Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Aonarch]

Pre-order is going on right now! Launch is the 20th of December, but apparently you can play the 15th if you pre-order it?

I personally cannot wait. I recently beat KOTOR 1 and 2 in anticipation.

http://pc.ign.com/objects/816/816935.html

[A.Wilder]

This is the SW MMO that we already have a few threads for?

[Aonarch]

This is the SW MMO that we already have a few threads for?

I saw one from 2008, but yes.

[GSTGuy]

I had to force myself to stop. I made a Sith inquisitor and a Zabrak bounty hunter to play around with. I love the inquisitor and got one to level 12 before stopping and wanting to "rediscover" it at the game's real launch, while trying to avoid some other spoilers and make it into a grind before it needs to be. The bounty hunter I only got to level 6 or so (before stashing him for the real game), but the story telling and quest lines are really fun and add a personal touch. I look forward to playing more of this game.

Seemed that the bugs are still there. That orange pixel under the chat window drove me nuts (I already have one stuck green pixel on my monitor, and have a bit of OCD...), along with the fact an early item upgrade (my pants...) didn't show up on my character when equipped. Guess budding Sith lords enjoy showing off their Jockey boxer briefs. I didn't like how FPS rates dropped when going from outdoors to indoors (ran perfectly smooth outside on all high settings) and would only "fix" itself if I changed textures from High to Med and back to High again. There was also some clipping on a few of the quest cinematics, and the dynamic lighting needs some work, but overall I really enjoyed the experience. It's a fine mesh of KotOR, Mass Effect, and an MMO.

[Aonarch]

I had to force myself to stop. I made a Sith inquisitor and a Zabrak bounty hunter to play around with. I love the inquisitor and got one to level 12 before stopping and wanting to "rediscover" it at the game's real launch, while trying to avoid some other spoilers and make it into a grind before it needs to be. The bounty hunter I only got to level 6 or so (before stashing him for the real game), but the story telling and quest lines are really fun and add a personal touch. I look forward to playing more of this game.

Seemed that the bugs are still there. That orange pixel under the chat window drove me nuts (I already have one stuck green pixel on my monitor, and have a bit of OCD...), along with the fact an early item upgrade (my pants...) didn't show up on my character when equipped. Guess budding Sith lords enjoy showing off their Jockey boxer briefs. I didn't like how FPS rates dropped when going from outdoors to indoors (ran perfectly smooth outside on all high settings) and would only "fix" itself if I changed textures from High to Med and back to High again. There was also some clipping on a few of the quest cinematics, and the dynamic lighting needs some work, but overall I really enjoyed the experience. It's a fine mesh of KotOR, Mass Effect, and an MMO.

I'm waiting till launch.

[Chapel]

is this one of those monthly fee games?

[Village Idiot™]

is this one of those monthly fee games?

Yes.

I was unimpressed with last weekend's beta.

First is the bugs. I know, bugs in beta? no wai?! But with the games being less than a month from release, it's getting down to the wire. Character portraits would not show up at all for me, which makes it hard to heal when grouping. That's just one off the top of my head but there's others.

The graphics are terrible for the performance I was getting. I have an Nvidia GTX 295, which is older but still no slouch as I can run most any other game I play at max or near max settings at 2560x1600 resolution. I have to run SWTOR with everything at medium just to get a frame rate that's playable and the graphics are nothing special. What helps this is logging in, hitting the windows key, then bringing the game back up. It makes it play smoother. WTF?

Static skill trees blow. I play Rift and what's awesome about that game is that I have a level 50 cleric I'm not board of. Every other game I've played I've had a ton of alts and eventually get board with a class. In Rift, each of the 4 main classes (warrior, cleric, rogue, mage) has 8 souls which are talent trees in which you can have 3 active to put points in. Each class can purchase up to 5 roles to switch to, so that they're not stuck with one spec until you get tired of it and pay to respec. SWTOR puts you in one role where your stuck. Granted, I only made it to 11 as an Inquisitor, but I like healing. The problem with healing in most games is that you end up being able to work only in a group capacity and soling goes out the window. This really turns people off to vital classes that already end up having shortages of players that want to play them. How many people have seen the general chat on MMOs where groups are constantly spamming LF healer for dungeons? In Rift I have 2 different healing specs, a tank spec, and a DPS/supporting raid heals spec. While this may seem OP, if you eventually want to make it farther, you have to collect the gear that supports each of those, so you definitely have to put the time in it. It also makes it so I'm useful as more than one role and I don't get bored. Rift has spoiled me in this regard and I'll consider it a negative for any MMO that doesn't allow this in the future.

