Star Wars: The Old Republic (The Thread)

[Narkis]

No, they're saying it looks worse than an FPS from 2004. Which is pretty accurate for most of the game's features. Best thing about it is its story, and it's pretty much what you'd expect from a bioware game. Not worth paying a monthly fee and enduring the additional hassle of an MMO for that, imho.

I played the game on a previous beta weekend. I was looking forward to its launch before. Now I didn't even bother to reinstall the client (20 gigs, lol) when I was invited. Thank the Force I didn't preorder.

[Mr Bean]

It matches up pretty well with Team Fortress 2 how good the graphics are in that game... like I said Oblivion looks better but it is better looking than WoW if not by much.

Also I love the Agent story and the suggestion from the forums to play it as a female. Why? Because apparently there are three conflicts you can avoid by sleeping with the wronged party. As your an Agent uncover I found this highly amusing. Guys only get to sleep their way out of trouble once but apparently the first companion is much better for guys than gals. I hate her guts however and wish the little anarchist bastard would fall down a mineshaft post haste.

So the Trooper storyline gave me Lion-O
The Agent storyline gives me an Anarchist Goth Chick.
The Bounty Hunter storyline gives you Kaylee complete with chipperness.
The Smuggler gives you some guy
The Jedi Consular gives you a Trandoshan with a neat little story
The Jedi Knight gets a R2D2 knockoff
The Sith inquisitor gives you Elephant Man
The Sith Warrior gives you Mission (But older and less annoying)

And the full list is here
http://www.swtorstrategies.com/2011/07/ ... -list.html

Note you end up with new companions every ten levels or so and each class has five of their own.

[Ryan Thunder]

Have no idea what Half Life even is let alone what it looks like.

Check it out.

[charlemagne]

I'm especially disappointed by the character creator. Only one thing is better than freaking LOTRO here, and that is that TOR has a couple different body types/heights.

[Stofsk]

I wish I'd gotten my email but apparently I slipped through the cracks. No matter, I'm sure there's videos up all over the place on people's gameplay experiences.

[AMT]

Like it so far. Played up to Level 15 Sith Warrior/Juggernaut, Level 12 Trooper/Commando, and Level 5 Bounty Hunter.
Would still be playing but have to reinstall the launcher as it apparently disappeared overnight. Weird bug.

I pre-ordered the collector's edition, and will be enjoying the game when it comes out. Graphics really aren't bad, though the character models could be tweaked a little. I have a choice between midget, kid, skinny teen, arnold scwharztenegger with bitchtits, or humpty dumpty.

[Molyneux]

Have no idea what Half Life even is let alone what it looks like.

Can someone intemperate that for a 360 console player?

Have you ever heard of Team Fortress 2 or Portal?

[Mr Bean]

Just found an awesome mission to illustrate how odd this games Light Side/Dark side options are. Most are typical Smart Option/Idiot option or Pet kittens/Kill an orphan.

Called Testing Grounds involves a bunch of rebelling slaves and a Sith Lord testing a new neurotoxin on these slaves. You just happen along as he needs someone to dump this in the water supply. He tells you to go to his second to get the neurotoxin and head off to poison their water supplies. His second takes you aside and offers you the following two choices. If you know Bioware games you'll guess the Light Side option is to use a sedative instead and capture the slaves and put them back into Slavery (Light side!) but no the Light side option in SWTOR is to instead mega-dose the water so the slaves just die instead of spending days screaming and moaning to death as their body has the shakes and full seizures before dieing in horrible agony after after about a week of dehydration.

So the light side option is to mega-dose them so the rebelling slaves all just die.
If only we all had such high moral standards.

[Highlord Laan]

Just found an awesome mission to illustrate how odd this games Light Side/Dark side options are. Most are typical Smart Option/Idiot option or Pet kittens/Kill an orphan.

