Okay. I'm going to try to answer as much as I can, but I'm going to shuffle things around and prioritize and/or organize for logic as best as possible.
1. The ability bar. Are we talking about the thing in the middle of the interface at the bottom of the screen? If so, are you saying that I should open the Inventory window and drag a medpac to the Ability bar?
Yes. And I should note that if you click the little cross on the left side, you can add a second bar. Freeps only get two, unfortunately. (Which has actually been a point of contention for a lot of people.) You get two more if you become premium. Which is a big difference. But subs get six, and I have all of them full.
Also on that bar there seem to be only ten squares showing your abilities. Where are all the others? And how do I activate them when I need them?
12. So when you add the second one there's 24.
Pressing "P" will bring up the skills window with a few sorting tabs on the left. Every skill you currently have available will be there. And any can drag and drop anything in that window into your hotbar. And anything that's "clicky" (meaning you click it in your hot bar to activate it) can be moved there. But since you have limited space, I'd just stick with your abilities - and your speeder once you get it. And, as I said, don't even worry about medpacks. Though, if you do decide to try a warzone at some point, you will want to buy some warzone medpacks and slot them there.
But for the record, other stuff that can go there is mostly knickknacky things like toys and what not. Relics used to be clickies but now they're just another gear slot--been that way for a while.
Also, I really have no idea how skills and abilities work in this game.
9. And "cooldown MMOs"? I know what MMOs are ... but what are cooldown ones?
"Cooldowns" refers to how combat progresses. It's the common identifier for any Everquest/Warcraft-derivative MMO. (Which is like 90% of them.)
A
cooldown is simply the time between using two abilities. There's what's called a "Global Cooldown." This means that all skills* must adhere to this space of time. In SWTOR (and most MMOs) it's 1.5 seconds. You can think of this as a single turn.
*There are certain skills that ignore this rule and it will be noted as such in the tool-tip. A good example of this is your Interrupt. (which you should have by now) It's an important mechanic to learn, but first things first. But it's exactly as it sounds: you use it to interrupt a "mobs" spell. (A "mob" is any monster, Imp, Sith, whatever you fight in the game. It's short for
mobile - which is computer lingo.)
What this means is, when you're fighting, you activate an ability everyone 1.5 seconds. So, say you're back fighting a Flesh Raider, you walk up to him and click your
Strike ability. 1.5 seconds later you do it again, and again until the thing is dead. Or, assuming the skill is in the first slot, you press the 1 key.
**This gets into the realm of keybinding which is its own thing and not worth worrying about right now. But you're willing to try if you're up to it.
Now the next thing is your resource. Each class has a different resource. For Knights it's Focus, which is a "building focus" meaning you start with zero and add more. And Strike costs nothing and builds 2 focus. The other skill you started with is
Slash It
costs 3 focus, but it does a lot more damage.
So you can see how it works. You click Strike. Wait 1.5. seconds. Click Strike again. wait another 1.5 seconds, and then you can click Slash. Or if you're using keys it would be 1-1-2.
And I'm sure you're excellent math skills will notice that you'll have 1 focus left over at the point. So, sure enough, you just have to use Strike again once and then you can use Slash again. So it would look like 1-1-2-1-2. Which would take up about seven seconds. And this is the most basic rotation (something you'll see a lot of people talk about) in the game.
Seeing as how you managed to get to level 20, I'm sure you sort of figured this out on your own, I'm just trying to clearly define it for you.
Now, as you level up and get more skills that rotation will become more complex. And things will get changed depending on circumstances. For example, SWTOR uses a lot of "procs" or
procedurals - which, as a name implies changes abilities if you use them in a certain order. Basically, this is a way to make things more organized, like if you have three different abilities that all do sort of the same thing, by adding procs the game specifies an order in which best to use them.
In KOTOR when you levelled up, you selected your powers and your skills and then you had one or two more of those at the next level. In TOR it seems that you have to seek someone out to get them ... if I understood correctly ... So where do I find these people? Or is it one of the missions to be able to locate them on each planet?
Nope. This mission on Tython was just to show you they exist. You have to find them on your own. But they're always in the spaceport/main hub city area on each planet. The map icon looks sort of like this: ^. And it will have a green glow if you have new skills to learn.
Also, you get more skills from you spec tree. Since you didn't know Defense/Vigilance/Focus I'm guessing you haven't chosen yet. Pressing K will bring up the skill-tree window. (Err. I think it's K.) It will show all three specs and give a little detail on each. Like I said, for you, Focus is probably the one to pick.
Then the tree will fill itself out and give you utility points to spend. But I'll go over those later. It could be one huge post on its own.
Another thing is that later I "bought" (I think I bought it ... if that's possible at all) some kind of skill from someone.
And, yeah, Freeps have to pay credits for skills and some are kind of expensive. Though back in the day, everyone had to pay for them and they were a lot more.
