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

[Greedouw]

The doomsayers are quite hilarious

(I feel good about 1.2)

[tol]

Gabe Amatangelo: It is not sanctioned behavior. In Game Update 1.2 we will be making changes to the Warzone rewards system, which will de-incentivize this type of behavior. This will include the removal of the interim bag/quest system, the introduction of the direct purchase of gear from Warzone and Ranked Warzone commendations, 14 new objective-based medals and participation scaling the rewards. Additionally, players will have the option to vote kick idlers. Kicked players will not be able to re-queue for several minutes.

Sounds like some very good changes to how PVP works atm. I'm excited for 1.2 because I think it's going to be a very successful update, which this game really needs if it wants to continue doing well/okay~

Bobonar: Will we be able to take the modifications out of our endgame pvp-sets and put them into a set that we like better (design-wise) and keep the bonuses?

Emmanuel Lusinchi: Yes, the set bonus will be carried by Armoring mods that work just like regular mods except that they only fit into specific types of items, such as chest items or boots items. So, for example, the set bonus from a chest piece can be moved to another chest piece, and the set bonus from a helmet can be moved to another helmet.

Here is what they are planning for making social items/orange gear usable for their looks instead of being forced into the tier sets.


There is more good questions/answers in their comm Q&A:
http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-feb-17th-2012

[Ohemgee]

Kotaku article about the trolled bioware writer

http://kotaku.com/5886674/bioware-wr...l-her-a-cancer

BioWare writer Jennifer Hepler is trying to delete her Twitter account as of yesterday after feeling the hate of gamers who are angry about what she apparently said in a 2006 interview.

She's been called terrible things on the Internet, after a flame that was lit by a post on Reddit calling Hepler, as the "cancer that is killing Bioware." She's worked on Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The original Reddit post that surfaced earlier this month was a screenshot of the BioWare forums with alleged comments from Hepler's interview with website Killer Betties.

Reddit /r/gaming moderator ohemeffgee removed the post for violating Reddiquette. He cited some of the problems:

1. It directly targets an individual. Keep in mind when you sharpen those pitchforks of yours that you're attacking actual human beings with feelings and basic rights. Follow the Golden Rule, please.
2. On top of that it cites quotes that the person in question never made. This person was getting harassing phone calls and emails based on something that they never did.

The link where the original interview from October 2006 was supposedly posted is now faulty, and in fact the entire site seems to be empty. But you can find the archived version here.

The cause of this uproar appears to have been her response to a question about what her least favorite thing about working in the gaming industry was. Her answer: "Playing the games." The original Reddit post featured a heavily edited version of the interview, which subtracted the fact that Hepler is expecting a child in the coming months, and therefore has a minimal amount of time to dedicate to gaming. She also mentioned that she finds it difficult to get immersed in a game that is not complemented by a good story: "While I enjoy the interactive aspects of gaming, if a game doesn't have a good story, it's very hard for me to get interested in playing it."

Hepler also seemed to anger some gamers with her suggestion to add a fast-forward button to skip combat in games, similar to the skip button for dialogue and in-game cinematics.

The biggest objection is usually that skipping the fight scenes would make the game so much shorter, but to me, that's the biggest perk. If you're a woman, especially a mother, with dinner to prepare, kids' homework to help with, and a lot of other demands on your time, you don't need a game to be 100 hours long to hold your interest — especially if those 100 hours are primarily doing things you don't enjoy. A fast forward button would give all players — not just women — the same options that we have with books or DVDs — to skim past the parts we don't like and savor the ones we do.

The original screencap posted on Reddit included the words: Cancer, Infection, Sewage, Plague. These are not light comments. Reddit's ohemeffgee also said that Hepler has been harassed with phone calls and emails from people echoing the statements made by Reddit user corporateswine, who uploaded the first Reddit post that spurred the witchhunt.

Hepler has also been receiving nasty Twitter replies. BioWare's Studio GM, Aaryn Flynn, rose to her defense against the attackers on Twitter, albeit perhaps not in the most PR-friendly manner possible.

Update: For the sake of balance, we should note that Hepler herself has responded with some fire of her own, Tweeting on Saturday, "I just figure they're jealous that I get to have both a vagina AND a games industry job, and they can't get either."

A YouTube video was created with instructions in the description to send "hate mail" to David Gaider, one of BioWare's other writers. The harassment has gone so far as to prompt the BioWare writer to try to delete her Twitter account.

Whether you agree with Hepler's comments on video games and her suggestions for making a better experience still does not excuse the treatment she's been receiving today.

We've reached out to EA PR for comment from Jennifer Hepler, and we'll post an update as soon as one is available.

[tol]

It's too bad she had the bad sense to write stupid shit on twitter then try and delete her twitter account.

