Star Wars Old Republic Beta invites

ShaneU

Haven't had any problems with lag myself. Main problem I'm having is trying to figure out all the crafting and companion skills, seems like it takes ages to figure out. I did manage to make my lightsaber yellow though

hairyheretic

Check your codex, it should tell you what gathering and mission skills go with each crafting one.

Blowfish

humanji wrote: »

But I'm currently haven't a horrific time with lag. Every two minutes I've to restart to game because it freezes for quite a while. And right at the moment, it won't let me even start the game. Hopefully this stress test will help them iron out these issues for the release.

That sounds much more like graphical issues rather than 'lag' from network issues.

In fact I'm loving the servers being in Ireland. Latency for me is usually around 25ms with the min being 15ms and max being 37ms.

ShaneU

Got to level 13 and I'm bored already, areas are so big and you move so slow it takes forever to do anything. I think the game would be far more enjoyable if you just stuck to the class quests because that's where the good plot lines are. Seems to be a lot more WoW than KOTOR.

jeawan

ShaneU wrote: »

Got to level 13 and I'm bored already, areas are so big and you move so slow it takes forever to do anything. I think the game would be far more enjoyable if you just stuck to the class quests because that's where the good plot lines are. Seems to be a lot more WoW than KOTOR.

You serious ?, i leveled Jedi Consular to lvl 15 and left it there also leveled Trooper to level 12 and started on a sith warrior . the game does not move slowly i found the stories to be very mass effect and really enjoyed the way they went really looking forward to this going live now .

Regarding Bugs had a few had one crash and no lag ran really well on my PC the thing i really liked was the grouping while leveling it makes the quests allot more fun as you party member pick different answer compared to you .

Also Red Lightsaber as Jedi Consular

bombs away

One other thing I found a little annoying was that the game felt a little guided, ran into a number of invisible walls when I tried to jump off platforms etc.

Was under the impression that that this was open world, guess it is with a few restrictions Felt like I was in the truman show or something.

doncarlos

Very disappointed in it if I'm honest. Graphics are not the best and didn't really like the movement (although can imagine I'd get used to it). Combat was ok but would get very repetitive after a while.
I was expecting to be able to pick the game up and play as I did with the previous two KOTOR games but this seems to have a bit of learning curve and was difficult to work out with no manual.

Overall I got bored after about an hour of gameplay and quit and went back to Skyrim. I'll give it another go over Christmas and hopefully I can get in to it more.

humanji

Blowfish wrote: »

That sounds much more like graphical issues rather than 'lag' from network issues.

In fact I'm loving the servers being in Ireland. Latency for me is usually around 25ms with the min being 15ms and max being 37ms.

Nah, it was definitely to do with the server connection (it icon at the bottom right would drop to one bar for a while, slowing everything down, and then cut out. Sometimes it'd connect again, other times I'd just restart. Changed to one server and had the same problem, but changed again and had no problem at all.

There were a few people on server complaining about the lag too.

bombs away wrote: »

One other thing I found a little annoying was that the game felt a little guided, ran into a number of invisible walls when I tried to jump off platforms etc.

Was under the impression that that this was open world, guess it is with a few restrictions Felt like I was in the truman show or something.

I don't mind how small the maps are, really. In fact, I'm kind of glad, as it makes the game feel more KOTOR-ish and less WoW-ish. But what does annoy me are some of the places the invisible walls are, such as along a balcony, so you can't jump down. It only means walking to the stairs, but it seems a silly thing to stop the player doing.

Kiith

Gonna pre-order this on Origin today. Will i still get the 5 days of early access?

Raphael

Very, very unlikely

Shiminay

5 days early access is, I believe they're saying, for people who pre-ordered before July and will be operating on a sliding scale form when you pre-ordered.

I filled out the survey after getting an email today and spent time filling out the in-game questions that would pop up after quests etc - if you don't tell them what's wrong they can't fix it.

I made a point of saying in the survey that after paying €150 for a Collector's Edition that if I'm expected to queue to get into the game at launch then I'll be seriously considering looking for a refund and not playing it. I couldn't give a flying fig if queuing to get into a game is "normal" for this sort of thing - after forking out that sum of money I expect to be able to click Play and start when I want

That aside, I really enjoyed myself this weekend. I levelled a Jedi Knight to 11 and a Bounty Hunter to 10 and really enjoyed both and will definitely be rolling both of those when full release happens. I have really had to try hard to take my "OMG I'M PLAYING A GAME IN THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE!" fanboy glasses off and I found the following criticisms:

It's a difficult interface to get to grips with - had this been my first time playing it, I'd not have enjoyed it as much, but this was my 4th time getting serious play time with the game. Now part of that I will admit is my complete lack of familiarity with MMOs in general, but there's a huge amount to take in - particularly when you get off-world for the first time and are asked to specialise in your class and learn crafting and crew skills. None of the crew skills made any sense to me and I think they're really going to have to put some time into explaining that to people. I was able to modify my sabre and pistol without any major difficulty, but trying to get my companion to use things from my inventory wasn't obvious at all (and ended up accidentally destroying items).