I saw a dev talking about this and saying that it would hurt the game being able to change specs on the fly. Well, duh! If you want to make it and option but make it less accessable, require a person to go to an NPC to swap specs if you don't want them to be able to do it themselves.

Other than the story choices tacked on, this game seems very vanilla. There's practically nothing that sets it apart from what I've seen. You solo, you do dungeons, you mash keys to kill mobs.

I'll probably give it a shot some time in the future, but from what I've seen so far, it's just not very impressive.

[Aonarch]

Yes.

I was unimpressed with last weekend's beta.

First is the bugs. I know, bugs in beta? no wai?! But with the games being less than a month from release, it's getting down to the wire. Character portraits would not show up at all for me, which makes it hard to heal when grouping. That's just one off the top of my head but there's others.

The graphics are terrible for the performance I was getting. I have an Nvidia GTX 295, which is older but still no slouch as I can run most any other game I play at max or near max settings at 2560x1600 resolution. I have to run SWTOR with everything at medium just to get a frame rate that's playable and the graphics are nothing special. What helps this is logging in, hitting the windows key, then bringing the game back up. It makes it play smoother. WTF?

Static skill trees blow. I play Rift and what's awesome about that game is that I have a level 50 cleric I'm not board of. Every other game I've played I've had a ton of alts and eventually get board with a class. In Rift, each of the 4 main classes (warrior, cleric, rogue, mage) has 8 souls which are talent trees in which you can have 3 active to put points in. Each class can purchase up to 5 roles to switch to, so that they're not stuck with one spec until you get tired of it and pay to respec. SWTOR puts you in one role where your stuck. Granted, I only made it to 11 as an Inquisitor, but I like healing. The problem with healing in most games is that you end up being able to work only in a group capacity and soling goes out the window. This really turns people off to vital classes that already end up having shortages of players that want to play them. How many people have seen the general chat on MMOs where groups are constantly spamming LF healer for dungeons? In Rift I have 2 different healing specs, a tank spec, and a DPS/supporting raid heals spec. While this may seem OP, if you eventually want to make it farther, you have to collect the gear that supports each of those, so you definitely have to put the time in it. It also makes it so I'm useful as more than one role and I don't get bored. Rift has spoiled me in this regard and I'll consider it a negative for any MMO that doesn't allow this in the future.

I saw a dev talking about this and saying that it would hurt the game being able to change specs on the fly. Well, duh! If you want to make it and option but make it less accessable, require a person to go to an NPC to swap specs if you don't want them to be able to do it themselves.

Other than the story choices tacked on, this game seems very vanilla. There's practically nothing that sets it apart from what I've seen. You solo, you do dungeons, you mash keys to kill mobs.

I'll probably give it a shot some time in the future, but from what I've seen so far, it's just not very impressive.

Blasphemer!

I've already have it paid for and pre-ordered for several months, so I'll just wait to play the launch version, which I am sure will be buggy as hell.

[Hostile]

I saw one from 2008, but yes.

Because you had new and exciting information that warranted making a new thread?

[Hostile]

The graphics are terrible for the performance I was getting. I have an Nvidia GTX 295, which is older but still no slouch as I can run most any other game I play at max or near max settings at 2560x1600 resolution. I have to run SWTOR with everything at medium just to get a frame rate that's playable and the graphics are nothing special. What helps this is logging in, hitting the windows key, then bringing the game back up. It makes it play smoother. WTF?

The GTX 295 pulls less than 30fps (on average) in Crysis Warhead at 1920x1200...


Your videocard is three years old, what are the rest of your system specs? Sorry, but I seriously doubt you are playing any current games at "max" settings at 2560x1600.

I played at 1920x1200 with all settings on high and was getting 110fps pretty steadily with just one of my 6870s.

I found the environments well done with planets like Taris and Nar Shadaa being simply outstanding.

