SW: The Old Republic - Episode VII (J.J. Strikes Back)

[Gorth]

Yeah, the bugs seems to multiply in the dark corners of the universe. When I started playing (don't remember when exactly, it was shortly before planet specific commendations got replaced by generic planetary commendations), I was impressed by how stable the game seemed. For all the quests and missions across the classes, it seemed to work flawlessly (the odd failing to trigger proc or relic double proc oddities not withstanding). Fast forward a few years and you wonder if your game client launches today

 

Some really bizarre bugs like offhand not being visible when inspecting players, or the pvp bug that meant bolster gave you a nice boost in warzones if you had good star ship gear equipped for your star ship, exploits that gets to linger for months without being squashed as a priority... I don't know if they were, but it sure felt like the game ran a very long time on skeleton staff. I've bemoaned it before, but it also felt like combat mechanics and encounter designs took a nosedive after Dread Fortress/Dread Palace launched. Pretty much leaving all melee classes out in the cold except for some ridiculously overpowered assassins/shadows in warzones.

 

Makes you truly wonder if those combat design guys every played their own game and their own operations/flash points.

 

It's rather obvious that they are struggling with something for end game players to do, coming up with very, very obvious attempts to entice people to stay subscribed between chapter releases in the expansion. Grinding heroics Is *not* fun. Especially after they removed all story content from the heroics and just left the mind numbing grind (I've heard that if you go to the planets and look up the quest givers, you can still get at least some of the story parts of that part of the game). Star Fortresses with way too little to differentiate them. Done 6 on a character? Never more for that character. Swearing on his mothers honour (some Bioware employee) that there would not be that long between operations again, first thing they did was the break it. The current loot system is also not going to encourage new players to play the old operations, it has always been a piss poor idea that 2/3 of the ops group gets rewarded for their time and effort and the last 1/3 gets left with barely enough credits to cover their repair bills.

 

No, pointless pet #145 is *not* going to entice existing players to stay subbed.

[majestic]

Odd, I don't recall Bioware stating that it'll be not long before operations - only that they plan on releasing content patches every 6 weeks, which was quickly put to a 6 to 8 weeks exactly one patch later, and during Shadows of Revan while KotFE was being developed Bioware never made any mention about new operations (only that silly scaling).

 

But yeah, it does look like they're actually running on fumes over there even though EA supposedly increased resources for Köfte KotFE. Kind of odd considering that this is supposed to be one of the Hero Engine's strengths: Quickly adding content because developers and artists can work simultaneously on game assets in real time.

Edited December 23, 2015 by majestic

[Gorth]

Odd, I don't recall Bioware stating that it'll be not long before operations - only that they plan on releasing content patches every 6 weeks, which was quickly put to a 6 to 8 weeks exactly one patch later, and during Shadows of Revan while KotFE was being developed Bioware never made any mention about new operations (only that silly scaling).

 

But yeah, it does look like they're actually running on fumes over there even though EA supposedly increased resources for Köfte KotFE. Kind of odd considering that this is supposed to be one of the Hero Engine's strengths: Quickly adding content because developers and artists can work simultaneously on game assets in real time.

New York cantina tour October 2014

 

Summary from Dulfys site (you would need to find some video of the Q&A to get the exact conversation now, if such exists)

 

(because of the excessively long time between Dread Fortress/Palace and Ravagers/Temple of Sacrifice)

 

"Why so long between Operations?

Looking ahead at the project plan they knew this was going to be a problem. However they only had two options that they could realistically go with. The first was to release an operation before the expansion, but have it quickly become obsolete come 3.0, and only have one operation available with 3.0. Or they could wait and have two for 3.0 but have a really long time without anything. It was really crappy and high end PVErs got “f*****”. It is something that they don’t want to ever do again (have that much time between operations)."

 

So the goal was never get anywhere near 12 months between operations again. That was 14 months ago the last pair was released now and unlikely to be anything released the next 6 months for end game content.

 

Edit to add: You could argue that a statement of intent is not the same as a promise. Doesn't change the fact that old players are royally screwed once you have played 2-3 alts through the KotFE story line (unless you are a die hard pvp'er, in which case you have been royally screwed for the last 2 years)

[majestic]

I see, I never followed the Cantina Tours. Well then, that was a straight out bust. On the other hand they also said they'll look into GSF (and that even on the GSF forum) and never really did.

