Flying Pigs: A Positive SWTOR Thread

[sarahfireworks]

Well perhaps it's like you said, it'd make a lot more sense if the +XP stuff was account wide? I mean at that point it'd feel like buying heirlooms in WoW or something. Or is that still suffering from the same kind of problem?

[Kelimbror]

Well perhaps it's like you said, it'd make a lot more sense if the +XP stuff was account wide? I mean at that point it'd feel like buying heirlooms in WoW or something. Or is that still suffering from the same kind of problem?

That would alleviate the drawbacks of the system as it was. That's kinda one of the problems with legacy in general though. You earned access to all of these things, but then still had to buy them piecemeal? It was kinda a precursor for their Cartel Market I feel, as the more than likely had that design even when legacy was implemented.

Overall this is just talking and not so much any negativity. It is what it is. I enjoy leveling, even side quests, but I can't do it back to back to back or it makes me hate any game. I think from their viewpoint increasing the speed that you can level decreases their chances to get money out of free players. Threre's nothing inherently wrong with that, as they would try to maximize their revenue potential.

It would be very cool to just play through mostly story missions... Might lessen their overall effect though.

[sarahfireworks]

Bah, you can't take away the painful grindy parts. It just isn't an MMO then!

But no, I've had other's I know say similar things (please correct me, if I'm hearing you wrong of course). They just came back to the game and really wanted to say see the end of the Jedi Knight story or something, and wish there was a way they could do that more easily, without so much repeating the same side quests over again for the 5th time. Less XP for non-subscription members is something that seems to come up a lot in that regard.

[Aundas]

Its all about mindset. If you treat the game like a job until you reach max level you're going to have a bad time. If you allow yourself to fall in love with your characters and think of them as (name) rather than (level __ Jedi Guardian) then side quests don't seem so bad.

In addition, I've enjoyed all of the planetary quests, they've come with interesting stories, and I'll react to them differently based on my class and character's alignment. Doesn't mean I'll play them on every character, sometimes I'll just do my class quests and avoid the planetary stuff I've done countless times before, but the ability to pick and choose how I level my characters does make them feel like unique experiences.

[Kelimbror]

In addition, I've enjoyed all of the planetary quests, they've come with interesting stories, and I'll react to them differently based on my class and character's alignment. Doesn't mean I'll play them on every character, sometimes I'll just do my class quests and avoid the planetary stuff I've done countless times before, but the ability to pick and choose how I level my characters does make them feel like unique experiences.

I would be able to do that that, but I'm a completionist. I don't like leaving a zone with quests unfinished. It used to pain me back in the day to leave WoW zones because quests had turned green , knowing that it wasn't an effective use of my time. Also, I'm a purist. Since being a balanced character doesn't yield any advantages or distinctions really, I'm either all out light or all out dark.

Thus my characters tend to all have similar patterns and not many different experiences.

[WarpedAcorn]

I would be able to do that that, but I'm a completionist. I don't like leaving a zone with quests unfinished. It used to pain me back in the day to leave WoW zones because quests had turned green , knowing that it wasn't an effective use of my time. Also, I'm a purist. Since being a balanced character doesn't yield any advantages or distinctions really, I'm either all out light or all out dark.

Thus my characters tend to all have similar patterns and not many different experiences.

One of my favorite play-throughs has been as a Focus Spec'd Guardian. I say this because you can plow through all these mobs and literally wipe them out (the weak ones anyways) with one move. I don't like skipping content either, so I do all the quests on the planet before moving to the next (bonus series excluded). Having characters with amazing AoE makes clearing a lot more fun. If you are overleveled then its even better! =)

[Razael]

Funny, because thats how i've been treating alot of MMOs these days. TSW, Neverwinter, Guild Wars2, Defiance etc.
If you treat them all as single player games they are actually easier to digest and keep me interested. No worries about end game gear, treadmills, falling behind etc. Guess i've moved on from Raids and dungeons generally speaking, but still enjoy the community aspect of mmos , guilds, friends.
Anyways what i'm trying to get at is that i might just reinstall SWTOR and experience the great classes and storylines. I've beaten the Inquisitor and the Imperial Agent, and i'm tempted to start either a Sith Warrior or a Jedi Knight.

Edit: I think lately i enjoy the ride to max level more, than end game itself.. Grab the pitchforks!

[Kelimbror]

Edit: I think lately i enjoy the ride to max level more, than end game itself.. Grab the pitchforks!

I totally hear you. With WoW, it's about end game for me. I love leveling, love alts, but it's about what I can do to get gear and whatever...b/c the game is heavily designed around that. A lot of other games have been coming out that can be taken differently, just like you mentioned. For those games, I should have been playing them focused on enjoying leveling at my own pace.

It definitely makes SWTOR better for me, made GW2 better, etc.

[Razael]

It definitely makes SWTOR better for me, made GW2 better, etc.

