Yeah, now that you mention it. I think we’ve finally found the target audience for all those video game school commercials.
As for the game: I’m only a few levels in, and I’m not sure what to think of it. There’s something “off.” The world seems static and sterile, with not enough stuff to interact with. (I’m coming from Skyrim; it’s been years since I played WoW). I like that they went cartoonish instead of going photo-realistic with the art style, but it’s still not distinctive enough to stand out, and it doesn’t (yet) have that bombastic space opera feel of Star Wars.
The cut-scenes and storytelling are by far the best aspect of it, probably because it’s the only aspect that’s unique. The Jedi Knight storyline isn’t particularly interesting so far, but it’s engaging enough to keep me wanting to go back. I haven’t even tried grouping with anyone yet.
Anyone who wants to skip those and go back to the superfluous text screens of WoW is completely missing the point of this game. “Screw this nonsense, I want to get out there and press a button to watch an animation play over and over again! It makes numbers pop up! Hot damn!”
Dejin
4982
I found the Jedi Knight fairly pedestrian until midway through Coruscant. I’ve really been enjoying it since then.
Also props to Bioware for giving shout outs to KotOR and the original Jedi Knight game in the storyline.
Razgon
4983
Aye, its pretty interesting how some parts of the game is carried over from KOTOR.
Oh, and anyone else found it somewhat amusing when a robot said “Thank the maker”?
Dejin
4984
Yowza, your over-leveling puts mine to shame. You must be running 4-5 levels over where you should be!
Bowing to the wisdom of the board, I’ve started skipping world quests. I’ll pick them up with an alt.
Teiman
4985
I am picking all datacrons. I already have almost all of the republic ones. And my next task is the empire ones. My server is a pvp one, so this can prove dificult. I have no idee how to travel to empire territory. Any suggestion is wellcome.
Dejin
4986
Well you apparently can take the Imperial Flashpoint Shuttle from Nar Shadda – I haven’t tried it, but the terminal is definitely clickable by Republic Players, although whether or not they’ll actually get you on shuttle, who knows. Theoretically you could go fom there to the origin world’s assuming the origin world shuttles don’t lock you out. Doesn’t sound very doable on a PvP server though.
Reemul
4987
Well that’s a first, temporarily sold out on Origin
Dejin
4988
In Guild Chat the question came up how many companions could you have out on missions, and what was it tied to. I just turned level 25 and I can now deploy 3 companions. That’s all I have, so apparently it’s tied to your level, not the number of companions you have.
I can now go broke even quicker sending companions on missions.
Damn if I’m not liking this more and more…
Didn’t expect that.
Just got my ship yesterday, and I really like how they’ve done the galaxy map. Naturally, I want a free-roaming mode eventually - but I liked the visuals and especially the music :)
Game keeps getting better, even if it IS just a f*cking WoW clone with voices and companions.
A while ago, when I was talking about beta, I said to someone “I know it’s the same old stuff we’ve been doing for 10 years, but for some reason I really like it.”
For me that’s still holding true - and it’s interesting to see quite a few others are feeling the same way. Maybe it’s the change of pace setting, maybe the storylines, maybe just because it’s the latest shiny thing… I don’t know and to an extent I don’t care - but I’m enjoying myself.
One thing I’m trying to do is not pressure myself to feel like I have to level fast. I’m resisting the urge to skip conversations I saw a while ago in beta - I want to enjoy the journey. But because I’ve done a few of the lower level flashpoints I, like many others, am overleveled for my quests. In fact, I did Taris by essentially just following the class quests and doing a few others along the way. And now I just started (and finished) the bonus quest series on Taris as carefully as I could - avoiding killing mobs whenever possible - just to see if the reward was worthwhile (for Trooper it was a pair of orange pants and a commendation or two). So after that I’m currently 21.5, with a little rest xp, and I wanted to do the Athiss flashpoint, so I probably won’t hit Nar Shaddaa until I’m 22, putting me 2 levels above the first quest there. Eh, maybe I’ll just skip the flashpoint and see it on another character…
Agreed.
If there was ever an MMO more about the journey than the destination, this would be it.
I think it’s key to pace yourself and take it all in. Rushing to end-level will be even worse in SWtOR than it usually is - because you’ll REALLY have skipped the best part of the game.
Naturally, you can create and enjoy alts - but the first journey is always the one we remember :)
Dejin
4993
Well I just ran into a character quest opponent that completely thrashed me. Officially he was one level below me, but he really just ran me ragged the first time I tried him. I don’t think I even got him down to half-health. I proceeded to go to the auction house and plunk down 20K on gear for myself and my companion and then blew 12 Nar Shaada Commendations on more gear. After that I was able to take him down. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but he did go down.
So I would say gear can make a pretty significant difference. Purchasing 2 implants adding headgear and doing a few upgrades, I’m pretty sure my health went up over 10%, plus my defense rating went up. That seemed to make all the difference. I did change my tactics a bit too, which helped. I was also purchasing gear specifically to beat this specific encounter, which is a bit embarrassing.
I purchased a super 750 credit Stim that “continues even after a character is defeated” that gave me a good strength boost, along with a 10 pack of super health kits sold on the auction house, but actually made by one of our guild mates :-).
All added up the encounter went from “you have got to be kidding me, I will never beat this guy” to “touch-and-go, but definitely doable.”
My own gear-importance estimate based on nothing but 20 hours of play and my experience with MMOs is: Somewhere between WoW and Age of Conan vanilla.
As in, it definitely matters - but not THAT much.
Dejin
4995
Just finished up the Nar Shaada storyline and got to Tatooine. The Jedi Knight storyline has been very, very solid post Tython. Definitely classic Bioware storytelling.
One thing I haven’t seen in the game yet is gear with actual unique effects in terms of procs or similar.
So far, pretty much all gear has been a variety of stat boosts and the occasional rare “+X to critical rating”.
I really hope the end-game loot will be somewhat more exciting. Not necessarily in terms of sheer power, but the toy-factor :)
Teiman
4997
After my first flashpoint i was able to buy a “social headgear”, is a ridiculous hat with not stats, but 3 slots for mods, so i did the logical thing and turned that hat into a awesome item. I have not seen any other hat for my level.
Tyjenks
4998
So I am weighing going to workout (which I am trying to get started back doing) and runing home to play. If I workout, I will not get home until eight and I do not think my mental health would survive a two hour queue.
I will be glued to any information outlet throughout the day that discusses queues. Unfortunately, I guess we really wont know about release day queues until 4, 5 or 6 tonight. By then, alas, it will be too late for me.
Wolff
4999
Around level 16 you get a companion I win button. For me it resets my shield wall and puts a hot on me and my companion.
Even the ones that go against the nature of the character you are playing?
For instance (Spoiler about early quest for republic on coruscant).
Spoiler
Spirakris Zarem wants you to steal documents from one of the senators for the “true republic”. As a jedi that goes against the nature of my character so I’m not about to do it and I won’t do it just because it’s a quest. I’m not a whore.
