The SWTOR thread
 

Hello,

I just figured that there might be a few SWTOR players amongst us "RPGWatchers".

Therefore I just opened/created this thread for general SWTOR chat.


My fist question to everyone playing it is : What do you think about the current state of SWTOR ?
And what do you think about this "Starfighter" expansion ?

Alrik

Current state of SWTOR = better than launch and quite stable and playable.

Unfortunately, they've abandoned Ilum and meaningful world PvP along with it.

They don't seem to have the resources to develop additional class stories - and it's almost a given that such a thing will never happen, so the best part of the game is pretty much dead.

The PvP is quite fun if you're into instanced stuff with little or no meaning in the actual "world" outside the warzones or arenas.

Space combat remains a joke.

The Starfighter expansion sounds pretty good, but unfortunately - it's PvP only and not at all the free-roaming space segment I was hoping for.

Ultimately, it's a fine themepark to play through with the classes you enjoy - but I don't see it ever becoming a "long-term" game for me.

When I look at the space combat, it vaguely reminded me of … what was that Microsoft game ? Starlancer ? - in which you had to control everything by mouse. Horrible, if you ask me.

But, yet I got somehow, somewhat accustomed to this mouse-controlled space combat in SWTOR.

Too bad that there aren't any bigger flight sims which use the joystick out there anymore …

What the SWTOR community disturbs most, is, that the space combat expansion will be PvP-only. A lot of people in the rather PvE-oriented forum parts don't like that.

One of the best leveling experiences I've had playing an MMO but the limited amount of class specific quests wasn't enough to inspire me to run multiple characters to cap. I also wasn't impressed with PvP or Raids.

Not super familiar with the new expansion, as soon as I sounded PvP oriented I lost interest. Plenty of places to get my PvP fix besides MMOs.

I enjoyed my time with it and I occasionally pop in and mess around for a bit now that it's F2P but not a long term fix for me either.

Close. You're thinking of Freelancer. Weird controls aside, it wasn't a bad game.

Actually, he's probably thinking of Starlancer, which is mission based. I don't remember if the navigation was mouse controlled though, but I do know it was an option in Freelancer.

Anyway, I still enjoy TOR quite a lot really, but it's mainly for the questing and levelling. In fact, I haven't raided in quite a while in TOR. I still feel the levelling experience is the best there is in an MMO though, which explains why I have 9x level 50+ characters by now, and three incoming. I need to buy more character slots soon.

As for the space combat expansion. Not really sure what to make of it yet. I'm not a big fan of space sim games, I usually only enjoy them if I can roam somewhat freely like in Freelancer and Dark Star One.

Well, I was so much used to the joystick I just couldn't think of any replacement for it.

Last spring I started dipping my toes into MMOs again after writing them off long ago, and after trying LOTRO and then DDO, I tried SWTOR and found it to be the place I stuck around longest.

The dedicated class missions sucked me in pretty good, and I like how I can enjoy myself during short casual play-sessions, as well as longer sessions where I knock out heroic missions or flashpoints. Public grouping is easy and generally stress-free (at least in leveling content…haven't tried any end-game Operations yet).

I also think it's the most viable f2p game to play without a subscription, because of the Unlocks that are sold on the auction house. I bought account-wide artifact usage for about 400,000 credits in the auction house, and that normally sells for around $18 on the cash shop. I know SWTOR gets knocked for its heavy restriction on free players, but by spending about 10 bucks up front, I got everything I needed to enjoy the game while leveling (like full crew skills and an extra hotbar), and by the time I hit 50 I had bought everything else I need on the auction house like artifact usage, extra cargo space, guild bank access, etc. The main limitation is the credit cap, but now that you can transfer credits from your escrow account for a couple bucks here and there, I'm not too worried about it. Certainly cheaper than $15/month, and I feel like I actually own a game instead of renting it.

What servers do folks play on? I'm on Bergeron Colony, if I'm remembering the name right. I only have one character, who's at lvl 51 and still taking his time to wrap up the Chapter 3 class mission (having a new son arrive a couple months ago kinda put a damper in my playtime, but fortunately I can come back anytime and not worry about a subscription! Count me among those who actually kinda like the recent f2p trend…).

Nothing against SWTOR, but what was it about DDO you didn't like? I MUCH prefer it to SWTOR as a group game and the SP elements I'd rate fairly equal.

DDO was ok, but I came across several annoying quirks early on.

* I was always short on bag space. I soon found out that if I could get enough approval with one faction I could buy more, however I ran out of missions I could do for them on my own.

* I never got the hang of the grouping system. It felt wrong to jump in on somebody's group when it was formed a while ago, and I guess I just didn't know what the proper etiquette was.

