ive only seen the start of the revan story . That said i loved the stories ive seen. smuggler for one is amazing maybe the best i tried. , The inquistior and warrior are both very well done. 

the knight and counselor i didnt go to far as im playing republic first. That said i stay away from the story forums u never know whats true and wahts some troll posting stuff to get a rise.

Originally posted by Keogh

Bottomline:

 

After 7 years of WoW, my entire guild is leaving the Blizzard game to make SWTOR our new home.

 

We can't wait!

It's funny, a friend of mine told me today his guild is leaving their game and going to TOR.  Two years ago he said they were laughing at tor and would never play but the recent weekend betas changed it....

Maybe I won't get TOR now........lol.

Originally posted by waynejr2

Originally posted by Keogh

Bottomline:

 

After 7 years of WoW, my entire guild is leaving the Blizzard game to make SWTOR our new home.

 

We can't wait!

It's funny, a friend of mine told me today his guild is leaving their game and going to TOR.  Two years ago he said they were laughing at tor and would never play but the recent weekend betas changed it....

 

Maybe I won't get TOR now........lol.

I know a couple that tried out the beta and ended up preordering as well. It will be interesting to see the NA preorder count next week after this beta. 

Originally posted by drakwon

Originally posted by dubyahite

Originally posted by veritas723

i think there are flaws/negatives with Swtor that are not themepark QQ.

 there are several issues that suggest that the game is shabby in general.  things that point to poor coding, or poor planning, or lack luster game aesthetics.  jerky animations,  stuttery rail transit,  ameteur UI graphics   ...things that might be lumped under half assed execution/polish

there's also the more ephemeral gripes about only 4 classes/mirrored classes.  and limited races and extremely poor char gen.  things like this.  that tend to make people feel no real effort was made to make the game exemplary ... that it's a GED game as opposed to a AAA mmo

 that being said.  some of these are mitigated by it being a Beta still.  and in that many of the glitchy things can and will be patched out hopefully in the first 6 mo type of deal every mmo does.

then again.  for the hype of this game.  the franchise.  of star wars and pedigree of BIoware ... it's shaping up to be a weak debut from 2 AAA names.  

This game is in better shape at this stage of its life than any other MMO I have ever seen as far as polish goes. They are usually much worse than this. 

 I love when people who don't know what they are talking about say a game has "poor coding." Most of the time you don't even know what that means, and trust me, Bioware knows how to write code. 

As far as the polish of the game, this game has come leaps and bounds in the past six months. It really has been amazing to watch, most companies would not have been able to accomplish what Bioware did in that time. I have no doubt that very soon all of those issues you experienced will be long gone. 

The character creator is kind of lame, but you are lying when you say there are only 4 classes. There are 8 Advanced classes and they all play totally differently. A consular shadow is a huge difference from a consular sage. As far as teh races and the customization, that definitely needs work, but for many people that is a fairly minor issue. 

If by "weak debut" you mean the largest mmo launch ever, then yeah that sounds pretty weak. 

The game really is poorly coded.  I was pretty disapointed with the beta. The first 10 minutes into the game it becomes obvious bioware doesn't know how to make games for the PC.

    OMG.  Thank you for showing just how ignorant you are drakwon.  Apparently BioWare is now not a PC Gaming company.  Guess I have to go back and throw out all the PC games they have made.

Originally posted by catlana

Originally posted by waynejr2

Originally posted by Keogh

Bottomline:

 

After 7 years of WoW, my entire guild is leaving the Blizzard game to make SWTOR our new home.

 

We can't wait!

It's funny, a friend of mine told me today his guild is leaving their game and going to TOR.  Two years ago he said they were laughing at tor and would never play but the recent weekend betas changed it....

 

Maybe I won't get TOR now........lol.

I know a couple that tried out the beta and ended up preordering as well. It will be interesting to see the NA preorder count next week after this beta. 

I have seen a lot of people buy other MMOs as well, based upon having fun in open beta.

The issue is that that many of them did not resub after the first or second month.

Some long term beta testers are saying they are burned out, while others are saying they still are having fun.   I think it will be interesting to see how well TOR is doing in say March, to get an idea of which is more descriptive of the current market.

The bottom line IMO is that MMO sandbox gamers wont be getting any closer to having games catered to them. In fact, I believe this will only further show the support that fans give to the themepark genre of MMOs.

TOR will cement the fact that making a themepark isnt enough. If the company takes the time and effort to produce a good game, the rewards will more than warrant it.

