my 15 hours with SWTOR

[Diggles]

Heh, wowie, SWTOR (swuh-tuhor), I don't even know where to start with you. I played you for about 15 hours and I'm still playing you (making my astromech do chores). You are a piece of work. I forgot I was playing an MMO for a couple of hours due to how engrossed I was with your quests. Combat made me want to kill things (this had an effect on my Jedi's alignment, yes, that's here too.) I literally talked my butt off with my Smuggler just to seem like a douche bag. You offer so much choices, and I'm not even a fraction of the way done with leveling.

Combat
This was probably my favorite part that sets the game from other MMOS. SWTOR has no auto-attack. This may seem counterintuitive to "good" combat, but it was probably the most engaging first 10 levels of my life having to balance attacks. You get a standard attack that you spam in between cooldowns, that costs no resource and has a non-existant cooldown (shoot blaster with smuggler, saber strike on jedi). There's really a lot more to choose from in a battle when the global cooldown is all you have. Smugglers have a system for cover, which prevents some ranged attacks from blowing their squishy asses to the dirt, and makes planning an engagement fun and engaging (don't hit me). Jedi felt right at home with a little twist to a standard fantasy warrior, Troopers felt overpowered (i could spam missiles all day) and force specialists felt very squishy but powerful if left alone.

Questing and Dialogue
Oh my Gods, you guys. This is definitely a piece of BioWare work. The tutorials themselves are amazing, I don't want to spoil it if you plan on playing, but they REALLY fit the class. Smuggler made me feel like a genuine Han Solo, Jedi had all the corny YO DAWG RESPECT YO MAGICS (force, sorry), and Trooper made me feel like I don't want to be in the military. There are so many things you can do, ESPECIALLY ON SMUGGLER. I FLIRTED WITH EVERY GIRL I CAME ACROSS AND IT OPENED SO MUCH MORE OPTIONS. The game looks and feels like Mass Effect with lightsabers. Dialogue is handled via BioWare™ Radial Menu, leaving you with usually 3 choices. Light and Dark dialogue will tell you what is what, so you don't accidentally kill someone on your little innocent Jedi.

PvP
This is my muse. My area 'o expertise. PvP in this game IS AMAZING. IT IS SO BALANCED, YOU GUYS. I could not get over how much classes countered each other perfectly. Smugglers can cheaply (nut shot with a foot) get out of Jedi confrontation, Jedi can completely counter casters, casters counter bounty hunters, all of this fun stuff. 1v1 encounters are AMAZING and are encouraged, you get more out of it. Rewards are given for successful 1v1 fights so a lot of people try them. The open world pvp is pretty fun and I'm not even that far into the game yet. Being able to level Star Wars' version of Renown/Prestige starts at level 10, so you won't be completely useless in endgame. The 3 maps that they have just in the Beta are amazingly fun, there's a Dominion like map, a standard Attack/Defend, and a weird soccer/football hybrid match with anyone vs anyone.

I really dig this game guys, and I'm buying the pre-order on my next paycheck. I really suggest some of you try the same.

[Diggles]

If I don't get trolled to all hell (probably going to happen) I can answer some ?s

[Bazooka]

How was the leveling speed?

I'm very afraid of the situation lately where MMO's launch and everyone hits max level in a week, spends 2-3 weeks raiding and then everyone quits due to lack of content. (Like Rift)

[Diggles]

The first 10 levels went by in 2 hours, I heard it really really slows down higher up.

[Diggles]

They supposedly have it set so that by the time you finish your class questline, you will be level 50.

[Bazooka]

The first 10 levels went by in 2 hours, I heard it really really slows down higher up.

10 levels in 2 hours?

Making me nervous pal.

[Diggles]

10 levels in 2 hours?

Making me nervous pal.

Outside of the tutorial there's a LOT of travel time and mindless killing to get to quest objectives, it definitely slows down after you leave your home planet

EDIT: not to mention level 11 takes double the experience that level 10 did

[Diggles]

I can honestly say i dont expect level 50s within the first month. There's probably a good reason why there's a instant level 40 server

[Rogean]

I've gotten probably 5 beta invites and still haven't played it.. no time. Was looking forward to playing it a bit but at this rate I wont' have a chance.

