After weekend beta, I'm hooked

[Lazybean]

So I want to hover the mouse over the choices? Does that include likeness (or whatever it's called) of your companions too or just LS/DS points?

No, because your companion might prefer a DS choice if it means killing a mass-murder, even though he is 'LS' companion. thats part of the fun. I strongly recommend choosing how YOU feel, LS/DS be damned. It is so easy get some LS/DS points and affection later in the game.

[Fitzbert]

I love the potential and possibilities of the game, I would love to see a 40V40 Warzone battle like old AV in wow. I hope there will be some epic 25 man 40 man raids, battling huge bosses like a Bobba fett type of character in phases so you would have to take out his SLave 1 first then him. or a 40 man raid on some nasty SITH lord force throwing the whole senate seats at your raid! Maybe eveb guild battles in spaceships against another guild. Like I said I can't wait to see what else they have to offer, especially at MAx level End game material. because just like WOW we all know the game doesn't really start until max level.

Raids (called Operations in SWTOR) are presented in 8man and 16man formats, so I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting 25 or even 40man raids. Group content that requires that many people (40) has been proven to not work terribly well and I'd be extremely surprised to see a new MMO return to it. There are two Operations available at launch; The Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace. The former is a prison on Belsavis that houses various different entities and technologies of the Infinite Empire. The latter is set in a Hutt's palace, so expect at least one rancor.

Whilst I wouldn't put guild battles out of the realm of possibility, Bioware have made their position quite clearly focused on PvE and not PvP so I don't expect to see much time invested in PvP content, balance and progression.

[InfernalKatana]

No, because your companion might prefer a DS choice if it means killing a mass-murder, even though he is 'LS' companion. thats part of the fun. I strongly recommend choosing how YOU feel, LS/DS be damned. It is so easy get some LS/DS points and affection later in the game.

Alright, thanks for your input. I only got the weekend pass so I won't see anything beyond level 18 or so. Kinda like basing WoW off its starting area lol

[Sackman]

It was a wonderful experience, the community was wonderful, everyone was very helpful, I asked a question in GEN chat regarding when I can get a lightsaber and immediately I had whispers telling me its around lvl 10 and its the Forge quest.

The game was not buggy at all, I experienced ZERO bugs, no freezes, no glitches nothing. I did however noticed the shadows on the ground pixelated but more on that later.

I'm currently at level 10 almost 11, I'm really enjoying the game, tried out the BG/Warzones and I liked them too, the MurderBall game was fun because I saw the Huts running it. And I'm sure others have pointed this out, the Voice acting in game is just so well done, often times its quite whimsical and funny especially during the Murderball game.

Only issues I had was lag but I know that on my end, I need to get a better provider.

So after trying this out I finally went to Gamestop and preordered my copy.

Another element I enjoyed, (I know this is standard beta testing fare) I really enjoyed filling out those FEEDBACk surveys. I think it was nice finally someone cared about what I had to say someone wanted my input on the game. I came form playing WOW for 5 years, Running a 1000 toon guild, leading 6-7 raids a week, and my reward was in the end was getting my accounted Banned because someone hacked it, (and yes my only fault was lax account security measures) Ultimately I don't feel like blizzard is loyal to its customers anymore, I showed my loyalty to them for 5 years and they reciprocated me none in return.

people are complaining about graphical issues with SWTOR like lack of AA, my only response is, its not mainly their fault, when new games are released, its up to the NVIDIA and ATI to tailor their drivers to run them optimally. But my comp just chewed up the game like it was nothing! AMD 3.0ghz Quad core, GTX 550 TI, 4 gig Ram.

All in all I'm very happy with SWTOR, it has a huge potential to draw in Casuals as well as the hardcore players, there is plenty to do if you are easy going and don't want to spend 5 hours a night, and plenty of challenges if you do want to go HARD!