 

PVPers generally whine too much in MMOs anyway - regardless of the MMO they're playing. The funniest part is when they think they have mad skillz in an environment locked to ~40 APM.

 

edit:

 

Reading all this just proves that I was kind of right to quit when I did. It's a pity because I really loved this game and some of its content has the best atmosphere I've ever seen in MMOs.

Edited December 24, 2015 by majestic

[213374U]

But yeah, it does look like they're actually running on fumes over there even though EA supposedly increased resources for Köfte KotFE.

 

I don't know about that, but here is what a contract tester had to say about resources and the direction the game is headed:

 

 

Well, there were a lot of factors. Some people just left of their own accord. But the most recent departures (voluntary and otherwise) were certainly due to declining confidence -- regardless of current profitability or possible future lack thereof. And that "regardless of" is a key qualifier there. [...]

 

Also, keep in mind, the technical debt by the time the movie was coming out for this game was huge. It's no secret internally that the foundation was weak from a coding perspective. KotFE essentially changed large segments of the code base and thus many core dynamics which -- as we've seen -- have led to a lot of core bugs (missions that were completed, but are indicated as not having been; quest givers that sometimes simply don't show up; etc). [...]

 

The recent "rewards" and the stream certainly left no doubt in too many people's minds I think: this was not "rewards". This was "retention." They need people to stay subscribed. Even if they get no more subscribers, they need what they currently have. This was a bit of a desperation move, in my view. They even got some lead writers to tweet out various comments that, in retrospect, most people agree were misleading at best, fraudulent at worst. [...]

 

As far as end game, I think what we've seen recently has shown that EA / BW has at least less faith than they did that the game can sustain itself as a full-on MMO. There's clearly a focus on the single-player component (even if it's still situated in a multiplayer context) and there's certainly been a converging of the story lines into one story.

 

Of course, this is just one guy's perspective, so grain of salt, etc. Heh, I wish Alanschu was still around.

 

And then, there's this. I'm not going to jump ship just yet, but it's hard to be hopeful.

Edited December 24, 2015 by 213374U

[marelooke]

Bummer, I was kinda feeling like catching up on everything I missed after I quit somewhere before the first expansion (which I later got and thought was boring, so I quit again). The game focusing more in the SP is good news to me personally as my guild mostly fell apart due to the extremely unpolished end-game PvE content on release. That all storylines seem to be converging otoh seems rather bad news.

 

Guess I'll sub for 90days or so and see what's what, unfortunately it seems Origin is having some major issues and I can't get anywhere with the subscription pages (neither via the website nor through Origin). Guess that explains the declining revenue, if it's impossible for people to send you money then yeah ...

[Janmanden]

Haven't played the game for a few months, forgot to cancel my subscription and then I decide to replay the game with an alternate classes.. Already completed all eight a long time ago.. And played 4 extra alternate versions.. Deciding what to pick.. Haven't played the Imperial Agent for ages.. But as soon as I decide to switch away from my new Adventure to get all my Crafters started up on creating items for my new character I am hit with overwhelmingly huge mess.. All my characters are flooded with items.. Cargo bays have gone missing.. Action panels have been reset.. Skills have been reset.. Companions have changed and they are all either half- or totally naked.. Several skills have disappeared and thousands of Purple and Blue crafting receipts I made myself from Reverse Engineering have disappeared.. Can't make Armoring.. Can't make Enhancement.. Can't make Barrels.. I had them all in both Blue and Purple.. Now I only have a handful of a few random items left.. And it's not like they were removed from the game, they were just stripped from me so I can go and buy them again. Where is the Justice in that? No Justice in gaming? No gaming rights? Really weird!! It's too messy to consider playing again. I feel violated, but apparently I have no rights. All that time, stolen. No compensation of any kind - just some silly new and useless items with the latest upgrade. Nothing, but a massive amount of Work, which got absolutely nothing to do with playing at all unless it was a SIMS game about playing house and collecting horse**** or whatever.

 

Not even MERRY CHRISTMAS (that would probably be too snarky), but I wish it for everybody else!!

