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

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Wordplay said:
You can start the download from their website. The first email I got about the invite I thought it was fake. So I went to the website and started the client download there.

EDIT: I'm crashing after character creation.
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If you are still having problems, try unchecking 'conversation depth of field'. That option has always given me trouble for whatever reason and it doesn't really seem to add anything visually. I think it may try and blur the background during conversations, but I never noticed a difference.
 
Took a break from Skyrim and have been playing this morning. Thoughts...

Good:
*Love the quest/story system (choices, etc). Had a chance to do some grouping, and the group convo system is fun.
*Voice acting is great.
*Combat seems good so far, but nothing new or extraordinary. I'm playing a Jedi Knight.

Bad:
*The world has a somewhat small, restricted feel to it (pretty typical of Bioware games). To be fair, I haven't left the first world/start area yet. Hopefully it improves.
*UI is somewhat clunky. No UI customization options that I can find. Forget about rearranging or resizing the UI, you can't even do basic things like moving the chat window or character sheet.

Ugly:
*The graphics. Even on the highest settings, graphics are mediocre at best. Character models and clothing just aren't that detailed. There's a good bit of "pop-in" as you run through the world. The graphics aren't terrible, but LOTRO -an almost 5 year old MMO- totally puts SWTOR to shame. I really hope that there are some higher detail textures/graphics/etc that are just disabled in the beta.
 
Merad said:
Bad:
*The world has a somewhat small, restricted feel to it (pretty typical of Bioware games). To be fair, I haven't left the first world/start area yet. Hopefully it improves.
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This was a concern and the worlds get bigger as you progress upwards.

*UI is somewhat clunky. No UI customization options that I can find. Forget about rearranging or resizing the UI, you can't even do basic things like moving the chat window or character sheet.
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Whole heartedly agree. A real funny thing is there are people who say the UI is fine, who have never played the game, and can't understand why some of us who have played asked for them to allow API to modify the UI as to be less clunkier.

Ugly:
*The graphics. Even on the highest settings, graphics are mediocre at best. Character models and clothing just aren't that detailed. There's a good bit of "pop-in" as you run through the world. The graphics aren't terrible, but LOTRO -an almost 5 year old MMO- totally puts SWTOR to shame. I really hope that there are some higher detail textures/graphics/etc that are just disabled in the beta.
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I think graphics are subjective. I have played LOTRO and the graphics are good, but nothing to write home about. I am really hoping, like you, that they eventually make a high-res texture pack for people with good computers. Also, double check your settings, they disable a lot of stuff (such as AA) in the beta.
 
ockky said:
apparently i've been selected to a 'future' testing date, which does not include this weekend. thank fucking god this sent this email out to get me all jacked up...i hope this isn't a sign of things to come concerning my feelings towards this game =/
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This is for the major stress test of the servers. I would peg it around Thanksgiving. They normally try and give the test about a week, but with the massive one they have planning, think they will try and have people start DLing the client sooner than later.

Also, as far as the early email, think some just had enough of people going "it's not fair, I signed up X date and this guy who signed up recently got picked for the beta invite". And the whiner completely missing the whole point on RANDOM invites.
 
BudAshes said:
Graphics and the art seems pretty sub par. I swear it looks the same as swg did.
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Graphics won't be too high since they want to cater for a wide MMORPG audience, would be pointless if graphics were awesome but you only had 5% of users with hardware that could run it.
 
Graphics are definitely one of the most disappointing aspects of the game right now. Was hoping for something atleast competitive to today's games and technology. With the subpar looks, makes one feel like they're playing an old game.
 
Got to play for a few hours.

Some cons from my perspective:
1. The change world cool down
2. Minimap
3. Combat- After playing DCUO... the current standard combat needs to go.
4. Game seems to be bland besides the story

Pros:
Story. I would rather read a book about all the things that are happening though.


Besides the story this game seems just average. Nothing is really jumping out and getting me excited to purchase this game, let alone paying $15 a month for it. It really is just WoW but with cut scenes.
 
Mem said:
Graphics won't be too high since they want to cater for a wide MMORPG audience, would be pointless if graphics were awesome but you only had 5% of users with hardware that could run it.
Click to expand...

I searched google for some screenshots of KOTOR to verify what my memory was telling me. In many ways it looked better than SWTOR does.... I really hope that the textures in the current beta are just the "low" or "medium" versions. Otherwise the game is going to take a serious bashing at release.

Anyway, I made it to level 10 and tried the flashpoint a couple times. Group kept wiping on the last boss. I don't plan to play the beta anymore this weekend, but it has convinced me that the game's worth playing.
 
Am I crazy or is this game freaking awesome? It feels a lot like KOTOR to me, but with a slight MMO edge. I love the cut scenes for all of the quests, makes it far more immersive for me. Played to level 10 so far and it's been great, but I seem to enjoy the beginning of most MMOs, so not sure if that excitement/enjoyment will continue, but so far it does not feel quite so grindy and run-around as a lot of the other MMOs I've tried. Helps that I really like the world too.

KT
 
Enjoying the game...

Went in with REALISTIC expectations (meaning I KNEW it would not be SWG, Pre-CU...

My only real complaints, the graphics, in the words of Chris Burman...C'MON MAN!
 
What's the problem with the graphics? I did not see any major problems, though I wish I could get rid of some the jaggies. :hmm:

KT
 
Merad said:
Took a break from Skyrim and have been playing this morning. Thoughts...

Good:
*Love the quest/story system (choices, etc). Had a chance to do some grouping, and the group convo system is fun.
*Voice acting is great.
*Combat seems good so far, but nothing new or extraordinary. I'm playing a Jedi Knight.

