Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Mark_Asher]

Yes, it’s the ISP’s fault that they ignore the TTL suggested by Bioware and continue to cache the old record for however long they feel like when other ISPs handle it just fine. That is how it works-- TTL isn’t enforced-- but most ISPs do use it. Hence a 3 page forum thread instead of a 30 page thread.

Is this a common problem with games? I’ve never encountered it before or really heard of players complaining about it.

If the onus is on the ISPs why doesn’t this happen more often, or is it just that it does happen a lot and I’ve never heard of it?

[pyrhic]

It happens - but i’m guessing not that often. I remember back when i was in web dev getting absolutely furious at a 3rd party dev when they didn’t deploy something they said they did…when in fact they did deploy it. Fact is, maybe it occurs more often, but in order for anyone to recognize it, they have to know with some assurance that it is really out there (ie, the ISP is the last person they blame).

[Mike_Cathcart]

Huttball is the worst crime ever perpetrated upon humanity.

[Dejin]

I wonder if this has to do with the sharding(or whatever it’s called)? My friend tipped me off to this the other day when i couldnt find him in the same city, then he pointed out that we could be in different shards. It was - i was in 1 he was in 2 and once I flipped to the same shard, we were good.

Ive kinda hated sharding since DDO(and in particular the way DDO did it) - if your servers can’t handle the load, don’t put that many people on it.

Completely disagree. Bioware has talked about this as a technology that they intend to use primarily during initial release and I think it works very well in that regard. Let’s say that ultimately you want 5000 users on your server at once (note I’m pulling that number out of my ass, so don’t take that as a realistic user load). What happens at release? You’ve got 1250 users in the same Tython zone, 1250 users in the same Ord Mantel zone, 1250 users in the same Korriban zone, and 1250 users in the same Hutta zone. What a clusterfuck that would be.

Instead you use sharding to give users reasonable numbers of people in the starter zones. Then as they spread out your reduce use of sharding.

What’s the alternative without sharding. You have even more massive queues then we’ve seen because you are not limiting entry based on what your server can technically handle you’re limiting it based on the fact that having more than about 300 people in a zone will make the zone completely unenjoyable with massive contention for mobs and quest items.

The instances and queues have kept performance solid, especially for a launch MMO but it’s kind of a mixed blessing because it just makes it look like nobody is around. Add that to the non targetable/non intractable NPCs everywhere and it just feels kinda dead. I’m really surprised that at level 32 on a full PvP server I’ve only had two encounters with Sith players. And it isn’t that I’m ahead of the leveling curve, we’ve got tons of people my level on both sides in war zones, we just never see each other in the world.

According to a Bioware interview I saw, the non-targettable NPCs get added in when the number of people in the zone gets low in an attempt to make the city feel a little more full. Both Dromund Kass and Coruscant are deliberately oversized in order to allow running of public events where hundreds and hundreds of player characters may want to participate.

[maxle]

Is there some reason the game never remembers that I don’t want to see Sith Corruption?

[MarchHare]

In the interest of science, I tracked my income and expenses from running max level (400 skill) lockbox slicing missions today. I ran eight missions (which took about 30 minutes each) with my only crew member who receives a bonus to slicing. In total, I spent 10,700 to initiate the missions and brought in 18,460 in rewards for a total profit of 7,760. The bulk of that profit came from a single mission where I netted 5,751. The rest were more or less break even affairs (profit or loss of ~100cr).

I realize the sample size is small, but this leads me to believe that lockbox missions are pretty much not worth it after you’ve reached 400/400. As you’re leveling up the skill, you’ll break even or make a small profit if you choose the lockbox missions. It’s yet to be determined if the augment missions are worthwhile; at level 43, I haven’t seen a single item yet that has an augment slot, but I imagine that will change at 50.

However, while I was questing in the world, I made about 20,000 by looting slicing objects found on the ground, so the crew skill isn’t completely worthless after the nerf.

[StGabe]

Argh, so mad. Damn SW:TOR’s lack of UX.

So I find this random rare spawn (this guy). It’s a level 12 champion (and I’m level 14). I decide to give it a go. I get attacked first and take a lot of damage (which I offset with my reusable medpack) but finally my companion grabs aggro. My companion goes down quick but I heal her up (I’m an operative). She finally drops at 1/4th health left on the champion mob. I start going down real quick but manage to chip away at him. As I get below half health my reusable health pack goes off cooldown putting me back at near full. I barely manage to kill him with less than 1/4th health left on my bar.

Awesome!

So I loot and I get a blue heavy armor chest piece that is a huge upgrade for my companion.

More awesome!

So I go to my companion panel and drag the chest piece into her inventory. I get a dialog that I assume is saying, “hey, do you want to bind this”. I do and click yes. The chest piece disappears. Wait, what? Of course that dialog was in fact asking if I wanted to delete the chest piece because that’s what happens when you try to drag into your companions inventory (WTF???!?!?!).

Sadness.

(put in a ticket but I’m not holding my breath)

[rossm]

Is there some reason the game never remembers that I don’t want to see Sith Corruption?

Same reason it doesn’t remember if you want to disable the cover bar. Pure awesomeness? Sorry, I got nothin.

[pyrhic]

Completely disagree. Bioware has talked about this as a technology that they intend to use primarily during initial release and I think it works very well in that regard. Let’s say that ultimately you want 5000 users on your server at once (note I’m pulling that number out of my ass, so don’t take that as a realistic user load). What happens at release? You’ve got 1250 users in the same Tython zone, 1250 users in the same Ord Mantel zone, 1250 users in the same Korriban zone, and 1250 users in the same Hutta zone. What a clusterfuck that would be.

Instead you use sharding to give users reasonable numbers of people in the starter zones. Then as they spread out your reduce use of sharding.