I'm gonna miss my RED Light saber when Beta is over, (yes some how I got a red Cyrstal and Modded my sabe ro to have the SITH color) I can't wait til the 20th of Dec, hopefully I get that saber back!

Hate to point out your wow comparison points but you did compare:

Account banned for that reason? Sounds highly unlikely.

Feedback forms are always in WoW beta's... they also exist whenever you communicate with a GM regarding the GM's and the GM system.

Regarding the questions that happens in WoW too (if you ask a question on my server, depending on where you ask it of course, but I get tonnes of whispers - you also get tonnes of trolls in trade but they exist everywhere now so .. :\)

Aside from that I am glad you are enjoying the game... just one more thing:

You should be able to force AA on the game through the nVidia control panel, you pretty much can for anything that it renders. Not certain your specs can actualy handle AA in the game but I've never had a 550ti anyway... nvidia control panel -> choose the exe -> force AA. Not actually done it myself but I have done it for lots of games in the past.

[Deleted]

myself, i am very glad they didnt colour the choices, i prefer to play by ear than to look at the icon, I dont like to be lead through the game, i would rather let the character develop as I play it.

I am hooked too, it was a lot better than I expected. I saw quite a lot of bugs myself but I am sure they will be polished out in time. The main highlight for me was how fun the combat was, I cant wait for release to get really invested in the character.

nothing prepared me for seeing drumond kaas for the first time, its just epic. The whole way through I felt immersed in the world, to the point where walking wasnt a problem it was a pleasure. I also loved the heroic areas giving some challenging pve during levelling.

[Deleted]

I too enjoyed the beta. I only played a trooper to 8 (Jennifer Hale does a great job voicing that) and a IA to 6. Both were good, really enjoyed the Agent.

No bugs, no lag issues despite playing on a NA server (live in Sweden), no screen tearing or fps issues... it played like water, was really smooth.

[nogard64]

Raids (called Operations in SWTOR) are presented in 8man and 16man formats, so I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting 25 or even 40man raids. Group content that requires that many people (40) has been proven to not work terribly well and I'd be extremely surprised to see a new MMO return to it. There are two Operations available at launch; The Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace. The former is a prison on Belsavis that houses various different entities and technologies of the Infinite Empire. The latter is set in a Hutt's palace, so expect at least one rancor.

Whilst I wouldn't put guild battles out of the realm of possibility, Bioware have made their position quite clearly focused on PvE and not PvP so I don't expect to see much time invested in PvP content, balance and progression.

Ok thanks for the info on raids, but we all know often times its the players who push the direction of development, and so far I think there is great potential and great desire in the end game Raiding/ PVP elements, I hope they are able to put some time and focus on that, because of course they are busy right now just getting the game's basics down for release, hopefully when the basics are done they can work on the End game and patch updates and expansions.

I would like to fight a Rancor tho.

[blaqkmagick]

UM no Bioware will do a better job investigating the hack and they will do a better job of communicating what has occurred and take the side of the players as an ally in the matter instead of the adversary.

Nice FACTS bro
/sarcasm

[Thunder]

The problem with that being is that you have to use the mouse to hover the selection to see, you can't use the keyboard to check and that's what I prefer to use to select the numbered options.

I used my numpad on my naga too. What I will say though is you have 2 options, swing the mouse about to see if there are any light / dark options open to you before pressing, can be done in a flash really. Or never look and accept what points come you way, I did both but I prefer to check as I wanted to make my chars dark (first one I did as you did and never looked DS/LS and picked up alot of LS when thinking I was making people suffer or preventing the empires time being wasted ... which did annoy me, but at the same time, it made my character more "human" i.e. you are never 100% something

[ImpTaimer]

Hook, line, and stinker...

Just be glad this is the beta. Cause I'm sure some of us remember "how awesome" vanilla WoW beta was when it came out, and now people have mixed feelings about the current version of the game (be it nostalgia or just cause, whatever floats your boat).