I doubt we see any more Cryptic 15 month turnarounds, except for companies wishing to pull a fast one for box sales.

Originally posted by Loekii

Originally posted by catlana

Originally posted by waynejr2

Originally posted by Keogh

Bottomline:

 

After 7 years of WoW, my entire guild is leaving the Blizzard game to make SWTOR our new home.

 

We can't wait!

It's funny, a friend of mine told me today his guild is leaving their game and going to TOR.  Two years ago he said they were laughing at tor and would never play but the recent weekend betas changed it....

 

Maybe I won't get TOR now........lol.

I know a couple that tried out the beta and ended up preordering as well. It will be interesting to see the NA preorder count next week after this beta. 

I have seen a lot of people buy other MMOs as well, based upon having fun in open beta.

The issue is that that many of them did not resub after the first or second month.

Some long term beta testers are saying they are burned out, while others are saying they still are having fun.   I think it will be interesting to see how well TOR is doing in say March, to get an idea of which is more descriptive of the current market.

 

 

The first goal for EA is the project into the black. This is extremely likely based on preorders alone. Sustained income is harder to measure. The two sides are totally different so projecting the average person will roll at least one alt is not hard. That puts the average playtime at 400 hours before end game really sets in. That is a lot of time for your casual player (10 hours or less). How well does SWToR handle end game / pvp is going to be very important about six months out from launch for profitability. 

Btw, Bioware has done a number on users per server cluster (120 servers for approx 2.4 million preorders). The number is well within Database limits but not for a video game which tend to be resource intensive. They have to be able to scale the database cluster which is a trick no one else has really succeeded at so far.  

It's an okay game that doesnt do anything really badly, but doesn't do anything really new and innovative either. It's overhyped, and will have a massive launch, then it will settle down into mediocrity with every other MMO (bar one... of course...). I think it will have a pretty solid following of players, but it won't be the holy grail of online gaming that some people are making it out to be. That said, it is still a nice game and I will probably end up picking it up. =)

Originally posted by Huntari

It's an okay game that doesnt do anything really badly, but doesn't do anything really new and innovative either. It's overhyped, and will have a massive launch, then it will settle down into mediocrity with every other MMO (bar one... of course...). I think it will have a pretty solid following of players, but it won't be the holy grail of online gaming that some people are making it out to be. That said, it is still a nice game and I will probably end up picking it up. =)

It won't be the holy grail of online gaming.  But it has a very good chance of being the holy grail of BioWare gaming, or the holy grail of Star Wars gaming, or both.

With the game still in beta it good to see so many writting it off, perhaps they missed the point of beta or that beta means it not finished till the day they ship the disks and then they will patch after that and change content and add stuff over time, can anyone say that WoW that they play now is the same WoW they started playing?

Its Beta let the game come out and then judge, hell give it a few months after that even, beta is not 100% bug buster.

I am not going to be playing TOR, but here's my take.

If you like Bioware-style storytelling and you like WoW mechanics, then you'll probably enjoy this game.  If you like one, but are neutral on the other, you can probably still enjoy it.  You might be able to bypass the WoW mechanics more or less if you just play it as a solo game (though I am not sure how well that will work out at max level).  Note that the game suffers a bit from the ME speech choices.  Sometimes it gives misleading options, but this is a relatively minor thing.

If you dislike the Holy Trinity in general or just can't help but notice how especially horrible it is for Star Wars, then you won't like this game (at least for group play).  I think a lot of people underestimate just how strongly this game is into the Holy Trinity because they only played low levels.  At low levels Trinity mechanics are diminished to non-existent because you haven't had time for gear and talents to make really strong differences yet.  TOR is a heavy Trinity game, arguably even more so than WoW, given that a Jedi Healer simply doesn't get anything to improve Lightsaber damage as far as I am aware (healing stats don't help ANY damage stats, force power or otherwise).  So if you don't like this mechanic for group play, then you'll hate TOR's group combat (you might still like group story).

You might also have a problem with grouping if you don't like watching someone else's story unfold.  At least in the start areas, if you group with someone else you'll go and help them in their solo quests and be passive during their dialogue.  I didn't mind this, but my brother did (ironically, he is going to be playing TOR).

Generally I'd say it isn't a great solo game (I know some people claim it is).  It has MMO mechanics all over it, which makes combat a bit less tactical, a bit more grindy, and generally just a good bit worse than you'd see in a strong single-player game from Bioware such as KOTOR, Mass Effect, or the like.

