[Hocknose]

Guys,

Has anyone got themselves a code for the beta this weekend? It would be good to play with some people on the same server.

Also is anyone planning on getting this when it comes out full release? Wouldn't mind starting a Malazan clan/guild or something.

let me know

[Lusipher]

Hocknose, on 24 November 2011 - 02:59 PM, said:

Guys,

Has anyone got themselves a code for the beta this weekend? It would be good to play with some people on the same server.

Also is anyone planning on getting this when it comes out full release? Wouldn't mind starting a Malazan clan/guild or something.

let me know

Yep, my beta starts tomorrow at noon EST. No idea about a server yet, but I'll be rolling an Imperial Agent, probably named Scarab or Amhranai, if Scarab is taken. I'll probably play it for a bit once it comes out, but Skyrim is proving too much fun right now and, after testing TOR a few weeks ago, I was left with only a meh impression. Guild Wars 2 has me more excited at this point, but don't let my opinion steer you one way or the other

[Hocknose]

Mine starts at 10am CST which I think is 4pm my time (GMT).

I was planning on going for a Trooper and then specialising as a Vangaurd.

Was just looking on the SWTOR website and there has already been 2 clans registered with the name 'Malazan Empire' one in US and one in Germany. Wonder if they were by people who frequent here?!?!?

Yeah I haven't pre-ordered yet but II'll make a decision after this weekend.

[QuickTidal]

I've got the code, but not sure if I am going to have time to play. If I do I'll let you all know on here.

[Primateus]

I will be playing, and probably under the name Leytran or Twinkie

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Not signed up for beta but I've preordered and I'm all set. I set up a Sith guild (The Crimson Guard) but no one else has preordered so it won't be transferred at the moment. I was intending to play on a PVP server but I'm open to persuasion, so if anyone wants to join that, it would be cool...

[Aptorian]

I'm boycotting the game because I find it absolutely pants that classes like "imperial spy" and "storm trooper" are supposed to have a chance in one on one combat against a god damn Sith or Jedi. IT MAKES NO SENSE!

Oh but Apt, you say, not all jedi's are as strong and as skilled as Obi Wan or Anakin Skywalker, herf derf.

WELL WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT TO PLAY A JEDI THEN!??

Silly class based MMO.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Jango Fett did pretty well against Obi Wan. OK, that's the only instance that I can bring to mind, but still...

[Lucifer's Heaven]

I am in the Beta this weekend
Though I live in Brisbane, so I'm at +10. Dunno how long we'll both be on at the same time

I was wanting to roll the dual weilding Jedi, but I'm amenable to trying something else.

[QuickTidal]

Aptorius, on 24 November 2011 - 09:13 PM, said:

Silly class based MMO, that will make buckets, and buckets of money and replace WoW as the DeFacto MMORPG.

Fixed. Cause I mean seriously Apt.

Also, Just FYI Apt: ROTS is filled with regular ass Clones taking out JEDI FUCKING MASTERS!

Just sayin'

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 25 November 2011 - 01:46 AM

[Lucifer's Heaven]

Yeah, that pissed me off a bit...
Their fighting is supposed to be based on seeing a very (very) short distance into the future. And most of those masters were battle ready in warzones. So unexpected attack or no, they should have at least put up a damn fight...

Oh also. Lusipher, GW2 looks fucking awesome! Also, I'm looking forward to The Secret World. GW2 has no subscription, so I'll be getting that either way. Secret World is the one that is making me less sure of getting this game, as I really don't need more than one subscription game.

[Hocknose]

I'm loving this game!!

I've tried a Trooper and a Sith Inquisitor, 2 totally different types of class.

The game is really polished even in Beta, there's a few glitches but nothing game breaking that I've seen. Story seems good also so far.

Problem is It's made me want to pre-order it, so I don't want to play any more as I'll spoil the game for when I play the full release as the characters I'm sure won't carry over!! :-)

[Adjutant Stormy~]

I hope this game is as good as you say, I got in on the Warhammer Online beta and fist-screened because of how wretchedly unpolished it was.

I'm going to have to wait to play until I have money, though

[Lusipher]

Adjutant Stormy, on 28 November 2011 - 06:36 AM, said:

I hope this game is as good as you say, I got in on the Warhammer Online beta and fist-screened because of how wretchedly unpolished it was.

I'm going to have to wait to play until I have money, though

Stormy, I played Warhammer too for a bit-the RvR was just too much fun, regardless of how broken it got at later levels-and I have to say that TOR is much more polished from what I saw of two starter worlds (Korriban and Nal Hutta), Dromund Kaas (the Imperial capitol) and a tiny bit of Balmorra. Two weeks ago, I played as a Sith Inquisitor, this week as an Imperial Agent, both of which were fun. Everyone gets zapped with lightning as an Inquisitor and the Agent works similar to a rogue from Warcraft, but uses cover instead of stealth to deal big damage.

