New SWTOR Impressions

[Manic Velocity]

 I didn't really feel challenged at all.  Especially when I got my first companion, then I was taking out mobs at lightning speed.
 

I actually felt like I was too weak playing as a smuggler until I got a companion and then wiped everyone out. Of course I played a couple months ago so things are balanced and mob density is more balanced as well, I'm assuming.

I chalked it up to the fact that it was only the starting world.  I imagine Bioware wants the player to feel powerful even at the lowest level.  I just wish it was a little bit harder, so I don't feel like I'm being handed XP on a silver platter.

We need to get together at launch - I'm going gunslinger with my main.

Same.  I think the smuggler fits us both quite well.

[Eroz]

We need to get together at launch - I'm going gunslinger with my main.

Same.  I think the smuggler fits us both quite well.

I say we buck the system and make the Ad Astra, a Smuggler order. We could control the flow of information and goods among the galaxies! Muahhahahaha. *+50 Dark Side*

[eeth]

I was impressed. But since I had already seen some leaked streams and heard lots of good things, I can't say that I was blown away or it was above my expectations. I had pretty high expectations and they were met. It seems like the next logical/cinematic evolution of the current winner of the MMO market. Which I am fine with.

I played a bounty hunter to level 16, went merc, which is the mirror to my intended trooper/commando/combat medic. The class seems very very versatile with some nice burst damage. Long fights seem like heat/ammo management might be an issue. Hard to really judge from this low level though.

There were minor irritations with some UI things, as Strod and Manic mentioned. I got to enjoy all three warzones multiple times from level 10-16 (seemed like very very good XP IMO) and my biggest complaint in this area was the Huttball zone due to overly laggy conditions. Positioning and timing is so important in that warzone, it seemed like when you'd try to time knockbacks and stuns, due to lag someone would end up on the complete opposite side of you by the time your ability went off. I noticed a heal castbar continue for the full duration one time when I cast a heal and immediately moved. So there was at a minimum 2.5 seconds of lag to the server and back.

One other standout was when I was playing against what I assume was a very laggy trooper individual who was jumping all over one of the side gun bases in Alderan. It was as if the game couldn't reconcile his jumpy/erratic movement and his lag, so it was putting his character UNDER the platform (which is supposed to be a solid chunk).

There seemed to be some issues like that where the game predicts where people are going and shows entirely the wrong thing until the server updated where they were, which lead to a lot of ridiculous teleports from time to time. If that gets worked out before live, I'll be a very happy man.

[Tbone]

Weird, I've never had any of the problems you described Eeth. I can honestly say I didn't experience any lag while playing last weekend, and I did the warzones several times.

[Fuse]

I only saw lag once, and that was an odd situation. It seemed the whole server lagged out for cutscenes and did a loop. I had to relog and then it was fine.

[Phienyx]

I am playing this weekend and Played the previous weekend as as well.  I'm disappointed.  The game runs smooth for me.  It looks pretty nice....if very cartoonish.  However, what bugs me to no end is that it seems like a generic MMORPG with a Star Warsy overhaul.  There doesn't seem to be much more to do than delivery, kill and I'm sure there will be some escort missions.  There doesn't seem to be anything that makes one character in a particular class unique in any way than the next.  There may be a different combination of all the same equiptment, clothing, skills and powers.  

Maybe I haven't played enough to see the depth that the game has to offer, but as much as I want to love it, I am not impressed at all. Everything you do, it seems that you are led around by the nose.  There doesn't seem to be anything you can do on your own or as a group that makes any difference in the TOR universe.  Is the extent of interacting with other players simply the difference between running missions solo and running missions as a group?  What am I missing here?  How is this game any different than WOW?  ...because I'm bored already.  It doesn't seem like anything I do makes any difference at all.

Forget the WOW killer.  I'm looking for the EVE Online killer.

[Subb]

A Welshman's perspective:

Bear in mind, I was playing as a Jedi Knight, as I wish to roll a Jedi Shadow upon release (as well as every other Republic and Empire class :S). As the great Kel once said, 'Awww, here it goes!'

Bloody fantastic. I have a research project to hand in in about 3 weeks and I keep on coming back. Thank God it's only for this weekend! At first, I was like Phienyx, not thinking that this game was any different from the other MMO's. But once I relaxed into the game and got over the somewhat clunky combat system (although, my 30 minute Imperial Agent taster was much smoother - perhaps ranged combatants are easier/more fluid to control?) I loved it. At the moment, I don't feel as if I'm running around gathering things etc as per other MMOs - the story and cinematics add brilliant depth and immersion. So far, I'm loving the characters and story - the two integral components of an RPG and thus, an awesome game.

