Star Wars: The Old Republic Random Question/Discussion thread - F2P

[Meko]

I don't see this game living for too long. It's a pretty stable game but there are some aggravations (imo) that override the stability. The little mini cutscenes for the voice dialogues...I was over them after about 5 seconds. The art style and graphics are weak (it's beta so we'll see...) and also the gear/equipment looks very bland/boring. In general, it felt very brown/grey throughout. It's stable though and the UI is simple and responsive.

[Guyverarmor]

Sometimes simple and responsive is what is needed Meko.

[Hyan]

I think that wasn't a complaint.

How is this game so damn big? 20 gb or some shit

Getting 1mb/sec and it's still gonna take forever to finish

[Man0warr]

6000 hours of voice acting.

I don't see this game living for too long. It's a pretty stable game but there are some aggravations (imo) that override the stability. The little mini cutscenes for the voice dialogues...I was over them after about 5 seconds. The art style and graphics are weak (it's beta so we'll see...) and also the gear/equipment looks very bland/boring. In general, it felt very brown/grey throughout. It's stable though and the UI is simple and responsive.

Graphics have never been the determining factor of an MMO's longevity, if anything a graphically demanding game can hurt the amount of subscribers they can expect.

Also, there are still a lot of locked video options in this beta. You can turn on a bunch of stuff (including AA and AS) in the ini files - I'm sure they will be included in-game options at release.

[Gokulo]

It doesn't have to be the best graphics if the art style is nice. If both things will be weak then there's a problem.

[Meko]

I think that wasn't a complaint.

How is this game so damn big? 20 gb or some shit

Getting 1mb/sec and it's still gonna take forever to finish

30g roughly. It's pretty huge. Most likely due to all the voice chat. Took the better part of a Saturday afternoon for me, lol.

[Hyan]

Well, the downloader is reliable but still... I'd rather download 30gb of HD assets than voice-overs :3

Can I play right now or do I need to wait for the weekend? I couldn't find the info.

[Guyverarmor]

I left it running overnight and it downloaded the whole thing.

As far as playing, wouldn't be able to Hyan unless it tells you in your invite the start time

[Man0warr]

Well, the downloader is reliable but still... I'd rather download 30gb of HD assets than voice-overs :3

Can I play right now or do I need to wait for the weekend? I couldn't find the info.

Only permanent beta testers can play during the week. Most invites are good for one weekend only, so you probably just installed it for nothing.

[vrumpt]

Well, the downloader is reliable but still... I'd rather download 30gb of HD assets than voice-overs :3

Can I play right now or do I need to wait for the weekend? I couldn't find the info.

what'd you get invited to? They are putting up a new build on thursday that requires reinstallation of the client for the normal testers, but i don't think they've started invites for the big stress test weekend yet.

[Guyverarmor]

I will say though, the forums have a lot of people that can be trolled WAY too easily

[Zerocool]

Yeah, the fanboys are about as bad as they were with FFXIV. Can't post feedback without 20 defensive little girls jumping in, screaming "ITS BETA!". Well no shit it's beta, that's why you give feedback. Probably not that it will matter considering some of the most asked for things are still not implemented a month before release. Things like an appearance tab, movable/re-sizable UI, better character creation, etc. I guess we'll see though.

[vrumpt]

Things like an appearance tab, movable/re-sizable UI, better character creation, etc. I guess we'll see though.

No chance in hell any of this is coming. What you see is what you get, albeit with less bugs. I doubt we'll ever see character creation get changed again; i have never seen or heard of existing races for MMOs get new character creation options after those races have launched. Its not fair to the people who have already made characters if they changed them later on, too much attachment to characters what whatnot.

I'm sure they have a fair number of changes and additions lined up for the first update though. I'll be surprised if there are any sweeping changes to anything between now and retail, its been bug squashing mode for these guys for a while now.

[Agito]

There's a new build coming out in 2 days, hopefully the shitty UI will get a major overhaul. It would be an absolute disaster for a mmorpg of this caliber to launch with the UI that is currently in place. Crappy Chinese F2P games have better UI, lol.

[Man0warr]

Eh? The UI is just as functional as any other MMO UI that's come out in the last 5 years. You can't resize or move much but it works. It's much better than FF14's UI that's for sure.

I doubt we will see a super modable UI like WoW's ever again - makes the game trivial and influenced their group and raid design too much.

[Alderaan]

If i can't resize or move elements, then it's not functional for me personally. The actual ui itself is fine other than not being able to see hp numbers and target of target.

[Zerocool]

Both WAR and Rift had movable/re-sizable UIs that you could move each unit frame wherever you wanted it and resize each one individually. It's really nice for being able to put your mini map where you want it, chat box, action bars, etc. Just because it's functional doesn't make it good. And you can't really compare anything to FFXIV because everything is better the FFXIV. For a game launching in 2011 I expect more.

[vrumpt]

UI can certainly be improved upon in a few areas, but its in no way a train wreck disaster. The current iteration works really well, I think the layout of all the elements is smart and gives you everything you need. I'd especially appreciate UI scaling and color or thematic changes though along with being able to move stuff around.

And unrelated, but we're probably gonna finally see achievements in the build on thursday

[Ezek]

This is why you allow custom UIs. The one thing I really miss from WoW was how customizable their user interface is. No single UI is going to be liked by everyone, you may as well give your consumers the ability to create their own.

[Man0warr]

It opens up a huge can of worms though.