ATI card here with no real issues, did have a crash today, but I’m not sure if that was me crashing or the sever going boom. Didn’t log back in to check as I had been going for about 7 hours at that point, it was time to stop for a while anyway.
The only major UI complaints I have so far are the lack of a “sell all junk” option (yes, the Companion can be sent off to do it, but if I’m currently talking to a merchant, I should be able to do it myself), and from Rift I’ve gotten used to the ability to use quest items from an icon in the quest tracker, rather than having to use them from inventory or drag them to a hotbar slot.
In terms of quests, I can see how the cinematics could annoy people if they are the type that never cares about reading quest text in traditional MMOs and just wants to get to max-level raiding as soon as possible, but I’m loving it so far. I didn’t play Warhammer very long, but I know I completed some quests that resulted in some rather despicable actions–that’s the kind of universe it was. But nothing in “reading text” of the results of my actions there compares with me gunning down a guy in cold blood in front of his little kid in terms of impact, and that was only at level 2. the cinematic quest sequences just make it that much more involving–even if I’m still just killing 10 Gundarks between cinematics.
I just started a Smuggler on Khoonda Militia named StarWhisperer (because it wouldn’t let me do ‘Listens-to-Stars’ or ‘Listens to Stars’). Obviously still at newbie levels, and trying to forget the controls of the game I had been playing immediately before.
Yeah, that’s always a big sticking point for me. I re-upped and tried to get back into SW:G for the final KABOOM! or whatever’s going to happen, but the controls piss me off so much I just can’t do it. >.<
So far the controls for this have been fairly intuitive, though some hangover from a previous game <DAoC> helped me twice when my cats tromped across the keyboard.
So, / key for walk/run, and ctrl-z to get your UI back, in case anyone was wondering.
I’ve been having a lot of fun this weekend! I rolled a bunch of characters. A Sith Warrior I got to level11 or so. I went dual-wield (no tank) but was still able to do The Black Talon flashpoint with a few other people. Not really sure who was healing if anyone…seems like no one.
Also a Jedi Consular also to 10ish. I like him best. Still get to throw stuff (ranged-ish) but get to mix it up and get in close.
Lastly I got a Smuggler to 8. I’ll try to get her to 10 just to play with the companion and see how that works.
All of those were on the Rohlan Dyre server.
Nits (I wouldn’t call these cons, just things I’ll need to get used to)
no shift-# to change actionbars…well hey, how’ bout that they just needed to be key-bound.
On my main I’m going to be pleased to listen to every conversation. Maybe even my main-alt(?), but there’s just going to be sometimes where I want to blow through the conversations.
I’m not liking Empire. I find it hard to just keep being a dick in front of more powerful characters. (personal issue I guess:) ) Though I have found it easier to gain evil points than nice points. I wish there was a third option.
I’m also not liking all the rolling from my smuggler. I may need to see if things change as I gain levels.
But though those are fairly minor issues. So overall I’m getting very excited about this game. Too bad I just made some plans to be gone during the holidays.
My favorite part is the group questing ad flashpoint. Felt very ‘story’ or even ‘epic’.
I got my Consular to 10 today and I liked it better than the first few levels. Combat got considerably easier once I got my companion-tank.
That’s probably all the play I’m going to be able to get in this weekend, so I’ll have to think hard about what my main will be at launch. I guess since I’ll probably start out in our Burning Womp Rats guild, it’ll have to be a Republic side character so I’ll probably end up choosing between Smuggler and Consular, although I’d be interested in feedback about the others I didn’t get to try.
My only regret about the beta weekend is not getting to try out the Inquisitor; that one looks like fun.
Okay, I did have a little time after the last post and played the Inquisitor briefly. Wow that was fun. I might have to roll one as a main alt, just to be over-the-top evil and cocky. Also combat seemed significantly smoother than any of the other classes I’ve played so far.
I know the only Doper guild so far is Republic-aligned, but so far my favorite two classes are Imperial.
I loved this bit - I have 3 85s in wow and another 3 toons over 70 and I feel more attached to my Sith Warrior just seeing him so often in conversations. The wait doesn’t bother me either, I’m not in a hurry after all.
