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

[Ns1]

Premade v premade huttball is some of the most fun I've had in any PVP game or scenario; while the balancing definitely isn't ready for an Arena setting, I'm valor 58 and still really enjoying it. I actually much prefer the 50 bracket; I find there's generally more coherent teamplay whereas the lower level bracket tends more towards a killfest. Winning a match that comes down to the wire is a rush if you let yourself get into it.

i want to do premade v premade huttball soooooooo bad.

 

[SunnyD]

i want to do premade v premade huttball soooooooo bad.

Personally I just want huttball to go away. It's premise is sound, but as soon as you put sages and sorcerers into the game, why bother.

 

[Ns1]

Personally I just want huttball to go away. It's premise is sound, but as soon as you put sages and sorcerers into the game, why bother.

?

Loving huttball as a pyrotech.

my favorite of the 3, easily.

the team i'm on can never win that attacker/defender one.

 

[darkewaffle]

Frankly I think Assassins and Juggernauts are just as influential. Sorcerer's get extrication (lifegrip) but an assassin with their 'cloak of shadows' and forcespeed is essentially an unstoppable ball carrier and a juggernaut leaping up out of the pit can be devastating. The fire damage is over the top and mobility is probably too crucial to the gameplay yes, but the ability to pass as far as you can puts a damper on a lot of that.

 

[Ns1]

Frankly I think Assassins and Juggernauts are just as influential. Sorcerer's get extrication (lifegrip) but an assassin with their 'cloak of shadows' and forcespeed is essentially an unstoppable ball carrier and a juggernaut leaping up out of the pit can be devastating. The fire damage is over the top and mobility is probably too crucial to the gameplay yes, but the ability to pass as far as you can puts a damper on a lot of that.

yaeh forcespeed has been kicking my ass on huttball, esp when they resist the grapple

grapple has been a defensive godsend

 

[SunnyD]

yaeh forcespeed has been kicking my ass on huttball, esp when they resist the grapple

grapple has been a defensive godsend

Sage/Sorc: force speed + barrier = they just run right through the flame hazard traps leaving everybody else behind.

There's several "tactics" to huttball. As mentioned, Guardian/Juggernaut leap is one. Shadow/Assassin (tank spec) pulling people along is another. But honestly, the concept of huttball is flawed once you put a properly spec'd sage/sorc in the match.

 

[Ns1]

Sage/Sorc: force speed + barrier = they just run right through the flame hazard traps leaving everybody else behind.

There's several "tactics" to huttball. As mentioned, Guardian/Juggernaut leap is one. Shadow/Assassin (tank spec) pulling people along is another. But honestly, the concept of huttball is flawed once you put a properly spec'd sage/sorc in the match.

honestly this is why i want to do premade PvP. it would bring back the glorious days of clan TFC, where there was actual team work and strategy involved.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Still very much enjoying the game, but the UI still bothers me immensely. A few updates to some impressions.

1) Space Battles - It is dissapointing that they have so few of these and that even the new ones are often rehashed ones with a different title. But essentially they follow the same 'rail'. It would be nice they added some more space battle missions that were unique. Seems to lack a lot of variety. Looks like they recycle the same 4-5 basic rail maps.

2) Lack of wardrobe options is execusable. Trying to make a Jedi Sage (Male) look decent is difficult. The hooded cloaks are short sleeved! I can't believe it... Terrible colors. The bottom part of the cloak looks like a dress. No seriously. It looks like a dress.

3) Quest pointers bug out quite a bit. They point you to the location only to have it be wrong and update to the right location. Referring to the 'green' pointers. Somewhat frustrating. It is correct 85% of the time. Gotta watch carefully.

4) Talent trees create another cookie cutter spec. No way to really diferentiate yourself. I wish they focused more of the class talents and how it impacts their class.

All in all, I agree with people when they say the game feels unfinished. It really feels like it is in beta still. Space missions should be doubled. New rails added. More character customization. New UI that is intuitive. Better talent trees to force people out of the cookie cutter mold. Better character creation options.

I definitely see how people are dissapointed with the game. I am dissapointed, but still enjoy it - for now.

 

[SunnyD]

honestly this is why i want to do premade PvP. it would bring back the glorious days of clan TFC, where there was actual team work and strategy involved.

Honestly, I would prefer it if premades were completely NOT allowed. Sure it's fun to group up with friends, or for the hardcore pvp full premades, just so you can faceroll the opponent. But I'd prefer pure random pugs simply because it requires everybody to pull their own weight to win.

