Thread: Star Wars: The Old Republic

I was more dissapointed with swtor than swg. In swtor it looked like plastic and there was alot I didnt feel was done right. It was too easy and the world looked bland. And no Im not a tera fanboi or gw2 fanboi. Im getting a little tired of online games, lotro is the last I spend time on for a while. When you have played mmo's for years its bound to get boring some day.

the problems in swtor were not readily apparent until much later into the game. once the initial wow factor wore off you began realizing that all teh gripes everyone had which you read about before the game was released were actually valid.

remember the ex-bioware employee rant? he said in a forum chat that all the brass did in meetings was talk about the voice acting; it's all they cared about. well, it turned out to be true in many ways. you could see more went into that aspect of the game then other things which are more important to retention of players. things like the space combat angle. imagine if they didn't focus so heavily on the voice acting and cutscenes and instead there was a full-blown space aspect to the game where you can pilot your ship to any point in the galaxy, fly it out to unknown asteroid belts, mine materials, engage in PvP with the other side...

that would have been epic. instead we got ultra supremo voices, and a cheap, distraction on-rails shooter that didn't go anywhere, and felt like a slap in face.

then look at the flashpoints. much of the early hype and promo videos were all focused around the centerpiece Flashpoint: The Esseles! People were blown away by how amazing it looked. The level 10's on December 16th were crammed into carrack station to run FP Esseles and they all found it to be just as good as the hype. Oooh they couldnt wait for the next FP's! Then when they did Hammer Station they thought...hrm...that was nothing like Esseles. What happened to the cutscenes and voices and amazing story. Hmm, ok np, prob in the next one....nope...next one? .... nope...nope....nope. Not a single FP from level 10 to level 30 had a single cutscene, or integrated story at all. nice bait and switch!

ASnd ooooh the crafting! One of the worst, most boring, repetitive crafting systems ever. just stand anywhere and your hands kinda move back and forth and presto, you just crafted a speeder. LOL. But all the players who generally hate crafting thought it great! "hey man the crafting is awesome what you talking bout brah?? I can just play hutball and send my barns out to gather materials." yeah apparently this is what these guys consider thrilling and engaging crafting....lol.

i cannot even comment on endgame since i quit with 7 characters all at about level 30. but i remember vividly how terrible the GTN was, no search function unless you pull down 5 menu's first? if your buddy returns from a mission the gtn closes on you?? carrack station layout is so unfathomable you must always have the map open to figure out where you were, even after playing for two months there. lol. ever have a problem finding your way around Bree where unless a map open you are hopelessly lost and running in circles?

I certainly recall slowly realizing that the galaxy never felt much like a galaxy at all. just a bunch of slow loading screens between empty planets. planets which you had no actual access to beyond the hemmed in boundaries where we must stay and quest, and if you get the itch to explore, you know, maybe want to check out whats over that hill over there..you either cannot get there, or a message appears saying turn back now you are entering exhaustion area and will die...

end result...hi bioware, please delete my subscription i will not be renewing, and sry but i do not care to fill out your questionaire about why I left, there are too many reasons.

Originally Posted by enginekid

the problems in swtor were not readily apparent until much later into the game. once the initial wow factor wore off you began realizing that all teh gripes everyone had which you read about before the game was released were actually valid.

remember the ex-bioware employee rant? he said in a forum chat that all the brass did in meetings was talk about the voice acting; it's all they cared about. well, it turned out to be true in many ways. you could see more went into that aspect of the game then other things which are more important to retention of players. things like the space combat angle. imagine if they didn't focus so heavily on the voice acting and cutscenes and instead there was a full-blown space aspect to the game where you can pilot your ship to any point in the galaxy, fly it out to unknown asteroid belts, mine materials, engage in PvP with the other side...

that would have been epic. instead we got ultra supremo voices, and a cheap, distraction on-rails shooter that didn't go anywhere, and felt like a slap in face.

Space combat gets more fun after you get some equipment. The latter ones can be challenging. Is it SWG space, nope, but we'll see where they take it in expansions.

Originally Posted by enginekid

then look at the flashpoints. much of the early hype and promo videos were all focused around the centerpiece Flashpoint: The Esseles! People were blown away by how amazing it looked. The level 10's on December 16th were crammed into carrack station to run FP Esseles and they all found it to be just as good as the hype. Oooh they couldnt wait for the next FP's! Then when they did Hammer Station they thought...hrm...that was nothing like Esseles. What happened to the cutscenes and voices and amazing story. Hmm, ok np, prob in the next one....nope...next one? .... nope...nope....nope. Not a single FP from level 10 to level 30 had a single cutscene, or integrated story at all. nice bait and switch!