What’s the alternative without sharding. You have even more massive queues then we’ve seen because you are not limiting entry based on what your server can technically handle you’re limiting it based on the fact that having more than about 300 people in a zone will make the zone completely unenjoyable with massive contention for mobs and quest items.

I don’t disagree with any of that, but think there are better solutions than sharding. I’m approaching level 20 now and I’ve had NO choice of zone. NONE. It’s not like wow or eve, or just about anywhere else, where i can go level where i want. I’m stuck where they put me. That’s their design choice. You don’t want to overload your zone? Don’t funnel everyone into the same place! Meanwhile, things appear kind of static and lifeless because the community is split 5 different ways. MMOs are supposed to be about people. That’s what the first two letters mean.

I guess i should be happy that it prevents me from seeing my companion bouncing around *1000 instead of *100…

[pyrhic]

So far, my thoughts on the game:

Positives:
[ul]
[li]Really like the narrative and cutscenes. Moreso than Skyrim, the voice-acting works(though all too often, it seems like the empire is composed of the english and irish). For me(as in some other people i’ve read in the thread), it gives a good sense of immersion, and i find I’ve not skipped very many, and found myself much more prone to role-play instead of min-maxing the right answer.
[/li][li]Though often very simplistic in vision, i like that bioware has allowed me to be very evil in my dialogs - for instance, allowing my character to kill the father who kidnapped his boy in order to save him from the sith school really, really, surprised me.
[/li][/ul]

Neutrals:
[ul]
[li]The feel of the UI isn’t quite true. There seems to be something mushy between me making an action and the character doing it. Likewise targetting seems to be a little wonky sometimes. It’s not as bad (slushy) as DDO or LOTRO was, but it’s nowhere near as crisp as wow and eve.
[/li][li]Loot seems vague and uninspired and there’s lots of areas that feel like they should have loot and instead have…nothing?
[/li][/ul]

Negatives:
[ul]
[li]Combat generally feels phoned in. There’s little I feel like I’m doing that translates into me being successful. Very few games give me this impression of dueling spreadsheets - my health is going down at x rate, his at y rate. I have 10 buttons, but they really don’t do much towards either rate.
[/li][li]20 levels now and i’ve been constrained to 2 zones, with really not much in the way of any functional choices.
[/li][li]The UI - which has been mentioned a few times already
[/li][/ul]

[MrCoffee]

Going dark side in the Black Talon Flashpoint is so fucked up.

[MrPerson]

The game seems to be running some flavor of fake fullscreen (even when not set to that option), so my mouse can end up on my other monitor. It usually only happens to me when I’m trying to shoot something at the very edge in a space mission, and instead end up minimizing the game because I clicked on the desktop. Let me tell you how awesome THAT is…

[Dejin]

So far, my thoughts on the game:

Positives:
[ul]
[li]Really like the narrative and cutscenes. Moreso than Skyrim, the voice-acting works(though all too often, it seems like the empire is composed of the english and irish). For me(as in some other people i’ve read in the thread), it gives a good sense of immersion, and i find I’ve not skipped very many, and found myself much more prone to role-play instead of min-maxing the right answer.
[/li][/ul]

That’s deliberate and in interviews I’ve seen Bioware employees say that it’s canon.

[quatoria]

That’s deliberate and in interviews I’ve seen Bioware employees say that it’s canon.

That plays out in an interesting way with an Imperial Agent. The Agent character was raised in the empire as an Imperial, so he has the high clipped English accent from the films. Every time he goes undercover, however, he loses all trace of his accent and roughens his voice and speaking mannerisms up, to avoid giving away his origins. It’s actually a really impressive bit of voice acting, and I wonder how many people pick up on it.

[Dreamshadow]

That plays out in an interesting way with an Imperial Agent. The Agent character was raised in the empire as an Imperial, so he has the high clipped English accent from the films. Every time he goes undercover, however, he loses all trace of his accent and roughens his voice and speaking mannerisms up, to avoid giving away his origins. It’s actually a really impressive bit of voice acting, and I wonder how many people pick up on it.

I thought it was cool, until he reverts to british in the middle of Nemo’s palace for a sidequest. I wanted to slap him for dropping cover.

[quatoria]

Hahah, yeah, I noticed that happen once or twice - just an accidental line misread, I imagine. I did think it was cool, in Nemo’s Palace, the way he’d drop back to his real accent whenever he was giving updates to Keeper. Aaaagh, I just love the Agent story so much! Just talking about it is making me need to go play it. Excuse me, everyone, I have some terrorist cells to infiltrate.

edit: Hahaha, holy shit, the male Imperial Agent voice is Bertie Carvel? That’s awesome.

[quatoria]

Okay, I just looked up the people doing all my favorite voices, and I’m totally geeking out now. Grey DeLisle, the instantly recognizable Jennifer Hale voicing my trooper (so glad I randomly made her female), and the aforementioned Bertie. Man, what a cast.

[Wolff]

Huttball is the worst crime ever perpetrated upon humanity.

If by crime you mean best battleground/war zone in an mmo ever you are correct! Of course if you randomly get stuck with a bunch of scrubs it’s more infuriating then the other war zones.

The amount of “out of book” play that occurs is a ton of fun. Captures the thrill of rugby (or another territory/position game) wonderfully. I’ve had come from behind wins with a series of hail Mary’s or a gib close to their line.

There is actual team and positional strategy in it!

[RichVR]

It’s actually a really impressive bit of voice acting, and I wonder how many people pick up on it.

Well your keeper actually tells you to drop the accent on your very first mission. I thought that was cool.

[hong]

Who’s Bertie Carvel?

Also, I just found out that this game releases in Austria on 1 March, and ME3 on 8 March. That’s… annoying.