If you've played Bioware games before, you can largely guess what you'll be getting here-decent story with okay combat mechanics. For both classes, I would say the story so far is, for me, somewhere between Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2 in terms of quality. I really enjoyed Dragon Age's story, but felt a little less attached to Dragon Age 2. The stories for the Inquisitor and Agent are decent so far, but I'm not completely hooked on either of them. The combat generally looks cool, but nothing too flashy. Overall, I would have liked to see them do a little bit more than ape much of what WoW has done, but I guess the voice-overs and story-driven aspects were enough of a push forward for them. The starter worlds and Dromund Kaas felt really linear-at some points, you're literally following a yellow brick road (when you look at it on the map) from one quest hub to the next. For anyone complaining about Bethesda's bent to linearity with their last two Elder Scrolls entries, I'd tell you to take a look at The Old Republic and stop complaining

One thing that really drives me nuts is the interface. I really hoped it would be customizable since there won't be any addon support at launch, but you can't do much with it-hell you can't even have more than two windows open at once, nor move those windows when they are open. None of the interface elements, excepting the chat frame and the party/operation frame, can be moved either. Seems like a really poor decision on their part, but I'm sure all the Star Wars fan boys won't care until some time later. It has potential, but we'll see what comes at and after launch. I'm not terribly impressed, but I'll probably be playing for a bit, if Skyrim allows me.

[Lucifer's Heaven]

I agree with much of what you said Lusipher.

Though I think the game is less polished than you seem to.
By less polished, I mean there are still more bugs and just general bits of dodgy than I was expecting this close to release.

Assuming all of those things get fixed, I think it will be a good game. Not earth shattering, but good.

I found the stories much more engaging than you did I think (Jedi Knight and Bounty Hunter were what I played), but I made damn sure I compared the game to other MMOs, not other bioware games. As I feel that's what most people would do, and really, it seems the fairest comparison
I also like that the companions seem to be properly fleshed out characters in their own right.

I do have a few problems with the game though.

For a start, the fucking running.
My first character was a Jedi Knight. And the absolute first thing I felt when I got control, was wow, I don't feel at all like I'm playing an awesome force user. I jump in a normal kinda retarded looking way, nothing fancy, no force jump. I run really slowly. The world is overblown like MMOs usually are, and getting places felt like a chore. I actually detested the idea of exploring with this character. Between a shitty jump, and slow arse run speed I didn't explore any of the starting world beyond what the quests forced me to. I'm the sort who usually explores and collects EVERYTHING. When I got to Coruscant, and saw the huge great looking environments, I groaned.
And to add insult to injury, all the female characters run like, well, girls. Girls who need to pee. They run in that way that's called "running like a girl" as an insult, that way no girl I know who does any sort of physical sport actually runs. Not much elbow or knee movement, lots of forearm swinging. And add to that the knees touch as they swing by, she's got her legs so close together (the needs to pee bit).
Great way to make me feel like my character is the pinnacle of physical achievement BioWare
And then once you get to level 14 they give you a power called sprint. If you activate it, whenever you're out of combat you run 35% faster. This really should just be the default out of combat movement speed from the begging of the game.

Sorry about the rant, that was really, really immersion breaking for me. It really pissed me off. And was even more annoying, because the PvP maps aren't level segregated. So when you join you're powered up to level 30 stats wise, but without any new abilities. If you enter any of the larger maps before you have sprint, it sucks. Your team leaves you behind running to objectives, you can't chase down enemies if they escape combat, but they can chase you down. And you don't get to queue up for specific maps, so you can't avoid the large ones.

Anyway, there are a few things like that that I feel would improve the game if fixed. They seem inordinately fond of making you run a hell of a lot. Lusipher, did you find the split in the fast travel system as annoying as I did on Dromund Kaas? And the amount of unnecessary areas you had to load and run through to get to your ship?

So yeah, they definitely need to get some improvements out soon. A lot of UI stuff. A Looking for Group system. Proper PvP queuing. Stop us from hearing other people's companion's comments. Making the companion comments only at relevent times (the number of times my companion said stuff like "Take that!" while there were no enemies around and I was talking to a shop keeper were ridiculous), dunno if this was a bug, or they just forgot to implement a system to manage this... There were a few other things like that I can't think of just at the moment
Having said all of that. The graphics were good (even if I'm not the biggest fan of the style), many of the areas were very cool and the spoken dialog made such a phenomenal difference to story. There where some really good light side and dark side choices (with the two major usual BioWare problems: conversation options are fairly often not what you expect when clicking on them and there are only rewards for people who stick to one either good or bad choices, those who walk a neutral path get jipped). Not having an auto-attack was handled well and does make the combat a bit more involved and animatiosn where characters actually act like they 're trying to dodge and block are much nicer than the usual static swinging.

