Originally posted by gaou

Oh and if anyone finds an interesting looking skull, click on it. go ahead, i dare you.

Our guild leader found that "interesting looking skull" yesterday and suddenly guild chat exploded with stuff like OMFG! WTF? OMG!

I won't spoil it.

These moral choices are actually very deep -- it's what makes us human.

On the surface, the Sith are strong, powerful, tough.  We admire that.  Inwardly they are sociopathic amoralists who can only exist in a strict authoritarian organization.

If a Sith goes "good" he will only be thought of as "weak."

On the other hand, if a moral and ethical Jedi of the Light Side slips over to the Dark Side, he will be thought of as a tragically complex and troubled character struggling with the eternal struggle between good and evil.

A game that makes you think?  Hey!

1.5 million people (preorders) have been playing the game for the last few days.

So, yeah, it's ready already.

~~~

Bug fixes, tweaks, changes, additions -- yes, those will happen in due time.

~~~

But here is some WoW perspective since everyone seems to compare (insert thing here) to WoW:

On WoW's retail release, an incredibly annoying herb-gathering bug existed that caused you to remain in the crouched position if you picked an herb on a hillside.

The only fix was to relog.  Was weeks into retail release before they fixed that.

Every MMO -- every single one -- has bugs at release.

Move along ... nothing to see here ... move along.

If you're in the Pac timezone, the game will reopen for official release at 9pm (midnight Eastern).

I'll being watching the two-hour season finate of Terra Nova which should be 8-10pm tonight.

Originally posted by DexterMMO
'I'll be on a RP-pvp east server with a friend from AoC launch demolishing the pvp scene.

West Coast for me -- RP-PVP server, if any.  Otherwise, just plain old PvP.

~~~

I was supposed to have selected a handful of character names before Early Start.   Oops.

Originally posted by Humphrie

• During the last beta weekend, I literally had groupmates in flashpoints who would suddenly lose their weapon. There'd be this moment where they were standing there silently, and then, innevitably 'uh, guys, I just went LS/DS I and my weapon doesn't work.'

 I mean, Jesus, imagine the Deceived trailer when the Sith transport's door opens. All the lightsabers ignite red except 2 guys in the back who went lightside, and they ignite green and blue. That'd be an awesome way to ruin an iconic moment, right?

 

Someone please explain to me again how Light Side/Dark Side decisions "make absolutely no difference" to the game.

Originally posted by kiern

My client folder from beta was around 36 GB, after uninstalling and downloading the new client, it is only 18.4 GB. That is a lot of extra garbage that doesn't need to be there.

I played the 11/11 and the 11/25 beta weekends and the beta client was really bloated and huge.

I uninstalled it, downloaded fresh and got an 18.5 GB client.  That's much leaner.

Yes, I expect an email on Tuesday morning.

Yes, I will be clicking randomly on the launcher even if I don't get an email.

  Let me in ... let me in ... let me in!

Originally posted by Humphrie

I was kind of shocked that the forums will be closed until launch. When they said they were updating the forums, I had no idea they meant a lockdown of those proportions. It's like the community has suddenly been cast into a darkness it hasn't known for over 3 years.

And when the forums come back, you will need a subscription to post ... which suits me fine.

Originally posted by Hopscotch73

A fresh download is 18.5, a patched beta version can run to 27+ (depending on how long it has been installed and how many patches it has had.

I think they recommended uninstalling because it clears up the excessive left-over files and a fresh install is leaner for it.

I uninstalled the beta client and a fresh download came out to 18.5 GB.

I assume there will be a launcher update and a patch for Early Start.

Originally posted by Elikal

Ok, off to some positive, light hearted topic! I greatly enjoyed the class stories. I played Jedi Knight to lv 17, Sith Inquisitor to level 12 and Smuggler to level 13, Smuggler alongside a friend who player Trooper.

I must say, I realized a lot of the fun depends on just picking a class, whose story you can somewhat identify.

I've played the last two beta weekends and I tried -- for at least a few levels -- all eight classes, but not all advanced class branches.

Still, I got a nice overview of the game and I have to agree with the OP that the class stories are important.  I think players will identify with one or more of the class stories and bond with their avatars to do some natural and easy roleplaying which I think is something that BioWare excels in.

Originally posted by h0urg1ass

Star Wars: The Old Republic is simply more of the same old garbage that you've seen in every other WoW clone to date.

~~~

No need to write a long review when you've said it all in the first sentence.

