4141

Yeah your ship is pretty much your house.

4142

It’s not “getting my way”, it’s recognizing how these games are. I enjoy stories and taking my time, but it’s more easily done in solo games. Online gaming has always devolved to the lowest common denominator. It has nothing to do with WoW except that they did it better than other games did, and their innovations have tended towards means of making it easier to play by yourself in a massively multiplayer world.

That is the ultimate reason WoW succeeded, I think - they succeeded in building a game where you could play alone, with friends or with quick online groups as desired. You can level from 1 to 85 without seeing another player, let alone having to group with them. That is how I’ve enjoyed the content too, from my first days in the dwarf zone onwards. Now with 4.3 the last barriers to solo exploration of the content are gone, with the LFR tool.

This of course ties in with the lowest common denominator problem, in that most of the people in your LFG or LFR groups are not people you actually want to play with. I try to see them as semi-literate AI bots, and focus on my own role. It’s still a lot better than not being able to experience the content at all.

There’s now nothing in WoW that requires me to have a set group of friends to experience. That’s how all these games should be.

4143

You can’t really change anything about the ship, though, so it’s not very exciting as housing. It would be cool if they added some customization later on.

Did anyone try playing against their faction’s natural alignment? I am interested in trying a dark side consular but in the beta all of the dark side choices for the Jedi Knight seemed less like “interesting conflicted character who is on the side of the good guys but questions the teachings of the Jedi counsel” and more like you just be a snarky asshole. I’d like to know how different the stories are if you go light/dark and if it’s a satisfying story both ways.

4144

I played a Republic sympathetic Bounty Hunter and found the choices satisfying. At times, I could actively subvert the Empire’s efforts.

4145

Do you ever actually fly it anywhere? Canned space “combat” doesn’t count. :P

/ducks

4146

One thing about the ships that puzzles me is that they auto-takeoff when you board, as opposed to sitting on the ground ala KOTOR. This makes it a bit odd to “go to the ship to talk” (and takeoff, and then land again) and I think one of the smuggler’s story quests also had a quick trip to the ship (and orbit) that seemed a bit weird.

Made me think it was originally going to be like KOTOR but at some point they changed their minds and decided that spaceship chillout time would be in outer space.

4147

Probably made it easier because they could use the same background view all the time.

OK, that’s pretty awesome. I’m gonna give the dark side Shadow a shot, thanks.

4148

As I said last time this issue came up, I did not find it that way at all. While it’s certainly possible some of the dark side choices ended up that way, the ones I struggled with were cases of choosing realpolitik over sticking to a strict black and white morality which might not in the end result in what was best for the Republic. My Jedi Knight only got to level 18, and there were certainly some dark side choices that I never would have considered taking, but there were at least three major choices that I ran into where realistically the dark side choice was both clearly compromising a true straight-arrow, black-and-white moral code, and also clearly might lead to the better result for the people of the Republic.

4149

Thats how I often played my bounty hunter. The agent questline options were similar. Support the empire but screw yourself over, screw the empire to benefit yourself or help the “light side” as it were. In one case you are ordered to kill someone and even if you say you will to HQ, you have the option to let them live and possibly benefit from it later.

4150

I also agree that the “Dark” choices are more nuanced in SWTOR than in, say, Mass Effect 2. In ME2, I often felt that the Dark choice was just the “be a jerk” choice. In SWTOR, usually the Dark choice made sense for my Sith Warrior, lore-wise. I didn’t always choose it, but I often thought hard about it.

Maybe the Dark/Light choices are less interesting for other classes, but for my Sith gal, they were well done.

4151

There are definitely interesting choices on the IA story as well. Consular up to ~12ish was pretty bland lightside.

4152

Quick advice for folks pre-ordering to get into the early-start tomorrow. If you happen to be ordering multiple copies through Best Buy’s site, make sure you buy them separately :) I pre-ordered 2 copies, one for myself and one for my wife. They promptly emailed me a download code. Waited and waited for the second code to appear but never got it.

Called Best Buy’s support and they basically told me they couldn’t send me the second code. They were nice enough to let me cancel both pre-orders. I then placed 2 separate orders and got 2 separate codes.

Annoying way to have to do it, but it was the only way we could get 2 download keys.

4153

Starting tomorrow my new life begins. I won’t need any of you people anymore! Screw you guys, I’m going to be a Sith.

4154

This just in: Fallen Enchantress delayed until 2013. :)

4155

I’m strongly tempted to pre-order. I played WoW extremely heavily for the first year, but gave up when it was readily apparent that there really wasn’t anything to do except farm the end game in infinite loop mode. Haven’t really seriously touched an MMO since. This seems like the worst case scenario is that I’ll enjoy it for a few months then drop, so it’s probably worth the asking price. Also DotA 2 has been entirely disappointing, so once I’m done with Skyrim I won’t have much else on my plate.

4156

I agree. I think it should generally be a win for anyone who likes Bioware-style conversations, companions, and other RPG elements, and who still has some fondness for Star Wars. I figure the worst case is you play through 1-2 character’s storylines and then drop it.

There does seem to be a range in terms of how much people like the various stories. From what I’ve been able to glean from various posts, the Imperial Agent seems to be the favorite story. There’s lots of Bounty Hunter fans too. I’ve heard good things about the Sith Warrior. While I’ve heard a few people talk about really enjoying the Sith Inquisitor, this seems much more mixed with more people disliking than liking.

Finding opinions on the Republic storylines seems to be a bit harder. I’ve heard good things about the Smuggler and Trooper, although it’s much easier to find enthusiastic Imperial Agent posts. I haven’t seen many opinions on the Jedi Conciliar story, and the Jedi Knight is apparently rather bland.

That said I’m going Jedi Knight. I do plan to go back and do the Imperial Agent though, I had a lot of fun playing up to level 12 or so with one two weeks ago.

4157

The Trooper storyline seemed like it would be pretty interesting and I feel allows for some twists and turns. The Jedi Consular story felt the most traditional of all the stories I tried (I tried all of them except the Jedi Knight one). Therefore, the Consular story didn’t have the drawing power of any of the others I experienced.

4158

The Sith Inquisitor’s story is a weird pendulum that swings back and forth between fairly mundane to deliciously evil. I loved the parts of it I was able to play in the beta.

4159

I enjoyed star wars more than Rifts too, although Rift had a fairly good release and wasn’t a bad game so much as not my thing.

4160

Welp, you guys got me. Pre-ordered and downloading and I really did not have this on my radar until last week. Good time to jump on the bandwagon as I avoided all the months of anxious waiting. :)