A WOW player's experiece beta testing SWTOR(Reasons to be excited)

[Anjerith]

Along with Freespace, X-wing vs Tie Fighter is one of the greatest space flight sims of all time. The fact that the space combat isn't like XvT is not suprising as no game has been able to be "Like XvT" since it came out, not even the far graphically superior sequel.

The rest sounds neat but honestly Beta communities are usually filled with something that the retail community lacks; fervent worship of the franchise. It is also comprised of people that love the game more because it is free than anything else. Retail obviously cannot support any players that are of the mindset that "it's free so its great!".

This isn't me saying this game isn't any good or that it is great, this is me saying that reviews of the game prior to its release have to be looked at as what they are; absolutely biased.

Also, isn't posting these screenshots a violation of the NDA you have to sign when you setup your beta account? When I was getting mine going a couple weeks ago I am pretty sure that it very firmly states that you cannot post images or impressions of the game outside the testing forums on the swtor website.

[Deleted]

Also, isn't posting these screenshots a violation of the NDA you have to sign when you setup your beta account? When I was getting mine going a couple weeks ago I am pretty sure that it very firmly states that you cannot post images or impressions of the game outside the testing forums on the swtor website.

NDA has been lifted couple of days ago. you can actually post anything you like, beside stuff from beta forums.

[Chirri]

Hahahahaha

There's no way it will ever take you 10-12 hours to complete the starting area. I've leveled multiple characters of multiple classes, and it won't take anyone more than five hours tops on the starter world unless they're intentionally staying there or just standing around not doing anything. Five hours... even six hours would be a VERY generous estimate for people who have never played an MMO, have never leveled a character on that starter world, etc. If you are actively questing, even for a new player, it likely will take you roughly four hours at most.

I guess you didn't play the same version I played. I've been messing around with MMOs for going on a decade at this point, and despite being extremely familiar with the generic MMO controls and how to interact with the world, it took me 6-8 hours play time to get to level 10. And that's not due to old age It's due to my interest in what makes this game different from any other MMO. I like to take my time with new stuff, I get more enjoyment out of things that way. I'll level no matter what I spend my time on (unless I quit), so I don't feel a need to rush myself. I've been in my share of betas, and while they're fun and exciting, becoming too familiar with an as-yet-unlauched game has been known to accelerate the rate with which I become disinterested in it, post launch.

I know some people's primary enjoyment of games comes from powering through things for bragging rights, but to me that sounds like they're playing the exact same game every time, with a slightly different UI, and different skins to the worlds they barrel through. Whatever floats your boat, I guess, but those are the kinds of people who seem most likely to judge a game based on things the game isn't even trying to boast.

Then again, you remind me of my nephew, who uses phrases like, "To be honest..." and "I'm not even going to lie," and I suppose anyone who reads this can guess what that means about a lot of topics he claims knowledge of.

If nothing else, having to run around on foot impedes leveling progress a good bit - although once you've figured out the UI's quirks and know what to look for on your map (oh, wait, I'm not done questing here yet), it certainly streamlines the leveling speed of any alts you try.

[Arlee]

thats the beauty of ity.. no cross server, u will be doing stuffs with ppl in your own server, that will enhance the community

Yea I wasn't meaning to imply that it is a bad thing it isn't cross server Just clarifying that there is a LFG tool, it just doesn't function the way that the LFG tool works in wow

I guess you didn't play the same version I played. I've been messing around with MMOs for going on a decade at this point, and despite being extremely familiar with the generic MMO controls and how to interact with the world, it took me 6-8 hours play time to get to level 10. And that's not due to old age It's due to my interest in what makes this game different from any other MMO. I like to take my time with new stuff, I get more enjoyment out of things that way. I'll level no matter what I spend my time on (unless I quit), so I don't feel a need to rush myself. I've been in my share of betas, and while they're fun and exciting, becoming too familiar with an as-yet-unlauched game has been known to accelerate the rate with which I become disinterested in it, post launch.

It took me quite awhile to get through the beginning of the game as well. For me it is because the first time through I always like to explore as much as possible, and do every quest I can. Plus then I back tracked with a friend some to help him level. For me and swtor it's not about racing through to get to some end point; I really want to experience the story and mess around with all the things I can do.

