In any event, their launcher says they are taking the game down from 4pm PST to 9PM PST. It is like bioware is on a crusade to stop people from playing during prime time. I don’t understand why they aren’t doing what EVERY other mmorpg ever made does and doing this stuff in the off hours.
On the one hand, that sucks because I really wanted to play tonight. On the other hand, the game officially launches at midnight tonight (remember that we’re still in a special preview phase right now), so this is their last chance for pre-launch maintenance. I’m sure regular server maintenance will occur during non-peak hours going forward.
By “eight classes” he means the 4 main classes on each side, not the advanced classes.
Repeating content, in any medium, will eventually become boring. My point being, the resources it took to voice act these was a waste. Someone had to type them out in the first place so no matter what the typed version is created and everything above and beyond was extra.
And you’re right, no one should ever complain about anything and should just be thankful for what they are given. It’s not like entire countries are founded because of a few disgruntled people.
I guess I’ll actually play some Skyrim tonight!
What is the end game in your argument?
People will never read quest text a second time, so just remove it?
People will get bored of movies eventually, so don’t bother?
People will get bored of end game raids eventually, so don’t bother?
Once we save all of this money from not doing anything that people will eventually get bored of, where do we spend it?
I think the disconnect here is that most of us here are fine not being able to play the current content for 20 years. Yes, marauder has the same story as Juggernaut, but you can also play the republic version which has the same mechanics and a different story.
Murbella, income actually picks up a fair bit 20-25. 20k is by no means terrible at 20-21.
My point being, the resources it took to voice act these was a waste. Someone had to type them out in the first place so no matter what the typed version is created and everything above and beyond was extra.
I don’t think there’s a significant skill overlap between voice actors and programmers/artists/designers/animators/etc. Assuming the budget wasn’t an issue, it’s not like the resources allocated to recording the dialogue could have been re-deployed to another task.
Ok then, i will continue my crafting!
The bigger worry is after the servers come up tonight, it will be impossible to get back on with everyone trying to get on at once.
StGabe
4909
There’s a time and a place for well-crafted storytelling with high production values like quality voice acting. IMO that’s not an MMO. MMO’s should take that money and spend it on game content, world design and, if possible, gameplay.
That said, it seems like a lot of people really just want their MMO’s to be singleplayer experiences with chat and occasional bursts of mediocre multiplayer content. I see why Bioware is doing what they’re doing even if it’s not that interesting to me.
I also think that a lot of people will skip the text. They do in singleplayer games, they do in other MMO’s and they will here. That, to me, is the baseline assumption, one that Bioware is trying to subvert. IMO it’s far too early to call that. MMO’s always have a honeymoon period where a bunch of passionate fans adore every little bit of the game. This is one of the larger bets they’ve made on the game and it will take a few months and a little cynicism to really figure out how that plays out.
That the money should have been spent fixing/improving things that will matter long term. You will use the UI until you stop playing the game. Someone should have bought excel to figure out math and how to place guilds to eliminate queues. Queues are not going away unless they raise some artificial cap (how furious would that make you) or people quit their guilds and move to another server. Hire another programmer that can figure out how to keep my jedi from running around with his lightsaber drawn all the time regardless of how many times I hammer the holster button. I could go on and on.
My sith doesn’t run around with his light saber drawn all of the time.
you can press Z to toggle having it out while not in combat, just like in kotor.
Z is the default holster button. Not everyone keeps the defaults which is why I specified “holster button”. My knight won’t put it away when I kill something until I get to an event or travel.
I was very skeptical of the voice thing, and the story stuff, but after playing for a few days (a Bounty Hunter Merc at 18, an Imperial Agent Sniper at 13), I’m really digging it. Sure, when you do a Flashpoint like Black Talon a few times, after you do it Light side once and Dark side a second time, the conversations generally get spacebarred through to speed things up, but the first times you do it it’s pretty cool. And I actually like the voice stuff from the quest NPCs, as it really conveys a lot of atmosphere and “feel,” at least to me.
There are interesting gameplay choices they’ve made too, though time will tell how good these choices were perhaps. The way they’ve spread out tanking and healing abilities, and the use of companions, makes the game play differently than most MMOs, I think. I only have two companions so far, but I can send one to craft stuff, or gather crafting materials, while the other fights and heals alongside me. You end up with a lot of flexibility in how you tackle stuff–if it’s too tough, when you’re very small, get your companion and it’s easier. If you can’t find a group, just overlevel it a bit and you and your companion can do heroic +2 stuff (the +4 stuff they ain’t kidding, you need a group). Not radically different than other games, but the companions–who have their own stories and minigame of affection buying–are really neat. You can give them gear, customize them, and their reactions add a third dimension to you quest conversations (Light, Dark, companion affinity). Sometimes your Dark or Light preference conflicts with your companion’s ideas, so it’s a fun choice.
Ultimately, the game will still need to satisfy the usual needs–endgame content, new content, balancing, economy–but it’s pretty damn good right now as it is. The servers were wacky today before they brought them down (I guess their down now?), with latency numbers in six digits zooming down to two digits, but other than that the pre-launch play was pretty smooth.
About the server crowding, it sounds like forcing people to even out the servers is part of what they’re doing with the queues:
I’m not going to abandon my 21 sith warrior so bioware doesn’t have to do something about the servers themselves.
Maybe some people could get that in a day, but to me, it is a lot of investment and one that i am not going to give up every other day to switch to whatever that day’s lowest population server is.
Tyjenks
4916
Lame 5 hour server maintenance is lame.
I know, what the hell do they expect me to do? Guess I’ll go play Skyrim or something now. Pah!
:D
I can’t figure out why they take the forums down when they do game maintenance. That seems…backwards: “Get out of the game!” <people go to forums instead> “Get off the forum!”.
…
Btw, did you guys all see the Emergency Fleet Transfer ability? Handy way to get to the fleet once a day or so. And your ship magically follows you there (?!) so you have a way back.
Love the voice acting, and really have no problem with the UI, they have said UI mods will be coming just not now.
The bolded part suggests that they’re increasing the caps, but trying to balance that with dissuading new arrivals. Sounds like they should have built another server mode (allow existing logins but not new characters).
