TON this weekend..

IMO, its an RPG thats online and has groups. It feels a lot like a single player RPG honeslty. No way i will be shelling out 20 bucks a month for it!

Heh and that's exactly why I enjoy it so much. I feel like it's more my story and my game as I go through everything, even when grouping you are getting your own discussion points and options throughout. Most MMOs I have played I always just feel lost in this giant world, but this game feels like my own personal journey. Could be due to the voice acting (I agree with whomever said it early that just having walls of text thrown at you is not very immersive at all) and the decision making, but whatever it is, it works for me.

KT

Edit: meant to add it helps having a world that I already know and love. I was never attached to anything in WoW as I know nothing of the lore if there is any and while I had some attachment to the LOTRO universe, it's not quite as much as I do with Star Wars.
 
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darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
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My friends finally all got to play this weekend and as far as I can tell they basically loved it. It gave them their WoW "fix" in a nice new package in a universe they already know and love, they're the kind of guys that grew up watching Star Wars.

I'll probably pick it up if they actually stick with it for more than a month or two, they have pretty severe game ADHD without constant faux-goals (hence why WoW lasted so long with them), but I don't really know how many reps to grind and crafts to level and credits to farm there are so I'm not sure if they'll stick with ToR or not.
 

Wordplay

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2010
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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
I hate that the game is so linear. What I like about WoW is that you have a choice of about 2-4 zones in which to level up in. Since TOR is much more story driven you seem to be stuck on a path throughout the game.

Eventually I want to go through all the classes story but I'm going to have to do a Republic story then a Sith story and continue that cycle. That way I don't feel like I am doing the same side quests over and over.
 

Wordplay

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2010
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Okay, can somebody help me out here? For somebody who used to WoW, but has no interest in Raiding but rather the leveling experience and just playing w/ friends, how is this game shaping up? I understand the graphics are found wanting - are they at least as good as WoW? From what I can see, they don't come anywhere near touching Rift.

???
Quests are the same as WoW... kill X, bring me Y, investigate Z, etc but what stands TOR apart is the story. I find myself trying to rush through the quests to get to the next cutscene.

Rift is trying to go with a realistic look while TOR is going for a cartoonish/realistic look.