[Rulke]

Is the AH global? Meaning no matter where you go, you are tapping into one big database? I was searching for some things on Nar Shaddaa and was surprised not to find any listed, got me wondering if each AH is specific its location.

[vrumpt]

Is the AH global? Meaning no matter where you go, you are tapping into one big database? I was searching for some things on Nar Shaddaa and was surprised not to find any listed, got me wondering if each AH is specific its location.

Nar Shaddaa is the only cross faction AH.

[mistmonster]

Speaking of the AH and cross faction related stuff. Just random questions and keep in mind I have never played a faction vs faction type MMO. Is it really necessary to have what I assume is 3 AH's? (Jedi, Empire Cross faction the cross faction on seems quite dead) Placement (also non existence) of them on planets seems stupid too.

Would it be game breaking if they allowed me to send goods and credits from my empire character to my Jedi alt on the same server. I wouldn't mind doing a Jedi alt but why can't it benefit from the time I put into endgame useless crafting. Crafting is only good for leveling alts it seems. Guess I can get around this by using the dead cross faction AH but what a pain.

one more random. Isn't the AH that is all the way over in the open PVP area on tatooine cross faction, not that anyone ever goes over there but still?

[Trichocyst]

The Tatooine ones are not cross faction. Who knows why they are in the Lawless Sands.

[Eldelphia]

Personally, I can put out a level capped character with decent equipment out in two weeks, maximum. And this is with minimal effort. My Sage, which was my first character? 50 and moderately PvP geared in a week, partially thanks to a non-shit draw on the RNG

If casuals can't hit 50 by the 3-4 week timeframe, then either:

a. They're putting 1-2 hours a night into the game
b. They suck, and are probably spending the rest of their time bitching on the Bioware forums about how difficult something is

Did I rush? Hell no. I barely put effort into the game, except for the few storyline or instance boss fights where I had to take off the kids gloves. Other than those few moments, this game hands you everything. I took some side excursions - instances with guildies, PvP, dicking around while crafting, etc. I still hit 50 quick.

As ever there's the usual amount of BS going on here. Yes, you can hit 50 fast. However, I played from launch, had 10 days off work where I was free to play as much as I wanted and it still took me longer than you're claiming to level to 50. If you can only play up to 3 hours a day (I can play more) then you're not hitting 50 in 2 weeks AND gearing it well. At all. If you have a flexible schedule where you're in school or college, don't have a family or a job you can afford to play 12 hrs a day then yeah I can see it. If you spend all your time in PVP, doing nothing else, I can see it.

However if you have a job, family or other commitments which take a sizable chunk of your normal day then you can't rush to 50. It doesn't take much but it takes more than what you're implying.

Bioware probably knows that March's update is going to make or break this. They may not want hardcore gamers honestly. I don't think it's tailored to em. Unfortunately there are a lot of hardcore gamers who wish it was. A lot of people are hitting their 40s now, casually or not. BW must know they're going to be under pressure to deliver the next chapter of content. I'm willing to wait and see, whilst enjoying other classes etc. If they drop the ball at that point, well it's been nice. Problem for me is I don't want to go back to Final Fantasy Voidwatch and I've never played WoW. Can't stand the way it looks.

[Eldelphia]

Nar Shaddaa is the only cross faction AH.

And, having just visited it, it's its own independent thing. Didn't have the Republic's stuff in from the fleet for sure.

[Kwijiboe]

I enjoy this game and have been full Rakata on my Sniper for a few weeks. However, people are leaving my guild in droves. Sure, it's a combination of frustration over endgame content and lackluster leadership (and the guild leader keeps posting his character on playerauctions.com), but what am I to do? I feel like I'm being forced to retire from this game.

I hope they introduce server transfers soon. If not, I will soon have no one to raid with. I could always find another guild, but man, that's a last resort atm.

[izembo]

As ever there's the usual amount of BS going on here. Yes, you can hit 50 fast. However, I played from launch, had 10 days off work where I was free to play as much as I wanted and it still took me longer than you're claiming to level to 50. If you can only play up to 3 hours a day (I can play more) then you're not hitting 50 in 2 weeks AND gearing it well. At all. If you have a flexible schedule where you're in school or college, don't have a family or a job you can afford to play 12 hrs a day then yeah I can see it. If you spend all your time in PVP, doing nothing else, I can see it.

However if you have a job, family or other commitments which take a sizable chunk of your normal day then you can't rush to 50. It doesn't take much but it takes more than what you're implying.

