SW: The Old Republic Part 4

[Hurlshort]

So any word on more class/story content or the rumored space addon? I'm guessing they've been dropped since it's going free play?

 

Why would they stop developing content?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by space add on. I know there were rumors of guild ships, but I haven't heard anything there in a long time.

[Spider]

A while back (a month or so after release) they said they had some exciting plans for space, that was not just more missions. They haven't said anything more about it since though, and those plans have probably been delayed. I also don't think guild ships will be anything that gets added to the game in the forseeable future, if ever.

[Cantousent]

I've been doing the daily pvp and it's a quick xp bump every night for me. It's also gratifying when, after being shaken down, shot, stabbed, and bludgeoned by every Empire mook on the map, I actually get an MPV vote for healing. In WoW, I felt like virtually every bg we won as the Alliance, we clawed, scratched, and dug out of the cold, icy, rock hard earth. In TOR, I've won more than lost as the Republic.

[Bos_hybrid]

Why would they stop developing content?

 

Single player content not being a priority anymore. I would of said that PvP and group PvE would be the focus more than class content now that it's F2P. But my knowledge of MMO's is pretty poor.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by space add on

 

There was supposedly a rework of the space mini game in the works. Seems from what spider said, that it's been scrapped.

[Guest Slinky]

Why would they stop developing content?

 

Single player content not being a priority anymore. I would of said that PvP and group PvE would be the focus more than class content now that it's F2P. But my knowledge of MMO's is pretty poor.

 

I don't think F2P changes much, as you have limitied number of pvp you can play in a week and you can't go to operations at all if you don't pay the monthly fee.

 

But I truly hope they have group PvE and PVP on priority, both could use some serious work. The whopping three operations we have are starting to get old and badly. PVP on the other hand has some hilarious class imbalances.

[Raithe]

I've been doing the daily pvp and it's a quick xp bump every night for me. It's also gratifying when, after being shaken down, shot, stabbed, and bludgeoned by every Empire mook on the map, I actually get an MPV vote for healing. In WoW, I felt like virtually every bg we won as the Alliance, we clawed, scratched, and dug out of the cold, icy, rock hard earth. In TOR, I've won more than lost as the Republic.

 

I know healing is important.. but it is kind of annoying to run through a match of Voidstar and be the only guy who planted bombs, have stacks of "objective points" for doing so, having our team win the game because I got them planted and got us through the doors.. and then have all the mvp votes go to the healer who never actually healed me...

[Hurlshort]

Why would they stop developing content?

 

Single player content not being a priority anymore. I would of said that PvP and group PvE would be the focus more than class content now that it's F2P. But my knowledge of MMO's is pretty poor.

 

 

Pretty much every MMO has to continue developing PvE content and expanding the story, regardless of f2p. It actually provides income for them, because they sell it as an expansion. They put out a few new areas, raise the level cap, etc.

 

Now I'm interested in how the individual stories will be continued. My guess is those won't get much attention, instead focusing on one large story for each faction. But that remains to be seen.

[Cantousent]

I know healing is important.. but it is kind of annoying to run through a match of Voidstar and be the only guy who planted bombs, have stacks of "objective points" for doing so, having our team win the game because I got them planted and got us through the doors.. and then have all the mvp votes go to the healer who never actually healed me...

 

I get you, bud. It's one of those things where the MVP award goes to someone and you're not sure why. I mean, I've known folks not to get the nod even though they kept a third of the other side tied down solo while the rest of the team took over objectives, carried the flag (or ball or whatever), or performed some other victory condition. I think the MVP vote function is cool, but I value success more than glory. For me, since I'm not a big PVPer, I prefer to win my match, turn in my daily, and go. I've done a lot of PVP, especially in WoW, and it's just not as enteretaining most of the time. Good for a quick daily or to goof around, but not really the main point. The TOR PVP scenarios seem a little primitive compared to WoW, at least at low levels, but they're fun. More important, I don't want to see the PVE game suffer in a never ending quest to balance PVP. I can see what Deathdealer was saying about class imbalances in PVP, but the classes actually seem pretty well balanced for PVE so far, even I personally think some are easier/stronger than others. Of course, my commando is all of level 22 now, so I still can't speak authoritatively on anything.

 

What I can say is that the crewmate mechanic, having my own ship and safe deposit boxes, being able to have one or two people gathering or crafting while I quest, and the surprising quality of the cutscenes has made this game for me. Granted, if I hadn't gotten the good word from Cal about subtitles and skippable dialogue, I think I would have stopped playing, but some of the cutscenes are quite well done. I should have an entirely light side sith warrior just to see how things are from that perspective and, frankly, to see if it makes one bit of difference if I'm the opposite 'alignment' from my faction.