The flashpoints I have run have more story than LOTRO instances. The only story I vaguely remember is NCF saving hobbits. I've found the operations to be more interesting than LOTRO raids. The mechanics of SOA are more interesting than any raid boss

Originally Posted by enginekid

ASnd ooooh the crafting! One of the worst, most boring, repetitive crafting systems ever. just stand anywhere and your hands kinda move back and forth and presto, you just crafted a speeder. LOL. But all the players who generally hate crafting thought it great! "hey man the crafting is awesome what you talking bout brah?? I can just play hutball and send my barns out to gather materials." yeah apparently this is what these guys consider thrilling and engaging crafting....lol.

Really, you like going to places and getting your mats? I buy them all in the AH in LOTRO b/c getting mats is busy work. I also think standing in front of a superior workbench for an hour AFK while I craft is not a thrilling gameplay experience. To each their own. I also like the fact that I can queue stuff, log off or switch toons and keep playing. My guy will still be crafting. It isn't perfect but I'd take that system over LOTRO any day.

Originally Posted by enginekid

i cannot even comment on endgame since i quit with 7 characters all at about level 30. but i remember vividly how terrible the GTN was, no search function unless you pull down 5 menu's first? if your buddy returns from a mission the gtn closes on you?? carrack station layout is so unfathomable you must always have the map open to figure out where you were, even after playing for two months there. lol. ever have a problem finding your way around Bree where unless a map open you are hopelessly lost and running in circles?

End game will be better when the population isn't spread across 120 servers. GTN was updated in 1.2, and works better. Level 30 isn't really getting through act I in any story arc so you really aren't as far into the game as you think. The last 20 levels take a while and cover many planets. I could see how someone would get burn out running the starter planets 7 times in the short time you played. On alts I only level through class quests, pvp or space missions. Yuck to landscape PVE (in LOTRO and any other game for that matter). The UI was also revamed in 1.2 and you can have lots of windows open. I'm not sure how you get lost in the fleet, I can't comment on your mental capacity but a hub spoke with a couple elevators isn't rocket science. Bree isn't rocket science either, lets just say they're both easy to navigate, I find getting from crafting hall to bank annoying though in Bree and park most low level toons in TH or Est b/c of that inconvenience.

Originally Posted by enginekid

I certainly recall slowly realizing that the galaxy never felt much like a galaxy at all. just a bunch of slow loading screens between empty planets. planets which you had no actual access to beyond the hemmed in boundaries where we must stay and quest, and if you get the itch to explore, you know, maybe want to check out whats over that hill over there..you either cannot get there, or a message appears saying turn back now you are entering exhaustion area and will die...

1.2 they cut down on loading screens and let you use your speeder in more places. Also, if you have found all the datacrons and codex entries through your extensive exploration I'm impressed. Otherwise I doubt you've explored every nook and cranny. I prefer the exhaustion zone to invisible walls but thats just me.

Originally Posted by enginekid

end result...hi bioware, please delete my subscription i will not be renewing, and sry but i do not care to fill out your questionaire about why I left, there are too many reasons.

I'd love to hear your criticisms of LOTRO. How much do you love all of the stuff in this game? What do you dislike? I think we can all agree that LOTRO isn't a perfect game.

Originally Posted by megaboy

thats becuase you were looking for a SW game that plays as the movies do.
right now the only place for that is the lego games.

TOR was never about that nor did it claim to be IMO.
i love it like i love the srpg KOTOR.
KOTOR was never like the SW movies either...but still it succeeded and is considered a classic today.

and to be honest...im glad of that...heck i have a sith juggy that makes darth vader(from any of the movies) look like a big ole emo wimp.

Well no, I didn't really expect something akin to the movies. I've not been as interested in the Old Republic era as in the original Galactic Civil War era (and I'm not a fan of the prequels), but I've read novels like the Darth Bane series by Drew Karpyshyn (very good) and figured as long as SWTOR had the same Star Wars motifs I'd have a blast. And I did for a while. I just didn't have time to play two MMOs, and when I did have time I just preferred to play LotRO. Besides, I have kinmates in LotRO that are waiting for me to log on to do stuff -- whereas in SWTOR I don't really know anyone, and my buddy couldn't find time to play any more than I could.