Rift beta definitely didn't impress me at all, but mainly it was for the lack of depth, more of the same generic MMO stuff, and too much "focus" on their terribly optimized game engine. I went in for the talent system, but everything else pushed me away. Like reaching into a toilet with "real looking crap" and a $20 bill in it. You hope the crap isn't real and the $20 is, but either way you realized how much of a sucker you are.

I'm done trying betas unless it was a game I've been waiting for. Game companies these days just aren't putting the consumer/customers in their decision making process. They see $$ and just lose any and all integrity or self-control.

I am somewhat relieved (albeit speculative) to hear people saying the game ran smooth. I wouldn't mind seeing people's opinions on who played the beta on the minimum requirements.

[Deleted]

I really enjoyed the beta. I tried not to have too high expectations going into but was pleasantly surprised to find the game surpassed them easily.

Played an IA Operative to level 16 and had to stop myself as I realised I was giving away too much content and will have to redo it anyway.

No performance issues, saw only a couple of lagspikes during approximately 2 days players and they lasted around 5 seconds which is common in highly established MMOs

My main complaint would be how the companion dialogue approval system doesn't really make sense. If I was rude to female characters it was dissaproval but If I flirted with them the same thing happened.

The only problem I have now is that playing the beta makes me really impatient for the game to be released. Glad I have preordered for early access

[moderatorsrdumb]

UM no Bioware will do a better job investigating the hack and they will do a better job of communicating what has occurred and take the side of the players as an ally in the matter instead of the adversary.

Everything you've said is pure speculation and opinion. In fact, you're also pretty rude and immature with your responses, to boot.
You, literally, only had one response, that wasn't even that negative, and you went on a complete tirade about a bunch of empty points.

You have NO proof that Bioware will take pity on your lack of security intelligence. Matter of fact, all I've heard about Bioware's customer service has been the complete OPPOSITE of what Blizz offers, in terms of response time/in-game functionality. There was a topic on these very forums about how some poor guy mistyped his password and got locked out of his account. He then called Bioware directly (as instructed on the website) and find out that no one's picking up the customer service phone, apparently.

Star Wars is off putting? thats one of the most successful name brands in the whole WORLD, right up there with COKE and mcDondalds? What drugs are you on? the game seems polished enough, albeit I'm only level 10 but for someone whos experienced wow for so long I didn't find any issues what so ever with SWTOR.

What 'drugs' is he on? It blows your mind that much that people dislike Star Wars, that you have to actually be that insulting to someone you've never met, simply because he doesn't like what you like?

This should be undeniable that OP is heavily biased, more than likely because Blizzard didn't give the baby its bottle and recover his/her silly WoW account.

I would rather not get this game for the mere fact that people like the OP are going to be playing it.

My point is I know WOW OH TRUST ME I KNOW WOW, and I KNOW MMO's SWTOR is as good as it gets!

SWTOR should be huge unless you've been living under a rock, all 6 episodes of SW will be released in 3D the next couple of years, so expect a whole new generation of gamers and fans to join the FRAY!

'Cause that's what everyone likes, right? To play with children?

Well, I guess you need someone else your age to play with, amirite, OP?

Enjoy playing tOR and, inevitably, resubscribing back to WoW in a few months. I don't even play the shit, but I know, beyond a doubt, that OP will end up going back to WoW. Just a very, very strong feeling.

PS: Every beta/alpha in the existence of prototypes has a 'Feedback' function. If you used the little grey cells, you'd realize that they have to, otherwise there would be no point in letting people play the damn game as beta in the first place.

PPS:

hey you're from Frostmane? Isn't that server so DEAD! LOL it wasn't the case when I was running the show there haha.

lol, I like how you made your own supposition and used it to boast about your 'epic MMO skillz.'

Really, you border on the 'pathetic.'

[Cracked]

I, too, was in the beta and got mind blown. I got to level 16, slept 4 hours in total (i starter on sat, meh :/), this game got me interested like no other in AGES, probably only like WoW had in its early stages. I don't mind lighter graphics, my pc is no gunshot.