[Diggles]

Races are very odd in this game, they all have that almost human-like charm from the first 3 Star Wars movies, and they have racials but they're all little toys, nothing that works in combat. Humans make everyone around them cheer, Miraluka can detect what alignment a player is (whether or not they've made dark or light choices in dialogue), Twilek can do a special dance, Zabrak inspire loyalty from companions, and the rest are some emotes.

[Juugox2]

actually pretty badass game if you liked kotor.. its pretty much kotor 3.. as a mmo even the story and everything you do is just like in kotor

they def got my attention in dec 20th :P

[Juugox2]

actually pretty badass game if you liked kotor.. its pretty much kotor 3.. as a mmo even the story and everything you do is just like in kotor

they def got my attention in dec 20th :P

thing i like the most is flashbacks (dungeons) so much more i havent even seen or done yet im only lvl 13 sith warrior

oopps no idea why i just did that i meant to edite myself not quote

[Pringles]

+1 to what the OP said - pretty awesome game.

[Azmere]

Confirmed fun game.

I got in the Beta two weeks ago and played an imperial agent up to level 8. I wish I had more time but when I was finished I thought to myself this is the first MMO where i'm probably not going to care to rush to 50 because the questing is actually interesting / fun. Leveling 1-10 is pretty quick but it's mostly due to a condensed starting area, people I've talked to that have had more time with the game say the leveling slows down a lot and they expect 50s to start showing up three weeks to a month in.

Basically it's putting the RPG back into MMORPG, and while it's nothing super revolutionary, Bioware/EA have made a solid game. I can't imagine people being disappointed and expect this game to be the first that really rivals WOW in terms of player numbers and longevity.

[Harrison]

I agree with almost everything so far in this thread. The game is nothing revolutionary, but it is solid as fuck.

It doesn't feel grindy, and dialogue is all voice acted well.

The only downside is the graphics. They're sub-par for my tastes. It's 2011. Amp up the fucking graphics.

[Diggles]

They're doing what WoW is. Making graphics able to run on all kinds of computers to capture more players. The game personally looks awesome to me, it definitely has the Star Wars feel.

[Harrison]

The environment isn't terrible, but player models look like my PS2 can handle them. Disgusting.

Give a wider range of options for those of us who own decent hardware. Fuck people running games on toasters.

[Smedy]

i havent played it but ill still say its the most generic piece of shit ive ever played, next

[Jerin]

I lvled a Sith Inquisitor up to 10 yesterday.

I have to agree, the character models are sub par, the rest of the graphics
look ok. The game ran flawlessly, and there were no disconnects or major lag.

While doing the class quests you kinda forget your playing an mmo, it is like
kotor3 almost.

I have yet to try out world pvp, however i did get a chance to play that
basketball game thing lol. I had no clue what was going on so i just ran
around force lightning everyone from distance lol.

[Diggles]

I don't know whether I want to roll a Scoundrel, Gunslinger or Shadow at launch. They're all fun as hell but this game is going to require a serious effort towards one character

[Rogean]

I watched a youtube video the other day and got a nostalgic feeling when the person started interacting with their interface.. it took me back to the days of when I started on SWG and the interface was really high tech and complex, and gave you that futuristic feel that something star wars related should be.

[Diggles]

I love the UI, perfect blend of minimalist and style.

[Cwall]

game looks like shit imo

[Awwalike]

I agree with almost everything so far in this thread. The game is nothing revolutionary, but it is solid as fuck.

It doesn't feel grindy, and dialogue is all voice acted well.

The only downside is the graphics. They're sub-par for my tastes. It's 2011. Amp up the fucking graphics.

a quality post by Harrison! I agree.

[Azmere]

To address all the comments related to the graphics you have to realize it's still Beta AA isn't enabled and a lot of the textures were probably low res to keep the beta client / patch size down. However, you also have to respect the wanting to appeal to a large enough crowd aspect of not keeping the graphics on the cutting edge.

[Zenlina]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/p2xUl24iKbg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

^^ If only it looked like this ^^ Wonder why no one posted a trailer yet in this thread. But this be my favorite, has all the goodies. You all ready to rumble in a month?

[Nedala]

I can honestly say i dont expect level 50s within the first month. There's probably a good reason why there's a instant level 40 server

I think you are wrong :(

A friend of mine and his whole guild leveled to 50 in about a week and already downed the first raidmob on the beta.