Yeah, definately. I've played Neverwinter, TSW recently , without expecting them to be THE game , or THE mmo, and they were good experiences on their own, enjoy the story, questing content and get the overall feel for the game. After that you can stick around for the end game OR try a diferent game. Helps keep MMOs fresh for me at least, like, setting my own goals instead of feeling pressured to do end game because thats what i'm supposed to do at max level.
It also helps reigning expectations and in the end you might feel overall was a good time spent in the game instead of feeling like it was wasted because end game is lacking or sucks, whatever. As for SWTOR itself, i did this after the first couple months of farming mods and rakata gear, quit the game because it was the same old same old WoW, diferent skin.
Then i came back a few months later, and started a Imperial Agent, Sniper spec and oh boy was it awesome. Not only did the class feel like a Sniper would play in a MMO but the Imperial Agent story is brilliant. Then too many new games came out and as a mmo player i gots to catch dem all and SWTOR got lost in the midst of so many games. But now that i've managed to clear some time , and put so many games behind me as good experiences, perhaps a new class story would be what a RPG Junkie like me needs.

[Psychlon]

Bah, you can't take away the painful grindy parts. It just isn't an MMO then!

But no, I've had other's I know say similar things (please correct me, if I'm hearing you wrong of course). They just came back to the game and really wanted to say see the end of the Jedi Knight story or something, and wish there was a way they could do that more easily, without so much repeating the same side quests over again for the 5th time. Less XP for non-subscription members is something that seems to come up a lot in that regard.

You see, the funny thing is though... even I don't like grinding necessarily, I found myself killing mobs yesterday while waiting for a friend and I remembered myself spending days/ hours killing mobs on Dathomir (in Star Wars Galaxies)... . If I can chose to grind... it's not so much a grind anymore but if you are forced to grind, that's when the pain starts.

It's like Kitty pointed out.... having the option to buy xp buffs for your leveling is fine and so but to me it's really outdated. This was introduced before F2P hit, before we had a Cartel Market and if you check these xp options... each unlock for pvp xp cost the exact same amount of cartel coins so logically you unlock the first few with credits and then use cartel coins to unlock the last ranks. It just seems to me that... they either should reduce the prices for them or shuffle the character unlocks over to the legacy unlocks, done deal.

To me, Bioware wants you to level alts so I did my best, currently at 15 alts, with another few on other servers. I dig the story so everything is fine but... where is my reward apart from the story (as I really only play through 8 and not 16 different stories). I've already showed them that I like their game so what is the harm in giving a loyal player something along to way to make you appreciate of what he is doing?
Another aspect would be that I can't lvl mentor down onto someone as I could in EQ2 which basically means that you need a new character with that level to run flashpoints and pvp together or anything for that matter as your friend won't get much xp if the level is too large.

On the paper it would look like for each max lvl character (55) you are getting 10% xp bonus on your entire legacy (or how about account wide? :P) for a maximum of 100% xp (that was the limit in EQ2). Since I experienced the double xp weekend for the first time in SWTOR... being able to unlock such a bonus for your account would in fact speed up your leveling process by a long margin and it let's you do exactly what you want.

Btw. I don't mind bonus quests at all.... which probably goes along with my "flair" for some grinding in between but I always found that you have to kill usually all those mobs anyway along the way so it's free xp for little to no effort.

[ravenshaelo]

I've also recently restarted the game. It was more a monetary decision than anything - I moved to a new place that costs more than my old place. more than half of what I make a month is going towards rent, so I had to unsub from WoW. Decided to retry the FTP MMOs - TSW and TOR. I have a 50 healy sorc whom I love still, but I decided to spend the CCs I'd accumulated to make my FTP experience better and made a cathar sith warrior.
I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to actually level AS a character and make decisions. My sorc is light side and always had her reasons. My warrior is, of course, dark side and I've come away from quests going , "wow, I'm an ass" or just plain feeling like a jerk. It's very amusing. Approached as an RPG, the game is wonderful. The MMO bit has it's perks and I enjoy that too, but the story experience is really pulling me in again.
As Kitty said, play it like a single player game. As an MMO it tends toward burnout fairly quickly.
I did buy the "expansion" while I was subbed to TOR, so eventually I'll dust off my sorc and hit 55, but for now I'm just enjoying playing one character.

[Fkiolaris]

I've also recently restarted the game. It was more a monetary decision than anything - I moved to a new place that costs more than my old place. more than half of what I make a month is going towards rent, so I had to unsub from WoW. Decided to retry the FTP MMOs - TSW and TOR. I have a 50 healy sorc whom I love still, but I decided to spend the CCs I'd accumulated to make my FTP experience better and made a cathar sith warrior.
I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to actually level AS a character and make decisions. My sorc is light side and always had her reasons. My warrior is, of course, dark side and I've come away from quests going , "wow, I'm an ass" or just plain feeling like a jerk. It's very amusing. Approached as an RPG, the game is wonderful. The MMO bit has it's perks and I enjoy that too, but the story experience is really pulling me in again.
As Kitty said, play it like a single player game. As an MMO it tends toward burnout fairly quickly.
I did buy the "expansion" while I was subbed to TOR, so eventually I'll dust off my sorc and hit 55, but for now I'm just enjoying playing one character.

