Star Wars: The Old Republic

walTer · 2011-11-14T11:24:03.000Z

instant0:

Part of the enjoyment in WOW/LOTRO/RIFT was just exploring stuff. I spent an entire day just exploring level 45+ zones in RIFT when I was 30-ish, looking for hidden artifacts and stuff.

I am pretty sure you can do this. What we saw what the basic story/intro area. A few rails to give you a fleshed out story-That seems like a good change to me.

Rasputin · 2011-11-14T11:24:53.000Z

Blackadar:

I put the ass in classy!

I’ll make sure I take this with the proper consideration it should be given from a guy who started his last post with “you sound like a dick”.

I sure did. I didn’t say you were one, though.

Blackadar · 2011-11-14T11:28:21.000Z

walTer:

I am pretty sure you can do this. What we saw what the basic story/intro area. A few rails to give you a fleshed out story-That seems like a good change to me.

A lot of the planet maps found here http://visageguild.com/?page_id=2911 look very similar to the Tython map. Some look a bit more open. I guess we’ll wait and see. I’d certainly like it if the maps opened up more.

Again, I didn’t say it was a bad game. I just said it surprisingly didn’t engage me for some very concrete reasons. Some of the same things I love about Bioware’s RPGs didn’t seem to translate very well to the MMO world IMO.

Gedd · 2011-11-14T12:31:47.000Z

instant0:

Pretty much describing what I fear about the game.

I’m not sure at this stage why anyone is expecting anything revolutionary out of ToR. It’s been pretty clear for quite a while that the things to be excited about with ToR are 1) its emphasis on story, 2) its setting (Star Wars), 3) you love WoW, but want to play something different than WoW. If #1 and #2 don’t interest you, and #3 doesn’t describe you, there’s really nothing to see here.

Jason_Townsend · 2011-11-14T12:35:36.000Z

Being a Bioware fan is neither here nor there when the evaluation centers on socialization and exploration drives - which are basically non-existent in Bioware’s CRPGs and generally not the strong suits of any theme-park MMOs. (I guess people like rambling around in LOTRO, but if I were into birdwatching I’d just play Bethesda games + mods.)

Without breaking NDA I think sanctioned info on various fansites/reviews has given a good indication that the world-size and explorability is at least at WoW-levels (I can’t speak to Rift) and that combat responsiveness and look has been praised. C.f. the Gameinformer podcast upthread which covered 1-20 experiences.

Brettmcd · 2011-11-14T12:37:23.000Z

Gedd:

I’m not sure at this stage why anyone is expecting anything revolutionary out of ToR. It’s been pretty clear for quite a while that the things to be excited about with ToR are 1) its emphasis on story, 2) its setting (Star Wars), 3) you love WoW, but want to play something different than WoW. If #1 and #2 don’t interest you, and #3 doesn’t describe you, there’s really nothing to see here.

A story is fine, but a cutscene for every single damn quest I turn in is not something I want.

Soapyfrog · 2011-11-14T12:38:34.000Z

Jason Townsend:

Without breaking NDA I think sanctioned info on various fansites/reviews has given a good indication that the world-size and explorability is at least at WoW-levels (I can’t speak to Rift) and that combat responsiveness and look has been praised. C.f. the Gameinformer podcast upthread which covered 1-20 experiences.

I agree with that, for sure. If you thought wow was ok for exploration, then you will likely get the same thing out of swtor.

Stridergg · 2011-11-14T12:46:48.000Z

Brettmcd:

A story is fine, but a cutscene for every single damn quest I turn in is not something I want.

I liked that actually, it breaks the “yeah, yeah, just gimme the quest” accepting-without-reading in other MMO’s. Makes you involved in the story a bit. The quality of the story is a different thing though.

It’s funny how having played Dark Souls hurts my appreciation for Skyrim combat-wise and Skyrim hurts my appreciation for SWTOR questing/exploration-wise. One day there will be a game that does all of that great. Right?

seventimessix · 2011-11-14T12:48:23.000Z

Blackadar:

Think of a starting area like the Barrens in WoW or the Shire in LOTRO. You can just wander the world in those games. It appeals to the explorer to just go wander off in a given direction to see what was on top of the next hill. You can go almost any direction. The only real “paths” that limit you are those that transition between zones. Otherwise, you can go North, East, South and West for long distances with no problem.

