ST:TOR questing

[Deleted]

now I've just got star wars and i think the questing is superb, i find the talks with the quest givers to be interesting and is a large step up from WOW quest givers where it is just a wall of text. however what do you think of it, i know that some have said that it is to slow paced or they are not interested in it but having there talks with the quest givers and the choice of being cruel and not having a set alignment to being good or evil is a leap forward in MMO questing.

what is your take on it?

[Leonard McCoy]

It depends. Some days (read most days actually) I absolutely love it. I'm working on my 3rd alt atm and it's still not totally stale. I find that by now I do space bar through SOME of the quests but to be honest theirs so many quests that I haden't really done everything on my first or second playthrough. I understand why people could get tired of it though. Luckily I enjoy it still :P

[Deleted]

Played swtor, loved it.

Played tera, hated the fact that i had to read the quests again.

Voiced quests are the future.

[morreant]

After a year without WoW I actually just made use of SOR and bought into the annual pass while cancelling my swtor sub.

The questing in TOR was one of the main things that drove me back. It's just so damn slow, especially later on in the game.
The other day I was logging back in on Carrick Station and was going to pick up questing on Voss. That meant 5 loading screens until I was standing on the planet. A rather long and boring speeder ride to where my quest was taking place. Killing some trash, watching a cutscene, taking a holo call and being told to ride way elsewhere to talk to some dude.
I spent upward of 15 minutes for this.

After using the SOR and bumping a lock to 80 it took me a minute and one loading screen to get from SW to Hyjal and pick up a few quests. A few minutes later I had them done and was venturing further. I was getting stuff done.

I have a young daughter meaning my play time is severely limited. The above coupled with a lack of other quality of life features like dungeon finder, decent AH, lackluster appeal of republic compared to imp and even my populous server feeling deserted made it not the game for me.
There are tons of things WoW should do better (area looting would be awesome), but in the end it currently fits my playstyle better. YMMV.

[fatalaeon]

SW questing is cool, til about level 20, then you realize that they are just telling you to go kill X of this or go collect Y of that, and when you realize that you think, hey, this is just like wow, only it takes longer for me to do it, especially when im in a group.

[ScottsdaleHokie]

By level 30 you'll be space-barring through all the dialog.

[Nyctanessa]

I enjoy hearing the nuances of my character's voice, so I always let class mission quests play out entirely... for planets that I've already been to many times and I know the quest by heart, I'll fast-forward through the NPC's dialogue. I always find different conversation paths, maybe not consistently, but fairly often. It took me until my fifth or so character going through Coruscant to discover that I can confront Senator Barc about the chips, and I ended up getting companion rep for doing so, whereas if I had just went straight to the Zabrak security guy, I wouldn't've gotten any companion rep (and since I was dealing with Corso at the time, and I HATE Corso and he's ALWAYS mad at me, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to mollify him for one quest).

But yeah, not all quests deserve to be skipped through, imo.

[PandarianLeakage]

Played swtor, loved it.

Played tera, hated the fact that i had to read the quests again.

Voiced quests are the future.

Amen

If I ever play WoW again, I will *fluffy bunny* to lvl 90 or whatever, I can't stand regular questing any more, it's so one-dimensional

@OP
My take on it is that while it will slow down leveling, leveling itself should be one of the prime focuses anyway so you learn your class and get a kick ass story to boot!

What do I remember from leveling in WoW? I turned in 10 x random junk to some nobodies and shat light when I leveled up.

I actually know the stories of my 50 commando, 50 jedi knight and 18 Inquisitor (not fully for the inquis obviously) and they rock.

[mafao]

I find this kind of quest delivery absolutely inappropriate for an MMO. Quests still stay boring, and it doesn't help much that you get an illusion of choice — as it does not matter in the least which choice you make — the outcome is purely cosmetic (but this is typical for Bioware games). I don't care for fully voiced quests, the basic theme - run there, kill 10 stuff, run back - still stays the same and the SWTOR questing is every bit as boring and dull as WoW questing. Its simply wrapped in a nicer package.

But of couse, its personal preference... In a MMO, I expect to play and compete with other people on a regular basis. SWTOR is simply a Mass Effect/KOTOR style single-player game which you have to play online and which contains some elements of multiplayer. And that everyone gets a personal storyline doesn't really help — its a cool thing if you are a mighty Sith warrior who obtains the old lightsaber of Naga Sadow, but its a bit ridiculous once you realize that there are like 1000 Sith warrioirs with the same lightsaber running around... I'd rather do something less "heroic" which actually affects the gaming environment. Needless to say, I am very disappointed with the game. I would be happier if they would invest less time into voicing the boring quests and more into actually giving the game a decent gameplay.

[Leonard McCoy]

But of couse, its personal preference... In a MMO, I expect to play and compete with other people on a regular basis. SWTOR is simply a Mass Effect/KOTOR style single-player game which you have to play online and which contains some elements of multiplayer.

That's not true at all. It's as mmo as you make it to be. I mean saying it's not mmo is basically saying world of warcraft isn't either. They feature the same elements. Grouping up for pvp or for Flashpoints. You can group for quests. You can group for heroic quests. The game literally rewards you for playing in groups but is somehow not mmo enough.

[OhpUldum]

That's not true at all. It's as mmo as you make it to be. I mean saying it's not mmo is basically saying world of warcraft isn't either. They feature the same elements. Grouping up for pvp or for Flashpoints. You can group for quests. You can group for heroic quests. The game literally rewards you for playing in groups but is somehow not mmo enough.