[marelooke]

Haven't played the game for a few months, forgot to cancel my subscription and then I decide to replay the game with an alternate classes.. Already completed all eight a long time ago.. And played 4 extra alternate versions.. Deciding what to pick.. Haven't played the Imperial Agent for ages.. But as soon as I decide to switch away from my new Adventure to get all my Crafters started up on creating items for my new character I am hit with overwhelmingly huge mess.. All my characters are flooded with items.. Cargo bays have gone missing.. Action panels have been reset.. Skills have been reset.. Companions have changed and they are all either half- or totally naked.. Several skills have disappeared and thousands of Purple and Blue crafting receipts I made myself from Reverse Engineering have disappeared.. Can't make Armoring.. Can't make Enhancement.. Can't make Barrels.. I had them all in both Blue and Purple.. Now I only have a handful of a few random items left.. And it's not like they were removed from the game, they were just stripped from me so I can go and buy them again. Where is the Justice in that? No Justice in gaming? No gaming rights? Really weird!! It's too messy to consider playing again. I feel violated, but apparently I have no rights. All that time, stolen. No compensation of any kind - just some silly new and useless items with the latest upgrade. Nothing, but a massive amount of Work, which got absolutely nothing to do with playing at all unless it was a SIMS game about playing house and collecting horse**** or whatever.

 

Not even MERRY CHRISTMAS (that would probably be too snarky), but I wish it for everybody else!!

 

Seems I have the same problem, inventory flooded with items, lots of mails with "item recovery" and I would have sworn I had more than 3 cargo bays (hence all the items suddnely flooding my inventory). On top of that companion gearing seems to have been overhauled (so lots of companion gear in that inbox too)

 

I'll try making a ticket for the cargo bays, but seemingly support takes forever so yeah...

[213374U]

Haven't played the game for a few months, forgot to cancel my subscription and then I decide to replay the game with an alternate classes.. Already completed all eight a long time ago.. And played 4 extra alternate versions.. Deciding what to pick.. Haven't played the Imperial Agent for ages.. But as soon as I decide to switch away from my new Adventure to get all my Crafters started up on creating items for my new character I am hit with overwhelmingly huge mess.. All my characters are flooded with items.. Cargo bays have gone missing.. Action panels have been reset.. Skills have been reset.. Companions have changed and they are all either half- or totally naked.. Several skills have disappeared and thousands of Purple and Blue crafting receipts I made myself from Reverse Engineering have disappeared.. Can't make Armoring.. Can't make Enhancement.. Can't make Barrels.. I had them all in both Blue and Purple.. Now I only have a handful of a few random items left.. And it's not like they were removed from the game, they were just stripped from me so I can go and buy them again. Where is the Justice in that? No Justice in gaming? No gaming rights? Really weird!! It's too messy to consider playing again. I feel violated, but apparently I have no rights. All that time, stolen. No compensation of any kind - just some silly new and useless items with the latest upgrade. Nothing, but a massive amount of Work, which got absolutely nothing to do with playing at all unless it was a SIMS game about playing house and collecting horse**** or whatever.

 

Not even MERRY CHRISTMAS (that would probably be too snarky), but I wish it for everybody else!!

 

Ouch.

 

With the 4.0 crafting overhaul, old schematics are somewhat irrelevant, and which skill crafts what has been reworked (for instance, Cybertech no longer produces armorings). Your old schematics, however, should all have been moved to the "archive" tab. You can no longer learn old schematics from the trainer, but you can still craft old items from the archive tab if you have learned the schematic before 4.0.

 

Skills being reset is par for the course every time a major patch is applied. Training skills has been free for a while now, so it's more the inconvenience of having to hunt the class trainer down if you don't have a holo.

 

Gear is completely irrelevant for companions now, their effectiveness depends on your Presence stat. The only thing whose stats they can take advantage of currently is the main hand barrel/hilt, and that's unintended (but not acknowledged as a bug, either).

 

Good luck.

[Janmanden]

Phew. What a x-mas nightmare, but.. it's real?! Shiiiii...

 

Okay, erm, so, well, uh yep..