Called Testing Grounds involves a bunch of rebelling slaves and a Sith Lord testing a new neurotoxin on these slaves. You just happen along as he needs someone to dump this in the water supply. He tells you to go to his second to get the neurotoxin and head off to poison their water supplies. His second takes you aside and offers you the following two choices. If you know Bioware games you'll guess the Light Side option is to use a sedative instead and capture the slaves and put them back into Slavery (Light side!) but no the Light side option in SWTOR is to instead mega-dose the water so the slaves just die instead of spending days screaming and moaning to death as their body has the shakes and full seizures before dieing in horrible agony after after about a week of dehydration.

So the light side option is to mega-dose them so the rebelling slaves all just die.
If only we all had such high moral standards.

It's the Sith. Moral standards, wha??? Light side in this case is a mass mercy killing instead of years of slow death working in mines and such.

If Origin isn't an issue, I may be playing this after all. I'm more interested in playing a medium-range infantry type Trooper/Vanguard than a Jedi, but I admit a Guardian/Sentinel or Consular/Shadow sounds fun as hell.

[Molyneux]

Just found an awesome mission to illustrate how odd this games Light Side/Dark side options are. Most are typical Smart Option/Idiot option or Pet kittens/Kill an orphan.

Called Testing Grounds involves a bunch of rebelling slaves and a Sith Lord testing a new neurotoxin on these slaves. You just happen along as he needs someone to dump this in the water supply. He tells you to go to his second to get the neurotoxin and head off to poison their water supplies. His second takes you aside and offers you the following two choices. If you know Bioware games you'll guess the Light Side option is to use a sedative instead and capture the slaves and put them back into Slavery (Light side!) but no the Light side option in SWTOR is to instead mega-dose the water so the slaves just die instead of spending days screaming and moaning to death as their body has the shakes and full seizures before dieing in horrible agony after after about a week of dehydration.

So the light side option is to mega-dose them so the rebelling slaves all just die.
If only we all had such high moral standards.

More of these games need a "Kill the fuck out of the quest giver" option. I certainly would have appreciated one in Wrath of the Lich King.

[Mr Bean]

It's the Sith. Moral standards, wha??? Light side in this case is a mass mercy killing instead of years of slow death working in mines and such.

There's Sith and then there's Empire. In this era the two are a lot more linked with the Dark Council (Group of 10-14 Sith Lords) advising the Emperor who is himself a Sith Lord but not a member of the Council itself. Sith Warriors and Sith Inquisitors work for the Council not the Empire but being Sith there's power over Imperial forces. You run into lots of Imperial forces that are rather great people looking out for the welfare of Imperial citizens, handing out traffic citations and everything you could expect from a well run Dictatorship. The Sith on the other hand to date are mass murdering assholes who everyone is terrified of and no one likes but no one questions least they end up as the play thing of some Sith.

Bounty Hunters are independent and Agents work for the Sith even if they are part of the Imperial government technically. It's a little odd there's no Imperial classes only Sith and the unaligned Bounty Hunters.

If Origin isn't an issue, I may be playing this after all. I'm more interested in playing a medium-range infantry type Trooper/Vanguard than a Jedi, but I admit a Guardian/Sentinel or Consular/Shadow sounds fun as hell.

The only really long range class are Imperial Agent Snipers, otherwise it's all either close range (Jedi/Sith not counting Sorcerers and Sages) or medium range (Everyone else).

Also I hate the bloody Inquisitor storyline. You want to become the Emperor? Sure thing here's your first companion for your first 24 levels a blood thirty lunatic and unlike every other story mission where you meet your soon to be first companion in the first twenty minutes we are going to hold back yours until the very end and by the way he's only a blood thirsty lunatic not exactly the best friend for anyone scheming to get power and glory when he's always threatening to eat people.

It's like if Senator Palpatine had hired on Glen Beck as his spokesman. Except he wants to eat the people your trying to win to your side. Funny enough the Sith Warrior story is the tale of rising to power through careful manoeuvrings while you secure your allies from the best and brightest. Meanwhile the Sith Inquisitor loses out to Superboy Prime for both Angst and pointless violence. The amount of brilliant schemes you hatch yourself are nill.