Static skill trees blow. I play Rift and what's awesome about that game is that I have a level 50 cleric I'm not board of. Every other game I've played I've had a ton of alts and eventually get board with a class. In Rift, each of the 4 main classes (warrior, cleric, rogue, mage) has 8 souls which are talent trees in which you can have 3 active to put points in. Each class can purchase up to 5 roles to switch to, so that they're not stuck with one spec until you get tired of it and pay to respec. SWTOR puts you in one role where your stuck. Granted, I only made it to 11 as an Inquisitor, but I like healing. The problem with healing in most games is that you end up being able to work only in a group capacity and soling goes out the window. This really turns people off to vital classes that already end up having shortages of players that want to play them. How many people have seen the general chat on MMOs where groups are constantly spamming LF healer for dungeons? In Rift I have 2 different healing specs, a tank spec, and a DPS/supporting raid heals spec. While this may seem OP, if you eventually want to make it farther, you have to collect the gear that supports each of those, so you definitely have to put the time in it. It also makes it so I'm useful as more than one role and I don't get bored. Rift has spoiled me in this regard and I'll consider it a negative for any MMO that doesn't allow this in the future.

Your basis of comparison is Rift, that **** was so boring it couldn't even get me away from WoW for more than a few weeks...

Besides, I had no issues soloing quests as my Jedi Sage. If you played a Inquisitor you had a tanking companion, use it.

Other than the story choices tacked on

The storyline is "tacked on"? Alright, now I know you're just trolling...

[quinntendopower1]

just watched some gameplay of this

woah man, looks bad.

nothing like paying for the monthly privilege of jank. most of the assets already look old and dated. character models look like ****.

the starvation of the MMO gamer ends up leading to stuff like this. crap

[A.Wilder]

i would rather have another kotor sp game than this. But, i am not everyone, plenty of people have an interest in SW mmo. Are any of the older SW MMO's still live?

[SOAR]

woah man, looks bad.

nothing like paying for the monthly privilege of jank. most of the assets already look old and dated. character models look like ****.

So how's that different from any other MMO?

It's just another video game "skinner box" for all the MMO mice out there who never get tired of finding the cheese.

[Hostile]

i would rather have another kotor sp game than this. But, i am not everyone, plenty of people have an interest in SW mmo. Are any of the older SW MMO's still live?

The only other one was Galaxies and they are shutting the servers down on Dec 15th. The game is about 9 years old, not too bad a run considering how SOE ran it into the ground about 8 years ago.

There are actually some private servers out there where you can play SWG pre-NGE if you have the appropriate game CDs.

[Hostile]

nothing like paying for the monthly privilege of jank. most of the assets already look old and dated. character models look like ****.

the starvation of the MMO gamer ends up leading to stuff like this. crap

MMOs have to cater to a lot of variation in computer hardware compared to your typical PC release. The developers can't get too nuts with the graphics for fear of alienating the majority of their playerbase who are on lower end hardware.

That being said, as far as MMO's go, the game is great looking. Bioware did an awesome job with Nar Shadaa:

[Village Idiot™]

The GTX 295 pulls less than 30fps (on average) in Crysis Warhead at 1920x1200...


Your videocard is three years old, what are the rest of your system specs? Sorry, but I seriously doubt you are playing any current games at "max" settings at 2560x1600.

I played at 1920x1200 with all settings on high and was getting 110fps pretty steadily with just one of my 6870s.

I found the environments well done with planets like Taris and Nar Shadaa being simply outstanding.

The developers of Crysis even admitted that their engine was optimized for performance. I'm running an i-7 920 that's OC'ed to 3.8ghz with 6GB of RAM. I can take some screen shots if you'd like. My point was that the graphics aren't revolutionary or anything and that for what they are, it runs very poorly. If SWTOR looked like crysis, then I wouldn't be complaining about the GPU performance. As it stands, the 600 series cards should be coming out soon and the performance difference between the GTX 580 and the GTX 295 is negligible and doesn't warrant an upgrade. The game was running fine at the 1920x1200 resolution, but the jump to 2560x1600 was a huge hit and the graphics had to be toned down.

There's also apparently another underlying issue if tabbing out of the game and then brining it back up makes it run noticably smoother.

So far I've only seen the two starting areas and the Imperial space station

Your basis of comparison is Rift, that **** was so boring it couldn't even get me away from WoW for more than a few weeks...

And that's your opinion. WOW is mind numbingly dull in my opinion. I'm glad we could trade those opinions. I hope insulting Rift has made you feel better.

Besides, I had no issues soloing quests as my Jedi Sage. If you played a Inquisitor you had a tanking companion, use it.

Already stated I made it only to 11. If the tanking companion can actually do enough damage or the healing focused inquisitor can add enough DPS, then that's cool, but right now it seems to me that unless you're going to be paying for respecs, you're going to be stuck in a spec. I haven't played enough in the advanced specs to find out how much the respec price cap is or if you get the same abilities with bonuses just coming from the different trees. Either way, I've been spoiled by a game that has given me the freedom to choose a spec that fits what I want to do.