 

The flooding can easily be explained by the total nerf and cripple of companions. They can no longer use Earbuds and Implants, and some of them can't even use headpieces or secondary weapons, and Khem Val only have two slots left.. One for customization and one for Melee.. 11 slots dropped.. Same goes for the ship-droid..  For a standard game with five stripped companions (and a bot), that's a lot of items to pop-up in inventory. Twelve characters with five companions plus droids.. Too much Work. I'm.. How..Wha..Why?????

[kirottu]

The flooding can easily be explained by the total nerf and cripple of companions.

Companions have been buffed to high heavens not nerfed.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Yeah, it seems that companions can now outperform a bad player at whatever role you set them at. Frankly I'd say the things that need nerfs in 4.0 are ranged characters, particularly sage/sorcs, and companions.

[marelooke]

Yeah, it seems that companions can now outperform a bad player at whatever role you set them at. Frankly I'd say the things that need nerfs in 4.0 are ranged characters, particularly sage/sorcs, and companions.

 

I just started playing again and you want to nerf my favourite class (Sorc) already, warm welcome back indeed ;)

 

Quite a lot of the gear that got dumped into my inventory were orange appearance sets that I had started collecting, those were in cargo bays of their own, them no longer being there makes it quite obvious that I lost at least two bays. Judging from the amount it would seem I might have lost some gear as well, but I can live with that if I get the storage space back, so I can dump everything in there and sort it out once I've figured out what all has changed in those years since I last played.

 

Collections seemed like a neat addition but it appears none of the armors I have qualifies (not even the full Columni set, ugh...), so that's a bummer at least...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

 

Yeah, it seems that companions can now outperform a bad player at whatever role you set them at. Frankly I'd say the things that need nerfs in 4.0 are ranged characters, particularly sage/sorcs, and companions.

 

 

I just started playing again and you want to nerf my favourite class (Sorc) already, warm welcome back indeed ;)

Well they pull similar dps to sent/mara and ass/dow at range so somethings off. Personally I'd say the melee classes could use a buff but buffing classes seems to be out of the question for some reason.

[213374U]

Well they pull similar dps to sent/mara and ass/dow at range so somethings off. Personally I'd say the melee classes could use a buff but buffing classes seems to be out of the question for some reason.

The numbers can deceive you, do not trust them.

 

That's on the 1.5 mil dummy. According to that, you have Sorc/Sage doing ~1k less dps than Mara/Sent. I don't raid, but from what I understand, parsing on the dummy doesn't translate so well to boss fights, especially with encounter design favoring ranged over melee.

 

I do PVP quite a bit on mara/sent and while there is nothing more satisfying than hitting an unsuspecting healer for ~50k in 4 GCD, I am also aware that such a thing happening is like the perfect storm. It's much harder to pull than a sorc/PT rotation, infinitely easier to counter (if you are interrupted during Gore/Precision say good-bye to your output), and it also depends on RNG for the procs.

 

Sorc survivability and mobility are on a whole different league compared to mara, too. Even after they fixed Undying Rage.

 

I don't know what the solution is, but I'm thinking that trying to have abilities do the same and behave equally in environments as dissimilar as PVE and PVP is a mistake. And, of course, class balance being what it is assuming balanced group compositions but then having no matchmaking for the vast majority of games (regs) is... interesting.

Edited December 28, 2015 by 213374U

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

^I was talking about practical numbers found in Warzone matches, not dummy parses. While the latter can be useful, it's simply too dissimilar from actual combat to use as a reliable indication of combat ability.

 

I've been in situations like yourself where the prec window gets interrupted and the burst gets screwed up. It's even worse for watchman because getting thrown off merciless slash or dots eats a big hole in your damage output that can be difficult to recover from. Comparatively my PT or Gun have a much easier time pulling off rotations and benefit from easier mobility.

 

I agree completely with balancing for PVP and PVE. It's neurotic and leads to severely broken mechanics for one or the other, or in this case for both. The lack of pvp matchmaking really sucks, especially when you end up with 8 sentinels, and is baffling because they have a matching feature for flashpoints.

[Humanoid]

It's interesting how many changes I didn't notice until I transferred my old character over to my current server and played it a bit. I've been playing a fresh character for over a month now and am almost level 40 but it didn't really twig at all.

