Almost Unplayable

[Revik]

The obvious flaw being that in other games you can travel to zones seamlessly while even with a SSD you have to wait 10s just to load before then hopping a shuttle/leaving a hanger/etc. Seems a lot of the planning settled on what would be cool the first time you did it and not for the thousandth time afterwards.

While I agree the loading times aren't the best but other MMO's are hardly seamless. Take WoW. Going from continent to continent takes loading, hearthing or summoning takes loading, going into any dungeon or raid there's loading, BG's or Arena takes loading, any portal takes loading. That's a lot of loading. The load times may be lower but the world is hardly seamless.

[Kelimbror]

While I agree the loading times aren't the best but other MMO's are hardly seamless. Take WoW. Going from continent to continent takes loading, hearthing or summoning takes loading, going into any dungeon or raid there's loading, BG's or Arena takes loading, any portal takes loading. That's a lot of loading. The load times may be lower but the world is hardly seamless.

If you weren't too busy distorting the statement, you would see that word is 100% accurate. You disregarded the only statement, which implies zone to zone, and then gave lots of different examples that suited your argument. That's not cool.

I'm like all for SWTOR right now, but at least be honest.

[moff]

My game run fluently on release, after about 3 months, the stuttering started. really drove me insane.
after some weeks any much reading on the officla board, I started to play in full screen windowed mode (something I can recommend to anyone who tabs out to the desktop a lot) and it improved really a lot. still had some minor stutering though.

only a few weeks ago, they changed something again and now I am completely stutter free

the terrible engine has always been this games no1 problem

[Razael]

My game run fluently on release, after about 3 months, the stuttering started. really drove me insane.
after some weeks any much reading on the officla board, I started to play in full screen windowed mode (something I can recommend to anyone who tabs out to the desktop a lot) and it improved really a lot. still had some minor stutering though.

only a few weeks ago, they changed something again and now I am completely stutter free

the terrible engine has always been this games no1 problem

I have some stutter sometimes, i play on Fullscreen. However i have another issue. When i'm playing SWTOR Fullscreen, or FS Windowed, my screen is cut a good portion on the right side, when i tab out. The game is fine, its the screen itself when i need to tab out, check them internets, steam ,whatever whilst im playing that gets cut. I don't know what is wrong with it, and its annoying <.< it doesn't seem cut , the screen just doesnt seem centered while im playing. Only happens in this game too.

[Revik]

If you weren't too busy distorting the statement, you would see that word is 100% accurate. You disregarded the only statement, which implies zone to zone, and then gave lots of different examples that suited your argument. That's not cool.

I'm like all for SWTOR right now, but at least be honest.

If you mean zone to zone as in planet to planet or ship to planet etc yeah those are separated by load times. This is true for your other MMO's as well. If you are talking about going from a border of one zone like Stormwind to Elwynn Forest to another and that is your meaning of seamless this is also true in SWTOR as well since every planet is broken up into several zones which are also seamless.

I am just not seeing how you can say other MMO's are more seamless. I do fully agree that the load times in SWTOR are longer to the point of annoying and breaking immersion than in other MMO's and if that is your gripe that's fine I can totally accept that.

[Kelimbror]

If you are talking about going from a border of one zone like Stormwind to Elwynn Forest to another and that is your meaning of seamless this is also true in SWTOR as well since every planet is broken up into several zones which are also seamless.

This is a lie, whether intended or not. Ok, misrepresentation to sound less accusatory.

A planet is SWTOR is barely equivalent to one zone in another game. Apples to apples instead of sprinkling the truth with fairy dust if you please. Starting to remind me why I don't even try to post even positive things on here, as even giving fair criticism with it results in people distorting everything to suit their fancy.

[Revik]

This is a lie, whether intended or not. Ok, misrepresentation to sound less accusatory.

A planet is SWTOR is barely equivalent to one zone in another game. Apples to apples instead of sprinkling the truth with fairy dust if you please. Starting to remind me why I don't even try to post even positive things on here, as even giving fair criticism with it results in people distorting everything to suit their fancy.

