Beta Impression

[Tbone]

http://leakerz.net/wp/2010/12/21/swtor-leaked-gameplay-report/

Ok, so keep in mind that this was beta and some of these things could change. I am not going to really talk about the things that have since been revealed, but if I do…just ignore it. I guess I am gonna try to itemize things cause there was just so much going on. I was able to play for 10 days total.
Character creation: Ok, so you could tell that the character creation was very beta because it had the little notches for more options, but you couldn’t use them. Overall though it was a bunch of presets on sliders. You started out picking race….each race had a background story with it. Then body type….4 preset choices to choose from….small, average, big and tough, and fat. The fat was called tough, but definitely looked fat. I got to play Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular to level 15. Ok, so then the options for customization were: Eye color, faces, Scars, Hair color, Hair styles, Facial Hair, some races had face paint options…as in Zabraks. There was Skin color options, i can’t think of any others. You had the option to name your character a single name or first and last name.
Gameplay: Overall game play was incredible! Very fluid, very heroic. I have played several MMO’s and this one by far took the cake. I literally felt like a level capped character from the beginning. They usually stack 3 or 4 bad guys together so you are always killing many at once…..but for the most part you had to stick to enemies in your level range…..sometimes even one level higher and you had a real big time run for your money….depending on the enemy. I was amazed that the jedi knight force jump ability goes like 30 meters or yards…can’t remember which it went by but it was really far…..very awesome! I got to play their advanced classes also…..I chose it at level 10 in Coruscant. Even though it was a beta the game was very smooth and very few bugs. Frame rate was good. I am a pretty good player and I did die several times….but I have the tendency to overdo it a little. One thing I really liked about combat was that I had to stay very involved….I couldn’t go off and get a drink and come back to a dead dude…..and the combat was very very fun. It seemed like maybe the leveling slowed as you get higher level, but not sure.
Quests: Can I say EPIC! OMG! The quests really pulled me in like I can’t even believe how awesome. In all other MMO’s I have always power leveled….I always skipped 1/2 the quests…..but in this I actually finished every single quest the offered me….and it leveled perfect….After doing every quest there was for me on Tython I was more than ready to move on. The story was so immersive I actually went out of my way to help the npc’s. Everything was so smooth. I really didn’t even think about leveling because the story was all I could think about. Tython was perfectly sized for a starter planet….pretty big indeed. The really cool thing is that you only had to return the quests that made sense to return….for instance: I would see sometimes on the map it would show an area that I could get bonus quests…when I would get them (either by going there or killing something there.) ..it would be like kill 10 of these dudes here….and when I was done killing them it automatically turned in the quest!….So I didn’t have to run it anywhere. The quests that I was completing at low level seemed like they were so epic they should be level 40 quests. This is very hard to explain, but there was one quest in particular that literally blew my mind!….I mean It was such a shock (in a good way) I could’nt believe how amazing and innovative the writing and the way they put it together was…..extremely deep!…I honestly have never had a quest in any MMO that I felt this way.
I didn’t give the talent tree’s much attention….I think it was level 10 when you could start putting in talent points. I remember the consular (can’t remember which AC) had three trees to go down….Balance Discipline, Combat Discipline and Infiltration Discipline.
I also got a full list of the professions while in Coruscant: Treasure Hunter, Biochemist, Cybertech, Synthweaver, Bioanalyst, Archeologist, Researcher, Diplomat, Scavenger, Slicer, Artificer, Armstech, Armormech, Underworld Trader.
I did the huge flashpoint between Tython and Coruscant that you see some of in one of the video’s….I don’t know if it was because they changed it…or if maybe because I was solo, but when the door opened there were alot less enemies than in the video they presented. Overall the Flashpoint was very involving and extremely EPIC….I did die a few times to say the least and I was geared very well for my level.
