Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG by Bioware

[OSCORP]

Rolling Sith JUGG on the 15th.


Finally!

 

[ATCollector]

There is also a system of commendation points for each world. You get these as either a straight up quest reward or as a choice between the commendation and gear items. This is nice as sometimes your existing gear is better than the quest reward. The commendations can be turned into a vendor for nice gear items for that planets level range. They can also be traded in to venders in the next world at a 2:1 ratio. There are commendations for quests, space combat, pvp, and flashpoints.

Inventory management can be a bit of a pain. You don't start out with a lot of bag slots and upgrading can be expensive. One nice feature is that you can send a companion off to sell your trash items while your out questing (takes them 1 minute). You should regularly clear your bags at the lower levels to keep things from getting filled up. There is an option to enable area looting which is nice because one click will loot all mobs near you instead of having to click on each mob individually to loot them. As of now there are no guild or shared account banks which kinda sucks.

There doesn't seems to be a lot to spend cash on early because the quest and commendation rewards keep you geared well but... Speeder bikes and the associated license you much purchase are expensive. I think the lvl 25 one was @40k total and the lvl 40 one was @200k. You'll start spend lots of money keeping your companions geared in the higher levels. You don't see it when you have only 1 or 2. But once you have 5 companions you can imagine the cost.

Back to companions... You just haven't lived until you have a Jawa companion (Blizz) next you you firing a rocket launcher. Yeah it's silly but so much fun. BTW I think only the bounty hunter gets a Jawa companion.

 

[jasong888]

i just read bioware is doing a free-for-all pvp area with vendors you can kill. i'm not really sure how well that will work...especially if you're primarily a healing class. i will probably start with a class that can run and gun like the gunslinger. can BHs run while shooting or do they have to stand still? it would've been nice to know we could acquire all sorts of companions for each class as opposed to set ones, but it's all part of the gaming experience i suppose.

 

[ATCollector]

BH is sorta like a smuggler, some attacks can be used while running, some you need to stationary to use.

Once you reach level 10 you get addition skill points to specialize your subclass. Lots of flexibility there... You can go split spec or just master a certain spec.. I like healing so I usually went for heal spec if it was available.

I like the flexibility the companions add. Mowing down trash in an instance, get out your dps companion. Boss fight, get your healer companion out. Plus your companions do all the crafting and trade missions for you. I will never miss the hours upon hours I spent crafting to max level in eq2 on 3 toons.

 

[ExMem-LarjaThwei]

Crap..I totally forgot about this thread.
I guess I'm gonna have to go read all 70 or so pages.

I really want to pre-order the game, but I have that little feeling of doubt..and I don't want to waste the money. But if it does turn out incredible and I don't pre-order and get the color changing crystal..I'm going to be pissed.
What a stupid pre-order prize..everyone should be able to change their saber color..

I've played WoW for several years and enjoyed it up until this last x-pack. I'm hoping this is similar to WoW, but with much more lore, solo player stuff, things to keep you entertained.. I hate rushing to the highest level just to raid 24/7. So god damn boring.
WoW has basically become a chore now..no longer a mystical fantasy world to escape to.

 

[ATCollector]

You can change your saber color in game. Some colors depend on which path you take... As a Jedi knight making evil choices you get access to red as a color, ect. Or you can change it with crafted/dropped items. The pre order crystal just let's you change it earlier and easier if that makes sense.

 

[ATCollector]

I've played WoW for several years and enjoyed it up until this last x-pack. I'm hoping this is similar to WoW, but with much more lore, solo player stuff, things to keep you entertained.. I hate rushing to the highest level just to raid 24/7. So god damn boring.
WoW has basically become a chore now..no longer a mystical fantasy world to escape to.

Then you'll love this game. I played EQ2 since its launch and got sick of just racing to the end game only to be bored by endlessly raiding. The path to level 50 is so much fun in TOR.