I can see where you are coming from but I just don't agree with it. I am unsure of what I did to offend you for me to receive such a response but if I have offended you then I am sorry.

[mstieler]

While there are planets that are actually broken up into zones that don't have any other way to get there other than speeder path (Nar Shaddaa and Makeb are the two biggies; other planets have points that are only accessible by speeder path but are otherwise all connected), those are the exception here. It seems each planet loads up fully when you step off your ship; you do have "mini load screens" of blackness when going from say your airlock to the orbital station, or orbital station to planet surface, or inter-speeder-transport on Makeb, but otherwise, it's all just one big instance of itself, no "Stormwind to Elwynn" type transition spots. Even the Interfleet transports seem to be one zone; there's no load screen between them, and everyone's in the same chat channel.

The lack of transitional areas is what makes some planets load like utter garbage, because it's loading so much stuff (likely everything but NPC/node placement, as those seem to just get loaded when you're near). If Blizzard wanted to share their tech to make mostly-seamless transitions between areas, I'd be happy to see SWTOR turn planets into chunks that load separate from each other but trigger a transition when you're near a border or hitting a speeder path, if only to cut down on extended load screen time.

[Razael]

I hate having to enter Corellia or Belsavis. The loading times are immense. Then theres planets like the starter , capitals , Balmorra or Taris just to name a few, that load quite fast. To me at least. I wish they'd work on their engine performance a bit.

[Kelimbror]

I can see where you are coming from but I just don't agree with it. I am unsure of what I did to offend you for me to receive such a response but if I have offended you then I am sorry.

I'm not offended nor angry, nor trying to insult you. I come across harsh because you can't hear my dulcet tones.

I just call things the way I see it, but I'm not out to insult you or invalidate you as a poster. However, when I'm presenting factual information it gets awfully tiring to hear people say 'you're wrong'. No, I'm not. It's just facts. Pretty much anyone who plays SWTOR knows that the planets are more the size of one zone in WoW. There's no way to quickly, easily, and loadlessly move to a new planet like you can seamlessly transition to different zones in other games.

You can't just say, 'nuh uh, SWTOR planets are actually like an entire WoW continent and the little preformed, linear quest areas are like zones', because that's literally wrong. There's no opinions about it. It takes into account the size of the areas and how they are structured in the game world. And just to be clear, it's not just WoW (so this isn't comparison or bashing), it's just about every MMO but SWTOR.

*snip*

Yes, pretty much this. I'm not sure why they designed it this way. On top of loading all the actual areas, it has to load all of the 'instanced' content for class stories and whatnot, even if you aren't the appropriate class or won't be going into them. It loads an insane amount of things off the bat.

I mean things went wrong when they decided to rope off the zones in the first place, which sorta forced them into the weird planet structure they have now. It doesn't make the game bad, but it really is a hinderance for people and at end game (where you hop all over) it is very, very noticeable.

[RohanV]

What kills me about load times is that switching world instances needs a full reload. One would think that you already had the zone loaded.

[Arlee]

What kills me about load times is that switching world instances needs a full reload. One would think that you already had the zone loaded.

But it's a completely different world! ... or something

Honestly the load screens are a large bit of what is keeping me from logging on. I want to finish my AI's story but then I think of the load screens and don't want to bother. I mean I have a crap computer and that is on me, but the load screens are way worse in swtor than any other game. Which makes me really sad, because on the whole I still really like the game.

[Deleted]

Loading screens take seconds for me so I've never been bothered by them. TOR does seem to have a truckload though. I too wouldn't play if I had to wait minutes at a time just to planet hop. /Faint!

[WoWGoneBad]

You can't just say, 'nuh uh, SWTOR planets are actually like an entire WoW continent and the little preformed, linear quest areas are like zones', because that's literally wrong. There's no opinions about it. It takes into account the size of the areas and how they are structured in the game world. And just to be clear, it's not just WoW (so this isn't comparison or bashing), it's just about every MMO but SWTOR.

