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

[Katlan]

I mean, it sucks that not everybody likes it, but i don't think anybody was expecting that. I'll still need to play it myself eventually to see what specifically everybody is bitching about though, cuz from the videos i'm not really seeing anything significant to give it a 0/10 (or anywhere near it). Whats your friend's background with MMOs?

He has played WoW for over 5 years, tried Korean TERA to make sure he liked it (he does), tried XIV... but yeah... enough said there, played some XI for about a year, played rift for about 2 months, played Aion for 6 month'
ish. I'll get better opinions from him as he plays more, he only played like 2ish hours when he told me the above. And he will let me play later.

His main thing is that combat is the same from alpha, and he found it boring before.

[DeathbySnoosnoo]

His main thing is that combat is the same from alpha, and he found it boring before.

if its the same as alpha then its its basically like wow or eq2 combat which is spam lil hotkeys till it dies, no strategy, just tap 1-0 on the keyboard till it dies... i havent played tera but it looks like the combat is alot more fun. i played ffxi for a long time while while it was just spamming macros at least you run the risk of dying if you dont pay attention and use some strategy , i never once had that problem on wow or eq2, just tap your highest dmging and healing hotkeys over and over.

[Foxer]

You knew it was going to have auto target. Your TERA is the only one, pretty much, without auto-target. We'll know within a year or so whether its the "future" or not.

How would I know? I rarely see gameplay on this shit. Who said anything about a future, BTW? Dragon Nest? Games you don't know of count. Just sayin'.

[Zerocool]

You knew it was going to have auto target. Your TERA is the only one, pretty much, without auto-target. We'll know within a year or so whether its the "future" or not.

Edit: It looks like the parry stat is probably going to play a much bigger role in this game than in others (as it should, given the sheer amount of parrying that goes on in the movies and in practice). I also wonder about that knockdown ability - it seems to last a goodly bit of time. I wonder if there's going to be traits or gear that reduce or lengthen the amount of time that it lasts. Wouldn't want to see another Juggernaut fallout with warriors chain-stunning everyone around them.

Well as far as PvP goes, everyone will have a "CC gauge" that fills up whenever you get CC'd. Bigger CC's like knock-downs and stuns fill up the bar faster than say snares or knock backs. When the bar is full, you're immune to CC. And I believe the bar slowly lowers if you haven't been hit with CC for a while. You can also see other player's CC bars as well, so you can use your control abilities a bit more strategically. Also I believe every class gets a CC break ability around level 16 or so.

[Lucavi]

I like that, Zero; that sounds interesting, and I think its a good idea that others can see your bar, as it might get away from the "one button do-all" macros that are chock full of debuffs, snares, roots, and then DPS abilities, depending on what's on cooldown.

@Foxer: Are you trolling, or did you really think that a game whose combat is essentially built off of WoW's platform would have enough "innovation" to break away from tab and auto-targeting? C'mon.

Clearly their innovation is bringing Bioware's now-classic choice-based story progression into a MMO. I don't think this game is going to have anything (outside of possibly the aforementioned CC bar, which I like) that's going to revolutionize the genre for combat.

[Selamis]

The one thing I hope they do with the choice based story progression, is make it like Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, where you could grow towards a side (light/dark) based on the choice and actions you make and affecting what powers you get. I hope it's not just pick a side and then you have choices and what you pick changes the outcome of the cutscene or w/e.

[vrumpt]

The one thing I hope they do with the choice based story progression, is make it like Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, where you could grow towards a side (light/dark) based on the choice and actions you make and affecting what powers you get. I hope it's not just pick a side and then you have choices and what you pick changes the outcome of the cutscene or w/e.

choices definitely go beyond the simple outcomes of the related conversations. Honestly have no idea what Bioware settled on as to specifically what is affected by your light/dark side standing though, they've been relatively in the dark about it because they're still deciding.

[Foxer]

@Foxer: Are you trolling, or did you really think that a game whose combat is essentially built off of WoW's platform would have enough "innovation" to break away from tab and auto-targeting? C'mon.

Definitely not trolling, troll. I think I speak for many here when I say this game would probably be better off with a free-target battle system, as opposed to what it has shown so far. You can't say that for all games, but it feels right here. That, and it's been in the making since the first movie hit theaters. You don't always have to pretend to be right, you know?