Bioware probably knows that March's update is going to make or break this. They may not want hardcore gamers honestly. I don't think it's tailored to em. Unfortunately there are a lot of hardcore gamers who wish it was. A lot of people are hitting their 40s now, casually or not. BW must know they're going to be under pressure to deliver the next chapter of content. I'm willing to wait and see, whilst enjoying other classes etc. If they drop the ball at that point, well it's been nice. Problem for me is I don't want to go back to Final Fantasy Voidwatch and I've never played WoW. Can't stand the way it looks.

i enjoy the game but c'mon, i work 50+ hours a week, wife and kid, and i still hit 50 in 3 weeks, and within 2 weeks later im a mixture of all champion/columi gear. really enjoying the story though so it really pushed me forward on that. gearing while leveling to an overextent is a massive waste of time

[Ambrosia]

I enjoy this game and have been full Rakata on my Sniper for a few weeks. However, people are leaving my guild in droves. Sure, it's a combination of frustration over endgame content and lackluster leadership (and the guild leader keeps posting his character on playerauctions.com), but what am I to do? I feel like I'm being forced to retire from this game.

I hope they introduce server transfers soon. If not, I will soon have no one to raid with. I could always find another guild, but man, that's a last resort atm.

Bioware will have to merge servers sooner or later. But chances are they are going to wait till later until some servers really do hit critically low numbers. They won't do it this soon because it will look really bad all around for such a huge AAA MMO title to have to merge so soon. Those folks that subscribed for 30 days only had their time run out I think a couple of days ago. Those that got the 60 day prepaid cards won't have their time run out till the beginning of the 3rd week of March.


So while I am sure the company is looking closely at population numbers and simultaneous log ins, I don't think they will act anytime sooner than that. If they make an announcement of merges it most likely won't happen till the end of Spring with the actual merger happening till sometime during the summer at the earliest. Granted all MMOs do have some sort of decline especially during the 1st couple of months, but let's hope it isn't a nosedive. News travel much faster today than let's say 5-10 years ago, so they need that PR balancing act.


They are hoping that the incoming patches will bring in new players as well as some of those that left. If they put stuff like dungeon finder it might help (but considering the content is so easy from level 1-49) I am not sure how much this or other tactics will help in the long run. As a worst case scenario they might change the current range of light-medium-heavy-full on servers as well as their formulas and make it dynamic instead of static so things don't look so bad.


Jeez the leader is already selling his toon eh? O: For shame.

[Ohemgee]

You can't turn this discussion thread without complaining about something. Albeit the game is very polished, it automatically translates in large periods of time when content isn't released. When they release a new FP and Raid, its not really adding much dynamic content to the game. There's so much potential this game (planet raids, world raids, world events, world event dailies, open pvp on x worlds that isn't illum, pvp flashpoints). The lack of information (making legacy system secret and kind of moot if you think about it) and lack of aggressive content release kind of sucks.

[Rabidelly]

Been playing since launch, still only 41 Gunslinger and a 14 Sorcerer. I just do whatever I feel like and mostly level with my boyfriend. I would like to see more social aspects of the game, and more storyline/fights done the way FFXI did. Fuck yeah CoP.

[Bilopdop]

Any lists that shows every Datacron for each planet?

[Noobta]

Any lists that shows every Datacron for each planet?

http://www.swtor-spy.com/datacrons/

[Carth]

As ever there's the usual amount of BS going on here. Yes, you can hit 50 fast. However, I played from launch, had 10 days off work where I was free to play as much as I wanted and it still took me longer than you're claiming to level to 50. If you can only play up to 3 hours a day (I can play more) then you're not hitting 50 in 2 weeks AND gearing it well. At all. If you have a flexible schedule where you're in school or college, don't have a family or a job you can afford to play 12 hrs a day then yeah I can see it. If you spend all your time in PVP, doing nothing else, I can see it.

Just wanted to say that I got the game on Dec 27th, and I got my level 50 in just a little over a month (Feb 3rd), and I tested out a few classes, deleted a few characters, had to jump servers to play with a friend, level with an MMO buddy, and eventually grew to have six alts which had various levels (two alts are 30+), two of which I play with other friends who got the game later than me. I also don't play on Saturdays and skipped various days to concentrate on college. All of this was before I settled on one class and got it to 50.

It is extremely easy to get level 50 in this game, rushed content or not. Doesn't help that literally everything you do in this game gives a great amount of XP, especially when considering Heroics/Flashpoints.

[Hitoru]

Yeah, I'm a 50 Gunslinger atm in a mix of columni and rakata and a 50 sentinel with mostly columni on zez kai-ell. Server's pop is so small that there's only one or two guilds on republic that run hard modes/ops and the overall population with any columni is limited to maybe 15 or so of us, lol. Ilum's a wasteland until the usual group of 5 sith show up and we run out to rip them new assholes, but that's about the extent of excitement that happens on our server at any given time. A merge or cross-server stuff would be fantastic as we'll actually be able to run things instead of wondering when that one sage or trooper healer logs on to do stuff.

[Trichocyst]

1.1.5 will allow you to do Ilum Dailies in War Zones and 1.2 will feature cross server PVP. Dunno about PVE. It sounds like they seriously need to consider a server merge though.