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Spider

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Posts posted by Spider

  1. I've played this during the first beta weekend (up to level 13) and with a new character this weekend (up to level 5). I'm not super impressed by this game, but I don't hate it either. Some impressions:

     

    The game is gorgeous. Animations are a bit so-so perhaps, but the rest of the visuals are fantastic, at least for a mmo.

     

    Once you get past the tutorial area and the first small area, the game becomes a lot more fun. Partly because you have more skills to play around with and because the maps open up a bit more. But for me the first 4-5 levels took way too long and felt kinda grindy and railroaded.

     

    Exploration is fun (once you get to the larger maps) and with the skyshards there is also motivation to explore.

     

    The game is clearly made for a console audience. The low amount of abilities at your disposal and the overall UI design all scream of console limitations, even more so than Skyrim did. Perhaps it gets better once you unlock your second weapon set (and thus in a way double the amount of abilities you can have slotted), but I'm not convinced.

     

    The skill system seems fairly robust and allows for a lot of options.

     

    Questwise the game is fairly mediocre. Not as awful as standard MMO fare, but not super exciting either.

     

    I do like that quest objectives are instanced so you usually don't have to stand in line waiting for objectives to respawn. Same that you get kill credit for any monster that dies that you've attacked, regardless of who killed it (or initiated combat).

     

    But following along those lines, I can't for the life of me understand why when in a group when one person completes an objective it doesn't count for the whole group. Questing actually takes longer in a group than if you do it yourself, which just feels wrong.

     

    Long cutscenes in repeatable content will probably get annoying after a while. They're done out of dialogue, so while you can move around and do whatever you want, you still have to wait for them to finish before you can continue. It's fine the first few times, but after that....

     

    I do like that you join guilds (and befriend people) with your account, not your character.

     

    So like II said, a mixed bag. I don't think I'll be getting this one at launch, but if enough people I know are playing it and loving it then maybe. Most of all I'm concerned about longevity. You only get 6 activated abilities per weapon set and I just feel it'll be a bit simplistic in the long run. End game content has to be really amazing for this game to be worth the subscription I think.

  2. With the description you give, my instincts are screaming power related.

     

    So my guess would be either the PSU or the motherboard is failing. So I'd try and test the machine with a different PSU before I start replacing anything if possible.

  3. Digital distribution must be a godsend to game companies, especially small to mid-size.  I imagine the money saved with digital distribution compared to burning discs must be quite significant.  Heck, even after Uncle GabeN and... (/looks up GOG wiki to see who runs the show) Uncle Guillame take their cuts, it's still gotta be a heck of a lot cheaper than burning discs, printing boxes, manuals, code wheels (ah, good ol' code wheels :biggrin: ), etc.

     

    And more importantly, most of what you pay the digital distributors is paid after a sale has been made. So you don't have to front all the cash required for distribution.

     

    So even if you ended up paying more to a digital distributor (which you don't) not having to spend the money up front would still make it worth it I think, at least for smaller developers.

  4. Most people who run flashpoints are ridiculously overgeared though. But yeah, you certainly need to be aware of what can be expected from your groupmates in those respects.

     

    If I ever do flashpoints these days it's only with guildmates and then we tend to pretty much ignore good sense, never cc, continously chain pulling (to the point that if you don't pay attention a s ahealer, the tank will most likely be 100 meters in front of you engaging new enemies, frequently around a corner).

     

    We, of course, do not do this when there's non-guild members in the group.

     

    The seeker droid quest is hard when you're not aware of the mechanics. We 3-manned it when we did it with no tank. Was interesting, especially the think after the explosion room. There is a mechanic that makes that bit a lot easier which we weren't aware of so we spent almost an hour on that bit being in combat the entire time (and no wipes). Then I did it after reading up on how it was supposed to work and beat it in 5 minutes...

  5. Tradition. In Europe we've always released games on Fridays, even when international simultaneous releases weren't a thing.

     

    In the us the same was true for Tuesdays.

     

    And since publishers don't want to short sell physical stores, the same restriction is placed on digital vendors, arbitrary though it may seem.

  6.   Does anyone know if guild members have to be in the same faction?  I hope not, but I haven't investigated much.

     

    You can be a member of a guild of any faction, but you can only hold control points and such (I suppose pvp-related stuff) for a guild you share the faction with.