The storyline is "tacked on"? Alright, now I know you're just trolling...

U mad bro? That's my opinion from what I've played. SWTOR is a vanilla MMO with the storyline being the gimic. Remove that and can you honestly tell me that SWTOR is an Earth shattering game that completely redefines the genre or another WOW, Rift, Asheron's Call, Everquest, Final Fantasy, WAR, or any other MMO that's nothing more than a grind fest to secure mad tyte lootz so that you can join a guild and eventually raid for made tyter lootz?

I'll play it eventually, but if it's like most every other MMO I've played, I'll eventually get bored of it and quite playing.

[Village Idiot™]

MMOs have to cater to a lot of variation in computer hardware compared to your typical PC release. The developers can't get too nuts with the graphics for fear of alienating the majority of their playerbase who are on lower end hardware.

That being said, as far as MMO's go, the game is great looking. Bioware did an awesome job with Nar Shadaa:

There is nothing spectacular about these graphics.

[quinntendopower1]

i know full well that MMO's are supposed to scale well, but this is star wars.

where is the fidelity?

all i see is low texture quality.

[Hostile]

The developers of Crysis even admitted that their engine was optimized for performance. I'm running an i-7 920 that's OC'ed to 3.8ghz with 6GB of RAM. I can take some screen shots if you'd like. My point was that the graphics aren't revolutionary or anything and that for what they are, it runs very poorly. If SWTOR looked like crysis, then I wouldn't be complaining about the GPU performance. As it stands, the 600 series cards should be coming out soon and the performance difference between the GTX 580 and the GTX 295 is negligible and doesn't warrant an upgrade. The game was running fine at the 1920x1200 resolution, but the jump to 2560x1600 was a huge hit and the graphics had to be toned down.

And the game ran at 110fps for me. Since you can make the blanket statement that it "runs very poorly" I can make blanket statements that it "runs perfectly fine."

There's also apparently another underlying issue if tabbing out of the game and then brining it back up makes it run noticably smoother.

I don't alt-tab myself, I have a second monitor that I use for vent/internet/email/etc and I had no issues with using my second monitor with no negative effects on my main monitor.

And that's your opinion. WOW is mind numbingly dull in my opinion. I'm glad we could trade those opinions. I hope insulting Rift has made you feel better.

Insulting Rift didn't make me feel better, but if you're going to use a game as an example of what's good with MMOs you should pick a better one. BTW, did insulting TOR make you feel better?

Already stated I made it only to 11. If the tanking companion can actually do enough damage or the healing focused inquisitor can add enough DPS, then that's cool, but right now it seems to me that unless you're going to be paying for respecs, you're going to be stuck in a spec. I haven't played enough in the advanced specs to find out how much the respec price cap is or if you get the same abilities with bonuses just coming from the different trees. Either way, I've been spoiled by a game that has given me the freedom to choose a spec that fits what I want to do.

You only made it out of the starting area. When you test drive a car do you make a decision on whether it's crap or not just by opening the door and sitting in the driver's seat?

I healed the first flashpoint spec'd as a DPS Trooper.

U mad bro? That's my opinion from what I've played. SWTOR is a vanilla MMO with the storyline being the gimic. Remove that and can you honestly tell me that SWTOR is an Earth shattering game that completely redefines the genre or another WOW, Rift, Asheron's Call, Everquest, Final Fantasy, WAR, or any other MMO that's nothing more than a grind fest to secure mad tyte lootz so that you can join a guild and eventually raid for made tyter lootz?

I'll play it eventually, but if it's like most every other MMO I've played, I'll eventually get bored of it and quite playing.

No, I'm not mad. Why would I be? You only managed to get your characters through the starting area. That's hardly a good basis to form an opinion. But it seems you just don't like MMOs in general so I'm not sure why you even waste your time.

As for the storylines being a gimic, I just don't get that opinion. Bioware is doing something with the story that no other MMO has done, period. You want to talk revolutionary? That is revolutionary.

As for the gameplay itself, Bioware has never said they were revolutionizing the MMO genre. There is a reason that a certain recipe is prevalent in the genre and I think Bioware has done a good job of borrowing some of the great individual parts of some other MMOs and put them into their own.

[Hostile]

i know full well that MMO's are supposed to scale well, but this is star wars.

where is the fidelity?

all i see is low texture quality.

AA is disabled and the highest image quality was not enabled in the betas.

