New SWTOR Impressions

[Deathsboon]

If you played this weekend, keep your client installed!  It will be patched as the release candidate for early access.

https://twitter.com/#!/Rockjaw/status/141535439839436801

SWEET!!!!   and i also think this game is amazing this weekend i played Friday to sunday morning with no sleep then took a 5hr nap then played till it died i got 2 Diff characters to 20+ and i think the story is amazing just brillant

[Phienyx]

I wish it was possible for the Smuggler or the Bounty Hunter to be neutral.  But then again, that may present some griefing issues that would not be good for the game.

[eeth]

most recent beta weekend = the LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG build.

Nearly unplayable 50% of the time in warzones. Server acting as if I had a ping of over 1-2k. I don't understand why it affects me so bad, 60-80 ping to the server according to the in-game connection monitor. One time in huttball a commando and me spent about 8 seconds running back and forth at each other trying to melee each other (i assume he was, since neither of us had abilities going off) only to get "you're not facing your target" when we sure as hell were. We gave up, ran away from each other and resumed range attacks. Totally fucks my playstyle too. I pride myself in my bunny-hopping 180 kite and shoot technique. Doesn't work when the server doesn't allow you to do it due to fucked lag resulting in "you must be facing your target" errors. God forbid i try to play a melee class, i'd be rage-quitting by now.

Even outside of pvp if i jump and land and immediately activate a channeled ability it says "you cannot do that while moving." Very unresponsive netcode issues. Makes me sad panda.

[Fuse]

Crazy, I only saw lag twice, and they were minimal, short lived, spikes.

[Keeloth]

Ditto here.  The lag I actually ever saw over the weekend was some conversation lag, where it would take a while to kick me into the convo cinematic.

[Strod]

I've experienced no lag what so ever in either beta tests. I'm not sure what the problem is for you select few.

[victoriah]

hi guys,
i've read your posts and appreciate both positive and negative feedback, especially the WoW references.  Tbone did a great job of summarizing all of the awesome this game has to offer.  One problem that I had when I was trying to leave WoW while playing stuff like Aion was that I kept saying to my self, "ugh.  you could totally do that in WoW."  so then i'd go back to playing WoW and then remember I still didn't like it anymore.  yes SWTOR is another mmorpg, but i think it is a fresh twist with all of the perks T mentioned before.  I am very excited about this game and am having withdrawals right now
so i played my little sage until 15.  only encountered a few glitches (a bad stuck, some rubberbanding, dialogue lag) but it didn't deter me.  i really love healing, but when i got into the hammer flashpoint, it was difficult only having two types of heals to choose from...short and long cast.  if i cast the long too many times, i ran out of mana or whatever we are calling it in the game, and i didn't see any vendor items to pop in combat for those kinds of situations.  so it was challenging but still fun.  it was the first instance where we actually marked the guys and used cc...it was nice working in a group together like that.
anyway, that's my 5 cents.  i have a friend in NY who is also preordered and didn't know about the beta (!!!) but i've sent her to go follow the signal  
can we make the countdown bigger???

[Longboard]

Can you make one for SWG......lol

[Baobinga]

My overall impressions of the game were very positive. I had no lag spikes at full graphics and fully enjoyed the game on a 47 inch 1080p tv. (however looking forward to being able to actually turn on the anti-aliasing) Compared to when I tried testing in the hutta squadron sometime earlier this year the lag was horrendous (my gpu was dead tho I was using a built in card)

The game's story was pretty good. I loved the kotor games (played both of them like 3 times each all the way through) so this is like a dream come true kotor basically.

I played a shadow tank and was able to experience actual tanking around level 16. Much better mechanics for tanking than wow imo.

I'll be seeing you guys in a few weeks for early access.

[Tbone]

We are almost exactly TWO WEEKS away from early access launch! That's crazy!

[Anamodiel]

That means exams are starting soon, too...

[NoCry]

Chaps - one thing - may be a bug? I kept getting shot by enemies notwithstanding I was standing behind cover (be it a rock or a tree) - would such cover work for a smuggler, say, but not  force user?

[Manic Velocity]

Chaps - one thing - may be a bug? I kept getting shot by enemies notwithstanding I was standing behind cover (be it a rock or a tree) - would such cover work for a smuggler, say, but not  force user?

As I understand it, the cover system is actually a state effect that a Smuggler or Imperial Agent puts themselves in, which allows them to use abilities that aren't available outside of cover.  I'm pretty sure it also grants a defense bonus.  I'm not sure if it's open to Force users.  

But there is still line-of-sight.  I noticed I couldn't fire at my opponent if I couldn't actually see them behind a large wall.  And the NPCs knew to come around the wall in order to fire on me.  The Smuggler has to move around a lot.

[Ketamininja]

Chaps - one thing - may be a bug? I kept getting shot by enemies notwithstanding I was standing behind cover (be it a rock or a tree) - would such cover work for a smuggler, say, but not  force user?

Just to add to Manics post;

Yeah, if you don't go into "cover mode" you get a very limited set of abilities to use (unless you are close up where you have all the sneaky kicks etc, so it's essential when working from range). This may open up in later levels, but it means you have to get good at finding the right spot early on.

When I go into cover mode manually (F) out in the open, I didn't recognise any bonus (dodge/miss) in particular. However, when I actually "lock in" crouched behind a rock (i.e. the game presents the green shadow behind the rock that I can use my ability to lock into with). I get good bonuses here.

Sometimes the green shadow does not appear, so I crouch manually (F) behind the rock. I'm not convinced that the bonuses (misses) that appeared weren't just general misses from long range that you could also have out in the open.

I can see the "lock in" ability being able to generate the bonuses easily because the client just tells the server "in hidden, gimme a multiplier". However, just crouching behind the rock requires much more code in determining if you are behind the rock or not (line of sight) so I don't know how good it generally is.

[eeth]

THIS is good news:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=696746

i'm not the only one that was dismayed with the lag/delay and other issues. things are looking up.