Bad:
*The world has a somewhat small, restricted feel to it (pretty typical of Bioware games). To be fair, I haven't left the first world/start area yet. Hopefully it improves.
*UI is somewhat clunky. No UI customization options that I can find. Forget about rearranging or resizing the UI, you can't even do basic things like moving the chat window or character sheet.

Ugly:
*The graphics. Even on the highest settings, graphics are mediocre at best. Character models and clothing just aren't that detailed. There's a good bit of "pop-in" as you run through the world. The graphics aren't terrible, but LOTRO -an almost 5 year old MMO- totally puts SWTOR to shame. I really hope that there are some higher detail textures/graphics/etc that are just disabled in the beta.
Click to expand...


UI has problems, to be sure, but you can move the chat window around. You have to click and hold on the TABS of the chat window. Then you can drag it around.
 
DrunkenSano said:
Quality is very, very low for a game that hasn't been released yet.
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It's not that bad, but it's not exactly top notch at all. It's about standard WoW graphics. It's been done that way to accommodate as many players as possible. Damn near all MMO's do this. They do not push the envelope for cutting edge graphics because they are trying to make it as easy as possible for as many people to play. The graphics are acceptable but nothing mind blowing in the least.
 
Wordplay said:
Pros:
Story. I would rather read a book about all the things that are happening though.


Besides the story this game seems just average. Nothing is really jumping out and getting me excited to purchase this game, let alone paying $15 a month for it. It really is just WoW but with cut scenes.
Click to expand...

This is just how I felt about it. The voice acting is great and I like the role-playing choices available during the dialogue, but I still found myself skipping through much of it.

My main complaint is that the combat is annoying. You can't dodge or anything by moving around, the bullets/lasers just magically change direction in mid-air. Lightsaber fights were better in Dark Forces II. Combat and just general movement in WoW is far more fluid and interesting.
 
HumblePie said:
It's not that bad, but it's not exactly top notch at all. It's about standard WoW graphics. It's been done that way to accommodate as many players as possible. Damn near all MMO's do this. They do not push the envelope for cutting edge graphics because they are trying to make it as easy as possible for as many people to play. The graphics are acceptable but nothing mind blowing in the least.
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That doesn't make sense though, players who computers can't handle the graphics can turn the graphics down and have the current version. Players who have good computers should be able to enjoy top notch quality of a modern game.
 
DrunkenSano said:
That doesn't make sense though, players who computers can't handle the graphics can turn the graphics down and have the current version. Players who have good computers should be able to enjoy top notch quality of a modern game.
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No. Players add polygons. Online games can have a bunch of players in one area that can overload the polygons in that area.
 
DrunkenSano said:
That doesn't make sense though, players who computers can't handle the graphics can turn the graphics down and have the current version. Players who have good computers should be able to enjoy top notch quality of a modern game.
Click to expand...

QFT. The arguments that all MMOs have to have less than cutting edge graphics are just more excuses by the apologists.
You can have various graphics settings and each person can set to get the performance he/she wants.
After playing the beta i can see why folks are nervous about this game falling short.
I will still keep my pre-order but little by little I am losing hope that this game will be the be-all end-all of MMOs as it was originally touted.
 
HumblePie said:
No. Players add polygons. Online games can have a bunch of players in one area that can overload the polygons in that area.
Click to expand...

That's why the game has layering/instancing of world areas.

You must not have played many recent MMOs, because ones like LOTRO and Rift offer graphics that are 10 times better than what SWTOR has at the moment.
 
Was able to get in some time in on the game this weekend during the stress test. Here's the view from a WoW addict: (Played a Jedi Knight/Sent. to L16)

Pros:
- The graphics weren't THAT bad..I did go in and enable everything I could and it looked decent. I could tell AA was disabled though. The starting area (Jedi Knight) looked good.
- Combat was fun, and I liked having to activly hit my skills to make attacks happen. I wish I had more "defensive" options that I could activate during a fight. Felt like I was a glass cannon and had no way to save my own butt when I got into trouble 🙂
- Story was really good, and I liked having the choices available to me.
- Companions are neat, and they do help alot when questing. I don't like having to group up often to complete quests, so this helped alleviate that a bit.
- I only experienced a queue "issue" on Friday night. I Alt-F4'd the game a few times and checked different servers and found one without a queue. Once I was logged in, I never experienced any lag/peformance drop and did not get disconnected.

Cons:
- Group questing, the bane of WoW, stinks just as bad in here. I know most group quests are not required to move the story along, but having to spam General looking for someone to help out with "Heroic 2+" quests seemed annoying.
- Elite Mobs need toned down a little. I know.. I'm used to WoW where if one is skilled enough with thier class, they could solo an Elite mob if needed. When going up against Elite mobs, even with party members, we'd sometimes just get our poo pushed in 🙂 They hurt! Might just be a tuning thing.
- Current Group finding methods are not that great. Most players that will be coming to this game are WoW players. We're used to the Dungeon Finder. Having to rely on the "social pane" to find groups or spamming General is not that great.
- WTB Healers? Hehe.. probably a byproduct of everyone wanting to play a Jedi.. could not find healers for any instance runs. Not the games fault, but I'm sad I didn't get to test Flashpoints..
- Could not figure out how (if there is one) to display the combat log.

Overall, I came away impressed. At first, I felt it was just WoW.. but with a Star Wars skin. After playing some more, I started getting really interested in the game and story. It'll be interesting to see if Bioware implements any of the feedback from this weekend, since I'm pretty sure MANY WoW players were invited and played.
 
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