SW: The Old Republic Part 5

[Humanoid]

They haven't implemented the romance with the IA's sexbot, so no.

[Spider]

Not wanting to spoil too much, here. There are two romance options for IA (could be a third, but I think it never develops that way, more like a close working relation). One male and one female. The male companion option has more depth to him than I'd think at first, so it's ok.

 

The female option (which I suppose you've already met) Is kinda cool, in a psychotic sort of way.

[Chaz]

I had a good time being a rotten bastard Sith Inquisitor but the story is average and the ending is infuriating.

 

My main is an Inq and in my case the second part of the story was getting boring and the ending (last 4 leves) got pretty exciting!

[Gfted1]

 

I had a good time being a rotten bastard Sith Inquisitor but the story is average and the ending is infuriating.

 

My main is an Inq and in my case the second part of the story was getting boring and the ending (last 4 leves) got pretty exciting!

 

 

 

In case you haven't reached the end of the SI story I will spoiler tag the rest:

 

 

I wanted to put my fist through my display when after chasing the bad guy across the universe for 50 levels, someone else delivered the kill shot.   

 

[Hassat Hunter]

Generally get good groups. Of course, can steamroll all lvl 50 "Hard" Mode Flashpoints now, with 55's a plenty.

 

Zbyl and me even dualled a H4 together on Coruscant with new characters. Definitely feels very easy now...

 

And yes, keeping to one alignment will bite you in the ass since relics and other certain items generally require specific LS/DS ranks until the very late game.

And they seem to have cut out the option to get end-game earpieces and implants with the 2.0 patch. Sucks for players getting to 50 (and not having the expansion).

[Spider]

Relics and some light sabers are the only things alignment affects. But you won't really need relics until endgame, and there are plenty of options for light sabers anyway.

 

And at end game neither relics nor light sabers have alignment restrictions.

 

I personally don't bother with relics much when leveling, they're an ok bonus, but won't really impact your gaming experience that much.

[NOK222]

They only matter at end game HM ops. 

[Gorth]

Relics and some light sabers are the only things alignment affects. But you won't really need relics until endgame, and there are plenty of options for light sabers anyway.

 

And at end game neither relics nor light sabers have alignment restrictions.

 

I personally don't bother with relics much when leveling, they're an ok bonus, but won't really impact your gaming experience that much.

Sounds good. My Bounty Hunter wont bother with anything but "convenient" replies then and stay grey.

 

I really hate "heroics". Too many Area4 and Heroics4 on Balmora (sp?). When I was high enough level to "solo" them, they were pointless (no exp and gear), just a time waste. Not enough people around to reliably find somebody to complete them with when they would have been beneficial to complete. I've started just "abandoning" them.

 

Edit to add: On the other hand, you almost always find a PvP match to join somewhere. Go figure. I wonder what it would take to add Heroics to the group finder, like the flashpoints?

[HoonDing]

I had too many connection problems with this game (invisible barriers a lot of the time) so I uninstalled after finishing the Hutt planet. Gameplay was getting stale too.

[Nepenthe]

Not wanting to spoil too much, here. There are two romance options for IA (could be a third, but I think it never develops that way, more like a close working relation). One male and one female. The male companion option has more depth to him than I'd think at first, so it's ok.

 

The female option (which I suppose you've already met) Is kinda cool, in a psychotic sort of way.

 

Uh, two girls, you can just play yourself out of the second one by becoming too close with the first one, if you catch my drift.

[HoonDing]

I hated the Assajj Ventress clone. She gave me Subject Zero vibes.

[Spider]

Edit to add: On the other hand, you almost always find a PvP match to join somewhere. Go figure. I wonder what it would take to add Heroics to the group finder, like the flashpoints?

 

 

They kinda sorta are, just implemented in a way that is bad enough that no one uses it. At least there used to be an option "Planetary Destinations" which is intended to get groups for stuff like heroics on a planet. But since you don't specify which ones, it gets kinda dicey.

[alanschu]

Free to play has apparently been good to SWTOR

 

I always find it interesting that this model can work.  Though I guess the subscriber base didn't change a whole lot, but the influx of F2P players has helped out (while helping populate the servers more).

[Spider]

Also, some. Subscribers are spending a fair bit on the cartel market outside their subscription.

[alanschu]

Interesting.  I actually don't know very much about the monetization policies of the game.  I was under the impression that subscribers got access to everything.  What exactly is the "cartel market outside their subscription" referring to?

[Gorth]

Free to play has apparently been good to SWTOR

 

I always find it interesting that this model can work.  Though I guess the subscriber base didn't change a whole lot, but the influx of F2P players has helped out (while helping populate the servers more).