 

EDIT: lol I played that one match where you carry the ball to the other side and I got mixed up and ran it into my side's end zone. hahaha Then I noticed someone was typing WRONG WAY repeated in all caps. lol I deserve the Most Inept Player of the game for that one.

Edited August 28, 2012 by Cantousent

[Nepenthe]

What I can say is that the crewmate mechanic, having my own ship and safe deposit boxes, being able to have one or two people gathering or crafting while I quest, and the surprising quality of the cutscenes has made this game for me. Granted, if I hadn't gotten the good word from Cal about subtitles and skippable dialogue, I think I would have stopped playing, but some of the cutscenes are quite well done. I should have an entirely light side sith warrior just to see how things are from that perspective and, frankly, to see if it makes one bit of difference if I'm the opposite 'alignment' from my faction.

The problem is that (at least on the imperial side) the mental age of the players is about 20 years less. This means that stuff like the opposite Side winning a dialogue will result in a ton of teenage whining. (I also saw some guys asking for a "couple of level 50s" help them with Hammer Station... I'm not sure HK-51 is worth having to play an Imp on Red Eclipse).

[Spider]

Consensus is that republic pvp:ers are stronger, because they are more concerned about objective and teamwork. Imperial pvp:ers just go in and want to kill things.

 

I think there is some truth to that, it certainly feels like my team is running around like headless chickens a lot of the time. I'm probably not better myself, since I'm fairly new to pvp in this game (started saturday, mostly because I want a relic that is best-in-slot for pve as well), but at least I try and support the team and work the objectives. I kinda have to support the team of course, since I'm a healer.

 

It's pretty easy to see if the other team is coordinated not though. Basically if I spend a majority of the time stunned or dead, they've got enough coordination to focus healers, and then things tend to go bad for my side (not because I think I'm important, but because the other team knows what they're doing). The matches I have won though (which are few) are the ones where I've been left pretty much unmolested, and been able to do my thing

[Cantousent]

First time through Athis tonight. Healing it can be a pain, but I do enjoy it. Now that I've made a commando medic, I'm thinking of creating another healer. That leaves off the idea of a Sith Warrior. Maybe I'll go Sith Inquisitor. I think there's a healer spec for that class. I dunno. Just because I like healing doesn't mean I shouldn't try my hand at some dps and even a tank. I really prefer the way crafting and gathering goes in TOR. It's fun.

[Calax]

First time through Athis tonight. Healing it can be a pain, but I do enjoy it. Now that I've made a commando medic, I'm thinking of creating another healer. That leaves off the idea of a Sith Warrior. Maybe I'll go Sith Inquisitor. I think there's a healer spec for that class. I dunno. Just because I like healing doesn't mean I shouldn't try my hand at some dps and even a tank. I really prefer the way crafting and gathering goes in TOR. It's fun.

Inquisitor Can do tanking and healing between it's two classes. However.It has probably one of the DULLEST storylines in the game.

[Cantousent]

Wow, that's some timing. Okay, trying to remain cogent right now. The game is great. I'm level... 24 now and going to pass out. I haven't mentioned when I've been online, but I'm kind of on and off while I do other things in the evening. We should get together, though. I'd even make a smuggler or some other republic mook to do a quick flashpoint with you again, Super Cal. lol I'm looking forward to end game content. I seem to be able to hang tough so far in pvp and flashpoints. :Cant's **** eating grin icon: I know I tend to be a little bit erratic in my activity, but I really appreciate you guys pushing the game. It's aweosme! Anyhow, out for the night. I'll check tomorrow to check on things.

[Calax]

Just throw me a line. My schedule is crowding up with school, dealing with a president induced sunburn, work, and homework.

[Spider]

Can't go wrong with operative if you want to heal. Best storyline and very efficient healer (although all healing classes are more or less on par).

 

I'm a bit biased since its my main, but I love it to death. It is a bit underwhelming at the beginning though, doesn't really get going until lvl 30 or so, due to missing some crucial components, but after that it's pretty much awesome.

[Raithe]

I've actually got my Bounty Hunter to 50 now, mostly focused on the arsenal route, but with a few bits of bodyguard to quicken my healer stuff and some pyro for the added boom.

Now I just have to slide into Corellia and finish off that class story...

 

Hm, see, I found Athiss to be a weird mixture. It has some great atmosphere for a flashpoint, but the last half feels really dull. Especially that grindy series of fights against the force users you have to plow through to get to the boss.

 

I see Hammer Station used as a quick way to farm light/dark side points. Over levelled people running it solo in 20 minutes just to farm the points.

 

Had a short burst of PvP play the other night, and went from some really good teams that knew how to coordinate, to dealing with some really frustrating ones. I mean, they'd take nodes then wander off without anyone guarding them. Or not bother to call out incomings if someone was actually there to defend..