Probably accidentally because I had no idea what I was doing ... The long and the short of it is that that skill appeared on that bar but ousted one that I really liked. Does that mean I actually sold that ability for the new one? Can I buy it back? Not that it's likely I'll ever find that person anyway ... but theoretically is that possible?
I'm not sure what you mean here, but if you're asking if it's possible to lose abilities, the answer is no.
If one is gone, then you probably accidentally pulled if off the bar. Again, press "P" and you should be able to find it. A important note here is, once you get all your abilites arranged how you want them, there's a small padlock icon on the left side of the bar. Click that to lock the bar and that won't happen. I used to do that a lot myself - yes I used to be a clicker too.
It seems that I don't even know the basics of the basics. If I want to talk to people, do I have to use a slash sign? My God the very idea ... I mean, there's a chat window there ... and in order to be able to say something, I have to start every single entry of mine with a slash? That sounds like an unnecessary complication to me ... but I will try this out next time then.
The slashes are just needed for commands. Changing the chat prompt is a command. Once you do it, you don't have to do it again until you want to change props again.
In any case what was a lot more disturbing was what I'd told you the last time: I was made part of a group and the group leader, seeing how lame I was, invited me and all the others to join a group chat. So a Group chat window popped up and all the buttons on that were inactive. When I tried to write something, it did say something about seeing a "Chatmaster" (or someone similar) about this ... Of course I had no idea what the game was saying. In my interpretation, I was supposed to look for some kind of character in the game that would enable me to use the chat function ... which I found a dumb idea but that was what was told to me ... At least it seemed so to me. I might have been wrong, though ... You know, so many things were happening at the same time and there was so little I was able to understand that I might have misunderstood the whole thing. The end of the story was that I was ostracized ...
PUGs (Pick-up Groups) are generally pretty awful for all beginners in any online game. That's just one of those sad realities.
As for being a free player ... again I have problems with that. Although I wouldn't like to pay anything before I get the hang of the game, I don't mind paying like one month's money or so later on. But occasionally the game offers all sorts of things to buy ... and I didn't intend to buy anything, especially that most things were really cheesy (like "intergalactic hairstyles" or some similar window popped up and I was like hey, I don't even know how to equip a medpac, who cares what hairstyle my character has) but in spite of this I decided to check out how the paying option worked. So I pressed the "Buy" button, the game said the game would minimize on my tray and I would be redirected to God knows where (I guessed to a place where I could give my bank account number) but then nothing happened. Later I tried this with several other things including the option of paying for one month with my credit card but the game did not minimize and I was not redirected. So what could I potentially do if I did decide to pay one day?
I wouldn't try to do it in game. Just go strait to swtor.com and do it there.
Speaking of which reminds me: there are experience points I get as I go through the missions and I also seem to get what was called "credits" in KOTOR (maybe they are called "credits" this time as well?). It seems I can buy certain things for these. Then there is something called "cartel coins" or something similar - what are those and how do I get those? It seemed to me that you had to pay for them ... but then something on the game said that if I did this or did that I would get cartel coins for it ... And then, like I said earlier, some really wacky things like intergalactic hairstyles cost you real money. So what's the deal with the paying system on this game? It seems to me as if the boundaries between real money (in my bank account) and virtual money used in the game are blurred. Of course, I might be wrong about this as well since I don't understand a lot of what's going on.
Yes. Cerdits are the normal in-game currency. Open your inventory and the it shows how much you have at the bottom. And Cartel Coins are indeed the "real money" currency. You can actually earn some by doing certain things in-game. Though not very many. But if you're really diligent, you can probably earn enough to unlock some basic quality of life things. - Though I'd argue the amount of time you'd spend doing it isn't worth it at all.
3. What are safe zones? Where are they? And how do I know that I am in one?
A safe zone is any area near a taxi hub and some medical outposts. It's also where most things happen when your out in a planet away from the spaceport/main city area. You'll notice "Sanctuary" will briefly appear on your screen when you get to one. Though, Sanctuaries are specific to PvP. It's still the same difference.
6. I don't know who Kira is (I hope that's Kira Neryce from DS9
)
Kira was the other Padawan back on Tython. She joins you half-way through Coruscant. Since you said you were level 20, I just assumed you were already past that part.
7. You often say "Endgame". I guess this has nothing to do with VOY's Endgame (I wish it had!
) ... so what do you mean by that? Is it the last level/planet of the game? Is it very difficult or very special for some reason?
"Endgame" simply refers to the current content-state of the game. There's an old MMO adage "The real game starts at 50." Of course, by "50" it just means the current level cap. But the point is, once you reach max level you really get to start participating in group content - warzones, operations etc. Though SWTOR's current endgame has ... issues .. but that's a topic that's not at all important here. But suffice it to say, they made a huge change to the game early this year that the player base overwhelmingly despises (myself included). But it won't be relevant to you unless you sub.
"KotFE Mastery mode"? What does that mean? Although you are suggesting I can't get there anyway. But it would be nice to know what that is.