I believe the point Mafao was trying to make is that he feels the game is more single player driven than it is group immersion. Which I agree with him. I personally feel that SWTOR in its current form does not lead itself well for grouping situations. However my gripe is simple, I feel that once we have some convenience features such as a group queing system then I will personally feel that the additional massively multiplayer portion is in my game.

I should also note that since moving servers to a high population realm my opinion is slowly changing. Its amazing what a few other players talking in general can do to make the game feel like an MMO again.

[Mouri Kogorou]

questing is fun and i enjoy all the dialog, however .. am at lvl 22 at the moment and i can say that all the imperial agents are useless ...

[mafao]

That's not true at all. It's as mmo as you make it to be. I mean saying it's not mmo is basically saying world of warcraft isn't either. They feature the same elements. Grouping up for pvp or for Flashpoints. You can group for quests. You can group for heroic quests. The game literally rewards you for playing in groups but is somehow not mmo enough.

Well, one of my problems is that SWTOR environments are a bit too detailed (don't laugh!) — its actually hard to recognize whether a character before you is another player or an npc. Of course, its a good thing to have a detailed and beautiful game (and SWOTR sure looks good), however, when playing SWOTR I just don't feel like I am in an MMO. Culadin sums it up rather nicely.

And sure you can group up, you have the heroic quests and Flashpoints and so on. This is why I said "multiplayer elements". You can go multiplayer if you want, its not that different from how WoW does it. However, I believe that in SWOTR you have less incentive to group with people. Yes, you get better loot, you get more xp, you can do Flashpoints. But the thing is, because of the fully voiced quests and a quest storyline, these multiplayer/group "modes" seem slightly out of place. I think this is a gain a point that Culadin makes in his post. in WoW, leveling is not as nicely wrapped as in SWOTR, so more people will look to distract themselves from that "chore" by doing group activities. In SWOTR, you just have to follow a path nicely laid out in front of you.

What I really want in my MMOs is some sort of implicit, dynamic multiplayer. I don't want to have to actively search for a group. I want to run into a heroic quest area to find some players which are already there, join them without having to manage group invites and automatically get my share of xp and loot. I don't want to LFG for first flashpoint, I just want to board the Esseles and find some other players there who also boarded the flight at the same time. I want the stuff to "happen", and I want it to happen in a way that it affects multiple players or even factions.

Well, i don't know, maybe I have been looking at GW2 too much lately ^^

[OhpUldum]

Well, i don't know, maybe I have been looking at GW2 too much lately ^^

Pretty much, mate. It is easily understandable that you want your mmo to be like that though. Just a matter of time before you get to try it out for yourself in Guild Wars 2.

[Koalachan]

And sure you can group up, you have the heroic quests and Flashpoints and so on. This is why I said "multiplayer elements". You can go multiplayer if you want, its not that different from how WoW does it. However, I believe that in SWOTR you have less incentive to group with people. Yes, you get better loot, you get more xp, you can do Flashpoints. But the thing is, because of the fully voiced quests and a quest storyline, these multiplayer/group "modes" seem slightly out of place. I think this is a gain a point that Culadin makes in his post. in WoW, leveling is not as nicely wrapped as in SWOTR, so more people will look to distract themselves from that "chore" by doing group activities. In SWOTR, you just have to follow a path nicely laid out in front of you.

Have you tried questing with someone? I don't just mean heroics and the "multiplayer elements" as you put it, I mean just questing with someone. It changes things when you're not the only one replying and making the decisions. When you're trying to focus dark side, and you're friend is trying to focus light side, sometimes you'll get to kill someone for no reason, others you'll end up helping them. I think this is a pretty good incentive to group up, and certainly more than other games have offered.

[Matt0193]

I spacebar through every quest but my class quests. It's the same responses over and over again, assuming you play your character to a specifc type. I boost up my comp's affection while leveling so I can get more convo's out for more exp, so I generally pick options for them rather than what I'd like to see; Khem Val for instance, He'll sometimes want to kill everyone, but given the choice between a duel (Light side) and blowing up the area (Dark side) he would prefer the light side option as opposed to the darkside option he generally prefers more often than not.*

I can't count the amount of times I've heard "The Republic/enemy will be massacred" in varying phrases.*

[Deleted]

Voice Acting , its a Future for MMORPG's Game's , guys we have 2012 ...

[Koalachan]

I can't count the amount of times I've heard "The Republic/enemy will be massacred" in varying phrases.*

I don't think of it as "damn, same phrase again." I like to think of it as my character's motto. Although, I'm a merc, so mine's actually "Easy jobs bore me."

[Waylander]

The questing in TOR was one of the main things that drove me back. It's just so damn slow, especially later on in the game.
The other day I was logging back in on Carrick Station and was going to pick up questing on Voss. That meant 5 loading screens until I was standing on the planet. A rather long and boring speeder ride to where my quest was taking place. Killing some trash, watching a cutscene, taking a holo call and being told to ride way elsewhere to talk to some dude.
I spent upward of 15 minutes for this.

Exactly my thoughts.

[Gxeternal]

One of the nice things ive noticed about this form of questing, is when you take an alt through the same area you went through on your main, but you answer some question differently, so go with the light side option instead of dark, they quest will change course and you end up doing something different then you did when you went the other option. It could be something as simple as instead of having to kill off republic troops in a certian area to desroying the equpiptment. or if could lead you to a different area to do something in order to finish it.