Star Wars: The Old Republic anticipation thread.

[CorporalClegg]

Base_Delta_Zero wrote:

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Problems with the game didn't hurt the game? It was the forum?

Try again. EA didn't gut Bioware because the devs got butthurt when players called them out on lies/broken promises/broken content on the forums. The forums could have been a single endless flamewar thread and it wouldn't have affected anything from EA's perspective as long as the cash was flowing in steadily.

I've been playing for a year. I'm invested. I love Star Wars. I enjoy the game's storylines and generally have fun on the road to level 50 and some of the end game content. I still sub and plan to continue until I finish the last three class stories. I'm not hard on the game because I hate it.

However, I can see that Bioware made numerous noob MMO mistakes from the beginning and have only just managed to staunch the outflow of subs. F2P will keep it on life support for now, population-wise, but the Cartel Market has changed the entire focus to microtransactions. EA no longer gives two shits about sub numbers - they are irrelevant when something like the recent Life Day "Event" Pack (worthless, reskinned garbage) costs $20 per character ($5 more than a month's sub for an account with 12 characters per server).

Bioware was overambitious with a completely VA MMO that ensured content updates would require insane cost/time investment. Then they screwed up numerous technical issues, many stemming from relying on a crap game engine they licensed instead of coming up with their own in-house and not anticipating certain realities of MMO gaming as compared to the single-player RPGs they had built their rep on. Before they could effectively correct any of the major errors, EA beancounters panicked and EA followed standard procedure when the latest product of a successful game company they had bought and micromanaged into the ground didn't "perform as expected": they gutted the development staff, making it effectively impossible for the survivors to fix the problems in a timely fashion, let alone add content that wasn't already in development when the game was released. The switch to F2P and microtransactions is EA milking the game for as much revenue as they can before it all implodes.

Your post proves my point.

You've obviously been drinking from the well.

[J. Allen]

^ Exactly, CC, and while I don't think the forum caused the game to reach for the Freemium model, I can see how the Devs would tune everyone out. Similar issues happen over at STO, but again, not as severe, from what I've seen.

Nothing against you, personally, Base Delta Zero, but that's the exact stuff I see on the forum, except the vitriol is focused on EA and F2Pers, and we can't even respond to defend ourselves. Even as a Preferred Player, someone who has put money into the game, I have no voice to defend myself, and so the anger and resentment flows around in a vicious cycle, and we become the boogeymen for everything that is wrong with the game. See someone swearing in chat? That must be an F2Per. A noob causes a group to lose in a Warzone? Must have been an F2Per. They don't know how to play, they're teenagers who have no self control, they're killing the game because they're trash. Those are actual sentiments expressed on the board. There are a handful of people who speak up for F2P, but the overwhelming sentiment seems to be if you're not paying $15 a month, you're scum.

[Owain Taggart]

He does make a good point about the Cartel though. It's exactly the kind of thing that Cryptic did with STO, and I can see the aversion to it and the fear that EA would overdo it. I still think though that SWTOR, despite the limitations for FTPers, is a pretty good game, and one that anyone can fully enjoy. The restrictions aren't terribly bad and are understandable under the context. Well, the restrictions on the forums or any of the social aspect do bother me though.

[Holdfast]

CorporalClegg wrote:

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If I could thumbs-up/rep posts here, yours would be getting major karma right now. Thanks so much for taking the time to type all this out. It's really helpful/clarifying. As a noob, I'm prepared for a bit of steep learning curve for this sort of game, but this really does help out a lot.

Thanks to the others who took time to post (much-needed!) advice too.

I'm in two minds about joining groups right now. Mainly 'cos it's not really something I'm used to, wasn't planning on doing, and I don't want to ruin someone's else's game. I'm going to see if I can get a bit better first, before weighing someone's group down with my lack of skill. Solo questing will do me fine, at least for now, so all the various tips above about how to spec for this are even more helpful/relevant.

[Owain Taggart]

One other tip I've found that has helped me. When you're in a phase, kill all the enemies you can. You can take your time with them because they won't re-pop. In between difficult battles, I like using instrospection with my Jedi, which heals me and my companion which helps me get ready for the next one. Killing them all will often unlock secondary objectives.

[J. Allen]

Though I do think it's funny that as a Jedi I'm mowing down thousands and thousands of sentient life forms.

[CorporalClegg]

Blame the midichlorians.

[J. Allen]

CorporalClegg wrote:

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Blame the midichlorians.

I do. They're just so violent!

[Holdfast]

CorporalClegg wrote:

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As far as the running thing, the right-click thing is just a muscle memory issue. It's a standard for every MMO. And I have no doubt it will feel like old-hat within a week. In fact, I suggest you do what I do and use both mouse buttons! If you hold both mouse buttons you'll run forward. Most people find this to be awkward at first, but learning now will be beneficial later on.