 

For example, I didn't notice:

 

- Companion gearing, or lack thereof. Bafflingly all my companions were stripped of their weapons, helmets and ....pants, and those pieces were delivered to my mailbox. Also all of Bowdaar's clothes because I guess nudism is enforced amongst Wookies now.

 

- Missing commendation stuff. I had no idea what this new "data crystals" stuff was meant to be, but I didn't realise it was a replacement for the commendation stuff, which I didn't really think about at all.

 

- Crew skill revamp in general, which I only noticed when I saw pretty much all my existing recipes were in this weird "archive" category on my crafting menu.

 

- Companion affection system changes. Well, actually I never knew how it worked, and I know even less now because it looks twice as confusing. Also when I visited my ship for the first time, every companion had about a half-dozen conversations queued up. I levelled twice in my ship from just talking to them repeatedly.

 

- Removal of the class-specific stats. I have no memory of strength, aim, int, etc being things that were present on gear, I only remembered when I googled what makes Armormech different from Synthweaving.

 

- All my old gear was pretty much orange modded stuff, which I don't particularly remember going out of my way to get, so I assume I got them as part of normal levelling. But my new character has pretty much no orange gear (aside from the starter lightsabre) so I guess that sort of gear has mostly been removed, as have mods and stuff like that, my old character has a bunch of them in the bank, but my new character has exactly one of them, awarded during the starter planet as part of the "introduction to modifying gear" tutorial.

 

So yeah, it's a weird feeling just stumbling onto these changes and not even knowing they had been changed. There's probably a bunch more changed things I'll only notice in the coming months. I guess I'll just let myself find out organically.

[marelooke]

It's interesting how many changes I didn't notice until I transferred my old character over to my current server and played it a bit. I've been playing a fresh character for over a month now and am almost level 40 but it didn't really twig at all.

 

For example, I didn't notice:

 

- Companion gearing, or lack thereof. Bafflingly all my companions were stripped of their weapons, helmets and ....pants, and those pieces were delivered to my mailbox. Also all of Bowdaar's clothes because I guess nudism is enforced amongst Wookies now.

 

- Missing commendation stuff. I had no idea what this new "data crystals" stuff was meant to be, but I didn't realise it was a replacement for the commendation stuff, which I didn't really think about at all.

 

- Crew skill revamp in general, which I only noticed when I saw pretty much all my existing recipes were in this weird "archive" category on my crafting menu.

 

- Companion affection system changes. Well, actually I never knew how it worked, and I know even less now because it looks twice as confusing. Also when I visited my ship for the first time, every companion had about a half-dozen conversations queued up. I levelled twice in my ship from just talking to them repeatedly.

 

- Removal of the class-specific stats. I have no memory of strength, aim, int, etc being things that were present on gear, I only remembered when I googled what makes Armormech different from Synthweaving.

 

- All my old gear was pretty much orange modded stuff, which I don't particularly remember going out of my way to get, so I assume I got them as part of normal levelling. But my new character has pretty much no orange gear (aside from the starter lightsabre) so I guess that sort of gear has mostly been removed, as have mods and stuff like that, my old character has a bunch of them in the bank, but my new character has exactly one of them, awarded during the starter planet as part of the "introduction to modifying gear" tutorial.

 

So yeah, it's a weird feeling just stumbling onto these changes and not even knowing they had been changed. There's probably a bunch more changed things I'll only notice in the coming months. I guess I'll just let myself find out organically.

 

Kind of the same deal here here.

 

The leveling system also seems to have changed and I had to re-choose my specialization. Seems my "rotation" as Inquisitor has remained mostly unchanged though and at least one of the annoyances hasn't been fixed (still a very long cooldown on the interrupt and it has a very short range compared to other abilities, which is just annoying for PvE)

 

Had to rename most of my "alts", which sort of annoyed me, not sure what the threshold was to not be forced to rename but I tend to be "rather" attached to my characters' names.