However amazing this game would be for me, I'd say I'll have to lay back cause of my hardware. Though I'm 9/10 likely to get it later on!

[jearle]

I am somewhat relieved (albeit speculative) to hear people saying the game ran smooth. I wouldn't mind seeing people's opinions on who played the beta on the minimum requirements.

I played it on both my rig and another PC that is in the lower echelon of specs, ~ 3 yrs old build.

The lower end rig played the game smooth on LoW setting outside some of the high player count areas such as Imperial Fleet GTN or PvP vendors.

However the PvP warzones, Alderaan especially were totally unplayable on the lower specd rig. I hope this is looked at before launch, it would count out a large number of folks whom im looking forward to pvp with in my guild.

[moderatorsrdumb]

UM no Bioware will do a better job investigating the hack and they will do a better job of communicating what has occurred and take the side of the players as an ally in the matter instead of the adversary.

Everything you've said is pure speculation and opinion. In fact, you're also pretty rude and immature with your responses, to boot. You, literally, only had one response, that wasn't even that negative, and you went on a complete tirade about a bunch of empty points.

You have NO proof that Bioware will take pity on your lack of security intelligence. Matter of fact, all I've heard about Bioware's customer service has been the complete OPPOSITE of what Blizz offers, in terms of response time/in-game functionality. There was a topic on these very forums about how some poor guy mistyped his password and got locked out of his account. He then called Bioware directly (as instructed on the website) and find out that no one's picking up the customer service phone, apparently.

Star Wars is off putting? thats one of the most successful name brands in the whole WORLD, right up there with COKE and mcDondalds? What drugs are you on? the game seems polished enough, albeit I'm only level 10 but for someone whos experienced wow for so long I didn't find any issues what so ever with SWTOR.

What 'drugs' is he on? It blows your mind that much that people dislike Star Wars, that you have to actually be that insulting to someone you've never met, simply because he doesn't like what you like?

This should be undeniable that OP is heavily biased, more than likely because Blizzard didn't give the baby its bottle and recover his/her silly WoW account.

I would rather not get this game for the mere fact that people like the OP are going to be playing it.

My point is I know WOW OH TRUST ME I KNOW WOW, and I KNOW MMO's SWTOR is as good as it gets!

SWTOR should be huge unless you've been living under a rock, all 6 episodes of SW will be released in 3D the next couple of years, so expect a whole new generation of gamers and fans to join the FRAY!

'Cause that's what everyone likes, right? To play with children?

Well, I guess you need someone else your age to play with, amirite, OP?

people are complaining about graphical issues with SWTOR like lack of AA, my only response is, its not mainly their fault, when new games are released, its up to the NVIDIA and ATI to tailor their drivers to run them optimally. But my comp just chewed up the game like it was nothing! AMD 3.0ghz Quad core, GTX 550 TI, 4 gig Ram.

This made me laugh. It's obvious you don't actually know anything technical, but just read these forums and regurgitate what other people 'claim.' The drivers have NOTHING to do with how SWtOR was programmed. It IS purely the developer's fault for not implementing or using the common tools that almost every OTHER developer is using. Drivers can not magically give AA to any video-game they please. You're insulting, obnoxious, and most importantly: Ignorant.

And your computer is a joke.

PS: Every beta/alpha in the existence of prototypes has a 'Feedback' function. If you used the little grey cells, you'd realize that they have to, otherwise there would be no point in letting people play the damn game as beta in the first place.

With this dazzling lack of intelligence and sheer level of ego, I sincerely wish you 'luck' in life. You will, most definitely, require it.

[Flaks]

well even if I don't know how they handled the ticket, neither do you? So my guess is as good as everyone else's. But My bet will be on the side of them being more cautious because they are a new MMO, they will be struggling to increasing and grow their subscriptions that last thing they will do is start banning thousands of subs due to hacks, first few months into the release.

