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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 26, 2011 11:28:48 GMT -5
I have been accepted for a weekend beta test of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I will be playing this pretty much all weekend. I will post screens as well as thoughts on the different classes. I will be checking out all modes of play. Solo, story questing, PvE content and PvP. I will right up what I can on all of these. Check back for more if you are interested in ToR.
For me this is exciting. I've been awaiting a KotOR III for a while now. While I am disappointed that its coming in the form of an MMO at least I still get to see what happens with the plot after the event sof the second game. That one came out in 2006 I believe? Anyway....
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 26, 2011 14:54:29 GMT -5
I guess I've been spoiled by WoW and its heirlooms. I'm not used to early level progression taking this long. Not that I'm complaining, I just got used to lower levels being almost instant. I have created a Jedi Consular. I have yet to get my lightsaber and I am looking forward to getting that. As a Consular I will be getting a double bladed one. The game and its weapons take a very swords and scorcery approach. Single bladed lightsabers are swords I suppose while the double bladed ones are like staves in that the caster class (Consular) uses them. Consular is a spell casting class. It can be either a healer or a DPS. Some with sword play but mostly in force powers like hurling objects at your enemy or tossing them around. The game is pretty cinematic and story driven so far. It has its opening cinematic that you'd expect but then you choose your allegiance. Either Republic or Sith (I chose Republic). This choice is greeted with another cinematic for your faction. After, you are taken to you character select/creation screen. Upon creating your character you are shown yet another cinematic for your class and starting area. Unlike WoW your starting area isn't determind by your race but rather by your class. Jedi Knights and Consulars start in the same area with each other while Smugglers and Troopers have their own. The questing is what you would expect from an MMO. Fetch quests, kill X amount of this baddy etc. but the upside is that they are put in alongside story quests. The story quests, while not yet heavy on plot (its still early on) are pretty interesting. At the moment I am hunting down a Twi'Lek who stole a Jedi artifact and gained dark sided powers from it. The artifact belonged to a Jedi that turned to the dark side centuries ago. There is some mystery surrounding that Jedi and as to why he turned to the dark side. So far its fun. The questing and dialogue have a speech wheel like Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2. Certain dialogue options reward you with light or dark side points. Also, certain quests can take you down different roads based on your choices. I have seen some where they can be completed in a good, altruistic matter or they can be completed in a dark sided, evil way. It is what you would expect from a BioWare game. I thought I took way more screens than this. I guess my FRAPs decided to stop working. So far I only have two screens of my Jedi Consular named Raylu. i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/norfenstein/swtor/swtor2011-11-2609-52-37-28.jpgi11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/norfenstein/swtor/swtor2011-11-2610-04-17-84.jpgI will have some battle screens in a bit once I get FRAPs working properly. Maybe some environment shots too as well as when I get my lightsaber. Better be soon. I want one, dammit. XD
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 12:26:51 GMT -5
Things it takes from WoW and possibly even does better:
Flight paths. Instead of getting on the back of a gryphon or wyvern you get onto a land speeder. There are more flight points so far than what WoW had back in its day. WoW has lots of flight points now but before Cata they weren't as many. ToR has em spaced nicely and they are more frequent.
Hearth Stone. Its not called a Hearth Stone but rather Quick Travel. Imagine WoW's Inns are your home point or whatever. You have it set to Stormwind for instance and your Hearth Stone takes you to Stormwind and has a 30 minute cooldown. Quick Travel takes you to any Home Point you want so long as you discovered it. Discovering Home Points is a matter of walking around, finding towns, locating the Home Point and right clicking on it. And then, your Quick Travel can be used for anyone of them. You're not limited to just the one Home Point. Very solid idea. I like it.
Rested Experience. Nothing different about this one. You logout in a Cantina, rather than an Inn, and you gain rested exp. Its the same bit. Double exp for a certain amount. Something like this is always a welcome addition to any MMO.
So far I have not done any group based activities. I am only level 7 right now. I could have made it higher last night but my computer crashed and there was a massive que to get back in. Level 10 is when the group based content, whether it be dungeons or PvP, starts. I'm still a bit annoyed that I have not been given a light saber yet. Someone in game made an interesting point on this. Our characters are grown adults without light sabers yet in Attack of the Clones we see a bunch of four year olds training with their mini light sabers. So wtf gives? XD
EDIT>> Oh, one more thing. Like WoW it has an auto regen for health and force after battle. But its a little bit slower. And one thing it takes from FFXI is the rest feature which is way faster than FFXI. Remember how you would type /heal to rest? Well now its just a quick button on your action bar. So if your auto regen isn't going fast enough and you need health to kill the next batch of enemies just have a quick rest and you're good to go.