I reckon if they iron out the bugs and seem like they're making improvements quickly, it will do well. It is a good game.
My only real concern for it is that there are two other MMO's supposedly coming out next year that have the same improvements as Old Republic, but are both pushing the bar in other areas. If they live up to their promises I feel like they may well reduce the life and popularity this game would otherwise have had.

[Obdigore]

Which other MMO are you talking about besides GW2? Hidden World? The Secret World or w/e its called?

[Lusipher]

Lucifer, on 30 November 2011 - 09:57 AM, said:

I agree with much of what you said Lusipher.

Though I think the game is less polished than you seem to.
By less polished, I mean there are still more bugs and just general bits of dodgy than I was expecting this close to release.

Assuming all of those things get fixed, I think it will be a good game. Not earth shattering, but good.

I found the stories much more engaging than you did I think (Jedi Knight and Bounty Hunter were what I played), but I made damn sure I compared the game to other MMOs, not other bioware games. As I feel that's what most people would do, and really, it seems the fairest comparison
I also like that the companions seem to be properly fleshed out characters in their own right.

I do have a few problems with the game though.

For a start, the fucking running.
My first character was a Jedi Knight. And the absolute first thing I felt when I got control, was wow, I don't feel at all like I'm playing an awesome force user. I jump in a normal kinda retarded looking way, nothing fancy, no force jump. I run really slowly. The world is overblown like MMOs usually are, and getting places felt like a chore. I actually detested the idea of exploring with this character. Between a shitty jump, and slow arse run speed I didn't explore any of the starting world beyond what the quests forced me to. I'm the sort who usually explores and collects EVERYTHING. When I got to Coruscant, and saw the huge great looking environments, I groaned.
And to add insult to injury, all the female characters run like, well, girls. Girls who need to pee. They run in that way that's called "running like a girl" as an insult, that way no girl I know who does any sort of physical sport actually runs. Not much elbow or knee movement, lots of forearm swinging. And add to that the knees touch as they swing by, she's got her legs so close together (the needs to pee bit).
Great way to make me feel like my character is the pinnacle of physical achievement BioWare
And then once you get to level 14 they give you a power called sprint. If you activate it, whenever you're out of combat you run 35% faster. This really should just be the default out of combat movement speed from the begging of the game.

Sorry about the rant, that was really, really immersion breaking for me. It really pissed me off. And was even more annoying, because the PvP maps aren't level segregated. So when you join you're powered up to level 30 stats wise, but without any new abilities. If you enter any of the larger maps before you have sprint, it sucks. Your team leaves you behind running to objectives, you can't chase down enemies if they escape combat, but they can chase you down. And you don't get to queue up for specific maps, so you can't avoid the large ones.

Anyway, there are a few things like that that I feel would improve the game if fixed. They seem inordinately fond of making you run a hell of a lot. Lusipher, did you find the split in the fast travel system as annoying as I did on Dromund Kaas? And the amount of unnecessary areas you had to load and run through to get to your ship?

So yeah, they definitely need to get some improvements out soon. A lot of UI stuff. A Looking for Group system. Proper PvP queuing. Stop us from hearing other people's companion's comments. Making the companion comments only at relevent times (the number of times my companion said stuff like "Take that!" while there were no enemies around and I was talking to a shop keeper were ridiculous), dunno if this was a bug, or they just forgot to implement a system to manage this... There were a few other things like that I can't think of just at the moment
Having said all of that. The graphics were good (even if I'm not the biggest fan of the style), many of the areas were very cool and the spoken dialog made such a phenomenal difference to story. There where some really good light side and dark side choices (with the two major usual BioWare problems: conversation options are fairly often not what you expect when clicking on them and there are only rewards for people who stick to one either good or bad choices, those who walk a neutral path get jipped). Not having an auto-attack was handled well and does make the combat a bit more involved and animatiosn where characters actually act like they 're trying to dodge and block are much nicer than the usual static swinging.

I reckon if they iron out the bugs and seem like they're making improvements quickly, it will do well. It is a good game.
My only real concern for it is that there are two other MMO's supposedly coming out next year that have the same improvements as Old Republic, but are both pushing the bar in other areas. If they live up to their promises I feel like they may well reduce the life and popularity this game would otherwise have had.