That said, the queuing system seriously needs an overhaul. I'd like to:

1) Be able to queue for particular warzones (so I can avoid, say, huttball)
2) Be able to see a list of people in the queue with me (so I can avoid people I don't like or are completely mismatched)
3) To go with #2, be able to matchmake in order to create premades
4) Be able to queue fully random or in more fine-tuned brackets
5) Be able to see the content of the opposing team before & during the match (so that I can avoid getting matched up against premades)
6) Force "groups" to square off against "groups" - in other words a full premade can only queue against other full premades; a group of 4 + pug can only square off against a group of 4 + pug. Etc.

Still very much enjoying the game, but the UI still bothers me immensely. A few updates to some impressions.

1) Space Battles - It is dissapointing that they have so few of these and that even the new ones are often rehashed ones with a different title. But essentially they follow the same 'rail'. It would be nice they added some more space battle missions that were unique. Seems to lack a lot of variety. Looks like they recycle the same 4-5 basic rail maps.

2) Lack of wardrobe options is execusable. Trying to make a Jedi Sage (Male) look decent is difficult. The hooded cloaks are short sleeved! I can't believe it... Terrible colors. The bottom part of the cloak looks like a dress. No seriously. It looks like a dress.

3) Quest pointers bug out quite a bit. They point you to the location only to have it be wrong and update to the right location. Referring to the 'green' pointers. Somewhat frustrating. It is correct 85% of the time. Gotta watch carefully.

4) Talent trees create another cookie cutter spec. No way to really diferentiate yourself. I wish they focused more of the class talents and how it impacts their class.

All in all, I agree with people when they say the game feels unfinished. It really feels like it is in beta still. Space missions should be doubled. New rails added. More character customization. New UI that is intuitive. Better talent trees to force people out of the cookie cutter mold. Better character creation options.

I definitely see how people are dissapointed with the game. I am dissapointed, but still enjoy it - for now.

1) Freeform space combat is rumored to be in the long term plans.

2) That's THE look of Jedi... simple, monk-like. Jedi aren't supposed to be flashy. They wear browns, whites and grays. Always have, always will - just look at the movies. And I've had hoodies that were long sleeve.

3) Never had a problem with this. Only thing I thought was wrong was going out to a quest where the little spinning circle was only to find what I was looking for wasn't there. Then I moused over the little spinning circle and found it highlighted a huge area on the map indicating that I need to SEARCH that area for what I was looking for.

4) Yep, FOTM with tree builds. It's easy to implement and balance (so to speak)... it won't go away. Class skills are somewhat of a joke imho, the base classes get so much influence on the class with only minor changes between the advanced classes.

 

[ArchAngel777]

2) That's THE look of Jedi... simple, monk-like. Jedi aren't supposed to be flashy. They wear browns, whites and grays. Always have, always will - just look at the movies. And I've had hoodies that were long sleeve.

Not looking to be flashy. But have you actually see most of the light armor chest pieces for the light side? Horrendous. Only the hooded options are 'passable'. Of course, if you play a chick toon, you might come to a different conclusion.

I like basic and solid colors. No complaints with that aspect... Just sayin that the light side Jedi Consulars are some of the stupidist, goofiest looking players on the server. Pathetic looking. That might change at 50 with L50 gear, or some obscure custom gear options. Just saying that 99% of the stuff on the GTN is deplorable.

 

[clok1966]

so is the 40% non renew number correct? A month in and 40% didnt renew is the word. I know my server which had q's ever day i played (Havent played in 2 weeks, out of town) had non last night ever.

 

[darkewaffle]

so is the 40% non renew number correct? A month in and 40% didnt renew is the word. I know my server which had q's ever day i played (Havent played in 2 weeks, out of town) had non last night ever.

Completely made up. No real numbers available nor released.

 

[Beev]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if that percentage was accurate, though, and I bet a ton more people don't renew after this month, myself included unfortunately.

I love, love, LOVE leveling in this game, but that's all I love =/

 

[DaveSimmons]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if that percentage was accurate, though, and I bet a ton more people don't renew after this month, myself included unfortunately.

I love, love, LOVE leveling in this game, but that's all I love =/

Have you tried other classes? Smuggler and Trooper get a different starter planet, all 8 classes have some unique class story, and the NPC dialog in the shared quests does change a bit depending on class.

I'm playing a smuggler alt for fun, and it's nice to be able to pick dark side when I feel like it and stay in character, unlike my goody two-shoes Jedi who always does what it right. Sure senator I'll destroy that pesky evidence of you collaborating with criminals

 

[coloumb]

Totals not renewing their sub? Probably accurate. It's just too easy to level up to 50 and find there's literally nothing other than dailies [Ilum, Belsavis, Flashpoints] and a broken pvp system [I lost track how many times I CTD'd in Ilum last night - and it's nothing more than a back and forth valor farm].

