Star Wars: The Old Republic anticipation thread.

[Jax]

Anyone been charged yet for their monthly fee? It was supposed to be 20th January when the subscription kicks in but while my account is still active (choose the 3 month plan) no money has been taken out on my card nor even earmarked.

[PsychoPere]

I believe my 6-month subscription was charged yesterday, as I received the "Founder" title and medal yesterday.

(I say "I believe," rather than actually checking, because my subscription was purchased as a gift.)

[Jax]

Level 47 now doing Voss Bonus missions, my Guild getting ready to do end operations soon as were starting to get level 50's, can't wait

[sojourner]

Hit 40 on sunday, then got sick. Haven't been able to concentrate enough to play.

[Jax]

49 now oooo so close, Corella has been a decent planet with plenty of XP .

[TheBrew]

I don't know, I find getting around Corellia pretty annoying, though I've only done the first area so far.

[O'Dib]

I don't much care for the urban environments, but I find Belsavis the most tedious. Corellia blew my mind with the metro system. The open-air portions of Coruscant are kinda sweet too. (Hey, I spend so much time on this game, I like to at least feel like I'm outdoors)

My main is a Marauder whom, before they fixed the healing glow bug, I played without Quinn, which meant I had to be about 5 levels above recommended to minimize frustration. Cause I hate when folks are lazy to do side quests and gear up properly, and just whine for help with their class bits. Even with Quinn healing, I had to spend about 2 days after hitting 50, running around, gearing up, getting datacrons and matrix shards, so I could solo through my class finale. Which in turn prepares you for Ilum, but I haven't done much of that yet.

[Jax]

50

[CorporalClegg]

Grats.

[Reverend]

Quick question: anyone here still playing this game? I ask because I had a go during the free weekend that just ended and I couldn't help but notice how...empty the game felt compared to other MMO's I've tried (all 3 of them...)

If the answer is no, then I'm not surprised. While it was fun while it lasted (and I'm going to really miss my sarcastic Sith Assassin), I have a hard time seeing this game having much to offer once the characters' arc story is done.

Also, I can't help but get the impression that they would have been better off just making a straight-up single player KOTOR sequel, even with the different classes. I mean come on, a Star Wars version of Dragon Age: Origins? Yes please!

[PsychoPere]

I'm not currently playing, but only due to a significant time issue between my last semester in college and a new job. I anticipate getting back into the game after the semester is over.

[Jax]

I stop playing due to being bored with the game but I've put 150-200 hours in the game maybe even more. Also my other game were gathering dust so I hammered through ME3, MW3 and Arkham City since then

[Skywalker]

I'm not playing because my computer can't handle it. Otherwise I'd be all over it.

[O'Dib]

Reverend wrote:

---

Quick question: anyone here still playing this game? I ask because I had a go during the free weekend that just ended and I couldn't help but notice how...empty the game felt compared to other MMO's I've tried (all 3 of them...)

If the answer is no, then I'm not surprised. While it was fun while it lasted (and I'm going to really miss my sarcastic Sith Assassin), I have a hard time seeing this game having much to offer once the characters' arc story is done.

Also, I can't help but get the impression that they would have been better off just making a straight-up single player KOTOR sequel, even with the different classes. I mean come on, a Star Wars version of Dragon Age: Origins? Yes please!

I bought 6 months (for the savings, d'oh) which will mean 8, what with one being free with purchase, and another they awarded players who stuck around through recently. So I'm about halfway through my subscription. I don't know if this stuff's refundable? In which case I would strongly consider shelving it.

My idea is to have the class stories for all 8 classes complete by the end of these 8 months, and rolling alts when I get bored with any given toon has indeed been what used to keep things interesting. I'm not that big a fan of repetition, so I really couldn't be arsed to do nearly any daily grinding and gearing on the 2 level 50s I have so far. This being my first (and likely last) MMO, you see, I'm not clear on the appeal of endgame content quite yet. So I decided to approach this as 8 single-player games set in the Star Wars universe. And why not, I've been known to replay an RPG I like, usually by Bioware, up to 3 times. The problem, of course, is I'd put some good months or years between each playthrough. The sameness of the settings in which all classes do their thing, imperial and republic, is really starting to get to me. Not to mention the shared side-quests for all classes in a given faction. There is oh so woefully little class-specific content, and I only ever play games for story; was becoming a near post-gamer before I took the plunge with this. Then it had me bad at one point. My mom came to visit and I ignored her bad.