Things like "Okay, are you good guarding this spot solo while I go and try to draw some of the enemy team away by attacking over there?" , the guy replies "Sure". I head away, glance back..and find he's following me and the node was left totally unguarded and a stealthy uncloaking to take it..

And having to yell at the Sniper in Huttball to stop setting up on the edge of the pit. After the freaking third time a Jedi used him to force leap up and then score it gets a wee bit frustrating. I think made more so by the good teams I was in during the first few matches.

[Guest Slinky]

Things like "Okay, are you good guarding this spot solo while I go and try to draw some of the enemy team away by attacking over there?" , the guy replies "Sure". I head away, glance back..and find he's following me and the node was left totally unguarded and a stealthy uncloaking to take it..

 

Hehe rule number one in PVP: never ever trust pugs to do anything important.

 

There's always people who don't quite grasp what they should be doing, but in european servers you can also often run into people who can't speak english very well. I once grouped with this spanish guy who didn't speak english at all, he translated everything with google translate which caused some misunderstadings

[Malcador]

Guarding a node solo is always a bad idea too, learned that in the old AB days in WoW (still the best BG there, really). Did like the Alderaan BG better than Huttball - latter is a huge pain as a sniper.

[Spider]

Correction, it's just a huge pain.

[Raithe]

Huttball can be a blast at times. Especially with jedi knights / sith warriors / bounty hunters. While there are tactical elements that can be useful for stealthy-types.. that really becomes a crapshoot on whether you've got a team that actually works together and understands passing..

 

But if you've got a high dps, you can totally nail the ball holder and slice up people attacking your ball holder and earn stacks of commendations...

[Cantousent]

Just finished a couple of disasterous pvp matches to start the evening. Now I'm queued up for a Flashpoint if anyone wants to join. :Cant's broad grin icon:

[Spider]

Yeah, hutball is a lot easier for marauders, powertechs and juggernauts. I on the other hand play as an operative healer and as an imperial (which means less teamwork) and it's typically very frustrating. I can't use stealth to any real advantage because I'm too slow when stealthed and healing is a pain due to LoS being blocked all the time.

 

And I have none of the abilities that are good in hutball (pulls, jumps, knockbacks, speed increases) otehr than a melee range stun and a short range mez.

 

I've had one hutball match where it felt like players on my team knew what they were doing, and it was tight and exciting. We managed an equalizer score with 24 seconds left on the clock, although still ended up as the losing team due to tiebreakers. That game was actually fun, but other than that hutball's mostly been miserable for me.

 

(disclaimer, I am most likely one of those people who have no idea what they're doing, since I've only started pvping this week)

[Raithe]

I have to say I don't get the hate on Imperial side random teams. So far in my experience, it's been about equal to the Republic. Half the time it'll be a team that knows how to try to coordinate, and half the time it'll be with a group of people who have no clue about coordination. I think what crops up is when you end up in one evening of one extreme or the other, rather then bouncing between the two...

 

Sure there are a few annoying prats who are all "check everyone has pvp gear of x level or we should kick them from the team" and then bitch and whine about things without actually trying to organise what everyone is doing... But I've met a fair few Imperial toons who know what they're doing and actually communicate and try some level of organisation.

 

If you do have a tactical team in Huttball who talk to each other, one thing a stealth guy can do is run for the end and set themselves up to be ready for passing. Of course, that doesn't work when the rest of the team runs around like a headless chicken just trying to kill folks instead of playing the game...

 

Spider - one thing I've done to make ease of healing (well, my BH has some minimal healing, but not focused) was to remap a key to autotarget my closest ally/team mate. Which can be quite useful in the middle of a mob of folks when you want to quickly snap off a heal but can't easily target them.

[Spider]

Good tip, I'll have to try that.

 

But on our server there is a mile of difference between republic and imperial teams. They are much more coordinated as a rule. There is very little coordination and no one types anything in chat most of the time. I wish I could do that myself, but I myself really don't know how to coordinate a team, so I'll just have to follow my best instinct on where I need to be.

 

But yeah, not all republic teams are well coordinated, and it's fairly easy to say when they are. Basically if I live for more than 30 seconds at a time, their coordination isn't all that (healer in recruit gear = major bullseye). But I'd from my experience the repluc players are more coordinated at least twice as often as the imperials. My win ratio is about 1/5 or so, and while it's certainly a possibility I am dragging my team down, we're frequently outclassed in a way that can not be caused by a single player.

[Nepenthe]

Sure there are a few annoying prats who are all "check everyone has pvp gear of x level or we should kick them from the team" and then bitch and whine about things without actually trying to organise what everyone is doing... But I've met a fair few Imperial toons who know what they're doing and actually communicate and try some level of organisation.

Pub players' alts.

 

I think I'm not gonna do any more group content on my imp agent apart from boarding party and the foundry...