I acknowledged I haven't experienced the game too far into it, but I think there is hope for it, there is promise, every journey has to start with the first step, and so far so good BIOWARE!

Blizzard has been known to have one of if not the best customer service in the business. If you really wanted your account back all you need to do is make one call or send a single email and everything will be back in no time.

From your comments its clear that your bashing of WoW is entirely unfounded based solely on the fact that you did not even like the game to begin with and only played because of friends. I understand that this is a SWTOR forum and so will have a lot of bias towards the game but please at least TRY to do it without bashing WoW on completely baseless assumptions and minute anecdotal evidence.

As has been said repeatedly this game DOES have bugs. It is also NOT everyone's cup of tea and it is hugely unlikely to garner even half the subscriptions that WoW has. Moreso than the story the graphical requirements are off putting for a large PC user market as not everyone is constantly up-to-date with the latest technology including myself.

That said, it is indeed looking like an amazing game. The beta play through was great and voice acting too. Very story driven which is what Bioware is good at and the WoW story team seems to be moving away from so its a good change of pace. The person that was saying that there too little group content in questing needs to realize that a lot of the SWToR players were previously WoW players. THEY moved the game away from the world and more into instanced content and caused Blizzard to remove elite quests and group content entirely from WoW outside of instances. BioWare seems to be aware of this shift in the gamer mindset and is adjusting accordingly.

[nogard64]

Everything you've said is pure speculation and opinion. In fact, you're also pretty rude and immature with your responses, to boot.
You, literally, only had one response, that wasn't even that negative, and you went on a complete tirade about a bunch of empty points.

You have NO proof that Bioware will take pity on your lack of security intelligence. Matter of fact, all I've heard about Bioware's customer service has been the complete OPPOSITE of what Blizz offers, in terms of response time/in-game functionality. There was a topic on these very forums about how some poor guy mistyped his password and got locked out of his account. He then called Bioware directly (as instructed on the website) and find out that no one's picking up the customer service phone, apparently.



What 'drugs' is he on? It blows your mind that much that people dislike Star Wars, that you have to actually be that insulting to someone you've never met, simply because he doesn't like what you like?

This should be undeniable that OP is heavily biased, more than likely because Blizzard didn't give the baby its bottle and recover his/her silly WoW account.

I would rather not get this game for the mere fact that people like the OP are going to be playing it.



'Cause that's what everyone likes, right? To play with children?

Well, I guess you need someone else your age to play with, amirite, OP?

Enjoy playing tOR and, inevitably, resubscribing back to WoW in a few months. I don't even play the shit, but I know, beyond a doubt, that OP will end up going back to WoW. Just a very, very strong feeling.

PS: Every beta/alpha in the existence of prototypes has a 'Feedback' function. If you used the little grey cells, you'd realize that they have to, otherwise there would be no point in letting people play the damn game as beta in the first place.

PPS:



lol, I like how you made your own supposition and used it to boast about your 'epic MMO skillz.'

Really, you border on the 'pathetic.'

awwww the truth hurts huh? your beloved wow is dead so you lashed out with your +10 WALL of TEXT skills! LOL IMMATURE? I love being called immature on a GAMING FORUM! YEAH And I'm the pathetic one? Trust me I've done more for WOW than they realize, it was players like me who ran guilds and kept the community going. Its me wow will miss, not the other way around. Good riddance because I'm glad I've found a new game to dedicate my time to. You can continue to kiss the behind of the EMPEROR with no clothes on, the rest of the gaming world will be progressing into 2012 gaming while you're stuck in 2005.

---------- Post added 2011-11-29 at 08:39 AM ----------

Blizzard has been known to have one of if not the best customer service in the business. If you really wanted your account back all you need to do is make one call or send a single email and everything will be back in no time.