[Juugox2]

the space combat is pretty awesome and being able to upgrade ship to and btw wasnt beta more xp? could be wrong tho

[Bazooka]

I think you are wrong :(

A friend of mine and his whole guild leveled to 50 in about a week and already downed the first raidmob on the beta.

Quit scaring me lol

[Arkyani]

I'll definitely be playing SWTOR when it comes out. Cant wait for that and Firefall as well.

[pickled_heretic]

I think you are wrong :(

A friend of mine and his whole guild leveled to 50 in about a week and already downed the first raidmob on the beta.

confirmed ultracasual dumpstermode mmo

[Diggles]

I think you are wrong :(

A friend of mine and his whole guild leveled to 50 in about a week and already downed the first raidmob on the beta.

that's called rolling on the level 40 server, i've been on a server since the beta weekends have opened up and no one's higher than level 30

[Nedala]

that's called rolling on the level 40 server, i've been on a server since the beta weekends have opened up and no one's higher than level 30

they are not rolling on the level 40 server, they all started from lvl 1. i pretty much watched him, since he hangs out at my place a lot and plays SWTOR all the time.

They aren't playing on that Weekend-stresstest-whatever server, they got beta acces for the whole guild like a week ago, on a server you cant play with the beta key a lot of people received this weekend.

Dont get me wrong, the game looks very nice and i think its going to be good. But leveling will be ez mode. (He made lvl 43 to 50 in about 20 hours)

[Juugox2]

im sure they zerged to 50 fast as possible to ill enjoy it .. spacebar def isnt gonna be my friend :P

[Juugox2]

there is so much to do to side track you .. no point in rushing to 50 to get to end game cotent being first .. who really cares imo

but i mean in beta of course your gonna zerg to 50 fast as possible esp if you already got guild rdy to go dont even need to sit around LFG ..

[Slave]

I played the game for the beta all weekend, I've got a couple of level 10 characters, and I'll probably keep playing till they shut it down.

Because this will be the last I play it until it spawns private servers.

It's very fun and engaging, perfect for kids just getting into MMOs. The graphics are subpar in this beta release, just like Harrison said. It will remind you nothing more of a WoW-ized KOTOR, I've been calling it Star WoWs. The itemization, stats, class-race-team balance and quests are exactly the same as WoW.

The difference is that you get a lot of cutscenes with 3 conversation choices to make in order to push your dark or light side points, which leads to further gear options. Basic KOTOR stuff, and it's hit-or-miss. A lot of conversations are very dull and you'll just want to get back to leveling/questing so you see what your new overpowered skill will be.

You get specialized classes later that branch off your main class and I haven't seen them but I would assume they work like the '3 tree' wow/diablo system, which is very old and bland stuff.

TOR will steal the Star Wars and sci-fi crowd from WoW, no question, it is a better game. I believe it will take the crown of #1 subscriptions from WoW within 18 months after launch.

And yet, there is no immersion. Combat is very repetitive and easy: mobs are tethered so you can just kill one, run, and return, even on the most elite dungeons until the final boss. All your abilities are supercharged and disgustingly powerful and effective to the point where you could simply mash buttons and still win. THere is basically ZERO consequences to death: a medical droid was dispatched to my location, where it proceeded to resurrect me and make me invincible for 10 seconds. It's like a GM friend coming to help you every time you die.

The cutscenes often seem tacked on and sometimes you get a very bad voice actor, and I'm talking the same ones from KOTOR and KOTOR2 that put you to sleep. The group storyline scenes are quite fun, and for once original. You gain Social points from grouping and doing quests, the rank of which determines your use of some social items like a targeting system that shows other people what you're attacking.

In the end, there is just no overriding reason for me to continue playing this game to make the same Inquisitor or Bounty Hunter as everyone else at level 50, doing instanced dungeons in one of 100 servers. Here is a conversation with someone else that plays WoW: "I play WoW" "Oh damn bro, me too! What server are you on?" "Wanderhome." "Oh, I'm on Gilthanis. Damn."

With today's gaming market, honestly you'd better find a better system than monthly payments if you want me to play your game, and you'd better be doing something totally new and amazing. There are so many high quality free offerings out there now, from PotBS, City of Heroes, Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars Galaxies (pre-CU emu), and EverQuest emu, to name a few. I'll play it once it's free to experience the story content.