[faradhim]

It was lifted on last Friday around 4:00 PM.

---------- Post added 2011-11-22 at 05:13 PM ----------

There is still a shortage of tank or heal. So.... to find group faster, roll a heal or a tank.

---------- Post added 2011-11-22 at 05:14 PM ----------

Hahahahaha

There's no way it will ever take you 10-12 hours to complete the starting area. I've leveled multiple characters of multiple classes, and it won't take anyone more than five hours tops on the starter world unless they're intentionally staying there or just standing around not doing anything. Five hours... even six hours would be a VERY generous estimate for people who have never played an MMO, have never leveled a character on that starter world, etc. If you are actively questing, even for a new player, it likely will take you roughly four hours at most.

It took me that long. Maybe it is just because I am old and getting lost a lot.

[Deleted]

my toon. want sth more?

Not proof that it's yours, not proof that your guild is casual/noob, not proof that you 1-2shot bosses, not proof that you don't know tactics.
As I said, I'd never get any proof for that.

[Glorious Leader]

Along with Freespace, X-wing vs Tie Fighter is one of the greatest space flight sims of all time. The fact that the space combat isn't like XvT is not suprising as no game has been able to be "Like XvT" since it came out, not even the far graphically superior sequel.

No love for wing commander?

[Ragnarocket]

To all the people complaining about the starting zone only taking 5/6 hours...that's true IF you decide to rush everything and zoom through the leveling process. If, like the OP, you tend to explore or look around the zones you might take around 8-10 hours. I wasn't even able to get out of my starting zone in my first night of playing since I was looking around the zone so much. Found a holocron, some codex cores (or whatever we call them), and basically just enjoyed myself.

Not everyone plays the same way ya know?

[Xemt]

Not proof that it's yours, not proof that your guild is casual/noob, not proof that you 1-2shot bosses, not proof that you don't know tactics.
As I said, I'd never get any proof for that.

But yalin is right. Firelands is easy, almost piss easy (except Ragnaros). Every even remotely semihardcore guild has cleared 6/7 hc. Casual guilds in our server is somewhere 2-5/7 cleared. If you look at the kill progress stats, you see that 13,2k guilds out of 26,3k guilds who are raiding heroic firelands have cleared everything except ragna. That's roughly 50% of the guilds.
If you take all the guilds into question (48,6k), that's still ~27%. So almost 1/3 of the guilds is sitting at 6/7 cleared hc.

[Deleted]

Not proof that it's yours, not proof that your guild is casual/noob, not proof that you 1-2shot bosses, not proof that you don't know tactics.
As I said, I'd never get any proof for that.

actually 1st one can be easilly prooved - i can log off in some different gear spec of your choosing (disc, pvp, some stupid mix of old content gear, whatever) or you can send me an email ingame so that i can respond to that, but you dont want any proofs, dont you?
rest, well. ofc it cannot be prooved, thats why you are so happy about it. but look at sth else then - wowprogress. we are no. 10 on this server (no, its not good, its underpopulated).
i mean, i dont know what campaign you are trying to lead here - the facts are simple, content is piss easy. 20 guilds cleared at least one heroics on my srvr.

ps. sry for total offtopic, i just couldnt leave someone callin' me a liar ;p

[Gxeternal]

One thing I liked about the starting zones is how your character was treated...............


MILD SPOILERS AHEAD FAIR WARNING









As a sith inquis, you were basicly treated as a slave who had the ablitiy to use the force, you were put down and you could tell there were people working against you and trying to make you fail your trials. And as you progressed through the more notice the higher sith lords took of you. But also the way the non force user npcs on the planet treated you was in a kind of awe status. Calling you sir and basicly kissing your ass when you spoke to them.

[faradhim]

Hehe. Love wing commander! Or strike commander for that matter.

