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

[Shiyo]

Have they pretty much giving up on trying to fix this game, and just trying to get as much money as they can before its dead?

Considering they just charged people $10-$15(or was it $10-$20?) for a content update that's completely free in other mmo's(free to play mmo's, and even sub ones actually release more content in a content update for free), and even charged people still paying $15/month $10 for this content update, I'd say yes. 100% fucking yes.

[Hioki]

Considering they just charged people $10-$15(or was it $10-$20?) for a content update that's completely free in other mmo's(free to play mmo's, and even sub ones actually release more content in a content update for free), and even charged people still paying $15/month $10 for this content update, I'd say yes. 100% fucking yes.

You failed to note that the content update offered about another 30~ hours of content. TBH that's more content than most anticipated game releases in the past few years priced at $60.

The question should be: Was the content any good to spend the $10?

Not to seem the swtor fanboy. But it wasn't much worse then some of the recent console games that have released. It's worth doing if you were just in it for the story anyways.

I'd say toss some of the jaded visions away for a bit and realize the game HAS gotten much better since release. Playing for 30mins and tossing it to the side isn't an issue with the game but with the player not willing to try to see more than the bad aspects. SWTOR has done pretty well for itself after going F2P. Clearly they are doing something right.

[ringthree]

You failed to note that the content update offered about another 30~ hours of content. TBH that's more content than most anticipated game releases in the past few years priced at $60.

The question should be: Was the content any good to spend the $10?

Not to seem the swtor fanboy. But it wasn't much worse then some of the recent console games that have released. It's worth doing if you were just in it for the story anyways.

I'd say toss some of the jaded visions away for a bit and realize the game HAS gotten much better since release. Playing for 30mins and tossing it to the side isn't an issue with the game but with the player not willing to try to see more than the bad aspects. SWTOR has done pretty well for itself after going F2P. Clearly they are doing something right.

There is definitely tinted vision here, but I don't think it is the jaded side.

[vrumpt]

Have they pretty much giving up on trying to fix this game, and just trying to get as much money as they can before its dead?

It's not dying, its been heavily growing since going f2p. Some stuff like Soa they didn't bother fixing entirely, but he's old news now so its no big deal. All of the new ops are comparatively completely bug free.

I resubbed last month (don't even bother with the f2p/preferred version) and am enjoying myself again. The expansion was absolutely worth $10. Story content was very Bioware and quite good compared to the stuff they've released for other games recently(hi ME3). I thought the story was better than the Leviathan DLC for example. There are also some pretty epic 1 time missions included here that make me really hoping they're making new flashpoints soon because OMG Bioware has finally found their stride when it comes to story content. I think the new raid is a total snoozefest though. By far the biggest let down of the expansion.

The game didn't go through some ARR level of revision in the last year or anything. If you hated it a year ago you'll probably still hate it today. The main difference now though is that instead of firing people they're hiring people and churning out new stuff all the time. The deal with the cash shop stuff is almost all of it can be sold on the AH. I just bought full account wide inventory for both bank and main inventory for about a mil. Every character I make in the future will automatically start with full inventory and all 5 bank tabs. And again, everything can be sold on the AH. I bought a few of the mounts they just added to the cash shop on the AH for like 50k credits. The armor you buy are just shells and don't have any stats attached to it, so there's no p2w anywhere. There's a huge selection of armor looks available now (bounty hunter getting the shaft atm though, gdi) and its pretty awesome.

So yeah, its pretty cool. I came back just in time for 2.0 and don't regret it even a little bit.

[Kelenae]

It's not dying, its been heavily growing since going f2p. Some stuff like Soa they didn't bother fixing entirely, but he's old news now so its no big deal. All of the new ops are comparatively completely bug free.

I resubbed last month (don't even bother with the f2p/preferred version) and am enjoying myself again. The expansion was absolutely worth $10. Story content was very Bioware and quite good compared to the stuff they've released for other games recently(hi ME3). I thought the story was better than the Leviathan DLC for example. There are also some pretty epic 1 time missions included here that make me really hoping they're making new flashpoints soon because OMG Bioware has finally found their stride when it comes to story content. I think the new raid is a total snoozefest though. By far the biggest let down of the expansion.