That's all I have to say about that.

[Diggles]

So, a few things here, the Medical droid is on a progressing timer until you can use it again. 30-90-300-600 is what i've seen, and part of the reason it's so light on punishment I believe is because it's in beta, same with the experience boost on the full beta servers.

You got the fact right that they have WoW talent tress, but that's not how advanced classes work. Advanced classes are like the original DAoC pick a class from your pool at level 5 and stick with it system. At level 10 you go to the republic fleet and meet an advanced trainer, and you pick between two classes. Smuggler has Scoundrel and Gunslinger, scoundrel can either heal or dps/sabotage, Gunslinger is pure DPS.

Jedi Knights have Guardian and Sentinel, Guardians are tank and offtank/dps, Sentinels are pure dps, so on and so forth.

[Nedala]

im sure they zerged to 50 fast as possible to ill enjoy it .. spacebar def isnt gonna be my friend :P

yeah this is true, my friend leveled solo to 50 with quests, but he did as fast as possible (since the guild gave him a deadline and all). He also skipped all the cut scenes and dialoges, if you dont do that it will take a lot longer. Im just saying if you rush, its pretty fast. But i wont rush for sure i loved reading all the dialoges and stuff in mass effect and ill do the same in swtor :)

[Ihealyou]

A lot of the light side/dark side choices are dumb. Apparently questioning a captured enemy is evil. So is not being extorted for information, not letting the bad guys make a propaganda film, and returning stolen medicine to its owner. If you want to get light side points, you basically have to be a pushover.

[Knuckle]

Heh, wowie, SWTOR (swuh-tuhor), I don't even know where to start with you. I played you for about 15 hours and I'm still playing you (making my astromech do chores). You are a piece of work. I forgot I was playing an MMO for a couple of hours due to how engrossed I was with your quests. Combat made me want to kill things (this had an effect on my Jedi's alignment, yes, that's here too.) I literally talked my butt off with my Smuggler just to seem like a douche bag. You offer so much choices, and I'm not even a fraction of the way done with leveling.

Combat
This was probably my favorite part that sets the game from other MMOS. SWTOR has no auto-attack. This may seem counterintuitive to "good" combat, but it was probably the most engaging first 10 levels of my life having to balance attacks. You get a standard attack that you spam in between cooldowns, that costs no resource and has a non-existant cooldown (shoot blaster with smuggler, saber strike on jedi). There's really a lot more to choose from in a battle when the global cooldown is all you have. Smugglers have a system for cover, which prevents some ranged attacks from blowing their squishy asses to the dirt, and makes planning an engagement fun and engaging (don't hit me). Jedi felt right at home with a little twist to a standard fantasy warrior, Troopers felt overpowered (i could spam missiles all day) and force specialists felt very squishy but powerful if left alone.

Questing and Dialogue
Oh my Gods, you guys. This is definitely a piece of BioWare work. The tutorials themselves are amazing, I don't want to spoil it if you plan on playing, but they REALLY fit the class. Smuggler made me feel like a genuine Han Solo, Jedi had all the corny YO DAWG RESPECT YO MAGICS (force, sorry), and Trooper made me feel like I don't want to be in the military. There are so many things you can do, ESPECIALLY ON SMUGGLER. I FLIRTED WITH EVERY GIRL I CAME ACROSS AND IT OPENED SO MUCH MORE OPTIONS. The game looks and feels like Mass Effect with lightsabers. Dialogue is handled via BioWare™ Radial Menu, leaving you with usually 3 choices. Light and Dark dialogue will tell you what is what, so you don't accidentally kill someone on your little innocent Jedi.

PvP
This is my muse. My area 'o expertise. PvP in this game IS AMAZING. IT IS SO BALANCED, YOU GUYS. I could not get over how much classes countered each other perfectly. Smugglers can cheaply (nut shot with a foot) get out of Jedi confrontation, Jedi can completely counter casters, casters counter bounty hunters, all of this fun stuff. 1v1 encounters are AMAZING and are encouraged, you get more out of it. Rewards are given for successful 1v1 fights so a lot of people try them. The open world pvp is pretty fun and I'm not even that far into the game yet. Being able to level Star Wars' version of Renown/Prestige starts at level 10, so you won't be completely useless in endgame. The 3 maps that they have just in the Beta are amazingly fun, there's a Dominion like map, a standard Attack/Defend, and a weird soccer/football hybrid match with anyone vs anyone.