[Havok]

Have no idea what Half Life even is let alone what it looks like.

Can someone intemperate that for a 360 console player?

Have you ever heard of Team Fortress 2 or Portal?

No. But if Oblivion looks BETTER? Wow. That was why I couldn't play that game on 360.

So the answer is yes, it still looks like complete shit, which is pretty sad considering the franchise it is based on is all about looks and sound.

intemperate? WTF?

[Stark]

Good old autocorrect. And yeah Hav, these guys will be unable to comprehend that you haven't played the last decade of PC games.

MMOs traditionally look bad, but they're a lot less awful now than they used to be in general. You can geez at TOR screenshots on the internet, and it looks pretty bland all over. Difficult to know how that'll change at release, if at all, however.

[PREDATOR490]

Did the Smuggler to 21 - Interesting class and the cover mechanic is a nice touch but it quickly becomes apparant it will get a nerf-bat. The thing is able to put out heavy burst damage to the point your killing groups in seconds. The cover mechanic can get extremely tedious at points as well since BW have to MAKE the cover in levels which can be at really stupid positions or not be available at all.

Started a Jedi Consular and have ended up liking it alot. Supposedly the Sith Assassin / Jedi Shadow trees are extremely popular for the ninja stealth DPS they provide. Personnally, I want to go a TK Sage. The battles felt more fluid when you run into a group, slam one member with debris so its stunned, stun the next one. Blast them away then slam them with debris again then slap the reminders with the lightsaber.

I suspect Jedi Sage will be my main character come launch. If dual specs or respecing is required the Sage can switch to a healing tree without a full AC wipe which is a sound future proofing against nerf-hammers.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I enjoyed the hell out of the Sith Warrior storyline. I'm playing him as a noble-blooded sith who understands the utility of violence and cruelty, but doesn't jump straight to them. I'm so good at it my dark side is off the scale and my companion damn near loves me.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I enjoyed the hell out of the Sith Warrior storyline. I'm playing him as a noble-blooded sith who understands the utility of violence and cruelty, but doesn't jump straight to them. I'm so good at it my dark side is off the scale and my companion damn near loves me.

[Civil War Man]

So the Trooper storyline gave me Lion-O

I'm going to be a massive nerd here and point out that he's Panthro, not Lion-O. Right down to the short temper and baldness.

Anyway, I personally did not like the Smuggler playstyle. If I wanted to spend all my playtime running from one point of cover to the next in a sci-fi setting, I'd play Gears. And unless Trooper doesn't scale well as you level, I'd suspect it to get a nerf before Smuggler. Trooper explosives murder everything in their path.

In other news, I'm not sure if I like Darth Baras from the Sith Warrior storyline in spite of or because of the fact that he looks so goofy. For people who have seen Kingdom of Heaven, imagine if King Baldwin had type 2 diabetes instead of leprosy.

[Mr Bean]

A further word about companions and how much they fucked up the Sith Inquisitor storyline and companions

As a Bounty Hunter you get a Bounty Hunter groupie (And excellent slicer) act like Bobba Fett and she likes you
As a Sith Warrior you get a Twi'lek slave, treat her with respect and she likes you even if your a mass murdering psychopath or space Jesus on the side
As a Smuggler you get a fellow criminal sidekick, act just like Han Solo and he likes you
As a Trooper you get Lion-o Panthro, act like a professional soldier who obeys orders and he likes you
As a Jedi Knight you get your trusty droid sidekick, if you act just like Luke Skywalker he likes you
As a Jedi Consular you get an honorable Trashodian who likes truth justice and the America way, he dislike killing the weak and admires trickery, if you act just like Ben Kenobi he likes you (For the most part)
As a Imperial Agent you get an Anarchist Goth Chick who will like you regardless of what you do if you tell her it will be fun.

Of the eight possible classes only the Consular and Agent get companions that don't play into your stereotype role to begin with but both are close enough you can have them like you just by explaining your actions in a positive (In their eyes) light.