The game didn't go through some ARR level of revision in the last year or anything. If you hated it a year ago you'll probably still hate it today. The main difference now though is that instead of firing people they're hiring people and churning out new stuff all the time. The deal with the cash shop stuff is almost all of it can be sold on the AH. I just bought full account wide inventory for both bank and main inventory for about a mil. Every character I make in the future will automatically start with full inventory and all 5 bank tabs. And again, everything can be sold on the AH. I bought a few of the mounts they just added to the cash shop on the AH for like 50k credits. The armor you buy are just shells and don't have any stats attached to it, so there's no p2w anywhere. There's a huge selection of armor looks available now (bounty hunter getting the shaft atm though, gdi) and its pretty awesome.

So yeah, its pretty cool. I came back just in time for 2.0 and don't regret it even a little bit.

Ya i'm having fun as well. Guild i'm in got a ton of new people plus people coming back to the game because of the expansion allowing us to do 16 mans. This is diffidently keeping my interest tell Phase 3 for ffxiv

[GoggleHead]

Its not any better, it's more expensive and... well that's it.

How is it more expensive? Did sub prices go up after it went F2P or something?

[vrumpt]

How is it more expensive? Did sub prices go up after it went F2P or something?

Nope. ringthree's just painting the picture he wants to see.

The game is as expensive as you want to make it. If you wanna play for free and just buy (with credits or with cash) the parts of the game you want to unlock, that's up to you. If you wanna sub up, that's up to you. The sub price is still the same and you can respec for free, remove mods for cheaper, get 500 cartel coins a month (+100 if you have a security key, separate from sub), and will get discounts on the character re-creation station coming next week. This F2P model is actually pretty fucking nefarious, so I recommend subscribing if you give even the slightest of fucks about swtor.

[ringthree]

How is it more expensive? Did sub prices go up after it went F2P or something?

You are paying for increments of content that you get free in most games.

I am definitely painting a picture, but it is not of the hold-outs and the true believers. Of course people that still play will post about how great it is now, but general reviews of the most recent patch are that you it is not something you should be paying for.

The some of the aspects of pay 2 play aren't that bad, someone above mentioned that, but I am talking about fundamental flaws in the game like combat, general glitches, poor graphical fidelity, etc.

Of course, the true believers would tell you that everything is fixed. It's not. Try it for yourself, it is free after all.

[Anoat]

The reputation and achievements system is a pretty neat addition and some achievements can reward you with cartel coins. My only complaint about the achievements however is that not all of them are retroactive. For example, I had been playing for almost 9 months before the achievement system was in place, so I had 5 characters at 50 already. The game could recognize and give me achievements for completing chapters, getting max companion affection, maps surveyed, etc. But it had no way of knowing how many people I've killed in PVP, or how many enemies I killed with X companion active, or how many times I completed certain flashpoints. Kind of annoying but I can deal.

[vrumpt]

The reputation and achievements system is a pretty neat addition and some achievements can reward you with cartel coins. My only complaint about the achievements however is that not all of them are retroactive. For example, I had been playing for almost 9 months before the achievement system was in place, so I had 5 characters at 50 already. The game could recognize and give me achievements for completing chapters, getting max companion affection, maps surveyed, etc. But it had no way of knowing how many people I've killed in PVP, or how many enemies I killed with X companion active, or how many times I completed certain flashpoints. Kind of annoying but I can deal.

Yeah, but none of that stuff was tracked before 2.0 so it just couldn't happen. Apparently there are a bunch of rare named mobs on planets too that have achievements now for killing all of them. Completionists have a ton to go for now in 2.0.

[AzazaelFenrir]

You are paying for increments of content that you get free in most games.

They had 1 expansion for $10. They also have given a fair amount of content prior to this. There are games that give more content for free sure, but there are also a ton of games (looking at almost any game that is on a console) that charge close to the same for their DLC, and you get way less.

[GoggleHead]

The some of the aspects of pay 2 play aren't that bad, someone above mentioned that, but I am talking about fundamental flaws in the game like combat, general glitches, poor graphical fidelity, etc.

So you're talking out of your ass then? Why didn't you say so sooner?