From your comments its clear that your bashing of WoW is entirely unfounded based solely on the fact that you did not even like the game to begin with and only played because of friends. I understand that this is a SWTOR forum and so will have a lot of bias towards the game but please at least TRY to do it without bashing WoW on completely baseless assumptions and minute anecdotal evidence.

I like how you tell me what I say is unfounded by stating an opinion of you own. Their customer service was ATROCIOUS! Gave me the run around on how to recover my account. And it was just not worth my time. The only thing you got right is YEAH I couldn't care less about it, its a silly game I got pressured into playing it and I made it my life for 5 years. And yeah I'm ready to move on. More like I'm HUNGRY to move on.

Its funny how people bash posters for their opinion and ANECDOTES well isn't that what a review is? I gave my feelings and opinions on BETA, I didn't state I have ALL THE FACTS and FIGURES ON BETA RELEASE numbers in the title did I? Its whatever man, if you people want to hold on to something still dated and quickly becoming antiquated, 2005 game thats fine, hey some people still play on their N64, but um the rest of the gaming world is quickly leaving you folks behind. Don't ask me to hold your hand and bring you along because you were given plenty of chances to wake up to the reality of the situation.

[endersblade]

What really hooked me was how easily I could solo the first flashpoint!

I rolled a Jedi Consular/Sage, and by level 14, I could clear Esseles with just my comp! I was rolling in credits by the time the servers shut down. I made on average about 2,000 credits per run, depending on if I could shard the gear I got or just vendored it. Lots of light side points (or dark side, if you go that way) and lots of affection points with my comp. When I hit 16, I started running people through :-) So much fun!

I really hope the other flashpoints are like this. I like solo'ing instances, and I like running people through them. I really don't think I could've done it with a pure DPS or tank class; being able to DPS and heal was a godsend.

I also really like the item mods and whatnot. I'd heard about being able to keep lower-level gear and just swap the mods on it, but I wasn't really sure how effective that would've worked. But I ended up getting the Esseles robe on my char, and putting the correct mods into it, bumped its item level up, increasing stats and armor, making it almost better than what I could find at that level without mods. Really freaking awesome. Same deal with the light sabers; there's really no reason that I could see to ever switch from your default one. Just swap out the mods, they're what matters, not the weapon itself. I really don't like the fact that it costs money to remove mods from items though, that seems pretty crappy. I picked up sever light sabers from the instance, and planned (come release, obviously not in the beta) to remove the mods, and possibly sell them on the AH. But it cost 2-300 credits just to remove a mod! Screw all that nonsense. I hadn't planned to charge much more than that per mod anyway, for how easy they were for me to get. Just not worth the money.

One thing I didn't much care for is that, again in the instance, your conversations had 3 options. Most of these options had the exact same responses from the NPCs; so it didn't really matter which you picked. Major plot-conversations obviously had different choices (vent the engineers into space, or save them) but most of them gave you a 'good', 'neutral', and 'bad' response that didn't actually do anything.

Also, running instances with people is PAINFULLY slow. After the first or second run, you mostly just want to skip all of the chit-chatting. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, some people want to sit there and listen to it over and over again. I can understand the first few times people would want to listen to it. But I was doing chain runs with one or two people, and they kept listening to them. Solo I could run that place in less than 25 mins; in a group, almost an hour ><

Instances pay off to explore, too! I found several chests tucked out of sight during my solo runs. They paid off when in a group; saw several people get really good blues and greens from them. Good source of cash, too. So remember that, ALWAYS explore around corners, nooks, and crannies in instances!

[Deleted]

The game got me hooked too.

I liked all the story though i can imagine that seeing the same clips over and over again will be very annoying. But i think that players will just administer it by searching a group like: "LFM <instance> (without cutscenes/with cutscenes)"

It feels like a mixture of mass effect and wow/common mmo's.

I can't wait for Early Access to begin. There is plenty of room to enhance and the enhancements will come. If this game stays successful shows the endgame.
With a good and lasting endgame this game will be very successful.