I suppose WoW had this as well in the form of food and drinks. ToR replaces the need for food and drinks with a quick rest button that was used in older MMOs. Its just faster now. ;D
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Post by Caller on Nov 27, 2011 13:43:10 GMT -5
I wouldn't be too surprised by low level throttling. There are going to be millions of people playing this game upon release; they won't want the entire community reaching whatever max level in a week. And Blizzard made it blatantly obvious WoW is about the endgame now. They improved the leveling rate so you don't have to spend as much time as a low level anymore, and because so many people have already been there done that that there's really no reason to make us go through the motions again.
I fully expect story driven content from BioWare and I'm glad to see the decision wheel return, though how on earth are Light/Dark side choices going to work in an MMO? Are Light side PCs opposed to Dark side like WoW's factions? Will they give new abilities or affect stat growth? Further, I imagine you'll have to decide from the beginning what you want to be because I'm betting nearly every quest is going to give points towards either side and will probably take a lot of points to reach either end of the spectrum. And unless they allow a feature similar to respec, it's gonna take a whoooole lotta questing to change your alignment. Unless they're like Mass Effect and you can get points in both.
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 13:52:28 GMT -5
I'm not too sure how the alignment thing is going to work. It looks kinda like its both KotOR and Mass Effect. You have the alignment bar but it looks like there are also alignment points too. I am middle of the bar with 300 light side points and 150 dark side points. Not too sure how this works yet exactly. On my alignment bar it says next tier at 1000 points. I am guessing that means I go a step farther either up or down the bar based on how many points of either. So if I get 1000 L.Points I go up a tier in on the light side? I'm just making an educated guess.
So far this is the most story driven MMO I have played. Maybe more so than FFXI. The addition of voice acting is great but there is also a plot to follow right at the start. FFXI it took a while before you started learning some stuff about the Shadow Lord. That was rank 5 I think? While nothing is being said about Revan or anything yet there is still some entertaining plot going on. And this still is just the starter zone. I'm sure plot involving Revan and whatever else will happen later down the line. For now the story I am given is entertaining enough to want to keep me playing.
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 14:00:17 GMT -5
And honestly, I'm not too worried about the grind being slower than WoW is now with the heirlooms. Like I said it is pretty story driven, and while there are the mundane fetch quests its entertaining enough to the point where I'm not worried about grinding. I do want level 10 here soon (9 right now) just so I can check out the group based content, but otherwise I've just been looking at this game as I would an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game. Not too concerned with level ups, just going out and exploring and questing. When this game comes out I'm going to play it as such. I don't want to charge my way to the level 50 cap, I just want to play at my own pace. I will do dungeons when I want, PvP when I want, solo quest when I want and simply not worry about the level up process. This game is fun enough to buy so I will.
And it comes out on December 20th. That is Norfy's birthday. Anyone here want to buy this for me for my b-day? ;D
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 17:55:08 GMT -5
More screens. I had a group quest that required me to enter a place called the Chamber of Speech. Its not a dungeon just a group area. I found another Consular and we grouped up and tore the place apart. i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/norfenstein/swtor/swtor2011-11-2711-05-05-02.jpgi11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/norfenstein/swtor/swtor2011-11-2711-00-13-55.jpgi11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/norfenstein/swtor/swtor2011-11-2710-57-47-48.jpgThe combat for this game is fun. Its similar to WoW but different enough. There is no auto attack. At least not that I have seen. By default your basic attack button is setup to your 1 key. Or right click. But this does not initiate an auto attack. It attacks three times for you then you need to re-click it to activate it. While not using the basic attack your character is more likely to defend and block incoming attacks, and while attacking, whether it be by the basic attack or other abilities you're not as likely to defend or block. It is an interesting way of doing things. I am getting pretty used to the Consular class as well. Most packs of enemies come in groups of three and they are fun to take care of and easy if you get a feel for the system. I target one, charge in and as I get close enough I use the force to toss a rock at it. Then I run to the center of the group of enemies, use a force ability (can't remember the names of these yet) which works somewhat like a Warrior's Thunder Clap except it knocks enemies back. I charge in at the current target and while its staggering around and I finish it off and move to the next one. I can dispatch foes quite efficiently like this.