[ringthree]

So you're talking out of your ass then? Why didn't you say so sooner?

You are fully in the tank if you think this game is up to the graphical standards of the day. And that is after the whole high-definition models that they claimed were in the game, then walked back, then added later which are still far behind what you should expect in this day and age.

AzazaelFenrir, what I mean is that while the content in their "expansion" was nice, it was not much more than you would expect from other MMO's major updates. To call it an expansion is to stretch the meaning of the word in context. It also begs the question of the f2p model that they have adopted, but that is obviously evolving.

[vrumpt]

AzazaelFenrir, what I mean is that while the content in their "expansion" was nice, it was not much more than you would expect from other MMO's major updates. To call it an expansion is to stretch the meaning of the word in context. It also begs the question of the f2p model that they have adopted, but that is obviously evolving.

First off, you don't have the right to judge what is in it even a little fucking bit, because you haven't played it. You call it "nice", and you're a fucking retard for doing so because you sit here criticizing a game you've had a negative judgement around since before launch and don't even play. You haven't seen whats in it, you don't get to judge if it was worth the money you haven't spent.

Second, as Aza said, its only $10. Thats less than map packs for CoD. That's the same amount people paid for Leviathan and From Ashes in ME3. What you get for $10 is better than all of those by a wide margin. I know, because I've actually played it. And for the record, I went in with a pretty mild opinion, and came out very pleasently surprised (as did everybody else if you weren't out cherry picking biased negative reviews, if you even actually looked any up).

It was definitely more of a mini-expansion than a full fledged expansion you'd get from Rift or WoW, but it was also priced appropriately. They didn't charge $40 for this and an extra $20 for the version with a pet and an item for a completely different game.

Bottom line, terminology aside, it was worth the money.

[GoggleHead]

You're out of your fucking mind if you think SWTOR's graphics aren't gorgeous. People tossed similar shit around when Guild Wars 2 came out and they were every bit as wrong and moronic as you are.

[vrumpt]

You're out of your fucking mind if you think SWTOR's graphics aren't gorgeous. People tossed similar shit around when Guild Wars 2 came out and they were every bit as wrong and moronic as you are.

Yeah, sorry but no. They're acceptable at best. They look crappy up close because of the low res of everything and the look crappy far away because of how their engine handles rendering far away stuff makes everything choppy and pixely at 4 fps. The art style choice was a flop because while their reason was so that low end machines could run it, they still couldn't because their coding sucks ass. Even high end machines were stressed because of how shitty a job Bioware's coders did. So in the end, we got a shitty looking game the runs horribly instead of a shitty looking game that flows at 60 fps for everybody.

Bioware really dropped the ball in the graphics and performance department.

[GoggleHead]

You're all crazy, the game looks perfectly fine aside from the standard clipping issues.

[vrumpt]

It works, sure, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish SWTOR looked more like this:


Considering the amount of people who were turned off solely on graphics alone, it would be amazing if they could somehow pull off a mini-ARR and give us new textures for everything.

[Hioki]

It works, sure, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish SWTOR looked more like this:


Considering the amount of people who were turned off solely on graphics alone, it would be amazing if they could somehow pull off a mini-ARR and give us new textures for everything.

Not sure I would. Fixing up texture issues? sure. Refinishing the entire game for a player base that missed the selling point (the story)? No way. That would just be a waste of time and resources.

Would figure that so many veteran FFXI players that frequent these forums would have a more open view about gaming than best graphics.

The graphics are acceptable is the best way to approach SWTOR. They are far from 'gorgeous' or 'bad'. The graphics are also not the selling point of the game. They assist it but don't make the reason for buying into it in the first place.

[Meresgi]

^Gotta agree with Vrumpt, SWTOR and GW2 graphics are just passable to me, they are on par with what WoW does with the "artistic" version of what they want. They look unique, but so does someone who has 12 fingers and 1 eyeball.

You're all crazy, the game looks perfectly fine aside from the standard clipping issues.

All screenshots i can see are not "breathtaking" or "amazing" in any regards, but please feel free to post some undoctored images, as i'm curious. I played the game a few times around launch on my friends PC to try it out and wasn't impressed at all with the visuals.