It has little improvements here and there to several systems such as crafting and the like, but the bread and butter of combat has WoW written all over it.  However, it does lack phasing, which is a bit of a shame, and the NPCs that aren't giving quests or part of cut scenes are paper thin (they don't even talk if you click on them unless they sell you something).  Minor gripes, probably.

All that said, if you like WoW combat mechanics or just don't mind them, and you enjoy story, then the game seems to be of high production quality and generally well put together.  The WoW mechanics make this game not at all for me, but I expect it will do well and retain millions of subscribers because it is actually polished (a rarity in MMOs) and it is Star Wars.

If Story is an important part in your games, SWTOR will simply be amazing.

It enhanced the questing experience in the same way that WOW did when they replaced the EQ model of mob grind with quest grind.

However... if you don't care about story... you should still give it a chance,the combat feels very good in some classes and the old republic atmosphere is a nerdgasm...

Originally posted by spaceport

If Story is an important part in your games, SWTOR will simply be amazing.

It enhanced the questing experience in the same way that WOW did when they replaced the EQ model of mob grind with quest grind.

However... if you don't care about story... you should still give it a chance,the combat feels very good in some classes and the old republic atmosphere is a nerdgasm...

See, I disagree here.  If story in addition to all the normal mmorpg trappings are important then you should give this a shot.  If story isn't important, then you are (in my opinion) less likely to enjoy the game because there are so many similar games out there.  However, none of those similar games can even touch the game when it comes to story (again in my opinion).

Edit:  I should mention that I really enjoy the game, and I have preorder a couple of copies for me and my son.  I just think that the story is what has drawn me in.  Raids, pvp, etc. are available in less expensive games and fairly well done i think.  But I love the SW universe and I really like, at least the early levels, of 4 of the classes I tried out.

2nd edit:  In all honesty I shouldn't have quoted your post in mine.  That is what happens with forum posting and too much beer.

The biggest problem with the game is that it is boring as all get out. Combat and story aren't that bad, but there is way too much in between time where you are forced to run large distances with nothing worth doing or seeing along the way.

I've been playing tons of Skyrim, which is a game with a lot of travel time and down time between action, but I'm immersed in the world and there is always the chance of a life threatening encounter or stumbling upon cool content at any moment. You'd think that with Skyrim readjusting my expectations for action and travel time, I'd have been primed to accept the TOR time sink model, but nope.

If I had to guess, I'd say that out of a typical hour session so far, maybe 10-15 minutes, tops, is spent doing something interesting or useful and the other 45-50 minutes is spent running and running and running. Apparently the way Bioware intends to extend the game experience to MMO levels is to maximize travel related time sinks to the ultimate degree. I literally can't take it, which is why I'm here writing this, rather than participating in the current stress test.

They very seriously need to steal a page from Skyrim and Guild Wars 2 and remove the cooldown on instant way point travel to locations you have unlocked. Either remove it, or reduce it to 5 minutes.

I was certain, flaws and all, I was going to keep my pre-order and try to get a month or two from the game, but after a very frustrating afternoon, I'm leaning towards totally passing on the game now.

If they need the time sink to keep people from blowing through the content way too quickly, I guess they are screwed. If there is actually enough content to survive removal of the way point travel cool down, they really need to do so ASAP. The game would be greatly improved if they did.

two very good writeups by Drachasor and fiontar on this page really show current issues with this game and why I'm really hesitent to say its future looks very grim if some big changes don't come fast. This game will be a huge success in its first month I'm sure of that but in 6 months I honestly don't know and feel bioware really needs to step up here to make this game worth investing month after month into

Originally posted by fiontar

The biggest problem with the game is that it is boring as all get out. Combat and story aren't that bad, but there is way too much in between time where you are forced to run large distances with nothing worth doing or seeing along the way.

I've been playing tons of Skyrim, which is a game with a lot of travel time and down time between action, but I'm immersed in the world and there is always the chance of a life threatening encounter or stumbling upon cool content at any moment. You'd think that with Skyrim readjusting my expectations for action and travel time, I'd have been primed to accept the TOR time sink model, but nope.

If I had to guess, I'd say that out of a typical hour session so far, maybe 10-15 minutes, tops, is spent doing something interesting or useful and the other 45-50 minutes is spent running and running and running. Apparently the way Bioware intends to extend the game experience to MMO levels is to maximize travel related time sinks to the ultimate degree. I literally can't take it, which is why I'm here writing this, rather than participating in the current stress test.

They very seriously need to steal a page from Skyrim and Guild Wars 2 and remove the cooldown on instant way point travel to locations you have unlocked. Either remove it, or reduce it to 5 minutes.