But what about the Sith Inquisitor?
Oh no you get a centuries old (He spent time in status) homicidal maniac who's chief goals in life are to eat all force users and kill as many people as possible. If you want to act the part of the Emperor and be a manipulative bastard who's four steps ahead of everyone else and has wheels within wheels going... To bad because as it turns out your actually Darth Maul a mono-syllabic bucket of hate and rage. Your later companions are just as bad with the group consisting of two aliens with the personality of stale cardboard, one goody two shoes who you can't even tempt to the dark side and a Darth Maul knockoff who has even less personality than Maul did.

By far of the eight stories there are seven enjoyable ones (I hear the second act of the Smuggler story 20-30 is garbage) which go from strength to strength with a few weak issues with the Sith Warrior being the stand out tour de force of quality and lots of moments where you get to be very good... or very very evil.

The Sith inquisitor however is not a quality story. In fact it's almost middle school fanfic level in it's level of nonsense and plot holes.

[TheFeniX]

I leveled a Jedi Knight to 19 and ended after I got my ship. This game is basically multiplayer KOTOR with a lot less loading screens. And I'm ok with that. I have to wonder if the guy I talked to about this game had even played it. Also, when you figure out spacebar skips dialog and you turn on subtitles, the game gets a lot better. I'm cool with voice acting concerning my saving the galaxy and all, but I don't need professional voice actors informing me on where to collect my bear asses.

The Jedi Knight quest line is a generic rehash of every Jedi Knight quest line ever written. Well... it's not as dumb as finding a lightsaber in a garage, then becoming a Jedi, but can we have one Jedi storyline where I'm not Captain fucking Amazing super-awesome Jedi sent to fight all the cool bad guys because I'm awesome? The Jedi starting planet is boring and the flesh raiders are about as menacing as ewoks, and a lot dumber. The Knight combat is pretty fun, but I obviously wasn't able to get far into the guardian tree. I ended with 3 companions, the trusty droid, a trusty healing droid, and a young Jedi whose outlook on life is as perky as her gigantic rack. Seriously, do women below a D cup even exist in any Bioware universe? Meh, I'm an ass man anyway.

Grouping is where the real fun is in this game and I don't think I'd bother with it if I didn't have a full group of guys to game with going in. Choices are done via rolls, whoever is highest wins, but only your choice affects dark/light side. We found this out when Rob decided he would rather just eject the engineering team of the essles out into space rather than fight a few mobs instead. Shit was hilarious though. The quest tracking needs some cleaning up, but other than that it's easy to do quests together. The flashpoints (instances) are fun. They aren't punishing like Rift, but they aren't loot hallways like many WoW instances. Personally, I found the Heroic 2+ world dungeons harder than the flashpoint we were able to do.

I helped my buddy level his smuggler, their dialog options are 1000% better than the Jedi Knight..... which doesn't surprise me.

You get your actual class choice at level 10, a sprint at level 14. Once I hit 14, I literally sprinted through the rest of my class quests to get to my ship. But you can't bring group members on your ship with you, which is lame. I loved this ability in Galaxies.

Space combat is visually decent. Nice effects, etc. The gameplay is mind-boggling boring, annoying, and easy. It's on the rails and only serves the purpose of better outfitting your ship so you can do even harder boring missions. Holy shit... I ended the beta on this and it almost fucking killed me.

Anyways, it's Star Wars.... hurry up and take my money Bioware.

[Civil War Man]

To add to the companion thing, I did not play Agent or Inquisitor at all, and I didn't play Bounty Hunter and Knight long enough to get to their companions, but I have a few things to add with the other classes.

Specifically, in the Smuggler quests, when they gave me the sidekick, I thought, "Wait, who? Oh, that's the guy I said all of about 3 words to in level 1?" I had not read up much on the Smuggler specifically, so when I was actually playing I was under the impression that my first sidekick was going to end up being the girlfriend of the guy who hired me, since conversations with her tended to be about how she was about ready to move onto something/someone else. Then the story said, "Yeah, remember the guy you talked to 5 levels ago? He's your buddy now."