I blame f2p for me getting "hooked" in the first place. Also spent cartel coins on expanding inventories/cargo bays and more character slots... and a few gimmicks

 

Edit to add:

 

They kinda sorta are, just implemented in a way that is bad enough that no one uses it. At least there used to be an option "Planetary Destinations" which is intended to get groups for stuff like heroics on a planet. But since you don't specify which ones, it gets kinda dicey.

Interesting. Wish I could queue for specific heroics/areas just like the flashpoints.

[alanschu]

Glad you're enjoying it though!  In some ways F2P can be similar to Shareware/Demos and it seems like that's how it worked for you.

 

I was glad it went F2P simply because I enjoyed the writing and figured any who wanted the story but didn't care for the MMO fees would still approve.

Edited May 8, 2013 by alanschu

[Gorth]

At the risk of sound like a ****... money is rarely ever an issue, time is. So, whatever saves me time (conveniences) gets considered

 

I currently get the 2 months non-recurring things (already added "second season" to that, topping up as I go) and see myself having fun for a long time to come.

[Nepenthe]

Interesting.  I actually don't know very much about the monetization policies of the game.  I was under the impression that subscribers got access to everything.  What exactly is the "cartel market outside their subscription" referring to?

 

Gear (shells), of course the best-looking ones in the game, and some unlocks that can be "sped-up" with cartel coins, instead of spending credits or something on them. A lot of the cartel gear is available in random packs with varying rarities, so that guy gunning for the revan mask can spend a lot of dough

[Humanoid]

There's also some brouhaha about subscribers having to spend their cartel coins to unlock the catpeople race. The first non-gear game feature (expansions aside) that subscribers need to 'pay' for? Not sure I like the implications of that.

[Spider]

Interesting.  I actually don't know very much about the monetization policies of the game.  I was under the impression that subscribers got access to everything.  What exactly is the "cartel market outside their subscription" referring to?

 

well, mostly I think people are spending money on the packs, possibly some of the gear sets or mounts. I'm not one of them, so I'm not sure. But the packs are what I hear about the most.

 

Subscribers get all content for free, but any convenience stuff in the cartel market we need to spend cartel coins on. We also get 500 cartel coins per month (600 with a security key), so we can get some of the stuff if we want (for reference, cartel packs cost 380 cc, armor sets can go for 1000cc to 1800cc depending on how many pieces are included).

 

Also most of the cartel market items can be bought and then resold on the auction house of in game credits, so I'm guessing some players are doing that as a way to get more credits in game.

 

And in a week they'll be adding the Cathar as a playable race, which needs to be bought from the cartel market for anyone who wants them. Also coming in the next patch are character customization options, where you can change everything except for gender about your character, but each change will also cost cartel coins.

 

Edit: And in regards to the brouhaha humanoid mentioned, I personally feel that's blown way out of proportion. The cathar will cost 600cc for an account wide unlock, and subscribers get 5-600 cc a month. So no big deal. You won't be buying a couple of packs this month if you really want the cathar. I can live with that (though I don't even know if I care about the cathar, but have 1800cc lying around so might as well buy them).

 

The bigger issue is that character customization will cost cc, as that is something people are more likely to do frequently, but the pricing on that is yet to be seen.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Spider

[Hurlshort]

Yeah I really see the mix of a sub and f2p feature as being the future of MMO's.  Glad to hear it is working for TOR.

[marelooke]

Free to play has apparently been good to SWTOR

 

I always find it interesting that this model can work.  Though I guess the subscriber base didn't change a whole lot, but the influx of F2P players has helped out (while helping populate the servers more).

 

The numbers are since going F2P, that was after the majority of people that stopped playing dropped out of the game. Just felt like that needed clarification.

 

On another note, bought the expansion but can't say I have much of an urge to play, dunno why, the story seems decent enough so far.

Edited May 8, 2013 by marelooke

[Raithe]

I need to get back in to some regular gaming on this. Just haven't been in a vaguely sci-fi mood , even with the magic that is Star Wars lately...

Of course, I keep getting told horrible things about another style of HK-type search mission that crops up on Makeb that I'm dreading getting when I start to plow through those quests properly...

[Spider]

It's two quest lines, they're fairly long and they each end with heroic 4:s. Some of the quests in those lines are actually pretty sweet, but the filler quests are dull as hell (in line with the HK search, although not quite as bad).

 

They are, however, completely optional and has nothing to do with anything on Makeb (other than you can pick them up there). You need to have the first meeting in each quest in order to do a new set of dailies, but if you hate the digging I don't know why you'd want to (I did the dailies once and decided I hated them and haven't touched them since).

 

They've got their own labels in the quest log as well. "Macrobinoculars" and "Seeker Droids". So just don't do those if you hated HK. Though Macrobinoculars is nowhere near as annoying, if you're doing that questline you might as well do the other one as well since they're lining up pretty well as far as which planets you need to go to.