Then again very few games (EVE being the exception I'm aware of) grasp the concept that there are many people with the same name. I mean, the fact that a name needs to be unique annoys the hell out of me, it makes zero sense, how hard is it to allow the option of a last name and be done with it? Sure it creates some inconvenience when you want to send people a tell or whatever, but there's enough ways to work around that problem that that really shouldn't be a blocker. (autocomplete on names, suggest people in party, raid, friends list, guild first, in that order)

 

On top of that I recreated an existing character and the name generator (because I was out of ideas for somewhat sane names...) suggested something that apparently was already taken, that was a bit of a facepalm moment...

 

In good news, I'm enjoying the Makeb storyline with my Inquisitor (started that, then stopped playing, so still have most of it left). I also started a new Sith Warrior, it seems Korriban was streamlined a bit, in a good way I think, at least all the quests I remembered were still present. I also seem to receive excessive amounts of XP, but that is likely partly due to the double XP period going on (I'm level 13 and I only just met Darth Baras...). Not really sure which specialization is best suited to levelling, I'd guess Marauder but maybe the new companions are super good at murdering stuff. Input welcome

[213374U]

I also seem to receive excessive amounts of XP, but that is likely partly due to the double XP period going on (I'm level 13 and I only just met Darth Baras...). Not really sure which specialization is best suited to levelling, I'd guess Marauder but maybe the new companions are super good at murdering stuff. Input welcome

The XP awards currently are insane, but that's mostly due to the event, yes. "Mostly", because they already streamlined the leveling so you would be at level just by doing planetary arcs and story missions. If on top of that you do PVP, FPs, or Heroics, you will be overleveled quite a bit, double XP or not. Not that it really matters.

 

Regarding class, pick the one that appeals to you the most, is the foremost criteria you should use to decide, because leveling is not the way you remember it — post 4.0 the game basically plays itself outside of group content.

 

Jugg is quite a bit sturdier (heavy armor), has good defensive tools, can taunt in a pinch should you need to, and affords you the opportunity to dabble into tanking, which is my favorite role personally. It's a bit low on the damage department currently, but outside of progression raiding teams, that is irrelevant. All three specs are fairly easy to learn. If you want to switch roles, you will need two sets of gear, though.

 

Marauder on the other hand is the quintessential glass cannon. Awesome damage, top-notch utility, fast-paced gameplay (as far as the engine allows anyway), and... two glowing sticks, if you are into that kind of thing. On the other hand it is, imo, the class with the highest skill ceiling. It can also be seriously frustrating to play in PVP unless you queue with a pocket healer and/or roll Fury.

[Osvir]

Having returned to the Jedi order after what feels like several years I wonder... "Why didn't they make this game like Dark Forces or Elder Scrolls?"

 

I do think Star Wars does much better in a FP viewpoint, and imagine all the skill shots (rather than just targeting an enemy and pressing a button). Aiming with a Trooper... holding a lightsaber and so on and forth.

 

I did zoom in in hopes of seeing an update allowing you to play FPS mode but alas... NAY!

 

Having tons of fun with my trooper though

[Humanoid]

In good news, I'm enjoying the Makeb storyline with my Inquisitor (started that, then stopped playing, so still have most of it left). I also started a new Sith Warrior, it seems Korriban was streamlined a bit, in a good way I think, at least all the quests I remembered were still present. I also seem to receive excessive amounts of XP, but that is likely partly due to the double XP period going on (I'm level 13 and I only just met Darth Baras...). Not really sure which specialization is best suited to levelling, I'd guess Marauder but maybe the new companions are super good at murdering stuff. Input welcome

 

One of the earlier discoveries I made was when I wondered why I was getting so many more quests than my co-op partner was. Turns out I must have accidentally toggled the "exploration quests" option (above the quest listing) which reenables the quests that had been marked obsolete and were hidden.

 

I'm wondering now whether it's viable to ignore all the quests except the ones explicitly marked as class quests, including skipping the core questline for each planet. I can see playing the full set of quests once on each faction, but I can't imagine playing each set of shared quests four times over.

[ShadySands]

With double XP it is doable to just do the class missions but without it you will be underleveled unless you also run some of the side content

[Humanoid]

Tested it out, and yeah, it's very much doable with the double XP, and indeed I'm still quite a bit overlevelled having gone from 0-25 on an inquisitor in one sitting. I did exactly zero non-class missions, and maybe did one or two bonus objectives just purely by accident. I used the minor XP boost tokens as I received them.