I think SWTOR, when it matures and adds/corrects all the things it needs to, will be a very good game and I'll definitely make time for it. I didn't think LotRO was that great in the beginning either, but 5 years later I think it's the best MMO on the market depite its faults. SWTOR can get to that point too if they choose to.

Some criticisms: Maybe one thing SWTOR lacks is that gritty, dirty look that the movies famously tried to present (my characters' ships are so clean). And the character models are all so exaggerated, even children and elderly people have these bizarre looking maxed out comic book bodies. The spaceports and some other places are so convoluted, uniform and symmetrical (i.e. not very good visual cues to help you navigate like in, say, Bree) that it takes a lot of running to find your way around. The GTN was still primitive and substandard, but LotRO's auction house had problems too, at a similar stage of development. The leveling I found to be way too fast -- I remember my buddy and I stopped doing Heroics and bonus quests because we got so much xp (sometimes 10-12,000 a pop) we were outleveling our class quests. The UI was still primitive even after the April update. I want something like in LotRO where I can quickly resize and relocate windows anywhere on the screen, and be able to open as many windows as I want, instead of having windows close themselves when I open others.

Those are really the only criticisms I can think of at the moment.


Rip

Originally Posted by Rippentuck

But...but....*sigh.*

Okay, I have to say that I think there may be some truth in this post. I don't get the same "Star Wars" feeling from SWTOR as I did from the movies, or even SWG. Sure, there are lightsabers and droids and ships, but I'm not as drawn to SWTOR as I should be, being a Star Wars fan since 1977.


Rip

There is definitely some truth to this especially if you were a kid in the 70's and 80's.

I do like the OR setting but it does suck that we will never run into anyone from the movies. I sometimes wonder if The Clone Wars Online might have been better. They could still have masses of Jedi and still have some characters from the filrms.

As for the rep wars I try to limit my negative reps to trolls and genuine jerks. I did -rep someone accidentally once though and after I reported it was changed to +rep promptly so I know they can change rep if they have to.

Originally Posted by Jeffor

There is definitely some truth to this especially if you were a kid in the 70's and 80's.

I do like the OR setting but it does suck that we will never run into anyone from the movies. I sometimes wonder if The Clone Wars Online might have been better. They could still have masses of Jedi and still have some characters from the filrms.

As for the rep wars I try to limit my negative reps to trolls and genuine jerks. I did -rep someone accidentally once though and after I reported it was changed to +rep promptly so I know they can change rep if they have to.

They can and do. Report your own post you were neg repped on if you think it was in error and leave a note to explain. They'll fix it.

I've been neg repped on a lot of posts that weren't even negative or complaints or argumentative. They changed them for me.

Originally Posted by enginekid

the problems in swtor were not readily apparent until much later into the game. once the initial wow factor wore off you began realizing that all teh gripes everyone had which you read about before the game was released were actually valid.

remember the ex-bioware employee rant? he said in a forum chat that all the brass did in meetings was talk about the voice acting; it's all they cared about. well, it turned out to be true in many ways. you could see more went into that aspect of the game then other things which are more important to retention of players. things like the space combat angle. imagine if they didn't focus so heavily on the voice acting and cutscenes and instead there was a full-blown space aspect to the game where you can pilot your ship to any point in the galaxy, fly it out to unknown asteroid belts, mine materials, engage in PvP with the other side...

that would have been epic. instead we got ultra supremo voices, and a cheap, distraction on-rails shooter that didn't go anywhere, and felt like a slap in face.

then look at the flashpoints. much of the early hype and promo videos were all focused around the centerpiece Flashpoint: The Esseles! People were blown away by how amazing it looked. The level 10's on December 16th were crammed into carrack station to run FP Esseles and they all found it to be just as good as the hype. Oooh they couldnt wait for the next FP's! Then when they did Hammer Station they thought...hrm...that was nothing like Esseles. What happened to the cutscenes and voices and amazing story. Hmm, ok np, prob in the next one....nope...next one? .... nope...nope....nope. Not a single FP from level 10 to level 30 had a single cutscene, or integrated story at all. nice bait and switch!