Wandering around - I think that the maps are big and that wandering around will get tiresome, but the game does have personal transports available at later levels (I don't know when they kick in, didn't get that far) and the large scale maps are intended to make use of that - I know I get one as a part of the Collectors Edition pre-order.

titan18

I got an in-game message at level 20 saying that speeder training can be done at level 25 and start to save for it

humanji

Can anyone tell me if a companion dies, is that it for them? I got the guy Khem Val and he died when we were fighting a big rhino thingy. I assumed he'd be revived or something, but he seems gone now.

Blowfish

humanji wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if a companion dies, is that it for them? I got the guy Khem Val and he died when we were fighting a big rhino thingy. I assumed he'd be revived or something, but he seems gone now.

If you right click his corpse when he dies, you can revive him.

I think you can summon them through the portrait if they aren't near you too, but it's not happened to me yet so I wouldn't be certain.

[edit] Actually, now that I think about it, it did happen to me once. Vette got stuck on an elevator, I presumed she'd catch up but never did. To get her back, I sent her on a crew skills mission. When the timer finished, she popped up beside me.

humanji

I think it's a bug. There were no options from clicking on him. I assumed he might pop back later, so I left the area. Not sure if I can get back in now, so he's probably gone for good.

Blowfish

humanji wrote: »

I think it's a bug. There were no options from clicking on him. I assumed he might pop back later, so I left the area. Not sure if I can get back in now, so he's probably gone for good.

The devs have actually specifically said that they used to allow companions to die off or for the PC to kill them, but the problem was players kept killing them and then regretting it, so now there's no way to kill them permanently. Still, probably not worth hassling over too much for the sake of the few hours left in the beta.

humanji

Yeah, I'm not too pushed on it. Just a little annoyed, since he was a good tank to stop me getting my head kicked in.

Dcully

So i managed a to get in 3 hours or so this evening and being honest im underwhelmed.
I am not a fan of cutscenes so wasnt looking forward to every quest in a similar vein.
I got bored of mass effect 2 and dragon age because i couldnt be arsed to sit through the endles dialogue.
In swtor it just feels in the way of things, all this fancy dandy cutscene and dialogue for a ****ing run of the mill kill 10x collect 8x boring quest, i mean why bother? I just spammed space bar yo bypass as its a chore to watch endless cutscenes to me personally.
I quite enjoyed the actual playing of my sith inquisitor,i made a gun firing guy also cant remember class and it just was not inspiring to play.
He had a cover skill to hide behind cover but it was total cack, clunky to play and just felt wrong.
The starting areas didnt inspire confidence at all.
Its all a bit meh to me after my initial 3 hours of gameplay.
Ive preordered the game ages ago via gamestop bricks and mortar, cost me a fiver,right now im not convinced.
I have far too many MMOs gathering dust now, will this be another that didnt deliver the goods?

Shiminay

The game's USP is the fact that it's story driven - it's what Bioware does and does well. If it's not your bag, cool, but you shouldn't be surprised that the the masters of story-telling RPGs have made a story-driven RPG

I get your point though, I can see that this style of thing isn't for everyone. I'm personally looking to indulge in some RP - I regularly play LARPs and pen & paper RPGs at conventions and I staff an Airsoft LARP once a month, so it's more my thing than most.

As for the Companion - I found the Droid useful when playing the Jedi Knight - he drew all the heavy attention away whilst I carved lumps out of them with a light-sabre. With the Bounty Hunter's companion, she kept me healed whilst I dished out the pew-pew-pew which was very useful. Both of them dropped once or twice in combat, but I was able to revive them after combat was done.

Venom

After playing in the last beta weekend I'm really disappointed in this game as it should of been epic considering the IP and the company behind it, sadly SWTOR is the most by the numbers MMO Iv ever played. There is nothing in the game that couldn't of been done in a 2005 MMO which is kinda mental when you consider the budget SWTOR had.