The other companions for the classes I played made a lot more sense.

Trooper made the most sense. This guy is in the same squad as you. Go.
Sith Warrior made sense. She is your slave. Even if you don't treat her like one, or even consider her to be one, she was given to you as a slave and everyone (including, perhaps, her) just operates under the assumption that she still is a slave.
Jedi Consular also made sense. The Trandoshan is friends with your master. As you investigate the problems in the area, he helps out on occasion, eventually choosing to follow you full time because he views you with almost religious reverence because you kick so much ass.

[TheFeniX]

I consider Kira Carson the first real companion for the Jedi Knight. You don't get her until the end of the second planet and there actually is a lot of build up. She's competent but mouthy, headstrong, and inexperienced. Her master can't really control her on the first planet because she thinks she should already be a Knight. You get there before her because you're an unmitigated badass. Seriously, you make it look easy as your master gets his ass kicked and you swoop in to save the day.

So, she's sent with you to Corusant to handle the back-end of things and manages to get herself in shit numerous times. You bail her out by... pretty much killing everyone who stands in your way.

Helping my consular friend, his quests are taxing to him physically (you're literally fighting against time as the actions in your quest are weakening you) and emotionally and he's constantly fighting against the odds. His boss fight on the second planet was brutal for him to do alone.

The smuggler is just some guy trying to get his ship back and using whatever means needed to do so. He's constantly backstabbed and fucked with during his quest line.

On that note, it's cool to be able to experience their content without having to play either class as I could only see me playing a Trooper or Knight in this game.

The Jedi Knight is a fucking murder-machine and constantly makes it look easy both in PvE combat when alone and based upon his actual storyline. The combat is likely to do with me picking Guardian. But my story quests routinely have my character making shit look easy. Kira is sent with you because it's assumed you can get her in shape. I have to say, her dialog is a decent change from uptight Jedi like Bastilla Shan and every Jedi Master.

[White Haven]

Ironically, that's a good portion of the reason why the Sith are seriously competitive in terms of sheer numbers; they've relaxed their hiring standards to 'are you force-sensitive?' and 'can you survive Korriban?' The Jedi are trying to hold onto their ideological purity in the wake of getting their shit punched in by the Empire when their temple on Coruscant was sacked. The Sith? They're trying to expand at a breakneck rate to provide enough Sith to stay on top of things against the establishment Jedi. The Jedi starting planet has a number of quests that involve Jedi flunking out because of this or that transgression. The Sith, on the other hand, don't give two shits about your methods, although they give you the queer eye if you're not toeing the Sith line, as long as you're strong enough to survive the academy. It wouldn't surprise me if the Sith had an active intelligence operation centered around recruiting Jedi castoffs, for that matter.

The reverse is only true when they don't know it, of course. Spoiler

Kira was the daughter of two Sith, and was trained at the Korriban Academy at a very early age. She escaped while still a small child and spent her early years as a thief before a Jedi Master caught her and discovered she was strong in the Force. She kept her history VERY hush-hush until it's outed right in front of the player, at which point multiple council members want her dismissed from the Jedi Order. Way to hand the Sith a free apprentice, guys. Fortunately Satele tells them to STFU and gives you the call since you're her master by then.

The way Companions are doled out needs some work, though. Some classes get two early-on (not counting that fucking useless protocol droid that comes with the ship), some only one until deeper in. That's fine...if the starting planet companion suits you tempermentally and spec-wise. Otherwise...not so much. It was particularly shit for my Consular, who got stuck with a tanking Trandoshan as, uh, a tanking Jedi Shadow. Right. I need two tanks like I need a hole in my head. Similar thing on the Inquisitor, with the added penalty that Khem Val is fucking lame. Seriously, can't I trade the big lunk to one of the big lunks--I mean Sith Warriors? I'll take that cute little Twi'lek slave off your hands in a heartbeat.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I'm torn between Guardian and Sage. Guardian is a lot more fun in combat (on account of the lightsaber being more than a glowing decorative ornament, as it is with the Sage). But Sage has the occasional heal and that diplomatic Consular vibe I prefer, and is a blast in PvP. I'm enjoying the Consular story, which I got through Tython, Coruscant, Taris, and Nar Shaddaa (blitzed the latter two trying to get to the Legacy system, but alas Act I seems to be very, very long). Didn't get far enough with the Knight story to comment. The second Consular companion is cool, on account of having a personality. Then again, the first Consular companion is cool too.