[Tbone]

I am playing this weekend and Played the previous weekend as as well.  I'm disappointed.  The game runs smooth for me.  It looks pretty nice....if very cartoonish.  However, what bugs me to no end is that it seems like a generic MMORPG with a Star Warsy overhaul.  There doesn't seem to be much more to do than delivery, kill and I'm sure there will be some escort missions.  There doesn't seem to be anything that makes one character in a particular class unique in any way than the next.  There may be a different combination of all the same equiptment, clothing, skills and powers.  

Maybe I haven't played enough to see the depth that the game has to offer, but as much as I want to love it, I am not impressed at all. Everything you do, it seems that you are led around by the nose.  There doesn't seem to be anything you can do on your own or as a group that makes any difference in the TOR universe.  Is the extent of interacting with other players simply the difference between running missions solo and running missions as a group?  What am I missing here?  How is this game any different than WOW?  ...because I'm bored already.  It doesn't seem like anything I do makes any difference at all.

Forget the WOW killer.  I'm looking for the EVE Online killer.

If you don't like MMORPGs, then you won't like SWTOR. It's not making a new genre. It's being the best at a genre that already exists. So what else is there to this game?

1. Fully voiced cinematics. If you're skipping through them, then that's why you don't "get it". There's eight different class stories to participate in, so don't just try one character.

2. Flashpoints. 1.5 hour cinematic 4-man experiences that have many different ways to complete them, including interesting boss fights.

3. PvP. Pick your poison. Warzones, open PvP with objectives, FFA PvP - it's all there, even for PvE servers.

4. Crew Skills - a different way of crafting. Try it. You'll wonder why no one else thought of it.

5. Datacrons and Matrix Cubes - If you don't know what this is, go do your homework and come back. Rewards for exploration.

6. World Bosses - I've yet to take one of these monsters down.

7. Operations - "Raids" of SWTOR. End game stuff that I've also yet to do.

8. Space combat - Play it if you miss Star Fox.

9. Beautiful beautiful realized Star Wars planets. Hold judgement until you get to Tatooine.

That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. I don't remember seeing you in Teamspeak, so I'm assuming you just played by yourself. Like any game, it's what you make it, and if you're looking for the least common denominator, then that's what you're going to find. Thinking it would be like EVE Online is a very unrealistic mindset if you did any research on the game at all.

It takes things that WoW and EQ did and made them bigger, cleaner, funner (heh), and made them make sense. I've played level 1-20 about 10 times and still don't feel a grind. I've gone all the way through to level 50 and still didn't want it to end. Furthest I was able to get in WoW was level 16 (forcing myself to). Rift? Level...6, maybe? Aion? 10? LOTRO? Maybe...20ish? SWTOR sets a whole new bar.

[NoCry]

although I only had about 4 or 5 hours in game I loved it. Good fun, not sense of grind and a nice skill progression. Things I wanted to try but did not manage were:

A. Pvp; obviously.
B. Crafting.
C. Any sort of travel.

My only small gripe was I thought the graphics could have been better. I had it on the highest settings (although no aa) but was a little disappointed. As I say however, gameplay more than made up for it.

Only other thing - no lag; at all even on an east coast US server.

[Phienyx]

Perhaps I'll hold judgement until I get a little further in to the story.  

Yes, I listened to all the dialogue and ran around dutifully doing everything asked of me.  I don't expect it to be like Eve Online as there are few developers out there that are willing to risk something like that (rather I shouldl blame that on the people behind the developers with the money), but a little more depth of game play and the ability for a group to make a noticable difference and not just a scripted difference in what goes on in the "universe".  And I consider Eve to be the ultimate MMORPG with plenty of room to grow.  I do not think it is too much for me to expect a little more from an MMORPG when I know it is possible.  After all, this is based on the Star Wars universe and I just don't think its been given the respect it deserved in the MMORPG department yet.

Now, you did make a point. I am a social gamer and it is probalby a much more enjoyable experience with fellow FA members, so that is most likely where I eff'd up so I will adjust my point of view and give continue to evaluate.

[likwidtek]

EVE is a sandbox.  Very little organized preplanned game content but a while universe of do whatever you want.  

SWTOR is a linear theme parkish MMO that's primarily focused on the story of your hero.  

TOTALLY different games.

[Manic Velocity]

EVE and TOR both fulfill their respective niches extremely well.

I love EVE for its expansive nature. It's designed to allow the player to form their own playstyle. There is little structure to the gameplay, which allows for a metric fuck-ton of possibilities. It's primarily a blank slate. EVE is whatever game you make of it.

TOR on the other hand, was obviously designed from the start as a means to tell a story. And so far, I can't think of any other MMO that accomplishes this so well. Yes, the quests are rather cookie-cutter, and they do take you by the hand and guide you through the story. In much the same way that a book does. It's not a bad thing.