The planets while very pretty are utterly sterile with very little background chatter from NPC's and what is there is repeated over and over again each time you pass. What shocked me the most tho is how little of the music from the movies is actually used in the game. Are they not allowed to use it?

The class stories are pretty underwhelming for the most part and seem to be lacking any epic moments gameplay wise or story wise. Even the much hyped cutscenes show a total lack of imagination on the developers part. I played Sith Warrior, BH and Trooper up to the 2nd planet of there story and no point did the storyline divert from the by the numbers questing that other MMO's have done better.

The companions are nothing more than the usual MMO combat pets with a dress up option and I did expect more banter from them considering past Bioware games.Combat is again nothing more than the usual 1-2, 1-3, 1-2 combat that's been around since EQ1. Tweaks to the combat system to remover the global cooldown would make combat so much more fluid and way more fun.

The really sad thing is that SWTOR is a pretty good game that due to a total lack of imagination on the developers part, should of been an amazing if not epic game.

Spunge

So i heard this is just another crappy wow-clone

Gummy Panda

Spunge wrote: »

So i heard this is just another crappy wow-clone

It will do well cause a lot of people are fed up with wow but it isn't the second coming.

I don't like the cutscenes. They really slow down the pace. In flashpoints they can be a nightmare as a player could gimp around preventing you from progressing.

Combat is okay but when you get to advance class they should explain what skills are considered redundant. Looting has the problem of people needing on anything. LFG is poor. It's the LFG from TBC. Great at launch but 6 months in might take 30mins to organise a group for a flashpoint.

Dcully

If it's not your bag, cool, but you shouldn't be surprised that the the masters of story-telling RPGs have made a story-driven RPG

Not surprised at all, as i said above i wasnt looking forward to that aspect of the game even before i played the beta,i was expected it to be as it is.
Maybe if i actually played it as intended ie actually watch and study the quest cutscenes i might see it differently.
Possibly the fact i only got to play for 3 hours and felt terribly rushed [thanks to my net being down for the weekend] before the beta ended was a factor.
Ive played every mmo out there and one thing ive learned is you cant judge an MMO from playing hours,days or even weeks so ill refrain from doing so,ill most likely purchase it jsut not with the huge interest as i had before playing the beta.

Kiith

You've just been burned so many times before Dcully, that you don't dare to dream :pac:

humanji

When does the Beta end?

Blowfish

humanji wrote: »

When does the Beta end?

6am this morning.

Mr Bloat

I really enjoyed the beta, being a big fan of Bioware since the Baldur's Gate days and also being a big Star Wars fan. I didn't think of it as an MMO, I saw it as a multiplayer version of KOTOR and played it accordingly. I tried most of the character classes and enjoyed each one. It has it's flaws, it certainly isn't the best game I have ever played but I had fun, the buddies that I had teamed up with had fun and I came away wanting more. That's what a game should provide so I'll buy it and subscribe for a few months. After that, it's up to Bioware to keep me entertained.

titan18

Mr Bloat wrote: »

I really enjoyed the beta, being a big fan of Bioware since the Baldur's Gate days and also being a big Star Wars fan. I didn't think of it as an MMO, I saw it as a multiplayer version of KOTOR and played it accordingly. I tried most of the character classes and enjoyed each one. It has it's flaws, it certainly isn't the best game I have ever played but I had fun, the buddies that I had teamed up with had fun and I came away wanting more. That's what a game should provide so I'll buy it and subscribe for a few months. After that, it's up to Bioware to keep me entertained.

Yup,exact same, I see this as an extension of KOTOR rather than a MMO. I quite enjoyed it too, it was fun and the story wasn't bad. Tried Jedi Knight, Trooper and Sith Inquisitor. Enjoyed all three classes, although I felt the Knight was underpowered in comparison to the other 2

humanji

Do the dialogue choices make any real difference? I know smoe will give you light or dark side points, but is the actual outcome always the same?

Blowfish

humanji wrote: »

Do the dialogue choices make any real difference? I know smoe will give you light or dark side points, but is the actual outcome always the same?

As much as I'd love for them somehow to put in as much permanency etc. that you can manage in a single player game, realistically they are going to be a fair bit more limited.

They have added some interesting ideas with it though. Black Talon Flashpoint branches off into two different directions based on the choices in there, with different mobs etc. being fought and a different outcome.

Naturally, this is only going to be restricted to the single run of the instance, but it does open it up a lot more than usual. The one thing I'd wonder is that just as in most MMO's the community ends up by consensus using a 'standard' route through an instance, whether the same thing will end up happening with the dialogue choices.