[Lucavi]

I'm not asking whether the game would or would not have been better with a free-target system; I'm asking you if you seriously thought that a game with an essential carbon-copy ripoff of the "government standard" MMO combat/movement system would have then slapped a relatively obscure and unique free-target system on it. It has nothing to do with pretending or anything;its a simple act of counting the dots in the sky that follow a path. The second we all saw the standard-ish UI and HUD, we could have made a safe assumption about much of the combat system.

All of us would have been pretty much correct at that point, for better or for worse. The troll question was quite rhetorical, by the way.

[Elcura]

You two definitely need to get a room lol

For better or worse though, it just seems like a WoW variant which kills my interest in the gameplay side, but it's still Star Wars (and Bioware storytelling), I'm sure people will give it a chance based on that.

[Lucavi]

Of course it'll get a chance, but will it retain subs? That's been the crux of the issue since we first heard about a new Star Wars MMO.

Just show the damned PVP; its a lot easier to design new PVP content than PVE ('specially when you've got to fully VA everything from NPCs to your own player's voice). PVP will keep blood pumping through this game while the devs are off scrambling for more content.

[Zerocool]

The one thing I hope they do with the choice based story progression, is make it like Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, where you could grow towards a side (light/dark) based on the choice and actions you make and affecting what powers you get. I hope it's not just pick a side and then you have choices and what you pick changes the outcome of the cutscene or w/e.

I think they did hint at certain skills and gear being alignment based. Also certain lightsaber crystal colors are alignment based as well. i.e. only darksiders can use red crystals. And of course, it will start to change your appearance like in the KOTOR games as well. The main difference in this game is, that your choices are final once you make them. No going back, so your choices will matter a lot more than in the console games. Say if you choose to kill one of your companions, they're dead forever.

[vrumpt]

Something else they touched on was jedi knights being able to equip red crystals if they accumulate enough dark side points. And the way choices are layed out on the dialogue wheel is a bit different, its not good/neutral/bad, its layed out as (whats right for your class)/neutral/(what goes against your class). So light choices are on the top for jedis and dark choices are on the top for sith.

[Insanecyclone]

How would I know? I rarely see gameplay on this shit. Who said anything about a future, BTW? Dragon Nest? Games you don't know of count. Just sayin'.

I can't wait for Dragon Nest and Rusty Hearts.

[Lucavi]

Something else they touched on was jedi knights being able to equip red crystals if they accumulate enough dark side points. And the way choices are layed out on the dialogue wheel is a bit different, its not good/neutral/bad, its layed out as (whats right for your class)/neutral/(what goes against your class). So light choices are on the top for jedis and dark choices are on the top for sith.

Have you seen any vids of any other lightsaber colors? Gotta see some Mace Windu purple at some point.

[vrumpt]

Have you seen any vids of any other lightsaber colors? Gotta see some Mace Windu purple at some point.

yup, purple will be in, as well as yellow.

lightsaber colors are hard to do, because they know people will get bored of having only a few colors, but at the same time this is all canon stuff so lore fanboys will cry if they do anything that seems wrong.

[Foxer]

I can't wait for Dragon Nest and Rusty Hearts.

Me neither. Good to know someone else knows about 'em.

[Foxer]

For better or worse though, it just seems like a WoW variant which kills my interest in the gameplay side, but it's still Star Wars (and Bioware storytelling), I'm sure people will give it a chance based on that.

Of course it'll get a chance, but will it retain subs? That's been the crux of the issue since we first heard about a new Star Wars MMO.

This. FFXIV started off with like 50k active, just because it was FF. What are they pushing, like 400 people a server now? Gonna be the same thing with this game, regardless of what title it has.

[EternityEnd]

I think comparing it to FFXIV is vastly unfair. It'll probably be about as successful as Rift, I think.

That said, I doubt I'll play it or any upcoming MMO.

[Lucavi]

http://kotaku.com/5810509/the-more-t...i-want-to-play

Semi-interesting read about feelings of the upcoming game. I agree on some points, and disagree on others, but hey, it passes the time.