First, to Obdigore-yes, I believe those are the games Lucifer is referring to. From what I've seen of Guild Wars 2, it looks like they're taking the idea of the Public Quest used in Warhammer and improving it. Combat also seems much cooler; by which I mean that, the more you use a weapon, the more special attacks you're able to make with that weapon. And those attacks are on top of your class abilities. I'd need to do more research to make sure what I think is right is, in fact, right, but from what I've heard/read/seen, Guild Wars 2 looks to be pretty damn cool. I don't know too much about The Secret World, and I don't think much has been released just yet, but what they have said sounds tantalizing.

Lucifer-well, let's get the obligatory 'lol nice name!' out of the way first I agree that TOR needs polish, but in comparison to what I experienced in Warhammer's beta, I thought it looked much better. As far as the story goes, I have to honestly say that, while yes, you are doing menial tasks in WoW with little to no point behind them, I felt thoroughly invested in my blood elf paladin and her journey throughout Azeroth and Outland. As much as Outland was weird to many people, I enjoyed it, top to bottom. I even constructed that journey into a loose story form for my own enjoyment. I fear that with everything laid out for you in TOR, step by step, some of that will get lost. So, for an MMO to MMO comparison, I don't feel any more invested in my character from TOR than I did when I started my blood elf in WoW.

You're right about the running/jumping animation, it doesn't look too good and never has. I guess running and jumping were afterthoughts because they're not heroic actions I didn't have a problem with not getting Sprint til 14 tho. Korriban and Nal Hutta weren't terribly vast and there were speeder transits pretty centrally located to quests. I felt that it came in just about right on Dromund Kaas but if it really bothers you, I'd suggest farming Black Talon til you get to 14 and then head down And oh let me tell you how many times I cursed getting to and from my starship the first time...it just didn't make sense. I hope you only have to do that the first time, or for the quest that I was on because it was RIDICULOUS. I ran from my ship, down a corridor, through a space port and then through a hangar to catch a flight down to Korriban on my Agent to talk to a Dark Council member and was fuming the whole time. I really hope that is not the case every time you get off your ship.

After thinking about my beta experience, general lack of interest for WoW, and the inordinate amount of joy derived from Skyrim, I wonder if I'm just bored of MMOs altogether. I've been playing since 2004, pretty much non-stop. We'll see when TOR comes out...

This post has been edited by Lusipher: 30 November 2011 - 08:14 PM

[Illuyankas]

Things I've learned about TOR!

1. If you play a female Imperial Agent, you get a dialogue option where you speak to a guy who knows you're impersonating someone and demands credits to keep quiet. You can either A: bribe him with the amount of credits he asks, which gives you light side points; B: kill him, which is dark side points obviously; or C: fuck him. No, seriously, you fuck a guy in order to keep your secret, and when you reappear from the fade to black your character looks disgusted with themselves. This is also a light side option. So if you don't have the credits and you're not evil, guess it's lie back and think of Alderaan time!

2. This quest exists:

Quote

I have a funny story related to Sith light side choices. I wanted to post this but thought I shouldn't because its a bit spoilery, but its such an bizarre and ridiculous thing I feel it needs to be told.

So, spoilers below are for a light side decision with a Male Sith Warrior around level 13ish on Dromund Kas.

Spoiler

You get a class quest from Darth Baras to basically go kill another Darth's son. You are explicitly told not to kill the Darth. (Forgot his name, it starts with a G and a lot of Dromund Kas revolves around him.) Anyway, you go to his compound to kill his son and find the son and mother in a room. After a quick fight with the two, who are both Sith, you get a bit of dialogue. The mother makes an offer of letting her and the son live in exchange for the father's location. The mother doesn't care about the father and explains that he wears a mask, and if killed the son can take the father's place and rule in his stead.

So the dark side option is to just kill the mother and son, which gets you an amazing cutscene where you throw the old woman into a wall with a pretty satisfying crunch. Or you can choose the light side option where you take the mother up on the deal. If yoou go dark side you kill the two and leave. But if you go light side you go kill the father, which is the only way you ever even get to see or interact with the guy who is central to several Dromund Kas quests, even for other classes. So you kill him and return to the mother. The mother gives some dialogue about her son taking over but shes really in control, sith power, yada yada.

She thanks you and you get a flirt dialogue option. Choosing this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in a video game. Only Bioware would do something like this. You convince the mother to have sex with you, she looks like an old lady, not super old, but definitely 50+. She orders the son to leave the room who gets a little pissy. If you have Vette out, she asks if you're going to make the twilek leave or not. You then get the option to kick Vette out or make her STAY AND WATCH. The screen fades to black, then comes back and the mother thanks you and tells you how good you are and you leave. You can't make this shit up. Its absurd and is like the only memorable story moment I have from playing multiple classes over 30. Keep in mind that's a light side option.