  7. Vendor gear is actively designed to be suboptimal. You need operations drops (and usually multiple copies) to get optimized gear for any class. But tanks certainly have it worse, not only is the stat distribibution fairly one sided, it's also very high endurance and low mitigation which is kinda meh.

     

    Basically the only comm gear that's worth getting for a tank (looking at the ultimate tier here) is the earpiece and the offhand, and the offhand only for the armoring (I suppose one non-setbonus armoring is als ok). Healers and dps at least can get good mods, for tanks both mods and enahncements in comm gear is universally crap.

  8. I really liked GSF when it came out, thought it was just what the game needed. Another activity to spend time on while waiting for raids basically.

     

    But after a few weeks I just got so tired of it and I haven't played a match since. Only having two maps available was fairly silly for one (especially since one of the maps favor the republic slightly) and both maps having the same game mode makes it worse. Though I'm not sure team deathmatch is that much more fun, at least it's something different.

     

    So maybe if they add 4-5 new maps I'll get interested again, but I'm not even sure that'll be enough.

    • Like 1
  9.  

    TESO beta invites are out. Check your mail. I got mine hehehe. The beta starts this Friday.

    Wasn't able to participate in the previous one I was invited to, seems like they don't do second chances ;)

     

    Keep use posted, I'm curious how this one will turn out (though, since it's a MMO, my expectations are rather low ;) )

     

     

    If you already gotten invites, aren't they still valid. Only people who didn't get invited previously got new ones this time around I think. The mail I got says my account and characters are still there.

     

    Not that I'll be able to participate this time due to being out of town, but still.

  10.  

    Other than the fancy +41 crystals and the Gormak thingamajig schematics, there is literally zero reason to bother with classic comms at this point.

    I wouldn't say zero reason. I was suggesting doing Ilum and similar dailies because if you're feeling under leveled at 50 odds are you're already doing Makeb. So doing easier content that gives good xp and comms that is better than anything before the level 53 basic gear isn't a terrible idea.

     

    Also, the classic gear has set bonuses making it a lot better than even black market gear for some classes. The armorings that is, mods and enhancements are another thing.

  11. If you're free to play, you probably need to buy authorization for section x, but not sure.

     

    You can do Makeb at level 47 even, along with ilum dailies and belsavis dailies which are both good xp, good credits and awards classic coms.

     

    Your planetary comms are best spent on the Makeb commendations vendor on the fleet. Start with upgrading your weapons and whatever armors you can afford after that and you should be geared enough for all content mentioned here.

     

    But since you're feeling under leveled, are you already on Makeb then?

  12. Yeah, but that goes for both sides.

     

    And I think it's important to talk about these issue in place where you normally converse. I know the chance of changing people's minds are slim, but it's important that people at least think about these issues, which they're forced to do if they want to do any real arguing with the likes of Alanschu. In the same way I appreciate learning the viewpoints of those whos opinion I don't share, because that forces me to think about things differently as well.

     

    Unless it's just trolling like some people do.

  13. I think my point was that a lot of the people promulgating that point of view _believe_ they are doing it for people who can't help themselves... Hence the "cryptopatriarchality" comment... Since by believing that women, as a collective, need one's help, one is, in fact, promulgating outdated gender views.

     

    I really don't think that's the case. I know that when I talk about these issues, I certainly don't. Alan and Bruce certainly don't either. Women are more than capable to speak for themselves, it's just that on a board like this, a vast majority of the participants are male. So it's fairly natural for those of use that share the point of view that oversexualization of women is a problem will speak up. Not because women can't do it themselves, but because we also care about these issues.

     

    Not that I say very much, but that's mostly because Alan usually beat me to it and do it better than I would anyway.

     

    Edit: or in shorter terms, what Lord of Lost Socks said.

  14. Larian is refunding money yeah, either as credit in their store or cash refund if you prefer it (although then you have to contact them).

     

    Wasteland 2 is selling their Early Access on steam for $60 and there's apparently been a fair bit of backlash for that price. People generally don't expect a beta to cost more than the finished game.

     

    WL2 of course had to price it that high so they wouldn't conflict with their KS tiers, and those buying the EA version are getting the digital deluxe package, but not a lot of people know that.

     

    Larian is clearly taking a better approach here, and I think anyone planning on starting a new Kickstarter should think long and hard before including beta access as a KS reward.

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