Kind of being in the same boat. I dropped wow (mostly because I got bored of it again) and I have SWTOR/TSW as my RPG games and Rift as my MMO. Obviously it means that I only play casually (by everyone's definition :-p) but it keeps me more than happy for now. Plus, spreading the money around rather than giving it all to Blizzard is also good for the game industry (obviously BW and EA are excluded, they also got enough from me already).

Finally, another thing I remembered is that being a smartarse (not necessarily evil) has some of the best dialogue options by far in this game, to the point that trying to play light side almost makes me go to sleep. I am talking about the sith warrior and the smuggler mostly, which I enjoy so much more than my "yes sir! right away sir!" trooper.

[Kelimbror]

Finally, another thing I remembered is that being a smartarse (not necessarily evil) has some of the best dialogue options by far in this game, to the point that trying to play light side almost makes me go to sleep. I am talking about the sith warrior and the smuggler mostly, which I enjoy so much more than my "yes sir! right away sir!" trooper.

I find that depending on the character, light side really requires some RP dedication. Both sides have predictable reactions, but naturally the Dark side hide more character behind it.

It really falls in line with the tenets of each faction though, as no emotions tend to make someone bland. Some choices can be more fun...like rolling a LS Bounty Hunter or a DS Smugg, but I find I can't really enjoy leveling the sith/jedi as the 'wrong' alignment.

[Fkiolaris]

I find that depending on the character, light side really requires some RP dedication. Both sides have predictable reactions, but naturally the Dark side hide more character behind it.

It really falls in line with the tenets of each faction though, as no emotions tend to make someone bland. Some choices can be more fun...like rolling a LS Bounty Hunter or a DS Smugg, but I find I can't really enjoy leveling the sith/jedi as the 'wrong' alignment.

I am not talking about wrong alignment, just sticking it to everyone with a giant middle finger. For example, that old cyborg woman inquisitor in the Sith starting area that asks you to go and pick a skull, suck in the pool of blood and then kill the beast that arises. She says this ceremony has been going for 10,000 years and at that point you can reject it, accept it or take the piss out of her first by saying "I bet back then you used to look young and pretty as well " :-p. You are still an arse doing "evil" things as you would expect from a sith, but instead of sucking to your superiors you just make fun of them :-)

[Kelimbror]

I am not talking about wrong

I knew what you were talking about. I used your statement to present my own thoughts on the differences and how it is presented in the grand scope of the game.

Additionally you were had a critique on how LS dialogue/choices feel, which I accepted and offered that finding enjoyment in those choices really takes some RP to get into your character being the yes sir, no ma'am, good guy. They have to be boring, because following rules are boring.

[RohanV]

They have to be boring, because following rules are boring.

I don't think this is true for all LS stories. For example, LS Imperial agent is all about disobeying your superiors and the Sith (or finding enough wiggle room in the orders they give you) for the greater good of the Empire.

[Kelimbror]

I don't think this is true for all LS stories. For example, LS Imperial agent is all about disobeying your superiors and the Sith (or finding enough wiggle room in the orders they give you) for the greater good of the Empire.

True, but I'm talking only about the corresponding faction. IE LS Republic, DS Empire. Still I think the point they made in regards to dialogue and specific actions are still not as interesting, unique, or humorous as the DS counterparts.

Like I said, a LS BH plays just fine...almost better to me, as it is a flawed character. (kills people for money, but has morals about everything else). I'm thinking more along the lines of when you play a trooper or jedi, it may be more boring to be LS, but it takes some RP to get into that role because that's what they are supposed to be.

[WoWGoneBad]

so.... I have decided to something fun again and I am gonna lvl my 17 trooper on the PTS to 55. I am gonna do it there because I have none of the Legay perks or companion presence so it will be like playing the game again for the VERY FIRST TIME man i cant wait to get in there and play like a newb again lol.

no creds from other toons no mods from alts to craft, gotta pave my way in blood and explosives GOSH its gonna be great

[mstieler]

I find that depending on the character, light side really requires some RP dedication. Both sides have predictable reactions, but naturally the Dark side hide more character behind it.

It really falls in line with the tenets of each faction though, as no emotions tend to make someone bland. Some choices can be more fun...like rolling a LS Bounty Hunter or a DS Smugg, but I find I can't really enjoy leveling the sith/jedi as the 'wrong' alignment.

I've done a mix of the above; my Mercenary, Assassin, Guardian & Trooper are all LS. My Operative, Marauder, Scoundrel, Shadow, and because I still wanted to try them out, Sorcerer & Powertech are all DS. LS Sin was interesting, DS Smuggler is hilariously fun, and it's looking like DS Shadow could be enjoyable as well. Note, though, that so far, I've only played through the 4 Empire + Trooper lines to full; working through the Scoundrel now, and the Shadow, Guardian, Powertech & Sorcerer are all waiting patiently on Fleet for their turns.

[Fkiolaris]

Random question: does this game offer dual spec or anything similar?