Star Wars: The Old Republic General Discussion

DesertFox

Oh guys I found a nice bug, you can actually equip another extra item to your droid.
Now I've only tested this with T7-01, the Jedi Knight droid.
Basically you have two slots labelled implant slots but one is actually a parts slot, so you can equip two parts and then two implants, the second part icon will disappear but it remains equipped. To remove that parts item, you have to first remove the implants, then move the other part item to the slot with the invisible part, it then reappears.
Nice little boost for your droid

Varik

Penny Arcade

GarethBah

Have no complaints about the game itself, but i'm not liking the customer support, i've made 3 tickets all pretty bad responses:


1: Hi there, we just killed the first boss in eternity vault, and only half the raid members could loot I kindly request that you give the crystals for killing the boss to the following players <insert player names here> /created 12/27/2011

Response: We would like to thank you for the report, we have passed this info onto one of our specialized teams will who investigate.

2: Hi, i have been stuck on 6450 light points for quite a while now and they are not increasing when I gain new light points i'm wondering is it possible to fix this please?, thanks /created 12/28/2011

Response: Thank you for contacting us with his bug report. Your report has been forwarded bla bla bla, We regret we will not be able to provide you with further updates on this issue.

3: Hi, we just killed the second boss in eternity vault(gharj) and only half our raid completed the weekely quest to kill him, could you please set the following player names to completed also please <insert player names here> /ticket created 12/28/2011

Response: none

nix

Well in fairness Gareth, the games only launched and they probably have hundreds of thousands of contact issues to resolve, id give them more time, some of the issues you raised may need a hot fix patch to resolve the issue. Cut em some slack

Its Christmas too, think of the amount of people off work playing the game vs the amount of people they have currently working over this period.

Kirby

I used to do that job. Gareth, You haven't a hope of getting a useful response this early in the games life cycle.

The idea is that alot of tickets are mundane and can be delt with explaining to the player that its part of the game....or direct them to the website....or unstick them from the world. Anything more complicated gets sent on to a senior CSO who actually know what they are doing and have the power to help you with mobs and items and such. Unfortunately, you usually don't get that far with a new MMO.

Most tickets are first seen by a low level CSO who's job is to see as many tickets resolved in an hour as possible. That involves closing them or escalating them. Most of them haven't got a clue what they are doing and the easiest way for them to do their jobs is to send you a canned response and close the ticket even if it should be escalated.

Give it a few months. Responses will get better.

Lone Stone

Soo... anyone else decide not to sub ?

I got to level 32 on my juggernaut 17 on a sith inq and 12 on a imperial agent, Then after doing what seems like the same quest over and over from lvl 1 to 32 i have lost any desire to play this game sadly.

Im a bit dissapointed this is star wars and the best bioware could do with quest mechanics was kill 20-30 mobs, click some item kill elite mob but its literally the same thing for every quest except some times you dont have to fight a elite guy woooo aww :eek: I just keep thinking this is star wars and bioware and the best they can do is this. The story aspect was fun but it every thing you do is the same thing over and over.

nesf

Lone Stone wrote: »

Soo... anyone else decide not to sub ?

Nah, I think I'll sub until I've seen what the endgame is like and/or my guildmates stop playing.

Lone Stone wrote: »

Im a bit dissapointed this is star wars and the best bioware could do with quest mechanics was kill 20-30 mobs, click some item kill elite mob but its literally the same thing for every quest except some times you dont have to fight a elite guy woooo aww :eek: I just keep thinking this is star wars and bioware and the best they can do is this. The story aspect was fun but it every thing you do is the same thing over and over.

You've just described the levelling process for practically all RPGs and MMOs that I've ever played. The fun for me comes from experimenting with different tactics, approaches and what not to see what's most efficient. But yeah, basically it's just kill this, click that, carry this to there and whatnot and every so often gain a level and some new abilities. The storyline in this game masks this a bit but it's basically another RPG which means that levelling = killing stuff and/or clicking stuff. I mean Skyrim is great but when you boil it down it is just kill quests and fetch quests with the occasional dragon thrown in but by L20 killing dragons isn't a challenge anymore.