By the way ... *waves hand* -- "This is not the game you're looking for...."

 

Originally posted by lizardbones

 

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Originally posted by Svarcanum
Swtor is designed so that you get quite a few abilities early on just so you can start feeling like you're one mighty pirate! That also means that you don't gain so many new abilities as you progress in level. Compared to games like wow and rift you have far fewer abilities in swtor (but that's not a bad thing) so I wouldn't worry to much about bar space!

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That's cool. I don't mind so much switching bars for the content, I just don't want to have tons of bars open all at the same time. I had something like 3 active bars and 3 mouse click bars in WoW...don't want to repeat that.

 

I hear you.

Even though there many skills, at some point you have to really decide which ones are highly useful and which are only marginally useful ... or only used once-in-a-blue-moon.

I actively use my numbered keys ( plus - and = ) and rebind all my F-keys to the Bottom Center Quickbar.  It's hard to use more than 24 skills actively and regularly.

Give your Left Side Quickbar as your Expanded Companion Quickbar (since your companion icon is in the bottom left corner, and if you need a spill-over quickbar, open up the Right Side Quickbar for those once-in-a-blue-moon skills.

Originally posted by VirusDancer

Out of curiosity, can you turn the V.O. and cutscenes off...?

"Spacebar" to skip through the voice acting portions.  (Dialogue text will still be available to read.)

Certain cinematics can be skipped entirely (Options).

Originally posted by Zenjinx

Your hamster for reading the whole e-mail has gone on vacation. If you read the part on the bottom, it tells you about server maintanence.

Please stop with the "oh no the sky is falling" attitude.

The OP has already formed an unjustified and unwarranted negative opinion and no amount of counterbalancing facts will ever change his opinion.

Originally posted by Satarious

 WoW is most likely going to lose all kinds of subscribers to swtor.

I hope not.

Seriously.

Originally posted by chaod1984

I know and hope that people will have fun with this game, I just wish some would open up their eyes a bit more and realize that this game is neither ground-breaking or epic.

*waves hand*

"This is not the game you are looking for..."

I tried six of eight basic classes during the beta weekend and I'll try out the final two during the Thanksgiving weekend test.

But, as it stands now I am thinking Smuggler (Gunslinger) for ranged and Jedi Consular (Shadow) for melee.

Originally posted by BadSpock

I didn't play Agent or SMuggler but my bro did, he was confused/had some difficulty at first but then he figured out how/when to use cover effectively and simply said-

"I freaking love cover-based combat."

He is very much like me, so if he approves, I bet it's pretty awesome.

First off, I agree with BadSpock's assessment of the game.  Good critique.

~~~

I got into the last beta weekend and wanted to play all the four major classes from both factions -- eight total.  I figured Jedi Consular would be my favorite, but when I got to the Smuggler the class really put the hooks into me.

I loved the style of combat, the blasters, the sabotage charge, the thermal grenade, the charged blast (works similar to the Agent's sniper shot) and especially the cover-based combat.

For a Smuggler, it just makes so much sense to "take cover" and it's very easy to use.  As soon as you target an enemy, if there is cover available you see the crouched green figure and just hit "Take Cover" (which is bound to the keyboard).  The green "cover" figure will appear in any direction you turn offering you different options.  If there is absolutely no cover available, you can still take cover in the open using your energy shield.

When enemies miss you due to cover, you will see the floating text say *Cover* *Cover* floating up over your head as the shots miss you so you know whether or not you are effectively taking cover.

What I liked about combat was that whether you were a melee lightsaber user or a ranged blaster user the fighting felt very much like the Star Wars universe and it was very entertaining and fun.  This is important since combat is something you are going to do over and over again.

~~~

The voice acting was excellent and you shouldn't miss it.  If you liked BioWare's Dragon Age:Origins you will soon realize that the voiceovers and your dialogue choices really give you an emotional feel for the game.  When I heard my character talking in the game, I was like, oh, I totally get this, I feel who my character is and I can definitely get into this.

~~~

I'm glad I preordered this game and I can't wait for the next big weekend stress test.

Originally posted by Elikal

I have a bad feeling about this. And no, this is no SW pun. 25th is just 8 days away, and still no download link. With a HUGE download and MANY people downloading, it would be wise to allow the download way ahead. But it seems Bioware again has some issues with strategy.

BioWare will probably allow your download to begin on the Tuesday morning before the Friday test.

That gives you Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to download the 20 GB.