Anyway, I have the 2 50s I mentioned, a 49 who's nearly there, 2 43s, and 3 toons I haven't rolled yet. Well, one I selected a dismal advanced class on and took to 20 before abandoning. For the 3 non 50s I'm playing, I've gotten to the point where I'm constantly figuring out ways to level them the rest of the way without nearly any side-questing (which is otherwise really important for being adequately geared enough to keep progressing without any help, but bear with me). Therefore I PVP, I find that really entertaining. And getting killed doesn't break your gear, so it's not as punishing as being unprepared for class bits. With the next update to legacy, I'll even be able to buy boosts to XP gained in warzones. At lv 48, there is a space mission that gives out 2 daily commendations every day, which can be turned in at 50 for some gnarly endgame armor mods. So my idea is basically to reach 50, put on some endgame gear with the PVP and Daily commendations I've earned, then go back and finish the stretch of class quests covering levels 44 through 50. Lv 44 content is still green for a 50, meaning I'd get XP for it... if I hadn't maxxed out my XP at 50. Well, at least things still count towards legacy XP.

Legacy (a master leveling bar for all your alts on a server, things done at 50 count towards it as well) and the related unlocks are the reason I keep putting off rolling the rest of my classes. I will have unlocked a few species I prefer by the time I hatch my next batch of 50s. But even so, knowing that speeder piloting will be available at level 10 in update 1.3 (maybe 2 months away) makes me wanna wait just so I'll be able to speed things along. I thought sprint at lv 1 would satisfy me, but no. I'm even saving up to buy rocket boost, an ability that's like being on a speeder prior to being able to train for it. And with the latest patch it'll be useful to higher level toons as well, cause now it's useable indoors, though not in combat or warzones. All of which ironically means I'll have nothing much to do in the game but resign myself to repetition with my present and future 50s, cause that's where the money's at. I mean, I even spent this weekend grinding the world event on Tattooine with all 5 toons, so I could earn these exclusive endgame crystals and sell them to folks who missed out on the fun (For a few days I took "don't go to Tattooine" quite literally myself). And it's insane what I've put into this game so far. Bought a new desk that could accommodate 2 monitors. 3 seasons of Mad Men along with the grind over the weekend made it almost bearable.

It remains to be seen, once the 8 months are up and the re-sub question presents itself, if I've discovered the appeal of end-gaming. I expect, by virtue of daily tokens rewarded while making money, I will have also gotten at least a couple 50s ops-ready by then. So I'll give that a shot at some point. And I do need to be geared if I wanna participate in quality PVP, cause they'll be introducing rated warzones for 50s, meaning you always get equal full groups going, and don't get dropped in at the end of losing matches cause people start quitting in despair (and quitting would now start going towards your losses tally). Most of the folks in my guild, ops are all they do, so maybe there's something to it. But this is the profile of people who loved WoW, where I hear that's all there was to do (dungeons?). Pffffffft. (ETA a couple more effs) I imagine it's more likely I'll just put everything on hold until they come out with an expansion pack that has enough new story bits to make it worth it.

Clearly for a guy who resolved not to spend so much time on the game, even this write-up seems to suggest otherwise.

[Reverend]

Toons? Rolling? I'm sorry, but you lost me there. I'm not really au fait with MMORPG nomenclature.

Even so, I think you've summed up my basic problem with every MMO I've tried to date. Repetition for the sake of more repetition. I know a hamster wheel when I see one.

I did have a go at PvP, but since I was only a Lv11 Jedi Knight, fresh off the shuttle from Tython, I got repeatedly annihilated. Aside form that I just didn't find it to be very fun trying to engage a person in lightsaber combat when all they want to do is dodge about and spam powers at you.

Also, perhaps I was spoilt by DCUO, but I hated how I couldn't design the look of my character's gear but am instead just stuck with whatever happens to have the best stats, which of course means on the odd occasion that you do see someone else, they tend to be wearing the same outfit as you. I feel it rather spoils any sense of individuality.

Also, is there any known cosmetic bugs with the armours? I ask because I noticed one of them looked different in-game to how it looked on the pick-your-character screen.

If I thought the game is likely to go F2P then I might pick it up again, but somehow I doubt they'd do that with a game that cost this much to make. I think if the population gets that low they're more likely to just pull the plug and cut their losses...Which is a shame since with a little extra work it could have been a decent SP RPG.