* I didn't like how many of the items I was collecting could be turned in to NPCs for stuff, and when I went there I discovered that the things I could get for my junk were kind of crappy, and if you wanted the really good stuff then you needed a completely different kind of crystal which I think you had to buy with real money.

* I tried getting involved in crafting, but I didn't like how I had to spend so much time running to the one crafting station in the entire world. This is also related to lack of bag space. After each quest I'd need to dump stuff, but I wanted to decompose it to boost my crafting skill, and was spending more time in item management than adventuring.

* The random assembly of quests, and the act of deciding what to do by simply looking at a laundry list, just didn't hold my interest that long.

I liked the combat and gameplay, but I found that my annoyance factor was always higher than it needed to be. Between the 3 MMOs I tried, this was the one that I didn't throw a few bucks at to get to a premium status, and maybe that would've made a difference.

Item collecting has been changed considerably in the past. You get different stuff now for "junk".


By the way, last Sunday night I did 1 match of the new "Galactic Starfdighter" expansion on the PTS. Be aware of being plastered with information. Right now, the learning curve is pretty steep.

It seems to be bugged right now as well, but it's also sort of fun - apart from the fact that I didn't quite understand the controls yet - it's like Freelancer / Starlancer, and that means : Without a joystick.

Fantasm, not only have there been a few changes recently with DDO, but the grouping issue is easily solved. If you play on Khyber, we have our own Guild where you can play with people from here. It's rare that someone isn't available, depending on where you live. Check out the DDO thread in this forum and most especially the Team Corwin thread in OT!!

One comment on warriors wielding two swords :

"The 12 Patches of SWTOR" : http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=701978

( Contains a lot of SWTOR-specific terms - so be warned. ;) )

Anyone having that "early access", too ? Impressions ?

Are the PVP Space fights already implemented? Are they worth it? Do have to reactivate my account to take a look?

AFAIK, it's available to subscribers only at this point. Not entirely sure, though.

They're lots of fun ! At least for me. ;)

I'm not really a subscriber; I'm using a "platime card" always - but I'm content with that. :) And it acts as if you were a subscriber, as well. ;)

The "learning curve" is quite steep, though. you've got to do the tutorial several times if you've never done such a thing before !

The Second Rakghul Event has begun. Details on the Fleet.

There is no real official announcement so far - but if you use the dev tracker, then you can find several hints towards it.

Official Announcement : http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140122

I was fairly tired of rakghouls already because Taris has so many quests related to them. This is really not all that exciting to me. My subscription is still running though, so I might check it out at some point.

I can fully understand your opinion. My was I glad to finally be able to get off of Taris again !

Road map : http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140203
2.6 Blog : http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140203
GSF Announcement : http://www.swtor.com/node/317969

Housing Coming to SWTOR

I re-installed last night just because I've read someone say they improved some stuff that annoyed me. I actually did have fun. Now I'm tempted to sub to get the free house ;) and a few more stuff.

My sub is still running, though I won't be playing for a few months, as I'll be busy with ESO. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if I came back to TOR for a while this summer, between ESO and Warlords of Draenor.

This is one MMO that won't really benefit much from housing.

I'm a big fan of the feature, and obviously it's better than nothing - but the world is so static and lifeless - and everything you do is excessively themepark, so I don't see much point in owning a house.

Maybe I'll change my mind, though.

I'll try it out at least. No-one knows for sure how this "housing" will exactly take place, though.

Subbers will have an "early access" thing as well. http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140319 and here : http://www.swtor.com/info/news/press-release/20140319

After watching The Clone Wars series in Netflix (loved it!) my interest sparked again for everything Star Wars (I watched episodes 1-3 again, episode 1 still sucks but I actually liked 2&3 much more than when I saw them the first time).

I considered getting KotoR 1&2, I played them long ago in my original Xbox, maybe with whatever restoration mods are out there, but then I remembered SWTOR is free so downloaded it, and been playing the last couple of days. Not sure I'll play for long, but for now it's quenching the SW thirst.

Which server are you on ?

hmm… my old characters (including my 50 jedi consular) I don't remember. I started a bounty hunter in the RP server.

Ah, okay. Me, I'm on VC. German-language RP Server. It feels god there. :)

I'm getting a bit burned out of LOTRO, gonna download this next week for sure. I need something different. I'll pick a RP server, preferably a US time zone one if I can.