Did this, and actually find it a LOT more natural than just having right-click move alone. I think it's because it effectively forces you to press down somewhere on the mouse to move anyway, so right-button to turn isn't an extra issue. Thanks for the tip. I also rebound the strafe keys, and mouse scroll as you recommended and those are also great/natural feeling changes. Good stuff.

I've chosen Sorceror and am on Dromund Kass at about lvl12 now. I solo'ed the two Heroics on Korriban once I got Khem; they weren't a problem, so I think I might try doing the same with the Kass ones once I get towards lvl14/15. If they're too hard to solo then, I might try a group as I hopefully should have the basics of fighting down by then. I'm slowly getting sucked into MMO-land, I think...

Couple more quick questions, if you have time, please!

1) how do crew skills work best for FTP players? I can only pick one skill per crew member, so I've picked Treasure Hunting for Khem (was going to pick Artifice as he gets a bonus on that anyway, but couldn't see how that would be any use given he wouldn't have anything to use it on, right?). Am I doing it right? What sort of missions should I send him on? Money, Gems or Gifts? i.e. what are gems used for and is the affection bonus for collecting gifts particularly worth anything?

2) where can you spend Commendations? I have a good number of Korriban ones and a couple of Dromund Kass ones so far. Is it worth saving them up for better stuff later in the game or spending them as you go along?

[CorporalClegg]

Holdfast wrote:

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I've chosen Sorceror and am on Dromund Kass at about lvl12 now. I solo'ed the two Heroics on Korriban once I got Khem; they weren't a problem, so I think I might try doing the same with the Kass ones once I get towards lvl14/15. If they're too hard to solo then, I might try a group as I hopefully should have the basics of fighting down by then. I'm slowly getting sucked into MMO-land, I think...

DK has two Heroic 2+ that you can solo once you get to level 14, but they both have bosses that can be kind of rough. The second one can also become a real circus if there are a lot of people in the area. There are also 2 Heroic 4s and one Area Heroic. You'll have to group for those.

Couple more quick questions, if you have time, please!

1) how do crew skills work best for FTP players? I can only pick one skill per crew member, so I've picked Treasure Hunting for Khem (was going to pick Artifice as he gets a bonus on that anyway, but couldn't see how that would be any use given he wouldn't have anything to use it on, right?). Am I doing it right? What sort of missions should I send him on? Money, Gems or Gifts? i.e. what are gems used for and is the affection bonus for collecting gifts particularly worth anything?

That's not quite exactly right. Normally you get three skills per character, but only one of those skills can be a crafting skill. F2Pers just get one skill.

Normally, it works like this: there are three types of skills: crafting, gathering, and mission gathering. Crafting is self explanatory. The gathering skills are for mutually gathering the materials out in the world. There are nodes about the worlds that your companion gathers materials from. If you change your map to show resources then the corresponding nodes to your skill appear as little asterisks. Lastly, the mission gathering skills are for other types of materials that you send out your companion for a certain amount of time and they bring back materials and schematics--or gifts if you go that route.

Each crafting skill has a gathering and mission skill that goes with it. To find out what goes with what, just do an image Google for "swtor crew skills chart."

But since your only limited to one, there are several ways you can go. You can do what I suggested to J. up thread and take biochem. Even if you have to buy the mats off the GTN, making your own med packs and stims will still be cheaper than buying them from vendors, and they'll be better quality.

Secondly, you can just take slicing. Gathering wise, you'll just crack safes as you travel which just turn out credits cases. For the credits alone it might be worth it. You also can run the slice tech parts missions. These turn up the materials and schematics you need to make augments, both of which you can sell on the GTN for a lot of money. Or you can save all the Willpower ones in your bank and take Synthweaving later to make them. Since you have such limited bank space, I would just level the skill to 50, and just save the 50 willpower augment schematics.

Augments also sell for A LOT of credits. (Some of the rank 27 purples go for millions or even 10s of millions.) So if you have room to spare, it might be worth it to save some of the other schematics you find.

Keep in mind though, that you'll only get the schematics upon getting a critical mission completion. Which is really rare. So if you do decide to go this route, I would just concentrate on getting the credits until you get Andronikos (on Tatooine). Luckily he's tied with T7 for best slicer in the game.

The last suggestion is to just take a mission skill, Underworld Treading and Treasure Hunting being the best two choices. With those you can just put the stuff you get back on the GTN and keep the companion gifts.

There are two problems with this. First, you'll have a lot of stuff to sell and you are, of course limited to how many things you can post at once. Secondly, all those companion gifts take up a lot of bank space which, again, you're limited to. However, if you wait until you have all your companions and then you can just hand the gifts to the appropriate companion as you get them.

2) where can you spend Commendations? I have a good number of Korriban ones and a couple of Dromund Kass ones so far. Is it worth saving them up for better stuff later in the game or spending them as you go along?

The specialty vendors are usually in the market area of each planet. There's also a rep from each planet on the fleet in the Supplies market area.