KotFE simply refers to Knights of the Fallen Empire which is the first part of the new story. All the quests from it on all have "Mastery" versions which are like "Expert" modes. Or very difficult. They're really fun once. But it's one of those things that, once you do it, you really don't want to do it again.
Though everyone is asking for them to do something similar to the original class stories. Because, like you say the old content is pretty easy now that companions can carry you through it.
All these abbreviations remind me. What's PvP and PvE? The game sometimes asks me if I want to change from this to that? No idea what this means.
PvE is Player versus Environment (meaning the computer) and PvP is Player versus Player.
And then Lightning Sorcerer and Telekinetic Sage don't mean anything to me either. I'd rather not be a different character right now - I can't even imagine how troopers and people without the Force can even go through this game. Which, again reminds me: when do I get Jedi powers and just like on KOTOR can I use Sith lightning as a Jedi here too? Without that I guess I'm doomed. Although if T7 can protect me against like 20 Sith at the same time, this shouldn't be a problem ...
Just joking ... I mean the idea that a droid of such little strength can protect me against vicious Sith sounds dumb ...
Star Wars lore as plenty of examples of non Force users defeating/killing Force users. Jedi aren't Gods, after all.
mean every piece of information is written in such small fonts that I can hardly read it.
You and me both.
One of these (very annoying) texts is "Your inventory is full". Good. And then what?
On the first planet I couldn't even finish the Flash Raider mission for the first time because it said that some kind of Jedi would give me some skill for that mission and as long as my inventory was full, I couldn't accept it. Again, let me ask this question: do we have to buy our skills? Mind-boggling. Anyway, I managed to find a vendor or merchant or whatever they are called and sold some stuff. Sometimes I have to "repair" stuff. Does that mean I always have to find these commerce people on every planet/level when I start because when my inventory is full, I am practically paralyzed? If this is the case, this seems really strange to me. I mean on KOTOR you could buy and find as many items as you wanted - why restrict the amount you can have in this game?
These are both things that sort of exist "outside" of the game. They're both little tricks employed to regulate the games economy.
As far as the junk in your inventory, there is a good reason for why they do this instead of just giving you the credits, but the scope of the theory is way beyond the scope of this thread.
And the idea of having a limited inventory dates back to early Pen and Paper Dungeons and Dragons. Most western RPGs employ it - as do all MMOs - in fact, until you said something I sort of thought KOTOR had a limited inventory too. Because AFAIK every other Bioware game does.
But really just get in the habit of stopping at a vendor and emptying your bag. There's always a medical droid not too far off. What I do is, if I pick up and item I know I want to keep, I move it to the bottom row of my bag. That way I can just spam sell-off everything really quick without selling something good by accident.
Also, if you right click T7's portrait, you can send him off to the junk items. It takes about a minute and is really handy when you're out in the middle of nowheresville.
As for the trainers. The "buying" is just a meta thing. Think of it as you gained some strength and now you're going to go see a master so she can teach you something. The vendor window was just an easy interface that was already there. And since they did it that way anyway, the cost of tuition is an easy way of taking credits out of the game. This is done everywhere, and while it often seems silly and/or annoying, it's important because it goes a long ways in abating inflation, which has really started to creep up over the last yearn and a half, as it is.
And while the idea of a Jedi paying a tuition tax is silly, it would seem perfectly normal for a Bounty Hunter or Smuggler, and they have to keep it fair for everyone.
And, of course, Subs don't have to pay anymore. And, most of us have holo statutes that act as trainers for all classes that we carry around with us. So the whole pretense is gone. It's just, "I leveled. Grab my new skills and go.."
Then some people ask me to duel with them. If I accept, I die (of course). And without much fight. So do I have to collect some more skills before accepting these duels? And why do I only have a weapon in one of my hands? Will I be able to equip something in both hands later on? Or do I have to pay for this?
I never accept random duels.
As for duel-wielding, that's what Sentinels are for. Guardians are all about the classic Jedi pose. One hand for sword, one hand for pushing annoying droids off rooftops. Also, finger pointing.
14. According to the game, the cut-off Level for free players is Level 60. What does that mean? When I reach Level 60, I won't be able to play any more? And if I buy a month, then I get to, say Level 100, then if I don't pay the next month, then I get demoted to level 60 again?
It just means, you can do any single player content above level 60. But group content will still bump you up to 70.
People sometimes ask me to join their guilds. What are they? And some of them who seemed to like me even bowed to me and waved their hands to me. How do they do these things and can I greet someone in a similar fashion?
Guilds are the main social hubs of MMOs. You do get a few benefits for joining. But there are good ones and bad ones.
Okay. I'm going to stop there. Anything else I missed I can go over later, but it's not all that important I don't think.
So guess what it's more frustration than joy. I am already a Level 22 Jedi Knight but mainly because some people can see what a dummy I am and how lame my fighting technique is so they either help me or simply win the battles for me. Not much fun to be honest so I would appreciate any help with the game.