I'm not saying it can't be dull, it very much can be, but RPGs are generally like this and that's either something about the genre that sits with you well enough or not. We get some tinkering with the model with the likes of public quests in Warhammer etc but either the new levels giving you new abilities and perks are worth all the mob killing or not. I mean SWTOR was great, had a lovely storyline etc but again it boiled down to mob killing and fetch quests.

These kinds of games either suit you or they don't. If you can't stand having to go through drudgery to get all the potential powers for a character then it might be best to look into some alternative genres because it's rare to find a very different approach in RPGs and MMOs. I enjoy RPGs and MMOs, I find putting time in to get rewards, well, rewarding. It's a very Pavlovian response but these kinds of games are popular precisely because a lot of people respond very well to the work for a bit then get a reward model. It's why they're addictive and why many, many other hobbies in life can be addictive and it's why most FPS games now have "RPG elements." Just instead of levels you kill other human players.


That and you could (but I would never recommend it) level up purely through PvP or ship combat after L10 and just do your class quests on each world to get your companions etc and then do some quests at high level for decent starter endgame gear. But that would kind of defeat the purpose of a story-driven MMO and you'd be best off saving your money for something like Guild Wars 2.

Lone Stone

nesf wrote: »

-.

Well i know what your saying about this being generally how mmo's play out because they include fighting mobs but they are not this one track, In wow you have different type of quests like bombing runs, turning an elite giant into a tiny shrunken down guy to fight or even that old quest in stv that leads to a giant ape it had a variety and it was never literally one quest after another being the same formula which is the case with this game so il disagree with you on what your saying about the leveling process for every mmo because thats far from true.I think bioware were extremely unimaginative when it came to this important aspect of a game which is sold around its story and pve content.

And come on the space combat feels like it was made in one afternoon and all you do is left click and pvp is useless if your melee due to the issue with the skills and the time sync thing.

So anyway definitely not for me seems a bit below average in quality & production quality considering the amount of money they put into it. I dont see a bright future for this game sadly i wanted it to be great but its just not.

Kirby

Lone Stone wrote: »

Well i know what your saying about this being generally how mmo's play out because they include fighting mobs but they are not this one track, In wow you have different type of quests like bombing runs, turning an elite giant into a tiny shrunken down guy to fight or even that old quest in stv that leads to a giant ape it had a variety and it was never literally one quest after another being the same formula which is the case with this game so il disagree with you on what your saying about the leveling process for every mmo because thats far from true.I think bioware were extremely unimaginative when it came to this important aspect of a game which is sold around its story and pve content.

And come on the space combat feels like it was made in one afternoon and all you do is left click and pvp is useless if your melee due to the issue with the skills and the time sync thing.

So anyway definitely not for me seems a bit below average in quality & production quality considering the amount of money they put into it. I dont see a bright future for this game sadly i wanted it to be great but its just not.

You can generally tell the Wow-come-lately's to the lads who played from beta. While what you say about the wow quests is true, it took until the thid expanion pack, Wrath of the Lich king, for any of that to be implemented. Vanilla and Burning crusade were very plain regarding quests. The extent of it was clicking an item to make a guy small/big and then killing him. Just variations on the same thing.

Its also worth noting there is only ever one outcome in every wow quest. The end. There is no choice or diverging paths. That exists in swtor to a decent degree. Talk your way out of trouble, and you don't have to fight. Kill a guy and end a quest line or let him live and extend it etc. etc. None of that in Wow. Even after seven years.

And personally, I love the space combat. It's like lylat wars.....which was great.

Icyseanfitz

only realized that you can change the crafting mission level just now

nesf

Lone Stone wrote: »

Well i know what your saying about this being generally how mmo's play out because they include fighting mobs but they are not this one track, In wow you have different type of quests like bombing runs, turning an elite giant into a tiny shrunken down guy to fight or even that old quest in stv that leads to a giant ape it had a variety and it was never literally one quest after another being the same formula which is the case with this game so il disagree with you on what your saying about the leveling process for every mmo because thats far from true.I think bioware were extremely unimaginative when it came to this important aspect of a game which is sold around its story and pve content.