I was certain, flaws and all, I was going to keep my pre-order and try to get a month or two from the game, but after a very frustrating afternoon, I'm leaning towards totally passing on the game now.

If they need the time sink to keep people from blowing through the content way too quickly, I guess they are screwed. If there is actually enough content to survive removal of the way point travel cool down, they really need to do so ASAP. The game would be greatly improved if they did.

Agreed.  There is a ridiculous amount of running (it's like Doctor Who, but they actually show every moment of running).  I think they need more locations you can save to instantly transport to as well as putting the CD on the transport at 0-5 minutes.

From what I've seen of Skyrim, it has advantages in that there is tons of stuff to find if you travel normally.  Caves, bandits, locations, whatever.  The world is filled with things to find.  TOR isn't and you often are running down a long "hallway" (whether it is outside or not) with nothing to find or do on your way.

 I don't understand people some times, travel times are really what turn some off? At level 14 you get sprint .... thats a meer four levels past your starter planet, and the starter planet has argueable run distances. From levels 11-14 yes you will be running alot, but you should be doing things along the way if your taking the quests;  its the run back to turn in that is barren, which you should simply utilize your quick portal to your bind. Its a 30 minute cooldown, each run out into a  secondary planet with a load of quests and storyline to do takes longer than 30 minutes, you'll be fine. Then you get a mount when the planets get even bigger. Atleast the game worlds aren't small , then I assume people would be complaining about that.

 I love that Bioware brought travel times back into a game, I'm sick of using portals to traverse a game. Theres incentive to explore the worlds Bioware has crafted, utilize the huge maps they've generated for us and enjoy the game. If you don't like the game, don't nit-pick it .. just move on. If your on the fence with issues ask any of the old testers and nine times out of ten they have a solution for the dilema or an answer for your question.

Originally posted by Redemp

 I don't understand people some times, travel times are really what turn some off? At level 14 you get sprint .... thats a meer four levels past your starter planet, and the starter planet has argueable run distances. Then you get a mount when the planets get even bigger. Atleast the game worlds aren't small , then I assume people would be complaining about that.

 I love that Bioware brought travel times back into a game, I'm sick of using portals to traverse a game. Theres incentive to explore the worlds Bioware has crafted, utilize the huge maps they've generated for us and enjoy the game.

I admit I didn't get much past level 10.  The travel times were a boring chore on the starting worlds.  They were long, there was nothing interesting, and generally it was awful.  It comes up quite a bit when leveling up there, potentially quite a bit more so if you do the group content.

Maybe with all that movment you it doesn't taken any time at all.  Or perhaps it takes just as long because everything gets bigger.  I don't personally know.  You still have to explore with a system where you can only travel to discovered points, and if exploring is rewarded, then people will go and explore quite happily.  Heck, if instant travel is easy, then it makes exploring less costly in terms of time, since if you find nothing you can just teleport back immediately.

Originally posted by Redemp

 I don't understand people some times, travel times are really what turn some off? At level 14 you get sprint .... thats a meer four levels past your starter planet, and the starter planet has argueable run distances. Then you get a mount when the planets get even bigger. Atleast the game worlds aren't small , then I assume people would be complaining about that.

 I love that Bioware brought travel times back into a game, I'm sick of using portals to traverse a game. Theres incentive to explore the worlds Bioware has crafted, utilize the huge maps they've generated for us and enjoy the game.

I'd be all for it if anything actually occupied those maps and there was really anything interesting to explore or going on in the worlds. Which has been one of the biggest complaints again.... the lifeless world. The most interesting part of the game is the actual dialog the time in between the dialog not so much unfortunatley

Originally posted by Drachasor

Originally posted by Redemp

 I don't understand people some times, travel times are really what turn some off? At level 14 you get sprint .... thats a meer four levels past your starter planet, and the starter planet has argueable run distances. Then you get a mount when the planets get even bigger. Atleast the game worlds aren't small , then I assume people would be complaining about that.

 I love that Bioware brought travel times back into a game, I'm sick of using portals to traverse a game. Theres incentive to explore the worlds Bioware has crafted, utilize the huge maps they've generated for us and enjoy the game.

I admit I didn't get much past level 10.  The travel times were a boring chore on the starting worlds.  They were long, there was nothing interesting, and generally it was awful.  It comes up quite a bit when leveling up there, potentially quite a bit more so if you do the group content.

You seriously think travel times on the starting planets were long?  You're making me feel really old.