Sell me on SW:TOR

[Karteli]

Why does everyone think TOR has to be soooooo different than WOW? Hell if Blizzard were the ones who launched TOR and basically made WOW in space, I'd still play it. All I'm looking for is a change of pace, and whats wrong with that?

Many people don't think Blizzard is such a great company anymore, after they trashed WoW in the past year+. Blizzard releasing TOR would be like SOE releasing SWG after EQ .. a game that never takes off.

OT:
What doesn't SWTOR have that WoW doesn't? It has just about everything.. but some say oh noes! it has buttons and abilities and uses the trinity! .. Mmmm I think the founders of DnD were on to something with the trinity - why take away something great?

TOR's biggest strength is it's storytelling and decisions made throughout the course of gameplay that affect later situations. I had a squabble with some guys, chose to pick a fight instead of going along with what they wanted (I either could do what they wanted, find an alternate solution to make them happy, or slay them), ... but I decided to kill them. Later, it kept coming back into the story (levels later) because I killed them, I angered others who went after me - but this time instead of killing them too (which I had the option to do), I made peace and sleazed my way out, earning a couple allys, who later played a role in my questing.

Shit, this is storytelling right there. Interactive storytelling. There are different outcomes, whether there are 20, 50, or 1000 variations, this is innovation for an MMO. Plus it's all voiced (EVERYTHING!), and cinematically acted out - Not just people waving hands talking - stuff blowing up, people running, fights, mayhem. I feel that WoW does not have anywhere near this level of story detail.

Companions too - fully interactive. They do some quality of life stuff like doing errands for you, or running around gathering materials (WoW equivalent to herbs and ore). But they also fill a flashpoint role (WoW dungeon), fight with you when you want to solo, and if you treat them well you can romance them (you can also treat them bad as an alternative). Plus you can customize them and gear them like you gear yourself.

Group flashpoints (dungeons) are also interactive, decisions lead to different scenarios in the flashpoints. Raid's ACTUALLY have a story! .. Those Cataclysm raids? yeah no story, just gear me now <click here for epics> please!

Brand new world, huge world. A new explorable world. 5 zones per WoW expansion? pfft please. In WoW you do every level in an expansion, every quest, every dungeon, in 1 week, then you unsubscribe.

In SWTOR you have a different quest line for every class. This is replayability right there. Every class feels different, something WoW used to have, but no more (bring the player, not the class LOL).

If you don't notice that the graphics have many more polygons per object / character, or that SWTOR brings innovation to the MMORPG table (which it hasn't had in years), then I'm afraid either you are just too wrapped up with the propaganda of your current MMO (erm Blizzard has alot of that floating around, but so do others), or you may just be too far in your current game and too time-invested to move, thus being highly resistant and argumentative.

But with most games, there is always room for improvement, and SWTOR is where we are at in 2011. Room for improvement? Sure, but it's still the best game (soon-to-be) out right now.

Peace.

[Repefe]

I'd say the entire combat system is highly kinetic. Rather than just DPSing down one mob at a time, you typically always fight three, using short cooldown, short duration CC effects to keep each mob from hurting you while you dispatch them one at a time.

Yeah. We say the combat is the same, but it sure does not feel like it when you play it. With smuggler you throw grenades that get ppl blown away, roll into cover like chuck noris, time your attacks from cover so enemy attacks don't hit you ... it's like : this group I will kill by going rambo on them, using max cc, high damage short range attacks, my flash grenade is up so why not ... other group I will take on from cover, changing positions, timing my attacks, using long casts.

Other thing the questing is nicely balanced ... you can actually die if you mess up. Companion makes it easier, but unlike in WoW you can't just run around like a mad man.

[Karteli]

Other thing the questing is nicely balanced ... you can actually die if you mess up. Companion makes it easier, but unlike in WoW you can't just run around like a mad man.

Yes! That is something I forgot to mention, .. the challenge. You can die if you don't play smart.

I died a few times getting to a lv 15 character. ... So you see this gun turret machine and it looks easy .. but it's not! I didn't follow the quest directions and those things blew me to shreds.

Other times I was slacking in watching my health and playing sloppy - attacking and not being maneuverably defensive (from my EQ days).. dead. I stepped up my attention after some deaths - which I liked, again added to the immersion.

[Destian]

Yeah. We say the combat is the same, but it sure does not feel like it when you play it. With smuggler you throw grenades that get ppl blown away, roll into cover like chuck noris, time your attacks from cover so enemy attacks don't hit you ... it's like : this group I will kill by going rambo on them, using max cc, high damage short range attacks, my flash grenade is up so why not ... other group I will take on from cover, changing positions, timing my attacks, using long casts.

Other thing the questing is nicely balanced ... you can actually die if you mess up. Companion makes it easier, but unlike in WoW you can't just run around like a mad man.

I know it's probably inevitable, but I hope we never have "rotations". I never found a rotation during my time playing. It was just "whichever cooldown happened to be up that would fit the situation at the time".

[Semihage]

- Level 10 in wow, you choose 1 of 3 specializations which then determines which role you play. At level 10, you get an iconic ability for that spec which makes your spec feel more like the spec you're choosing.

- Level 10 in ToR, you choose 1 of 2 advanced classes (specializations) which then determines which role you play. At level 10, you get a couple iconic abilities for that advanced class which makes your class feel more like the class your choosing.

You pick your actual class at lvl 10.. You can already respec yoru skill tree and Bioware says dual spec for skill tree will come later

- In wow, your talent trees are ability modifiers and spec related abilities, this model has changed from mostly flat throughput modifiers to one where you have more effect modifiers. In the next expansion, this model will again change, completely removing ability modifiers and instead offering abilities as talents.

- In ToR, your talent trees are flat ability modifiers.

The difference? Blizzard saw the inherent flaws with the old talent system and are taking drastic measures to improve it.

I personally think Blizzard is afraid of people doing some weird hybrd build that's too OP in pvp arena.. It was a problem in WOTLK.. Saying that it's more "casual friendly" is just an excuse imo. A player that wants to be serious will look up on the web for the best tree build anyway.. And even if the casual has the optimal talent build, he/she is still not going to be effective unless he/she uses the right rotation..

- In wow, you train your abilities at your class trainer. There used to be individual spell ranks, but Blizzard streamlined abilities to scale as you level so you don't have to visit your trainer every level for the next rank of an ability. In MoP, you won't even have to visit your class trainer. Instead you will be able to learn new abilities from anywhere in game.

- In ToR, you train your abilities and ranks of your abilities at a class trainer.

The Difference? Yet another old system that Blizzard is removing from the game due to redundancy and inconvenience.

In WoW you can only find class trainers in starting area or capital city.. In SWTOR, class trainers are on every planet and there are plenty of taxi points to get there.. So following your logic, it's actually harder in WoW to train new skills becaues you have to leave your current questing zone and fly all the way back.. In SWTOR you only need to go back to the main staging area of the planet.

[Deleted]

SOLD