Coruscant was set up in like 6 zones basically….you would take a taxi from area to area. Overall Coruscant was very large. Not as Massive as some are thinking now….but large enough. And there was one area I didn’t get to go in so who knows how big that was. It was beta so some things were not finished yet, but the sky was non moving sky. When I fell off the side of the building I fell forever.
Player Ships: Ok, so I got to see the player ship, but couldn’t enter it. I got it at level 15. Basically each class had a dock that you had to go through a short hall to get to….before you entered the hall it was like a flashpoint where it looked green.
Abilities: At level 15 I got the ability to run very fast…..About a little bit faster than a low level mount in WOW….It was very nice. I had seen on the chat window others had said that all classes get this ability at level 15. There was another group doing beta at the same time….they played the trooper and smuggler. I remember the Jedi Knight AC had different fight styles that you could switch on or off and change….each fight style was for a different type of play….(one for dps, one for defense ect.) With the consular for example when I chose the shadow class, I immediately recieved a db lightsaber to use. When in stealth mode I went about 1/2 speed……but the cool thing was is that when I got the faster running speed ability I was able to go faster in stealth using that ability than I could run before I got the ability. So just as an example: normal stealth speed 4mph, normal run speed 8mph, stealth using sprint ability 9mph, run using sprint ability 16mph.
Companions: The companions definetely helped, but not so much that I felt to OP. Like say if there was 4 guys…he might kill 1 while I killed the other 3. I could send my companion to sell all my junk….they would leave and come back with money 60 seconds later. Also I was able to buy them gear and change them up as well. The companions were set up so that if I didn’t want to tell them what to do they just fought how and what they wanted….they seemed to attack whatever attacked me. But I also had the option to tell them specifically what to do as well.
Gear: Ok all the gear looked great…even at low level. And really at no time did I look bad…..everything seemed to go together great wether it was from a loot drop or quest or I bought it. The gear was set up to where you could add things to it at crafting tables. For instance: My lightsaber had sections (3 of them) crystal, and two other pieces that I could add into it to increase the stats. There seemed to be several different stat options to choose from to customize it to my liking. You could buy gear with credits or some vendors would sell gear for these comendation things you would get from questing. Each planet had different commendation emblems. Gear and weapons did not level up with character…they were stat based and you changed them as you found better ones.
There was also this one place in the game that I stumbled accross a glowing thing that turned out to be a permanent stat buff…..like +1 strength…..I only saw one the whole game.
There were occasional chests in the game that you would find….they were loot chests….each one had a different way that it opened…really cool like….no keys needed…at least for the ones I saw.
Death: Death penalty seemed to be 10% gear damage. When you died you would just spawn back alive at your bind point….wherever you chose to bind to…..they had one at every major area of questing next to the taxi’s.
They didn’t have water anywhere I went that was deep enough to see if there was a swim mechanic, but I noticed that the water was unresponsive….no splash etc. …so I am sure that was probably just a beta thing.
I also got to see Ord Mantell, but didn’t really do anything there….just ran around. It seemed about the size of Tython. It basically looked like a military base…..and oh ya….It was surrounded by water, but when i went in it I just walked on the bottom….no swim mechanic……hopefully that changes before launch.
I did get to go to the old Jedi Temple that was attacked in the decieved trailer….It had a few Sith there….no jedi. There was a very difficult flashpoint there that killed me like 30 times…..but man it rocked! They mentioned in the game that the sacking of Coruscant happened years ago…..not sure if 2 or 6 or 10.
If your wondering why I told you all this….Basically I just needed to get it off my chest….not easy to hold it in.
Overall though the game is very EPIC!….They have done an amazing job and I can’t wait to play it again! Also everyone else in the beta seemed to use the word EPIC as much as me! When doing the beta all the testers had a beta tester forum that we could all post in….to name a few of the thread titles that were created by testers: Thank you Bioware, EPIC, Epic Boobage, Voiceover amazement, and a bunch of class threads and the like.

[Erathaol]

That fellow sounds extremely excited, and with good reason it seems.  Excellent find, boss!