Damn, I just ought to try SWTOR in near future to have more material for pay2win trollposts, but what's the point to solo a MMO, I don't speak german. :(

[EDIT]
Oops, I posted before I've added:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014…ttooine-desert

SWTOR isn't pay2win. I played since launch, and I know all the story. The best gear you can get can only be obtained from Operations (Raids, PVE). In PVP you need to play to get commendations to buy the best gear.
It has the F2P option that is an excellent way to play the whole story (every class has a different story, companions and 'ending') and to see if you like the game. If you are interested, the Imperial Agent has the better story so far.
But if you are interested in endgame, or the social aspects like PVP or Operations (Raids), you probably need to be a subscriber.
The microtransactions is just for cosmetic stuff, or if you are F2P to unlock features and functions that comes free when you are as subscriber.
Also this game does not benefit from goldsellers, because when you are a subscriber, you can easily do tons of credits doing daily missions.

Every MMO has grinding as a base so no need to mention it.

All I know about that game is there is a train robot if you pay for it and there is not if you don't. You buy it or not. Noone said is it cosmetic or is pay to win.
In fact there is no single result in google where a person numbers every single thing that can be bought in the game with an explanation why is it (or not) pay2win content.

Noone, except me, ever said anywhere that Mass Effect DLC are in fact pay2win content. And they are - it's just a carefully hidden fact. Even posters on Bioware forums are scared to write numbers to avoid possible bans, those who start a speculation are warned by other posters not to go into further analisys. Oh, no, I'm not talking about horse armor DLC! I'm talking about numerous NPC and missions DLC.

Also, cosmetic you say? There is only one f2p game I've seen so far with only payed cosmetic stuff and never ever anything else - it's League of Legends. That game earns millions without any pay2win, all you can buy for real cash is different looks on your character(s). You're saying SWTOR has the same type of microtransactions?

You can't just post SWTOR isn't pay2win and argument it by saying "I'm playing it for a lifetime and when I say it, it's the ultimate truth". If you think that only gear can be pay2win thing, sorry but I definetly can't trust your judgment.
And in the end, because of lack of proper argument if a game has pay2win content and if f2p is actually free2torture by subscribers, I'll have to start playing it.

Yes it's true. What I'm saying is there's no great burden in gathering tons of credits in SWTOR. You can do it easy.

The bot you mention 'Training Droid: Hovers at your side for combat assistance' it's just a pet. It hovers around, but cannot assist you in any way. It doesn't give XP bonus, or anything.

Never said that I hold the ultimate truth. Just mentioned that I'm playing since launch just to show that I'm telling how things are in the game firsthand.
For me a pay2win game is when two players have the same skill, but one of them is better than the other because he pays extra (stat boosters, gear boosters, faster respawn in pvp, etc.)
This game is not a good F2P MMO at all. Because it has a lot of locked features and content. But if you like single player games, enjoy the story and lore of SW, by all means you can enjoy the game as F2P, because you can do the whole campaign with every class without paying a single dime.
But, if you want to be competitive in PVP, or do hardcore PVE content, there's no other way than be a subscriber.
The whole microtransaction stuff is either cosmetic or F2P unlocks (all the stuff you pay to unlock in F2P comes at no cost when subscribed).

Not exactly what I've asked, but… Let's say I'm satisfied with that answer. :)

Wait a minute.
Let's assume one is not a subscriber but plays on f2p model.
And goes PvP. Against another nonsubscriber. If that's even possible.
Now can that another nonsubscriber buy a microtransaction skill, potion, whatever to win the fight or not?

The main issue with PVP is that the number of matches per day is limited if you are F2P. Also, every time you play a PVP match you earn commendations, a special currency used to buy PVP gear (PVP gear is useless in PVE combat and vice versa).
There's no skill, or boost at the cartel market (cash) for PVP. Just the regular PVP stims or adrenals (kinda medikits and small boosts) that are bought with the PVP currency or can be crafted by players.
So that's the other problem, a subscriber progress faster because he can play and earn more commendations. Also there's Ranked PVP mode, suitable for "hardcore" PVPers.

If what you're saying it true, then SWTOR is not p2w at all.
A subscriber will be able to get better stuff faster than nonsubscriber, but in the end that f2p player can eventually get the same thing, right?
I hope I understood correctly. Subscription just makes easier to get stuff, it doesn't turn you instantly into a god?

Yes, eventually you will get the best gear, but seriously there's no way you can buy a lot of PVP gear by playing just the 5 weekly warzones (PVP matches). It will take forever. There's a weekly pass you can buy for cash to play a whole week without restriction, but seriously, I would recommend subscribe for a single month instead, because the pass does not removes all the other F2P restrictions.

The F2P option is for playing the campaign and enjoying the story.There you have the whole thing.
For the rest of the game modes (PVP/Raids) I would not recommend it. Calling the F2P option a 'Demo' will be more suitable for those modes.