I have to agree about some of the animations they don’t look completely wrong but slightly off, which is worse for some reason. I have to disagree about the Lightsaber combat though I thought it looked impressive, parries and the Riposte animation especially.
I would say it’s better than competent, excellent even, but nothing new apart from the cut scenes. If you don’t enjoy them this maybe not the game for you.
I had one major problem with my mouse - I have a mouse with two extra buttons on which I bind to ctrl and alt for key binding purposes. For some reason the game does not recognise these keys at all so I couldn’t set up my bindings how I liked which was annoying. I hope this is fixed, anyone use extra mouse buttons??
Moral complexity is great, but I don’t find the quests to really be living. The quests seem like a vehicle to wheel you from cutscene to cutscene, rather than the cutscenes complementing the gameplay. That’s my main problem with the game, everything feels lifeless. Say what you will about the simplicity of WoW, the general lack of voice acting, whatever, but since WOTLK and especially Cataclysm they’ve been really good at placing quests at various levels that really feel like you’re doing something – quests that change the world with phasing, quests that have you charging in along hundreds of NPCs and taking on cannon fodder with a buff that gives you massive damage, quests where you temporarily use a gimmick, or fight along-side a renowned hero or get a temporary sidekick.
Now, I mean I haven’t gotten above level 10 or so for any character, I’ll admit that right away, it may very well change. But so far in the first 10 levels I feel that while in the story I’ve made a difference, everything feels static and lifeless. NPCs exist to give exposition and dispense quests and loot, they’re there to be talked to after you do everything. I never feel like I’m never really helping anyone, nobody every shows up and is like “let’s storm this stronghold together*” or “would you fight in my army of badasses for this siege?” No feeling like I got in Twilight Highlands where I walk into an incredibly hostile area and slowly claim it for my faction, literally changing the scenery of the villages and politics of the people around me as the quest line goes on. It may seem silly to expect that in the first 10 levels, but if WOTLK and Cat proves anything it’s that the first 10 levels (for Goblin, Worgen, and Death Knight) can feel like a real adventure with actual in-game world ramifications that can really draw you in.
Companions don’t count, really. I’m talking about characters that show up for half a quest-line and unofficially join you whether you like it or not.
Things ramp up after level 10. I just hit 14 and have had temporary companions helping with large battles a few times, though admittedly not on an epic scale like in WoW. I’ve also received follow-ups to completed quests in the mail – notes from NPCs involved with the quests telling me about how things have gone since I left the area, along with extra rewards attached.
While you don’t really see the world change physically as a result of your actions, I don’t really miss phasing. I find the headache of not being in phase with friends to be far worse than having a physically static world, but that’s just my preference.
For those complaining about mouse sensitivity, I agree – the mouse is way sensitive – but there’s a second sensitivity setting you can set for your camera pan speed that may help. Panning the camera (and only the camera) is manageable now, but turning the character is still really quick and disorienting.
You can also make the dialogue skip by quickly by hitting spacebar. I find myself doing this often with the aliens who aren’t speaking English.
So far I’ve run the level 10 instances pretty smoothly with a 1-heal/3-dps group (using the environment to escape damage) and a 2-heal/2-tank group (just took a bit longer), which I thought was pretty cool. The healers were putting out some pretty decent damage.
ETA: I love how you can loot commendations from instance bosses to buy high quality gear at the specialty vendors so if he doesn’t randomly drop something you can use, you still get rewarded for your effort. That’s fantastic and something I’ve been wishing for in WoW since 2005.
I didn’t do any flashpoints - only grouped up for a couple heroic quests - but I had a healing question. I was thinking the Consular is a healing class, but as of level 9 I didn’t see that I had any actual healing abilities. Did I miss them or do they come later? I was only a few xp short of level 10, maybe I should have pressed on but I was experimenting with crafting.
Also when my BH hit 10 I was able to choose an advanced class and got my first talent point (or whatever they’re called) but couldn’t figure out how to spend it in my talent tree.
Finally, I heard conflicting information about whether the test period ended last night or ends midnight tonight; anyone know for sure?