Talent Trees/Character stats - Why do devs include these anymore? People [who min/max] tend to go for the FOTM with talents and gear sets. As an operative healer, I just couldn't see myself not choosing a majority of the healing tree. That's one thing I liked about changes with WoW - they simplified it where you had to choose a specialization.

 

[Ns1]

WTF does FOTM mean?

 

[KeithTalent]

Flavour Of The Month?

KT

 

[Canbacon]

I just couldn't see myself not choosing a majority of the healing tree.

Agree completely on the OP healing (if you meant that you couldn't see yourself going deep into the healing tree). Though, they just need to tweak the abilities a bit.

The hybrid build for energy regen (24-0-17) is vastly superior than going to the full healing tree for recuperative nanotech. Recuperative nanotech needs to be targeted instead of from the caster to be worth the energy requirement. At the moment, I don't see myself needing to use it over kolto probes for off tank healing. I rather have the extra energy loss for the gain of more tactical advantages and bigger heals over time.

The rakata field medic set bonuses are also not very good for OP healers. 2 bonus for reducing the nanotech energy requirement and the 4 set for extra crit for kolto infusion are not worth it. Kolto infusion in itself is definitely not worth it as it uses 20 energy and a tactical advantage for lower healing than a 25 energy kolto injection. I don't use it as you get a better combined heal with kolto injection + surgical probe for only 5 more energy.

 

[SunnyD]

Can ya'll do me a favor when you play... quick little "test" I'm trying to find something out with.

CTRL-SHIFT-F turns on the frame rate monitor (lower left corner). Turn it on, walk around for a bit paying attention to your average frame rate.

Then hit CRTL-U to turn off the UI, and walk around some more paying attention to the frame rate.

Report back here with the numbers. I'm curious...

 

[Dwarf]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/electronic-arts-reports-q3-fy12-financial-results-2012-02-01

Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics:

-- Star Wars(R): The Old Republic(TM) has generated 1.7 million active subscribers and sold through more than 2 million units in a little over one month.

I believe it includes people that bought the game after January 1st and are currently in their free month and people that have subscribed beyond the free month.

 

[Canbacon]

Can ya'll do me a favor when you play... quick little "test" I'm trying to find something out with.

CTRL-SHIFT-F turns on the frame rate monitor (lower left corner). Turn it on, walk around for a bit paying attention to your average frame rate.

Then hit CRTL-U to turn off the UI, and walk around some more paying attention to the frame rate.

Report back here with the numbers. I'm curious...

UI On = 92FPS Average in Voss
UI Off = 101FPS Average in Voss

Texture = High
Shader = High
AA = Low
LOD = High
Texture Anistropy = High
Shadow = Low
Grass = 48%
Tree= 100%
Fullscreen (windowed) @ 1920x1200

This was while I was farming in Voss at lunch. My circuit was mainly consistent but some camera changes and path movement was varying due to node locations.


On another note, EA just released their financials and TOR had this tidbit.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/01/swtor-sales-feb-2012/

2 million copies sold
1.7 million active subscribers

 

[Canbacon]

I believe it includes people that bought the game after January 1st and are currently in their free month and people that have subscribed beyond the free month.

Bleh, beat me to the punch

Yea, it seems like that is the case. 1.7 resubcribed. So if my basic math is correct, only a 15% loss. But still really nice numbers for a new MMO.

Personally, I do like the weekly patches and where the game is going on the whole. If they keep doing this and gradually introducing content, I think the numbers will only go up. It also enforces that forum users are the far minority.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

So SW TOR has 1.7 mil subscribers.

I remember Sony or Verant or whoever it was at the time, suddenly stopped putting out Everquest sub figures a couple of years later.

I guess when EA stops releasing figures we will know what's up.

Which reminds me, they sent me a cancellation survey and one of the questions involved familiarity with several other MMOs. they asked about EQ2 but not EQ1, half of the games they asked about were WoW clones. There will be many more WoW clones in MMORPGs before we ever get anything different and better...I have foreseen it.

 

[Kyle]

As someone who has not played any MMO's since Everquest years ago- I'm loving the game...I'm @ like 120 hours played time and only level 41- can't imagine how many hours of play time there is playing alt. charecters, havent tried pvp etc.

I understand that there may not be much end game content, but if it's taking 200+ hours to get there (and it may not- I might just be really slow etc) that seems like a lot of content.

Again, I've not played recent MMO's so it may be really poor in comparison, but as a SP gamer mostly, I've really loved it so far- never had a game suck that much play time from me and still look forward to playing. Skyrim got me about 80 and that seemed like a ton. Guess w/ the $15/month cost they better keep putting out at least some new content- but I feel my $$ has been well spent and will pay for at least a few more months I'd think playing other chars.

 

[Arsinek]

Has this game failed yet?

/troll