Glad to see Bioware are keeping up to their current standard of writing.

[Primateus]

I've had a habit of choosing only the dark side options, I got very evil very fast.

[Illuyankas]

So, one of the Sith classes gets a Twi'lek slave with an electroshock collar. Who is also a romance option. Don't believe me?

Leaked SWKOTR Script:

Spoiler

I'm done talking to you. Take the collar off or go away.
>I'll never take that collar off.
Fine. You know what? I'm getting used to it anyway. I might even buy a nice pair of matching boots.
>Do you enjoy this as much as I do? [Shock Vette]
Okay, I can't take this anymore.
Look, I throw myself on your mercy or whatever.
Please, just please remove this collar.
>Let me see if I can find the right button. [Shock Vette]
But I'm going to die from this. Don't you understand?
>Hardly seems lethal, does it? I could do this all day... [Shock Vette]
I never knew evil was so petty until I met you.
>How is this? Better or worse? [Shock Vette]

--LATER--

Okay, hey, Sith master person of questionable temper and such?
I've been extra good with the behaving. Did you notice?
So how about taking this shock collar off of me?
>How about some pain instead? [Shock Vette]
How about some non-obedience sort of following directions? Like a person, instead of a pet?
>Looks like my pet still needs training. [Shock Vette]
That hurts! Do you not get that?
>I enjoy this. [Shock Vette]
Argh! You drekki-- no. I won't let you bait me. Lead on, I'll be following like a good slave.
>Learn to control your inane commentary and there will be less pain.
Fine, fine. lead on oh Sith of Siths. Far be it for this wretched slave to take up more of your time.

--STILL LATER--

So, hey, I've been thinking... maybe you want to take this shock collar off?
You know, as a sign of thanks for my hard work on Korriban?
Not that I don't enjoy the perpetual fear of electrocution.
>You will do as I say and not ask for favors.
Yeah, that's a real keen idea and all but what do I get out of it?
>Each day is a present from me to you. Be grateful.
Gee, thanks.
>I gave you a chance. You are a slow learner. [Shock Vette]
Ow! Forget I said anything!

--LATER STILL--

Hey.
Don't worry. I'm not going to get silly again. I've had time to think.
It's not my place to judge why you're attracted to me. I just have to decide if you treat me like I want to be treated.
>We're not here for long discussions, Vette. You want to be my girl then you do what I say, when I say it.
Yeah. See? That fails the whole "treat me like I want to be treated" test. Fails bad.
>You're not the one setting the terms here.
You are in for a rude awakening, oh Lord of Mine.
>It doesn't have to be complicated. [Kiss Her]
Wow. Okay. Yes. That.
All right. More of that later. For now, um, back to business, yes?



Do you--do you love me?
>I like you. And there are things I love about you...
Right. Not so good with the bold statements. Believe me, I get it.
I need you to know... there haven't been any other men. Ever.
I promised my mother I'd be married first. About the only promise I managed to keep.
>We should express our love however we want. Societal rules are for other people.
I am other people. Not a Sith, not even Imperial. Just a girl.
So do you want to marry me? Yes or no?
>Sounds like it could be fun. Let's get ourselves married.
I guess that's the best I'm getting.

--LATER--

Okay, don't laugh. Some of the Twi'lek marriage ceremony stuff is pretty goofy but it'll only take a couple hours...

--EVER SO SLIGHTLY LATER--

There it is. Married.
>I behaved myself all the way through that crazy ceremony.
Very proud of you.
>Now that we're official I guess the romance will disappear pretty fast.
You are crazy. We still haven't gotten to the best part.
For now, things of galactic importance await as always, yes?
We should plan to clear the ship out for some private time soon.
Yes, send everyone out to find a Force-sensitive k'lor'slug or something.

--MAYBE A LITTLE BIT LATER--

>You wanted to talk?
More than talk. I told the crew to get lost for a few hours. Just you, me, and an empty ship.
>What were you thinking we might do in those hours, wife?
I might surprise you. I found my old shock collar the other day... come on.

--GRACEFUL FADE TO BLACK--

So worth the wait. We'll have to set aside a few hours every day...
Don't worry, I'll get Quinn to put it on your schedule.
Just so you know, I'm here for the long term.
Whether that means more apprentices in the future or us adopting our own little hoard.
Through apprentices trying to kill you and all the rest of the crazy, I'll be here.

Bioware!