Thanks, I’ll get back on my Hunter and see if I can spend my skill point. I’m sure I tried both left- and right-clicking. You don’t have to be in a specific location do you?
Also the Bounty Hunter’s crew member Mako is H-O-T. She will be mine.
What determines your character’s voice - the sex of course but also the class? the race? How many different voices are there for each sex?
Did you choose a sub class yet? Each class seems to have 6 possible specs. First you have to choose your sub-class, which is done via quest on the station after your newbie zone. (@ lvl 10) Then you get to choose where to put your talent points. On my Sith Warrior I went Marauder but it seems like Juggernaut has at least one spec for tanking. And on my Smuggler I went Scoundrel and went into the talent tree for healing. I got a single heal skill. So I went into the Flashpoint (Essels or something?) with 3 others including a lvl18 Jedi something. I basically did nothing because by the time I crouched and got ready to use an actual skill the mobs were dead. But during the boss battles my heals were actually useful. (not for the lvl 18, too many hitpoints to make a difference) My heals on the other lvl10s were for about 20-25% so I definitely kept people alive.
And yes we have one more night to finish up StarWarsing until prelaunch in ~2 weeks. I would probably start again with my main character, but towards the end people were saying that the beta-characters would NOT be deleted. Anyone hear that?
Lastly I did the pre-order thing and got the extra crystal, if I use that on my first weapon, will I not be able to use it again on later weapons? I heard something about reverse-engineering to take things apart.
I did pick an advanced class for my bounty hunter, but I forget which one. Couldn’t figure out how to spend my skill point though. That’s about when I stopped playing him to try something else.
No, I heard that they would be, but it was just general chat. I’d welcome official word. I wouldn’t be upset losing my beta characters. Since it will still be available tonight I’ll probably be playing this instead of WoW.
I read (in the Codex maybe) that one point of being able to upgrade your weapons with so many slots is so that you don’t have to keep replacing it, so one weapon should be able to last a long time with new mods/crystals/whatever. But maybe you also would get your crystal back with reverse engineering. Can anyone do that or is it tied to a specific crafting/gathering skill?
You can reverse engineer anything you make and in the process get some of the mats back and the chance to proc a new recipe which could be higher level, ie RE a green piece you can get a blue recipe.
I don’t think they have clarified whether the pre-order crystals are multi use, I’ll try tonight.
You can remove mods/upgrades from your gear for a price. Dropping a new mod on it destroys it, so if you want to save your stuff, drag it out of your gear into your inventory first (I do this solely to reverse engineer everything I can heh).
I was looking forward to this seriously, and after this weekends trial, I can only say ‘Meh.’. Nothing at all to really catch me. It didn’t even have the initial wonder of Sony:SWG. There the scenery was fantastic, even if the gameplay was missing. For all the lead up and hype, TOR didn’t live up to it.
The cutscenes were interesting, and probably would have remained so if they were used only at key points, rather then every. single. npc. interaction. Not only does that just become annoying, but every single cutscene/instance reset my camera angle to default on exiting.
I’m a keyboard player mostly, so not having full keyboard control of the camera is a huge turn off.
And while I realize that indeed, the quests do follow quest lines, I honestly didn’t feel much continuity or overall story. By Sunday, I was back to LOTRO, and enjoyed that time much more then my couple of hours in TOR.
I’ll probably play it a bit when it goes live, but I don’t see myself worrying about maintaining an account on TOR. Too bad, as I had a lot of hopes based on my KOTOR/KOTOR2 experiences.
Since the thread title is ‘SWTOR Doper Guild’, here is the email that was sent out today regarding guilds:
If anyone reading wants to join the Burning Womp Rats prior to launch, go ahead and apply. I’m not sure how many members we have at this point.
I’ve more interested than ever in playing Empire-side now too; but we could always start an Imperial guild on the same server as the BWR after the launch if we don’t have critical mass in advance.
Interesting chart on Crew Skills: From SWTORCrewskills.com
Shows what skills ‘go with each other’.
There’s still some info missing there, but at least there’s a site in place for later on.
I like my slave, er… companion (Sith Warrior). Whenever I have to run back to the city, I send her off on a skill-mission.
