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Star Wars: The Old Republic [Early Access: December 13th] Thread 2

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Emitan

Member
Note: Many images can be clicked on and lead to more information

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Neogaf Guilds

Empire Guild
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Republic Guild
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European Republic Guild
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What is Star Wars the Old Republic?

Star Wars the Old Republic is an MMORPG developed by Bioware. It was officially announced to the Public in 2008, but job postings go back further than 2006. The game is massive in scope, takes place over multiple planets, and as of E3 2011, has 800k lines of recorded dialogue. The average well-made feature film, only has about 1000.

When finished, it will be the largest game in size, ever made. SWTOR has been a massive undertaking, and took significant financial and personal investment by both EA and Bioware.

The game will feature a full dialogue system with choices and consequences. Companions that can join you in both the leveling experience and PVE. High-end raids, flash points, open-world and instanced PVP, crafting, space combat, server wide economy, and everything else you would expect from not only a AAA MMO, but a AAA console game.

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Setting

The Galactic Republic stood for generations as a bastion of peace in a galaxy of warring star systems. Protected by its stalwart Jedi guardians, the Republic held the greatest hope for the progress of civilization and galactic unity.

Deep in unknown space, however, a mighty Sith Empire was forged, led by dark Sith Lords who dreamt of galactic domination and vengeance against their ancient Jedi enemies. After centuries of preparation, the time came for the Sith to make their return.

With a massive fleet and an awe-inspiring army of fearless troops, the Sith Emperor launched a surprise assault, quickly capturing dozens of worlds in the Outer Rim, and sparking a war unlike any other in the galaxy’s history.

From the frozen wastes of Ilum to the desert plains of Dathomir, violent battles killed untold millions. Despite its avowed neutrality, surface structures on the water-covered world of Manaan were completely destroyed, forcing the Selkath to retreat to their ocean underworld. Other star systems fared worse—some destroyed, others left uninhabitable. The carnage concluded with the Sith Empire sacking the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant and forcing the Republic Senate into the controversial Treaty of Coruscant.

In the years since the treaty, fear and uncertainty have gripped the galaxy, enabling the Sith Emperor to pursue his own mysterious purposes while the Republic has made efforts to rebuild its infrastructure and adjust military priorities to the new galactic landscape.

Now, tensions between the Republic and the Empire are running high, and a series of border skirmishes and proxy wars have broken out, even on planets as historically peaceful as Alderaan. The uneasy truce established by the Treaty of Coruscant is quickly tearing apart at the seams, and a return to all-out war has begun in all but official terms.

A new generation of heroes, both light and dark, emerges to face the difficulties of these chaotic times, and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this most desperate age.

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In Relation To The Movies
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Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place more than 3,500 years before the rise of Darth Vader. The most powerful Sith Empire in history has emerged from deep space to attack the Republic and its legendary Jedi guardians. After decades of war, a tenuous truce has been established between the Sith Empire and the Republic, but events occurring in the game are leading the galaxy back to an all-out war.

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In Relation To The Games
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Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place approximately three hundred years after the events of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR). At the conclusion of the Jedi Civil War in KOTOR, Revan disappeared into unknown space in search of a great threat to the Republic, an expanding Sith Empire led by a mysterious Emperor who planned vengeance for his ancient Jedi enemies. Revan never returned from unknown space, but the Sith Empire did, kicking off a war with the Republic that lasted for decades. Now, despite the uneasy truce created by the Treaty of Coruscant, the tension among the divided star systems is threatening to once again tear the galaxy apart.

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Cinematic Trailers

Deceived



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Hope



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Return



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Allegiances & Classes

The Galactic Republic



Classes of the Republic










The Sith Empire



Classes of the Empire









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Starships

Each class gets it's own personal starship. Think of them like playable player housing. Bioware hopes to expand upon these down the line. As of now, the starships are as follows.