Enjoyed Agent up through picking an AC. Got some Alpha Protocol-lite vibes from the story quests. Also I want one of those sweet uniforms.

Trooper I did not enjoy as much as I thought I would. I think it's a shame that they didn't adapt the cover system to both non-Force archetypes instead of just one, and make saber deflection more worthwhile to match. Wasn't impressed with my Trooper in PvP, but maybe I just needed a few more levels (hard to tell with how crazy the PvP balancing is. A level 10 boosted to match the level 32 in the match? Whatever works, I guess).

I think ship combat is great. It's pretty simple, but then I never expected it to be much more than a minigame. It's a straight up rails shooter, but the missions are entertaining little 5-minute diversions. What's great is that it ties into your character's progression in XP and ship upgrades. Perfect for finishing off that pesky little amount of XP until the next level.

[TheFeniX]

The reverse is only true when they don't know it, of course. Spoiler

Kira was the daughter of two Sith, and was trained at the Korriban Academy at a very early age. She escaped while still a small child and spent her early years as a thief before a Jedi Master caught her and discovered she was strong in the Force. She kept her history VERY hush-hush until it's outed right in front of the player, at which point multiple council members want her dismissed from the Jedi Order. Way to hand the Sith a free apprentice, guys. Fortunately Satele tells them to STFU and gives you the call since you're her master by then.

Amazing that my companion will have more personality and backstory than my character. At least that sounds cool. I seriously feel like I'm just a generic jock who's captain of the galactic football team. I got more enjoyment this weekend by helping my friends complete their class quests rather than doing my own.

The way Companions are doled out needs some work, though.

What the Jedi Knight lacks in original storyline is more than made up with ass-kicking companions. By the end of Corusant, I've got a droid capable of tanking or dishing out considerable DPS depending on what ability I use for him, a kick-ass Jedi that mixes DPS with control/stuns and the ability to switch between extra damage against light or heavily armed targets, and a droid with shit combat skills (why the hell can't I make him NOT auto-attack during combat?) but just enough heals to let me solo large groups or random elite mobs that require 2+ to take down. As little as I need it personally when the game goes live, I really hope you have some stock companions that can be traded around.

[White Haven]

My Shadow tank was really frustrating on the companion front, because until...what was it, Hoth? That or Balmorra, can't remember which came first. Anyway, up until one of those two, I had, for companions, one (1) melee tank, which I already was, one (1) useless protocol droid, and one (1) ranged healer, which is sorta useful for soloing non-soloable stuff as a tank, but as a tank, when soloing, I NEED DAMAGE. The dude from Hoth is a ranged tank, the one from Balmorra is a sniper. The sniper was a godsend! I finally had a companion who could do damage, which was what I'd needed since the word 'go.'

And then I got the last Consular companion, who is a goddamned murder machine, and promptly stopped using everyone else. Companions need greater customizability and their own talent trees, so you can at least spec, say, Qyzen for damage when you're a tank. Things balance out when you've got a decent stable of companions by the mid-thirties, but depending on your spec versus your class's companion rollout, it can be a hassle getting there. Kira was a godsend on my Knight this most recent beta, my Guardian tank had someone else to do the hurty-ness. Of course the lack of damage-reduction gear in significant quantities before the thirties and hte lack of tanking mods on the modification quartermasters AT ALL are a separate problem.

And yet the game's a blast in spite of all this. Shame, though, because some of it, the tanking itemization stuff especially, should be easy fixes.