1901

Yes, because you can use all your spells without having to micromanage them, as opposed to only half. And two-thirds of the classes get to be as awesome as the other third.

A is for Awesome combat with enemies that drop out of the sky in waves.

But when they appear, the process of killing them works so much better than before. It’s amazing how that works.

1902

Hong, FB, all of the DA2 threads are given over to that and related flamewars. This is the thread given over to flamewars about whether SWTOR is looking promising or inevitably terrible.

1903

There are so many opportunity to crack star wars jokes during the conversation cutscenes.

1904

I certainly hope your roommate put in a report for the bad pathing and easy exploit on that boss fight, idrisz.

1905

Wait, what thread did I just stumble into? I almost put my 2 cents in on DA2. Sheesh.

1906

Quick question that I assume is not covered by the NDA:

What are the group sizes in SWTOR? For example, in WoW, there is solo content, 5-man dungeons, and 10- and 25-man raids; does TOR follow the same formula? What is the minimum size group to see all the content?

1907

Agreed, at this point I wish they would just drop the NDA so actual debate and conversation could occur.

1908

While I know some may adhere to Toms “Fun should never be part of a review” testament, perhaps its not covered by the NDA whether you have fun in the game or not?

1909

I know that there’s 8 and 16 man raids, not sure if the instances are 4 or 5 man.

1910

Not sure about the size, but the black talon flashpoint group only had 4 people.

1911

One thing I will say is while it’s clear idrisz has been observing, you should take his derived information with a grain of salt. I’m not saying the game doesn’t play like he says, but he might be a bit fuzzy on a few of his intuited facts.

Fr’instance, I’ll bend the NDA and say maxiumum group size is 4. When you have a less than full group, you can summon as many companions as you need to get to 4 (so if you have 3 people in your group, one person can summon a companion).

Also, in general (and not related to me being in the beta) : why does it shock anyone that this is to an extent a WoW clone*? I mean, you’ve seen tons of videos of people playing, and even though you maybe haven’t seen any UI (I don’t recall) it seems clear that this is perhaps the last big-budget diku clone. As to whether it’ll be fun or not, I think that depends on whether you’re completely burned out on WoW or not. Personally, I did burn out on WoW, but I have played Rift for a while, and I found the differences between Rift and WoW interesting enough to keep me occupied for a few months. I suspect that I’ll find the differences between Wow/Rift and SWTOR enough to keep me occupied for a few months more… and really, that’s all I need. I don’t think I go into these games any more demanding that I need something to keep me occupied for six months or a year or however long. If I can play a few months and enjoy myself, why should I care that it’s “only” a couple of months - maybe that’s bad news as far as Bioware is concerned, but if that’s how it works out for me, I’m happy.

*AFAIK, there are no bantha butts in the game. Or pig uteruses.

1912

Fr’instance, I’ll bend the NDA and say maxiumum group size is 4. When you have a less than full group, you can summon as many companions as you need to get to 4 (so if you have 3 people in your group, one person can summon a companion).

Not sure if you can answer this without breaking the NDA, but are you saying that if I’m playing with my wife, we could each summon an NPC companion and complete content designed for four players? Can the companions fill any of the tanking/healing/dps roles, and if so, are they competent at them?

1913

Gah, I can’t wait until the NDA gets lifted. All I’ll say is that companions vary greatly in AI and utility. One I have is almost an “I Win” button…some are okay…and some are basically worthless.

1914

Exactly. Many people never regain the multi-year obsession they had with their first MMO, and all that follow will likely be fun for only a few months. What’s wrong with that? Get to the level cap, have a blast, play whatever the endgame is for a short while, then seek greener pastures. Come back in a year or two to check out the new content.

MMO’s are best played by cycling through them, ideally with a guild of like-minded sorts. Keeps it all fresh and fun.

1915

There isn’t bantha butt but there are cerebral uterus.

I saw one looted off a toxic chemilizard.

1916

I think it’s nice that Qt3 has respected the NDA more than the GAF or PA threads (although it has perhaps contributed to the thread being less active.) It’s an adult, law/contract abiding community and that’s a good thing, whether or not the NDA is “smart” for the developer at this point.

Even on other forums it seems like people have been really very good about not spoiling the story, which I think would have the potential to really screw with the game’s “KOTOR3,4,5” value for people. The subject of companions’ value as pinch-hitting “party members” has been rehashed on both the forum threads I mentioned, and is probably readily googleable.

1917

Qt3 has a long and celebrated history of ostracizing and questioning the parental lineage of posters who break NDA. Rumor has it that NDA breakers may enjoy the company of members of their own gender… and there is nothing wrong with that!

1918

Tangentially, I hope the Star Wars-has-no-gay-people thing is just some ploy to sell maximum units at Wal-Mart and will be reversed post-release.

1919

I’d say that’s true in general. EQ, DAoC, and Shadowbane were all games I played for more than a year, but WoW trumped them all in terms of how long I played it. So I think it’s possible to make an MMO so good that it can be a multi-year obsession.

To counter that idea, though, I think for a lot of us we have MMO fatigue. Any new MMO has to overcome that too.

1920

I can stomach Sith/Jedi lore has them using sword-esque prior to achieving the technology of lightsabers.

But what does ADMIRAL AKBAR has to do anything with a sword?
He’s a SOLDIER, a highly ranked one at that, he should carry a GUN.
I could understand of his swarming-in grunts would resolve to vibroblades at close range and charge onto melee. That’s just fine.
But, in the midst of tons of soldiers who shoot at you, Admiral Akbar charges in with a SWORD?
That just makes no sense!