The bombing runs? I mean yeah the first time I did one it was like cool but they got tired fast. Fulfil your objective quickly? Yeah sit there doing nothing for another few minutes doing nothing (or go for a cigarette in my case). The shrinking rays etc were amusing and WoW has a lot of good quirky humour in it (e.g. my favourite still is the quest in Outland where you have to retrieve a set of shredder keys that a hellboar ate...) but this is a serious MMO not a quirky fun one like WoW so it's unfair/unrealistic to expect the same kind of flippant humour. I mean Warcraft from day one always had a lot of humour in it some quite silly. Star Wars always (imho) took itself too seriously to allow for a lot of humour in an MMO of it. The quest in STV never stood out for me personally so don't really have much to say about it.

Like I said in my post, plenty of gimmicks have been tried, e.g. starship fights on rails in SWTOR (which are fun enough now but will be just another grind like everything else soon enough), but few if any stick because they get boring pretty fast. Fun the first time you see it in a game but not repeatable really, I mean the bombing dailies in Wrath took any enjoyment I had out of that type of quest, it just became another mechanical activity for me. That and these gimmicks made up, what, 1% of levelling time? The vast majority of quests in WoW were very basic kill quests.


Melee pvp issues I'll grant you though.

Gummy Panda

nesf wrote: »

The bombing runs? I mean yeah the first time I did one it was like cool but they got tired fast. Fulfil your objective quickly? Yeah sit there doing nothing for another few minutes doing nothing (or go for a cigarette in my case). The shrinking rays etc were amusing and WoW has a lot of good quirky humour in it (e.g. my favourite still is the quest in Outland where you have to retrieve a set of shredder keys that a hellboar ate...) but this is a serious MMO not a quirky fun one like WoW so it's unfair/unrealistic to expect the same kind of flippant humour. I mean Warcraft from day one always had a lot of humour in it some quite silly. Star Wars always (imho) took itself too seriously to allow for a lot of humour in an MMO of it. The quest in STV never stood out for me personally so don't really have much to say about it.

This is true. Lucasarts have strict guidelines. Humour can be done with the use of droids though like HK-47. He was the best character in any star wars game.

I did love this though:

End of BH Act 1 were you fighting the Jedi Master on Republic ship and he tries to do a Jedi mind trick on you. You wave back mocking him hehe

Lone Stone

I agree with what you guys are saying but still it makes no difference this game has zero variety in what you do outside of dialogue choices i was just using wow as an example of different quest mechanics where as this game has just the one mechanic and thats just not going to keep me playing my friends already stopped playing and i cant see my self resubing in the future as i dont really see them changing this aspect of the game.

And sure wow never had any real voice acting or interactivity but that never mattered because it was set in a world that felt alive and thats just not the case with this title either your literally just walking around a flat landscape killing mobs that are standing about doing nothing its just a shocking lack of creativity.

But if you guys enjoy good for you im not trying to convince you its a bad game,i just cant get over the lack of things to do and despite the fun dialogue interaction it means nothing because i know right after im going to get told to kill 30 mobs again and thats just boring.

nesf

Lone Stone wrote: »

But if you guys enjoy good for you im not trying to convince you its a bad game,i just cant get over the lack of things to do and despite the fun dialogue interaction it means nothing because i know right after im going to get told to kill 30 mobs again and thats just boring.

Yeah I suppose what I'm saying is that mainstream MMOs (in general, exceptions will always exist if a certain IP really does it for you) mightn't be the best genre for you if repetitive mob kill quests really get under your skin, rather than saying this is a good game and you should like it. I fully appreciate that these kinds of games just do not suit a lot of people.


Maybe something more innovative and PvP focused like Guild Wars 2 might suit you better? Not that it won't have a grind or anything.