I would like to shed a different light on this frame of talk people use. SWTOR does transition from planet to planet like WoW transition from continent to continent. And the transitioning between zones is just as seamless in both games. When you load into Kalimdor from Ice Crown you wait bout 10-15 seconds depending on computer for the new continent to load then you have the seamless transitioning between zones. When you leave the Fleet and go to Courscant you have that same wait time(but MUCH longer again depending on computer).

BUT SWTOR planets are FAR FAR from continent size of WoW which most here in this area of the forum agree. In the end this is just my two cents and how I see it.

In this instance yes SWTOR is like the WoW continents IS it a continent worth of continent no.. but the loading works the same if a HELLA LOT slower

[Kelimbror]

*snip*

Thank you for agreeing with me, even if you didn't realize that is what you were doing. We are talking about how the game is structured relative to its size. It's not open for interpretation. It's exactly as you said, SWTOR planets are not continent size, but they are loaded like continents...which is the entire problem. Thus the game is broken up, walled off, and ultimately burdened with excessive loading that practically no other MMO experiences to such a degree.

Makeb highlights this to the Nth degree by forcing you to load areas that are a hop, skip, and a jump away by nature of it being 'a different zone'. I almost wonder if they didn't make a crumbling planet idea just to try and magic away the disconnect in zones and whatnot.

[Arlee]

Loading screens take seconds for me so I've never been bothered by them. TOR does seem to have a truckload though. I too wouldn't play if I had to wait minutes at a time just to planet hop. /Faint!

For me all loading screens take at minimum 45 seconds. The longest one I timed when I was still playing regularly was just shy of 3 minutes >< I started timing them because I was sort of wondering if I was maybe imagining it taking so long (like when you are excited for something and it feels like it took forever to happen even though it was in reality a short time) but sadly I wasn't It's a weird thing too because they were getting better for me (except certain areas like Aldrean) but then a month or so after the F2P conversion they got worse again

[WoWGoneBad]

Makeb highlights this to the Nth degree by forcing you to load areas that are a hop, skip, and a jump away by nature of it being 'a different zone'. I almost wonder if they didn't make a crumbling planet idea just to try and magic away the disconnect in zones and whatnot.

yes this bothers me too, but im gonna go along the lines and say that it was those damned people who hates the drawn out flights ingame that helped them get away with this new loading style.

Kitty you have are a great person to have discussions with, we may not always see eye to eye but you do at least speak your mind and dont resort to name bashing and other fudgedugery. I miss Alyssa and HK-51 for this reason they were fun to have discussions with

[Kelimbror]

yes this bothers me too, but im gonna go along the lines and say that it was those damned people who hates the drawn out flights ingame that helped them get away with this new loading style.

Kitty you have are a great person to have discussions with, we may not always see eye to eye but you do at least speak your mind and dont resort to name bashing and other fudgedugery. I miss Alyssa and HK-51 for this reason they were fun to have discussions with

I can be harsh, but I'm not out to get anyone (most of the time ) I learn as I go and try to improve myself through my mistakes. Since mistakes here are public and I have had many, many of them...it helps to learn quickly.

[Bagamnan]

I'm not having this issue, but for me TOR became unplayable for other reasons... Was so disappointed...

[Psychlon]

I'm having another time off from the game due to my Alienware wanted to have a red line vertically crossing the screen and most likely my video card is gone as I get abysmal fps in the game.

However... my loading times are actually bearable... like 10-20 seconds at most. Funny thing though that a friend of mine with much longer loading times 30-40 seconds has the game run much more fluent than mine. Alderaan is just not fun running around with 10 fps! on a highend rig (or so it was 1 year ago though that was after the game came out so theoretically it should run it without problems... all the time on high settings). I have to have bloom, shadows and AA off.

Luckily I don't necessarily want to play a healer in operations because due to the fps issues I face it would most likely be impossible to co-op in Nightmare Modes which is kinda sad because I like to do different things.