[Chapel]

Yes.

damnit
I'm not paying $60-100 for a game and then $15-20 a month and feel OBLIGATED to play it because I'm paying for it whether I use it or not
Sucks, because I'd love to play it, but not at that price point...

[Chapel]

There is nothing spectacular about these graphics.

people still care graphics? how about the gameplay...

[Hostile]

damnit
I'm not paying $60-100 for a game and then $15-20 a month and feel OBLIGATED to play it because I'm paying for it whether I use it or not
Sucks, because I'd love to play it, but not at that price point...

The game is $60 and subscriptions range from $15/month to $13/month depending on your sub length.

Personally, when I'm playing an MMO I'm not playing anything else. I end up spending less per year on gaming playing with an MMO then I do when I'm not.

[Village Idiot™]

And the game ran at 110fps for me. Since you can make the blanket statement that it "runs very poorly" I can make blanket statements that it "runs perfectly fine."

40fps at all medium settings on 2560x1600.

I don't alt-tab myself, I have a second monitor that I use for vent/internet/email/etc and I had no issues with using my second monitor with no negative effects on my main monitor.

The issue was that it wouldn't run smooth until tabbing out and bringing it back up. I'd load the game and log in and everything would be choppy until I tabbed out and brought it back up, then it would run smoother.

As for the storylines being a gimic, I just don't get that opinion. Bioware is doing something with the story that no other MMO has done, period. You want to talk revolutionary? That is revolutionary.

Rift has their rifts and constant invasions, Aion has wings, WAR, EQ II, Marvel Universe and WOW have their names. It's not revolutionary. It's somethat that's been done in another game and put into SWTOR. EQ, WOW, and EVE are three MMOs that I can think of off the top of my head that did something truly diffent that's worthy of being revolutionary and even WOW can have a lot of it's content likened to EQ. SWTOR could be WOW with light sabers and laser pistols.

As for the gameplay itself, Bioware has never said they were revolutionizing the MMO genre. There is a reason that a certain recipe is prevalent in the genre and I think Bioware has done a good job of borrowing some of the great individual parts of some other MMOs and put them into their own.

It's a recipe that makes stale bread and if hungry people only have the option of choosing what color their stale bread is, then they'll pick something regardless.

people still care graphics? how about the gameplay...

Well, you would have expected the graphics to have at least had some kind of improvement vs. other MMOs that are over 5 years old. Gameplay was reminiscent of most every other MMO I've played.

I'll play it because some guildies I have from the current game are wanting to try it out and it'll be nice to have a game that'll give me a break from the current one. Being at the progression I'm at, I have a choice or raiding or PVP so that only leaves options for leveling alts or standing around not doing much.

[Aonarch]

people still care graphics? how about the gameplay...

I only care about gameplay, graphics will be good enough.

[Aonarch]

Anyone get their early access code?

[Hostile]

I haven't been let in yet. I didn't pre-order (and enter my code) until Oct 2nd so I probably won't get in until tomorrow or Thursday I'm guessing.

[tulmad]

Anyone get their early access code?

Basically everyone who pre-ordered in July when they first opened pre-orders got in today. They're supposed to be ramping up from here on, inviting more people tomorrow than they invited today and so on until they're done. I didn't put in my code until November, and I'm not expecting to get in until at least Thursday afternoon or Friday.

[Aonarch]

I got boned... Pre-ordered from Gamestop, but of course my order was never placed, but it showed in their system it was.

So I canceled it and pre-ordered again from Origin late Nov.

[Hostile]

I think I'm going to get in tomorrow, I'm Nov 2, not Oct.

[Hostile]

Got in first wave today.

[Aonarch]

Apparently pretty much everyone's security question is not working and no one can login at the moment. I was on hold for an hour with customer service, nothing... I never got through. I tried calling again and it said we are overloaded goodbye. Good grief.

BTW I had the phone on speaker while watching a movie, lol.

[Chapel]

Personally, when I'm playing an MMO I'm not playing anything else. I end up spending less per year on gaming playing with an MMO then I do when I'm not.

yeah, but that's why I bought BF3, I'll play that all year until I'm all leveled up.

[Hostile]

I've had zero issues with the game. No login, account or client issues.

It's been a perfect launch for me so far. Queues are long but that expected for the first month or two with any launch mmo, especially one that is this popular.

My BH main is 19 and I have an 11 Marauder.

[Bustov]

Love the game, only problem I have was the 30 min queue times. I got bored with Rift and never thought graphics were on par with what they should have been. Best thing about rift was the 8 souls and 5 alt builds you could run.