---------- Post added 2011-11-23 at 03:08 PM ----------

For arcade like flight/space sims my rankings are:

XvT
Wing Commander
Strike Commander

[YoungRider]

Great news: The orginal author to this review has signed up on "MMO Champion". I gave him credit at the start of the thread for creating the discussion. Now he's signed on MMO Champion. I am able to release his name. So that perhaps he could respond to your questions directly and he has given me further links to edit in my post that links you to his full review updated with PVP actions and what not.

Earlier Message

Youngrider,

I am the original author of the article "A WOW player's experiece beta testing SWTOR" you reposted at MMO Champion. Since I am so new to the forum. I am not allowed to post links in my message. Is it possible for you to add a few more links back to the top of your repost? have greatly expanded the reviews and now encompasses three parts.

Here are links you can use directly:

Part I: Character creation, initial zones, flash points, Crafting.
Part 2: Questing, space combat, voice acting/music.
Part 3: PvP, system performance, interface.


Your help is greatly appreciated.

Fara

[Sylverfall]

The thing i hope people ignore is planet size for the first 3 planets. They seem kind of confined initially. At least that was my take, however, once i hit tattoine, i was blown away by the size and scope of the place. Don't go there without your speeder or it will take you a LONG time to go through there.

Tradeskills: You can have it a couple of ways.

First, there are three types of crew skills, Crafting, Mission and Gathering. You can only have 1 crafting and after that you can have 1-2 gathering, 1-2 mission or a mix of both. You can even have 3 gathering, 3 mission and no crafting. There are definitely some gathering skills that mesh well with crafting skills I.E. Artifice/Archeology. Mostly the mission skills give light side, dark side, companion gifts and the occasional rare mats for crafting. Lets be up front, you will not ever be able to get ALL of the mats from every recipe you need from a single gathering skill. There will be occasions where a certain recipe can have its components from that specific gathering skill. But they did put recipes in that require mats from another skill.

Its a fairly straight forward process. You don't ever do any crafting, you tell your companion(s) to go do it. You learn the recipes and they use them to make stuff. each companion can queu up to 5 items to craft at any given time. Each one has a specific crafting time needed as well as materials. Crew Skills for the most part (with 1-2 exceptions) are fairly cash dependent. Slicing is a money making skill that has the added benefit of providing augments if you choose so.

Gathering works like this. You can send your spare companions out to get materials for your gathering desires by using the crew skills mission lists for that skill. They are gone xx amount of time and when they return they have either failed or you have some mats to collect. Same goes for mission skills for the most part. While you are out in the world, you can send your companion to gather nodes you see. Keybind the ability to do so (mine is right click) and when you see it, hit your keybind on the node and off goes your butler to get your groceries.

You CAN get your crafting skills before you leave your starting planets and I suggest you do so. Visit each trainer for extra xp. That bonus going into your advanced class selection is beneficial. Only problem i noticed is that you can't craft on your starting planet until you get your companion at lvl 7/8. You can however gather.

[faradhim]

Great news: The orginal author to this review has signed up on "MMO Champion". I gave him credit at the start of the thread for creating the discussion. Now he's signed on MMO Champion. I am able to release his name. So that perhaps he could respond to your questions directly and he has given me further links to edit in my post that links you to his full review updated with PVP actions and what not.

Earlier Message

Youngrider,

I am the original author of the article "A WOW player's experiece beta testing SWTOR" you reposted at MMO Champion. Since I am so new to the forum. I am not allowed to post links in my message. Is it possible for you to add a few more links back to the top of your repost? have greatly expanded the reviews and now encompasses three parts.

Here are links you can use directly:

Part I: Character creation, initial zones, flash points, Crafting.
Part 2: Questing, space combat, voice acting/music.
Part 3: PvP, system performance, interface.


Your help is greatly appreciated.

Fara

Thanks YoungRider!

[Nino]

they are piss easy. my semi noobish/casual guild cleared 6/7 firelands hc few weeks ago. tbh i don't even know all the tactics for all the bosses and we're 1-2 shotting everything. it's sooo easy to get end high gear these days that it's unbelievable.

yes it is easy if u are being carried

[faradhim]

The thing i hope people ignore is planet size for the first 3 planets...

Having planets as zones are also very clever. They can always add more playable areas to each planet and I see them do that as well.