I really dig this game guys, and I'm buying the pre-order on my next paycheck. I really suggest some of you try the same.

fuck this faggy fucking shit. thank god for eqemu for a real world pvp experience. yet another game going the way of shit instanced pvp to cater to the brainless OCD masses.

[Diggles]

A lot of the light side/dark side choices are dumb. Apparently questioning a captured enemy is evil. So is not being extorted for information, not letting the bad guys make a propaganda film, and returning stolen medicine to its owner. If you want to get light side points, you basically have to be a pushover.
the fact that I got dark side points for saving my soldiers as a trooper was pretty retarded

[Smedy]

wow Diggles is just more stupid than i could ever think, he has a hard on for a generic instanced piece of shit game, i lul'd

go back 2 the pokemans bra, we playin a game that was made before u were born dog, try harder

[Diggles]

wow Diggles is just more stupid than i could ever think, he has a hard on for a generic instanced piece of shit game, i lul'd

go back 2 the pokemans bra, we playin a game that was made before u were born dog, try harder

instanced is a funny word for 1 zone in every planet.

[Silentone]

I saw the graphix in the demo and just figured wow...2011?

[Diggles]

jesus fucking christ you play a 12 year old mmo forget about the graphics

[Knuckle]

wow Diggles is just more stupid than i could ever think, he has a hard on for a generic instanced piece of shit game, i lul'd

go back 2 the pokemans bra, we playin a game that was made before u were born dog, try harder

lol

[Kope]

jesus fucking christ you play a 12 year old mmo forget about the graphics

Is it graphics or aesthetics? That's a huge difference and can be make or break for a game like that.

[Airdefier]

Fuck people running games on toasters.

holy hell hahaha

[Cwall]

starcraft 1 is an example of a game with bad graphics but good aesthetics

sw:tor appears to have neither

[Paul McCartney]

fuck this faggy fucking shit. thank god for eqemu for a real world pvp experience. yet another game going the way of shit instanced pvp to cater to the brainless OCD masses.

[EnnoiaII]

If I don't get trolled to all hell (probably going to happen) I can answer some ?s

What do you think the raid scene will look like with no autoattacking? What kinds of things do they have set up as raid encounters?

[Zenlina]

What do you think the raid scene will look like with no autoattacking? What kinds of things do they have set up as raid encounters?

Youtube the Eternity Vault

[GETINMYVAN]

This weekend I leveled a Smuggler, Mercenary and Juggernaut to level 20. My thoughts on the game so far:

Amazing quest system. Story driven quests instead of "go here and kill 30 of these" makes you become fully immersed in the story instead of mindlessly grinding monsters for experience.

Bonus missions in most quests for bonus experience? Awesome.

The companion system is awesome. As a Mercenary, both Mako (my companion) and myself could heal and dish out damage. Brilliant design.

Heroic quests are very in depth and entertaining. Instead of being sent somewhere to kill 1 monster thats Elite and go get your reward, you basically take on a mission involving several steps that end in a boss kill.

PVP seems a little broken at the moment. I'm not sure if it was just a bunch of people new to MMOs or what, but I destroyed -everything- that came near me on my Mercenary. Of course this is only level 20 PVP, but unless I was chain CC'd I could solo 2-3 people no problem.

The storyline is very good. I enjoyed probably the Bounty Hunter/Mercenary the most, and the Sith Juggernaut the least.

The graphics are good enough and make the game feel very KOTOR-y.

The arcade style mini game starship missions are entertaining and good to break up the monotony of chain questing.

All in all, for the first time ever I feel completely confident saying I have no desire to ever play World of Warcraft again. Bioware/EA has a loyal customer here.

[Diggles]

What do you think the raid scene will look like with no autoattacking? What kinds of things do they have set up as raid encounters?

I think it will take a lot of coordinating burn phases and such. on my Smuggler if I didn't pay attention to my resource I ran out VERY quickly. Gotta decide whether you can afford that extra damage or just use your basic attack

[GETINMYVAN]

It's more about weaving basic attacks in with special attacks. The lower your energy/heat/focus w/e is the slower it regens.