 

[ExMem-LarjaThwei]

Thank you so much for informing me about the color crystal..so I guess the pre-order one is just to instantly change it on any weapon without getting the mats?

IF SO..I'd prefer it the more difficult way actually, since I hate having everything handed to me, and everything being unrealistic in an MMORPG.

I've never played Everquest, WoW (and Runescape) is my only MMORPG experience. My account actually got hacked yesterday, then when I came on and made a ticket..the dude said he was temporarily locking my account, so he did. Then a few hours later it turns out my account was permanently banned.

So I said ____ it, I'll miss my TLPD though.

But back to SWTOR.. I was apparently chosen for Beta testing from the 11th-13th but didn't check my email for several days and found out that information on the 16th!
I've been reading that there's going to be some massive Thanksgiving weekend Beta test and everyone who has signed up for the testing prior to Nov. 11th will get in. Will I still be able to do that if I already had that previous chance but missed it?

 

[jasong888]

with each class having their own stories, i foresee a lot of replay to know/learn about each class and how they develop. imo, def worth picking up as most will probably be played solo.

 

[Cryoguns]

Thank you so much for informing me about the color crystal..so I guess the pre-order one is just to instantly change it on any weapon without getting the mats?

From what I recall, the preorder one is just a special color (yellow?) that you can start as available with instead of having to purchase it later in the game.

 

[jasong888]

i'm not going to preorder as i won't be able to play until the release anyways. figure i'd wait until all the system crashes and what not are ironed out before committing to buy.

 

[darthviper107]

It's actually a pretty stable game--only issue is the completeness of the game. In past playthroughs there's parts where the conversations weren't finished and stuff like that, it won't be an issue on lower levels, but on higher levels it will probably be a problem since not many people get that far.

I haven't been playing as much though, since the character isn't permanent, I don't want to waste time just to have it deleted.

 

[ATCollector]

Yeah its rough leveling a toon up just to have it get wiped. I've dialed back my playtime quite a bit. Just checking out the system changes. Don't want to burn out on it cuz I plan to play a lot once the early play period starts and I can keep the toons.

Bioware says their going to limit the amount of players over the first few days to keep pace with population and server addition. Hopefully it won't be as painful as normal MMO starts are.

 

[Cryoguns]

Screenshots seem to be OK per the NDA lifting posting as well, so here's one from my second round of beta testing. You can get an idea of what you can tweak from the character creator here.

This is the Bounty Hunter I plan to launch with. He reminds me a bit of a certain ex-govenor in his much younger years. And while the male Bounty Hunter does have a badass voice, it unfortunately lacks a good Austrian accent.

There's 4 different basic body shapes for all races (skinny, average, musclebound giant, and Porkins). The rest of the options vary a lot by race, and somewhat by class as well. A Type 3 head on a human male Jedi Consular may not be the same as the #3 slot on a human Republic Trooper. The faces themselves are preset and you can't tweak the features. You can choose from a variety of facial complexions, scars (type, but couldn't change placement in beta like you can in Star Trek online), eye color, hair, hair color, and skin color. There's also sliders for racial specific items (different cybernetics for cyborg characters, different horns for zabrak, etc)

 

[jasong888]

so are we starting a sideshow guild too lol? it'd be nice to at least play on the same server.

 

[ATCollector]

I'm game for a freaks guild! I prefer playing on PvE servers though. I get my PvP on in warzones.

 

[ExMem-LarjaThwei]

Well count me out. MMO's are for fat kids with no friends. Not even fat kids with friends will play this piece of ^^^^.

I just began reading on page 1 and saw this...

 

[ExMem-LarjaThwei]

Sorry, last one. I had to..it was just..so funny...

Bookmarked!

Man i hope it's not too long before it comes out.

 

[OSCORP]

1 month

(less than if you PO'D)

 

[ExMem-LarjaThwei]

A few pages later you were like "I hope it comes out in 09".


I'm probably going to pre-order it sometime this week.
Those trailers always get me so pumped.