Icyseanfitz

yup just about every mmo ive played all comes down to grinding in some sort of way, its just the way they are set up

oxo_

While Yes, MMO's will all have a variation of one sort or another on the kill this, kill that, go here, go there, go back to where you were the first time then run back to the fourth place while stopping off at the third and killing 20 mobs on the way...
Where SWTOR falls down badly in this department is that there has been little or no effort put into those type of quests other than the very basics - there's just no life or meaning to the quests. They can be explained away with any amount of spoken dialogue at the starts, middle and ends of the quests but in between them all they're just very basic and lazily done.

I think more people these days are just willing to accept mediocrity in a games design because it's easier to do than admit to themselves they got burned again with another suicide MMO that was hyped up beyond belief and for which they fell for, again.
While that doesn't necessarily apply to anyone here, it certainly does so in large measure on their official forums, which is deceiving for newer people who might read their views and think the game has no faults at all or that it's something completely new and improves upon everything else that came before it, when it does no such thing.

Given when you launch an MMO and that EVERYONE will be levelling up, I find it shocking that so little effort actually went into the actual quests.

nesf

oxo_ wrote: »

I think more people these days are just willing to accept mediocrity in a games design because it's easier to do than admit to themselves they got burned again with another suicide MMO that was hyped up beyond belief and for which they fell for, again.

One man's mediocrity is another man's mainstream. You dislike the game fair enough but really is it necessary to justify that by calling the rest of us people who fell for the hype? I mean I've played pretty much all of the major MMO releases out over the past 5 years precisely because I quite enjoy MMOs even if they aren't that innovative. Ditto most major strategy and RPG games of the past decade and a half. It's not hype, I just like these genres and can find something even in the cookie cutter ones and generally am happy enough to fork out some money for the experience.

SWTOR isn't going to please everyone, it's a MMO, this is pretty much a given. But this is a very subjective judgement based on what parts of the MMO experience you prioritise so you really should be more tolerant of other people's opinions here.

Edit: Your edit makes my point redundant here.

I'm perfectly willing to concede that on the main forums there are plenty of SW fanboys who would praise the game pretty much regardless of content or polish.

oxo_

nesf wrote: »

Edit: Your edit makes my point redundant here.

Yeah I didn't mean for it to come across that way in the first place, hence I edited and expanded on what I was trying to say, just before you posted your reply I guess.

nix

How else do you guys propose to hit max level? Shoot some hoops?

From what i played from beta i found the quests alot more involving, and they had alot more than just killing a number of mobs, those tended to be just bonus quests that triggered automaticaly when you killed a specific breed of mob, i usually ignored them if they required any extra effort from the bunch of quests i was already hammering through..

Do all quests turn into kill x amount of mobs after a certain level/zone? As i got to 30 and found it fun and in no way wowlike.

degrassinoel

oxo_ wrote: »

Given when you launch an MMO and that EVERYONE will be levelling up, I find it shocking that so little effort actually went into the actual quests.

I'm curious, can you give an example of a quest/mission from another mmo that has more effort in it?

I specificlly cant think of any bar maybe the hunter level 60 epic quest from vanilla wow, or possibly thundaraan/thunderfury. But they were nearly 7 years ago and required a well progressed 40 man raid to even start.

Nody

degrassinoel wrote: »

I'm curious, can you give an example of a quest/mission from another mmo that has more effort in it?

I specificlly cant think of any bar maybe the hunter level 60 epic quest from vanilla wow, or possibly thundaraan/thunderfury. But they were nearly 7 years ago and required a well progressed 40 man raid to even start.

What about the flower vs. zoombies one in WoW? The Everquest icegiant war (step 10 in the coldain ring)? Epic for any class in Everquest but for example for Rogue (sneaking, pick pocketing, assassinations etc.)? The gnome/goblin race in WoW?

nesf

Nody wrote: »

The gnome/goblin race in WoW?

I found that great fun for a while but it got quite grating after a bit. Maybe that was just me though. That said, I was really looking forward to playing a Goblin before Cata.

Mr. K

I played this for the first time in a week today, still enjoying it. That said, I'm only L10 and still on the first planet.