The Barrens is most definitely NOT a starting zone. You’ve played your character for at least an hour in a much more constrained and typical “starter” zone (Mulgore/Durotar) before you get to an open zone like the Barrens.

walTer · 2011-11-14T12:54:19.000Z

Ha, the best part about the Barrens, flying over it at 310% and laughing because you never have to walk through it again.

well and Barrens chat

Blackadar · 2011-11-14T12:59:19.000Z

seventimessix:

The Barrens is most definitely NOT a starting zone. You’ve played your character for at least an hour in a much more constrained and typical “starter” zone (Mulgore/Durotar) before you get to an open zone like the Barrens.

Fine. Mulgore. Teldrassil. Durotar. Tirisfall Glades. Etc.

There’s a big difference in zone design between:

and
… _______ … _________
========||=======|__|
Path…Quest…Path…Quest
…Area…Area

Brian_Seiler · 2011-11-14T13:04:45.000Z

Brettmcd:

A story is fine, but a cutscene for every single damn quest I turn in is not something I want.

That depends entirely on whether or not they’ve recorded individual dialog barks for all of the various and sundry types of gargling and warbling the aliens do at you. I don’t mind the story scene, but by the end of Knights I was ready to punch everything that wasn’t human in the voicebox to stop it from barking the exact same line of dialog at me yet again.

seventimessix · 2011-11-14T13:05:03.000Z

The point was that you can’t compare starter zones in one game with open zones in another, but I was hoping you would get that without me outright saying it since you’re being kinda defensive. Starter zones SHOULD hold your hand and direct you down a tighter path. It would be way too easy to get overwhelmed if you were just dumped into a bigger zone like the Barrens and had to figure out what to do without knowing any of the game systems.

Marcin · 2011-11-14T13:10:46.000Z


____________________________
| Go Explore.................|
| Anywhere...................|
| In Here....................|
| (i.e., Barrens, Shire)     |
|____________________________|

and
........ _______....... _________
========|______|=======|________|
Path.....Quest...Path....Quest
..........Area...........Area

Testing to see if I can fix this. :P

LesJarvis · 2011-11-14T13:13:33.000Z

heres a graff

1 2 3 4 5

rogue rogue

(Will anyone get this? Probably not.)

Rasputin · 2011-11-14T13:31:59.000Z

LesJarvis:

heres a graff

1 2 3 4 5

rouge rouge

(Will anyone get this? Probably not.)

Nope, but I did try to fix that for you.

Brian_Seiler · 2011-11-14T13:34:06.000Z

I can’t tell what the joke is. The fix changed it from [character class] [character class] to [red] [red] by way of a common misspelling, but I’m so far out of this that I can’t tell if that’s part of the goof or not.

Rasputin · 2011-11-14T13:41:29.000Z

Mine isn’t part of the goof, I’m just mocking the spelling of WoW players (especially after the “graff”)

inactive_user · 2011-11-14T13:55:32.000Z

LesJarvis:

heres a graff

1 2 3 4 5

rogue rogue

(Will anyone get this? Probably not.)

I get that, and got a good chuckle. You are not alone!

See also: Warlock staff users, cat durid is for fite, &c

MichaelD · 2011-11-14T14:03:42.000Z

The SWTOR twitter account advertised a beta key offer from Curse today. http://www.curse.com/betas/swtor-na (via @swtor).

Considering all the weekend stress-test invitations that went out recently, I don’t know how much a difference it’ll make, but hey, might be worth a shot at a regular beta account. After this weekend, I definitely want more. After signing up, my swtor account’s code-redemption page showed “11.14.2011 BETA Testing Code (Event 1)”. But you have to wait to be officially invited via email, it seems.

EDIT: Gedd says that this is just for the final beta weekend, not the regular beta, and that if you’ve signed up prior to 11/11 you don’t need to do it since you’re already in.