ASnd ooooh the crafting! One of the worst, most boring, repetitive crafting systems ever. just stand anywhere and your hands kinda move back and forth and presto, you just crafted a speeder. LOL. But all the players who generally hate crafting thought it great! "hey man the crafting is awesome what you talking bout brah?? I can just play hutball and send my barns out to gather materials." yeah apparently this is what these guys consider thrilling and engaging crafting....lol.

i cannot even comment on endgame since i quit with 7 characters all at about level 30. but i remember vividly how terrible the GTN was, no search function unless you pull down 5 menu's first? if your buddy returns from a mission the gtn closes on you?? carrack station layout is so unfathomable you must always have the map open to figure out where you were, even after playing for two months there. lol. ever have a problem finding your way around Bree where unless a map open you are hopelessly lost and running in circles?

I certainly recall slowly realizing that the galaxy never felt much like a galaxy at all. just a bunch of slow loading screens between empty planets. planets which you had no actual access to beyond the hemmed in boundaries where we must stay and quest, and if you get the itch to explore, you know, maybe want to check out whats over that hill over there..you either cannot get there, or a message appears saying turn back now you are entering exhaustion area and will die...

end result...hi bioware, please delete my subscription i will not be renewing, and sry but i do not care to fill out your questionaire about why I left, there are too many reasons.

I do agree with some of this. One thing for me is the lack of environment. Not being able to feel as though you are really there. After playing something like Skyrim, that becomes very noticeable. On the flip side, even though Skyrim was very, very pretty, I felt it lacked story and character. The player character had less personality than the NPC's, and I never felt they even had much. Swtor feels very opposite to me. They seem to have very strong characters. It feels a bit like watching a stage play with painting'sets.' Where Skyrim had more of a 'film location' feel.
I think they should have put as much focus into the enviorment as they did the story.
Personally, I prefer the strong stories and characters over weak story/strong environment.

As to the crafting, I don't mind it. I do wish it was less dependent on random chance. It seems like most games don't like to make crafting 'dependable'. You have to rely on 'luck' to get something. I hate that. I do not find it fun, just annoying. I would say Swtor has less of that than Lotro. I think less than WoW too, but I haven't played that in so long. I can't remember how their crafting worked.
One thing I really like about Swtor's crafting, is once you learn a recipe, or get a 'crit', you have it forever. With the addition of augment tables, it will be even less of a hassle.
I do wish the missions had a 'drop down menu' or something. I don't mind getting less of the 'important' things, but at least one dependable mission would be nice. It's so annoying when there is no mission for even a basic thing you need.

As to the flashpoint's, so far, they have been right up there for my favorite instances of any game. I was also disappointed with the lack of cutscenes in the later ones. However, they do seem quite clear as to what you are supposed to do and do not seem gimmicky. Personally, I really disliked Lotro's instances for being too gimmicky. I liked the riddle part of Inn of the Forsaken but hated the rest. I guess that goes back to personal tastes.

One of my favorite things about the game is the cutscenes. It's a wonderful way to get their story/ personality through. I do love the voice acting. The male agent has the perfect voice for that role. I think the only one I can't stand is the female Jedi. I just hate that one. I am not wild about space battles, though I love some of the things the characters say during them. I have done all the ones up to 50 quite a few times. I don't think even the improvements you suggested would change things for me. It's just something I don't really care about.

One of their biggest issue's, or flaws I think, has been how they have/ are handling server transfers and/or merges. They keep being coy and trying to be cute about that, which I think is a very stupid way to treat the issue
I hope they start dealing with things better. There are some very promising things about the game. It would be nice if they were able to grow.

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

You're not the only one. I also got neg repped here and accused of never playing the game.

You do not have to worry about negative reputation from me. I rarely give negative reputation. You got to be way over the nasty line with profanity or personal attacks. Even in these cases I rarely bother. I typically have calmed down after the - Over here ladies and gentlemen. Bring sticks. Tasers. Nets. Dangerous animal on the rampage.

I do not worry about forum reputation system too much. It is very human thing. As soon as you give some a stick. You give them a set of rules on when, what, why and how to use the stick. You have abuse issues. Which why saying similar to:

Who watches the Watcher?
Absolute Power corrupts absolutely

come into being.

AS this is now a discussion of rep and not the OP it seems there is no longer a need for this thread or any on this topic.

Also, all reputation given and received in this thread will be reviewed. Any accounts found to be misusing the system will have their actions reversed and may have their own reputation reduced or reset as a result of any abuses of the reputation system.