This is the first MMO I've decided that I'm going invest serious time into, mostly because of the narrative aspect.

cruadh

hey lads I'm new to this whole mmo thing and I was wondering if someone could help, I just bought the game and I'm trying to set up an account, can anyone tell me if you have to have a credit card to play the old republic or can you just buy these time cards, also if you can do this are these time cards available in Irish game store (gamestop hmv etc)?

Mr. K

cruadh wrote: »

hey lads I'm new to this whole mmo thing and I was wondering if someone could help, I just bought the game and I'm trying to set up an account, can anyone tell me if you have to have a credit card to play the old republic or can you just buy these time cards, also if you can do this are these time cards available in Irish game store (gamestop hmv etc)?

I'm pretty sure you can just buy time cards. I haven't looked for them in shops, but Game have them online, so I'd say they'll be in shops by now.

degrassinoel

Nody wrote: »

What about the flower vs. zoombies one in WoW? The Everquest icegiant war (step 10 in the coldain ring)? Epic for any class in Everquest but for example for Rogue (sneaking, pick pocketing, assassinations etc.)? The gnome/goblin race in WoW?

i've always seen the likes of PvZ as a minigame, which in fairness the space combat missions in swtor has too. They could vary a bit more but they are there. I've not played EQ so i dont know what the icegiant war is

gnomes and goblins? those starting areas were terrible! lol i get your point though, there were a lot different styles to the various quests but they were'nt exactly great either though and didnt involve much in the way of using your characters abilities rather than using a vehicles 1,2 and 3 button

I still have to disagree with the quests being dull in swtor, my BH is 48 now and i've a really low tolerance for the mundane in any mmo. I'm still very much entertained by it and by no means a fanboy of the franchise. Infact there are a lot of things in other mmo's i wish were implented in swtor and vice versa.

Varik

Anyone seen any player names that are right out of star wars, any luke skywalkers running around?

ShaneU

Nah, and you can't put numbers in your name so no chance for D4rth V4d3r either

Kirby

Thats a good thing. Nobody wants to see leetspeak in names. Its juvenile, stupid and takes a second look to spell.

On a similar note, I dislike titles. Some come before the name, others after it. Its irritating when you have four players infront of you and want to know their names at a glance.

TheDoc

Have to say if I didnt have two subscription cards, I probably wouldnt resub after the free 30 days.

For a game with such hype, and with no many failed projects in front of it to learn from , the current state of the game is inexcusable.

"Its only a new mmo" is absolutely no excuse in my view. When you come into the MMO market, your going up against one of the biggest monsters in gaming IP's, and if you want to compete and pull their custom, you need to be on the top of your game.

At the moment there is just basic things making this game fail. Highly dissapoinitng considering how much I was anticipating its release. I'll give it time to see how things progress, I definitly think it will be around for years, but I'm finding it hard to actually keep myself logging in to level.

It is probably just "new mmo levelling" syndrome which is a bit of a pain.

Hopefully in the coming year there will be a host of changes and improvements

Top of the list needs to be character responsiveness, its unforgiveable and like playing a game on a 56k modem at times. In high end PVP and cutting edge raiding this is inexcusable and needs to be fixed ASAP. If bioware dont recognise this issue and ignore it, the game will be abandoned before summer.

The UI needs to come second, not being able to customise your UI is just ludicrous, especially considering the one provided is downright rubbish and competely lacking of any tools.

No damage meters, no meter data for healing,interupts and all that jazz.
No threat meters.
No threat highlight on party/raid frames.

Are just three that are annoying me. Healers are also mentioning is horrendous to try heal properly with.

There is also way too much junk in terms of abilities. Throwing tons of abilities doesnt make things more interesting. This in time will just get refined with some number crunching when I can tell what is effective to use, but alas with no threat meters or damage meters, I cant tell what are useful mechanics and abilities : /

Dissapointed so far, will continue to play. Come March will look to see if I will stay.

Just get annoyed that the game is just so buggy and has so many basic flaws when surely they know they are up against the biggest game going in terms of MMO.

I think it also shows how much Blizzard feel threatened in that they didnt even launch new content or anything to combat the SWTOR launch : /