 

However I'm significantly slowed down by the fact that I'm squishy as hell and die repeatly unless I carefully micromanage my tank companion to make sure he picks up every enemy before I engage. The problem is that class quests only award gear for a few slots, it keeps giving me chestpieces, pants and weapons but I don't even have a belt, bracers, implants, etc. I don't have an alt capable of crafting any armour so I'm just bumbling around being an arrogant jerk (well sort of, I'm playing it as a troll trying to get executed but somehow failing) but running away whenever a fight breaks out, which kind of undermines the roleplaying aspect.

 

 

EDIT: Noticing lately that the game is pretty system intensive, if I try to watch a Youtube video (with the HTML5 viewer) while playing, the game becomes choppy as hell, and this is on a pretty powerful machine, an i7 Skylake and an R9 290X. I have no problem doing the same with WoW.

Edited December 31, 2015 by Humanoid

[213374U]

Tested it out, and yeah, it's very much doable with the double XP, and indeed I'm still quite a bit overlevelled having gone from 0-25 on an inquisitor in one sitting. I did exactly zero non-class missions, and maybe did one or two bonus objectives just purely by accident. I used the minor XP boost tokens as I received them.

 

However I'm significantly slowed down by the fact that I'm squishy as hell and die repeatly unless I carefully micromanage my tank companion to make sure he picks up every enemy before I engage. The problem is that class quests only award gear for a few slots, it keeps giving me chestpieces, pants and weapons but I don't even have a belt, bracers, implants, etc. I don't have an alt capable of crafting any armour so I'm just bumbling around being an arrogant jerk (well sort of, I'm playing it as a troll trying to get executed but somehow failing) but running away whenever a fight breaks out, which kind of undermines the roleplaying aspect.

 

 

EDIT: Noticing lately that the game is pretty system intensive, if I try to watch a Youtube video (with the HTML5 viewer) while playing, the game becomes choppy as hell, and this is on a pretty powerful machine, an i7 Skylake and an R9 290X. I have no problem doing the same with WoW.

 

 

Switch your companion to healer if you are having the slightest trouble. Khem Val as healer may look stupid but tank stance for companions doesn't work too well — it's either heal or dps. For gearing, you either run heroics which reward two random level appropriate pieces, or buy mods with the data crystals you get from quests. If you cannot craft moddable light armor yourself, you can buy a set cheap from the level 8 vendor on fleet. I could craft whatever you need but you're not on TRE, right?

 

Technically, the game is pretty ****, is what it is. Building a MMO on an engine that doesn't support multiple cores and only comes in 32-bit is... interesting. As you have probably noticed,  in order to circumvent these limitations, the game actually runs two swtor.exe processes simultaneously; from what I read one is the game proper and the other is the UI. Messing around with processor affinity for each may or may not improve your performance. There are tons of posts in the swtor boards dealing with performance issues and possible solutions, some of them quite detailed and in-depth. Unfortunately, in yet another incredibly bone-headed decision, the CS forum was made read-only and all queries redirected to "EA Answers". Moderators couldn't be arsed to collate and sticky these helpful guides in general discussion so you have to hunt them down.

 

Really, many of the core issues with this game stem from the terrible decision to use Hero Engine in the first place. Ah, look at me. Already drifting into MMO burnout mode.

 

You have fun now, signing off..

[Humanoid]

Problem with using anything but a tank companion for my smuggler is that I'd never be able to use the Back Blast (backstab) ability, but I did just finish the smuggler storyline (so hard to care about any of it past act 1) so I'll try out the healer companions on the other classes I experiment with. Back when I last played in 2012, I tried all my companions and choosing anyone but the tank just got me killed, but that was a long time ago.

 

Thanks for the offer but I'm on Begeren Colony. I'm reasonably well resourced with about 1m credits, so I'll see what I can buy. I have 500/500 Cybertech so mods and enhancements are doable, but have no Synthweaver or Armormech to make stuff that takes advantage of them. On the other hand, I found out that using the level 60 boost when creating a new character gives them one of those professions (depending on class) at max skill, so that'd save some effort if I can decide what class to boost. Heroic quests seem to take too long and defeat the point of my skip-everything class runs.