[Zortarg]

so i "finished" my first beta weekend.

so far i see positives and negatives.

i played a jedi sage to lvl 18 (jes just got my starship) and a jidi knight to lvl 7. a smuggler to lvl 5 and a trooper; well the trooper never reached lvl 3...

trooper: did not like the gameplay at all... not my style of playing
smuggler: was fun but the still heavy bugged cover system took that away so i stopped again.
knight: the jumping in the enemy from above is fun, but still not my prefered playstyle.
sage: well as you can see with my lvls this is the char i had most fun. well i always loves to play "mage" style characters and so here i am again.

overall this is still beta. there is still a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed.
- i had no portraits all the time, no item preview no character view in char window...
- sometime you dont have lip movement in the scences.
- taxis trail is not realy realistic and looks crapy.
and a lot more. but mostly for a beta you can live with that.

cons:
for someone who has played wow for three and a half years i have to say its a bit too close to that. i still think that is where they want to get the most players from so i can understand their reasons. but if the high end content is too similar to wow (grinding raids, grinding battlegrounds for just the next set of tier items) then i will not last for more then the storryline.

the skill trees reminds me way too much of wow. just some stupid boni here and there. i liked the system that RIFT had way better. (rift had me bored after a few months too becuse the high end content was the same as wow. but better in character progression, raids and mosty anything else.) for me its too simple. and too much of a copy/paste from wow. i hope that this will not be a too big of an slow down for the fun factor. not enough room for costumization.

space fights are the biggest bullshit i have ever seen in a mmo. well this is no more as a arcade space sim shooting game. you can not even control where you ship is flying. heaviely disapointed. (well maybe not. we knew it was like that from all the youtube vids ^^)

the quests are similar to other mmos. not that much of a diffrence. but that brings me to the pros:


pros:
the story is nice, and i enjoyed my questing as my jedi consular. jes its mostly similar to other mmos but you have at least some smaller choices what brings it a bit closer to rpg. all other mmos ar just mmos. no rpgs. well gere at last you have some rpg elements and that makes it way more intresting to listen to the story. all other mmos that i played only have take the quest or leave the quest. here you have choices. sometimes your choices have a meaning at least for your character. sometiimes they are bigger, sometimes they are smaller, somtimes they are insignificant.

besides that the voiceacting is good. i liked it mostly in all dialogs. but only in the english version. the german version (i saw at a friend of mine. i dont play german anyway) is realy bad.

the companion system is realy nice. i dont like that fucking reptile i have atm, but i like the system. after we failed in a heroic 4 group phase with 4 players and 2 stupid players with us (breaking ccs and no focus fire at all) we did go in again with 2 players and our 2 compainions. it was not easy, i nearly always ended the fight with no force left to whiled, but we did it and it worked. was hard but doable. so you can do things as group even if its ment for more players and you are a bit short on ppl, but are good enough that you can compensate with you and your companions.

the grafics are ok. it looks good. some complain about it but i think its ok. wow is way more comic than this one. besides photo realism wount work in a mmo. i like it ist good as it is (when the bugs are gone... =) ).

to my class as sage as dd: i realy liked it. of cource with lvl 18 there are still a lot of things to get and to find out, but so far it was enjoiable. i tryed to skip the healing part, but sometimes in a group you just had to do it. for now it still workes with a dd spec, but i guess later on this will not be anymore of good use, and a healer spec is required (not form me then... =) )


over all:
i think it is worth a try. i will play this game. the story and the rpg part of the game is fun. what happens after that is a question that i can only answer i can only aswer in the next year. so we will see how it will work out.

best regards...
zort

[Ketamininja]

OK, so I got a few hours on beta - took the time to familiarise myself with the interface and work my smuggler up to level 10. Yeah, I didn't have a lot of time.

I have heard that this client has been "stripped back" a little, so some bugs or missing things (portraits) isn't bugging me. I understand that they were stressing the servers so client side stuff was not important, PLUS they likely stripped some things out to cut on traffic as they would have been monitoring specific processes.

So I'm not really gonna comment on the client - once all the last items are added to the client, this should be f'n sweet. The only thing I'm gonna comment on is my choice as smuggler, and I did think it was a little clunky in places. The story was good and suited a smuggler... but the main "hide behind something" did take some getting used to - sometimes a hide spot wouldn't appear (where you thought there was clearly a valid spot). Sometimes rolling to a spot that DID appear didn't quite work. It took a while, but after a bit you could just about judge how to approach a situation....! That does require good client - server interaction as when you hide it MUST flag it on the server to allow dodge and misses to be calculated correctly etc etc.


A little annoying trying to find cover or just "crouch" in the middle of an open field just to get access to most of your ranged abilities. DPS was good though! There seemed to be a lack of healers on the sever I was on -- LFG shouts for healer all over, so I think I will stick with smuggler to see where it goes.

[Manic Velocity]

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

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