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 18:45:03 GMT -5
New discovery. AI controlled party members. I do not know whether or not they can be part of your group at your whim once you have them or if you can even create a full party with them or not. What I do know is that they watch your actions and listen to what you say and have an affection type meter. You can gain Approval or Disapproval with them based on things you say. Like Dragon Age, ja? This leads me to believe that you can call on them in the future. Whats the point on having an Approval system thing in place if its only temporary? Either way, its a neat addition. You can't set their tactics or anything but they have a space on your screen where you can choose their abilities to use if you desire. Kinda like Hunter/Warlock pets from WoW. We will see how involved this is I suppose.
EDIT>> So far it looks like they stick around. My companion, a Trandoshan (humanoid type lizard man) likes me and said he wants to serve and protect me. He's pretty cool.
EDIT 2>> yeah, this mother fucker is stickin around. He's a party member for keeps. I will guess that he goes away when you do group activities with real players like dungeon type stuff and PvP. But for solo content it looks like he will stay with me. Cool shit! ;D
You can talk with them like you would a companion in Dragon Age or Mass Effect. Sometimes they will want to talk anytime but sometimes they will only talk in private. Whether it be on board a ship or in a Cantina over drinks.
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 19:48:18 GMT -5
About Specialization. Once you get level 10 you can gain specialization like you would in WoW. As a Jedi Consular I can choose two. Either become a Sage (spell caster) or a Shadow (melee stealth). And there are more specializations after that. The Sage can either be a DPS spell caster or a healing spell caster. The Shadow can either be pure upfront melee DPS (combat Rogue I suppose?) or more of a Stealth based DPS class. I wanted to be a healer at first but I am thinking Stealthy DPS seems kinda fun. I will choose a Jedi Shadow.
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 20:45:41 GMT -5
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Post by Caller on Nov 27, 2011 20:59:36 GMT -5
Bwa ha, love the FU DO RAH in the chat log
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 23:25:46 GMT -5
Instance time!
The first instance, or Flashpoints as they are called, was completely story based. You start off in a space station and need a transport to Coruscant. You can take a small ship there or take the Esseles ship which is the instance. Either way, both choices will get you there. The small ship is auto travel to Coruscant while the Esseles gets attacked by Sith and you need to infiltrate their ship, deactivate their tractor beam, and hightail it back to your ship. Groups are four man in this game. Like WoW you go through trash to make your way to the boss. Unlike WoW it is story based as mentioned. There are dialogue trees as usual but what is interesting here is that all party members take part in the conversations. The wheel comes up and you select what you want to say. Once everyone chooses their dialogue choice it picks someone in the group and their choice of speech to progress the conversation. What dictates one person's choice over another person's I do not know. I am guessing it could be at random. While the choices are being made you see your party's portraits in the bottom left hand of the screen. Whoever has the highest number next to their portrait is who gets to add their piece to the conversation. I am assuming it is done through a random roll. Either way I was not expecting any of that. I was pleasantly surprised.
I am trying PvP next.
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 27, 2011 23:56:39 GMT -5
PvP seems to be what is lacking here. There are some things i like better about ToR over WoW but I think WoW still might be better for PvP. What is better in ToR is that you gain Commendations (Honor Points) as usual but the difference is they can be used at a lower level to get gear. In WoW you use Honor Points at level 60, 70, 80 and again at 85. In ToR PvP gear is available pretty much right away. I like that. Also when you die you don't have to sit around in a graveyard waiting to be rezzed. You just hop back onto a landspeeder and it gets you back into the action within seconds. However, there is something about the PvP in this game that just doesn't feel right. The combat system just does not fit well with player versus player. I will try it some more and see if it can change my mind. Maybe I just need to get used to it. I have all night to play. This ends before tomorrow so I want to play as much as I can.
Oh and one thing I forgot to mention about the instance that I think people here might find interesting. EVERY class has the ability to resurrect fallen party members. Its not even a spell, you just right click their corpse and they come back. No death penalty save for gear damage. Good idea.
EDIT>> You get money and exp in PvP as well. Not just commendations. I approve.
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Post by Yvondith on Nov 28, 2011 6:02:38 GMT -5
Oh and one thing I forgot to mention about the instance that I think people here might find interesting. EVERY class has the ability to resurrect fallen party members. Its not even a spell, you just right click their corpse and they come back. No death penalty save for gear damage. Good idea. That sounds... really nice. More games should do that.
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Post by Norfy the Walrus on Nov 28, 2011 7:54:15 GMT -5
Beta testing ends soon here I believe. I have this morning but when I get home from work it will likely be over. The Old Republic has a high recommendation from me. I love this game and can't wait to get my hands on the retail version.
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