[Fuse]

Good notes. Can't wait.

Also, I really want to see this Epic Boobage thread...

[Anamodiel]

Why cant we just get into the Beta right now?!

[Valkyris]

Man I cant wait, looks like Jedi Consular is going to be a good way to go Ladies and Gentlemen, looks like we're in for a treat!

[Saint]

Hmm maybe Ill have to choose a different class,  when I first chose  to be a consular it was back when  It seemed it might be a minority class, now everyone and their brother is wanting to play it... hmmm oh well.. at least their are different paths to be chosen.

[Keeloth]

While there's no leaked footage of Consular gameplay, sadly, there IS some of their Sith counterpart: http://leakerz.net/wp/2010/10/21/star-wars-the-old-republic-%E2%80%93-new-leak-shows-sith-inquisitor-gameplay/

[Ragnarok]

Great Find!

[Shirokumo]

Hmm maybe Ill have to choose a different class,  when I first chose  to be a consular it was back when  It seemed it might be a minority class, now everyone and their brother is wanting to play it... hmmm oh well.. at least their are different paths to be chosen.

Agreed. But my order is a consular only order, so I'll just have to deal with it. Despite how many there may be, theres always the option of just being the best one

[Keeloth]

A friend of mine was in the last beta cycle, and he was able to clue me in on race/class combos that he had to choose from, and what the current complete list of crew skills are.

RACE/CLASS COMBINATIONS:
Sith Warrior: Cyborg Veteran (human), Child of the Emperor (human), Sith Pureblood
Sith Inquisitor: Upstart Slave (human), Twi'lek Renegade, Zabrak Criminal
Bounty Hunter: Outlaw (human), Rattataki Gladiator, Cyborg Merc (human)
Imperial Agent: Military Officer (human), Cybernetic Experiment (human), Chiss Secret Police
Jedi Knight: Force Sensitive Orphan (human), Zabrak Swordsman, Miralukan Survivor
Jedi Consular: Jedi Scholar (human), Twi'lek Visionary, Mirialan Wanderer
Smuggler: Corellian Nomad (human), Twi'lek Rogue, Outer Rim Pirate (human)
Trooper: Republic Elite (human), Zabrak Guerrilla fighter, Outer Rim Veteran (human)

Crew Skills:
GATHERING
Bioanalysis, Research, Scavenging, Slicing

CRAFTING
Armormech, Armstech, Artificing, Biochem, Cybertech, Synthweaving

MISSION
Archaeology, Diplomacy, Treasure Hunting, Underworld Trading

[Tbone]

Hmm...how do you think those skills link together? Like what grants you materials for what. My guesses...

Archaeology = Artificing (lightsaber stuff)
Bioanalysis = Biochem (potions)
Slicing = Cybertech (uhh...robot stuff)
Scavenging = Armormech, Armstech, Synthweaving (armor, weapons, robes)

Although Archaeology isn't a gathering skill, so...hrmm...it would make more sense if research and archaeology were switched.

Researching = recipes?
Diplomacy = light/dark points
Treasure hunting = credits
Underworld = items

[Keeloth]

NOTE:  Talking to him further, the categories for the skills were not identified in the game, and are conjecture on his part.  So, Archaeology and Research could well be switched.  I definitely think it would make more sense for Archaeology to link to artificing.  

He didn't get to try everything, but he DID pick up Slicing.  It let him open random containers that he found with vendor trash inside them that he could sell for a pittance.  It didn't seem linked to any crafting skill.

[Strod]

OMG I WANT TO PLAY NOW NOW NOW!

[Subb]

RACE/CLASS COMBINATIONS:
Smuggler: Outer Rim Pirate (human)

I think you've just made Manic's year.

[Manic Velocity]

RACE/CLASS COMBINATIONS:
Smuggler: Outer Rim Pirate (human)

I think you've just made Manic's year.

Take my love... Take my land... Take me where I cannot stand...

Whoops.  Wrong universe.  :D