And, no, there's no reason to hold onto them. Since you can only spend them on the appropriate planet for equal level gear (blue quality mostly).

Some people like to always take the comms as rewards. Then try to find as many shells as they can for them and their companion and spend the comms on mods--or at least just for companion and then take the gear rewards from doing heroics/flash points.

If you do this, it's good to note the formal wear is an easy to obtain social set. You can buy them from the social vendor in the DK cantina. There is a dress and tux (right up your alley) set of five empty shells (head, body, legs, feet, and hands). I think you need to be social 1 to use them though, which is only like 10 social points (or three conversation rolls). You can usually get that in one group.

[J. Allen]

Great points! Although I would say for an FTP selling the augments isn't really beneficial, as an FTPer can only accrue 200,000 credits max. Preferred can go up to 350,000 credits in their total accounts. They also cannot transfer credits between accounts, which is funny when you consider the unlockables people sell on the market are usually well over 500,000 credits. LOL

[Owain Taggart]

I've run into a problem on Tatooine due to the reduced xp for FTP. I was finished with Nar Shadaa at level 24. Did everything I possibly could, unless there was something I had missed in terms of regular missions, and everything on Tatooine was at level 25, so I couldn't make much progress unless I grinded, so that's what I did. Went out into the desert, applied an XP boost and went and killed anything that had the white symbol, such as the giant lizards and there were lots of those. Took awhile, but I eventually leveled to 25 and made some more progress with my missions. So, let that be a warning to anyone coming to Tatooine after Nar Shadaa while playing FTP. There might be a few other situations like this going forward too.

[J. Allen]

Owain Taggart wrote:

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I've run into a problem on Tatooine due to the reduced xp for FTP. I was finished with Nar Shadaa at level 24. Did everything I possibly could, unless there was something I had missed in terms of regular missions, and everything on Tatooine was at level 25, so I couldn't make much progress unless I grinded, so that's what I did. Went out into the desert, applied an XP boost and went and killed anything that had the white symbol, such as the giant lizards and there were lots of those. Took awhile, but I eventually leveled to 25 and made some more progress with my missions. So, let that be a warning to anyone coming to Tatooine after Nar Shadaa while playing FTP. There might be a few other situations like this going forward too.

I started getting this problem not long after I reached Coruscant. Taris got really bad, to the point where I just started out and out grinding just to get the XP needed to arrive at Nar Shaddaa without getting sliced to ribbons on my first run through. Of course, now I'm really running through the problem on Nar Shaddaa, and as a level 17, I can't continue my missions until I grind some more.

Personally, I think SWTOR should have taken the same tack as STO. They're making money hand over fist with the way they run the C-Store. I think SWTOR would have more luck that way. Granted, it's too early to tell, but if I didn't really love Star Wars, I'd have probably left SWTOR by now, because while they insist the storyline is free, getting to it becomes increasingly frustrating, and it's all because you know they're limiting you, trying to force you to subscribe. STO essentially said "Play as much as you like, we don't care if you subscribe, but look! Shinies in the C-Store!"

[Whizzer]

I would recommend Slicing as a crewskill, its fairly straightforward and you dont have to bother with buying your materials from the GTN. As soon as you have more companions, just let them run missions for money and sell everything else you get via crit on the GTN.
Most crewskills actually cost a lot of money to level, slicing will net you a nice credit plus without forcing you to play the Auction House to break even as other crewskills do.
My main is also a Sorcerer and while they are not as impressive as Marauders or Powertechs DPS wise, they are a lot of fun to play and still viable in any PVE content.
PVP wise you have to be really good at kiting or spec to healer to be more than a speedbumb.

[Owain Taggart]

Santa Hooves wrote:

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I started getting this problem not long after I reached Coruscant. Taris got really bad, to the point where I just started out and out grinding just to get the XP needed to arrive at Nar Shaddaa without getting sliced to ribbons on my first run through. Of course, now I'm really running through the problem on Nar Shaddaa, and as a level 17, I can't continue my missions until I grind some more.

Personally, I think SWTOR should have taken the same tack as STO. They're making money hand over fist with the way they run the C-Store. I think SWTOR would have more luck that way. Granted, it's too early to tell, but if I didn't really love Star Wars, I'd have probably left SWTOR by now, because while they insist the storyline is free, getting to it becomes increasingly frustrating, and it's all because you know they're limiting you, trying to force you to subscribe. STO essentially said "Play as much as you like, we don't care if you subscribe, but look! Shinies in the C-Store!"

Well, I didn't have that problem until Tatooine, except for a bit on Coruscant, but all was well until then. Have to wonder if there's a big difference in the classes and the xp they get. But there's also the fact that people will be visiting the planets in different orders depending on which class they're playing. I'd still rather be playing this than STO. I find it more satisfying and you do feel as though your actions have an impact on the universe.