FURY-CLASS IMPERIAL INTERCEPTOR



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KUAT DRIVE YARDS (KDY) D5-MANTIS PATROL CRAFT



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RENDILI HYPERWORKS BT-7 THUNDERCLAP



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X-70B PHANTOM-CLASS PROTOTYPE



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CORELLIAN XS LIGHT FREIGHTER



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CORELLIAN DEFENDER-CLASS LIGHT CORVETTE



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Planets

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Dromund Kaas

250px-DromundKaas-TOR.jpg


Once a colony of the Sith Empire, the location of Dromund Kaas would soon be lost, fading into nothing but memory. It was after the defeat of Naga Sadow during the Great Hyperspace War that the Sith Empire would once more rediscover the jungle world. Fearing repercussions from the Republic, a Sith armada began a series of treacherous random hyperspace jumps, wandering aimlessly for 20 years in hope to evade Republic capture. It was then that they rediscovered the world of Dromund Kaas.

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Tatoonie

250px-Tatoooinefull.jpg


Tatooine (pronounced tætu'in) was a desert world in a binary star system in the Arkanis sector of the Outer Rim Territories. It was inhabited by poor locals who mostly farmed moisture for a living. Other activities included used equipment retailing and scrap dealing. The planet was on the 5709-DC Shipping Lane, a spur of the Triellus Trade Route, which itself connected to the Sisar Run. The planet was not far from the Corellian Run. It had its own navigation system. However, it would still play a role in galactic events, serving as the home of Anakin Skywalker. It was here that Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn recognized Anakin's potential to become a Jedi and where he introduced him to Obi-Wan Kenobi, his future master and mentor. Tatooine was also the home of Anakin's son, Luke, where he lived until his early adulthood. The planet built up a very bad reputation, often being viewed as the cesspool of the galaxy due to the high-level of criminals who could be found onworld.

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Alderaan


250px-Alderaan.jpg


Since the Republic’s inception, Alderaan’s nobility has been at the political forefront, taking a stand in the Senate for peace, freedom and unity. While Coruscant has always been considered the heart of the Republic, to some extent, Alderaan has been its soul. In the aftermath of the Treaty of Coruscant, however, Alderaan withdrew from the Republic and soon became embroiled in one of the bloodiest civil wars in the galaxy’s history. The future of this once-proud planet is heavily in doubt.

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Coruscant

250px-Globecoruscant.jpg


At the center of the galaxy, the gleaming towers of Coruscant symbolize the power and prosperity of Republic civilization—the result of thousands of years of progress and democracy. Coruscant has been capital of the Republic since its founding more than twenty thousand years ago. Home to the Supreme Chancellor and the Galactic Senate, Coruscant is the most politically prominent planet in the galaxy.

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Balmorra

250px-Eaw_Balmorra.jpg


Few places in the galaxy have seen the peace promised by the Treaty of Coruscant so thoroughly cast aside as the world of Balmorra. Fiercely independent, this long time ally of the Republic has led the galaxy in advanced droid and weapons manufacturing. Now Balmorra’s workers live and suffer under a full Imperial occupation force.

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Tython
250px-Tython-TOR.jpg


Mystical scholars gathered on the harsh and mysterious world of Tython millennia ago to begin the first studies of the Force, but controversy among the scholars’ ranks created a cataclysm which nearly destroyed the planet. A small group of survivors fled to another star system, put their dark past behind them, and founded the Jedi Order.

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Korriban


250px-Korriban-TOR.jpg


The earliest Sith lived on the red, dusty planet of Korriban, determined to grow strong despite the inhospitable climate. Their success culminated in a bold civilization, made stronger when dark Force-users arrived and interbred after being driven out of the early Jedi Order. This ancient Sith civilization eventually became a superpower and challenged the Republic during the Great Hyperspace war. Their defeat drove a handful of survivors into deep space where they regrouped and rebuilt, determined to return.

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Hutta


250px-Nalhutta.jpg



In Huttese, the name translates into “Glorious Jewel”, and the planet more commonly called Nal Hutta is considered a paradise to the gluttonous tastes of the Hutts. To anyone else, though, the planet is a living nightmare—a disgusting and dangerous place to visit, and an unthinkable place to live. Current Underworld slang has shortened the name to a simple ‘Hutta’—a place where more civilized people threaten to send their children if they misbehave.

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Ord Mantell


250px-OrdMantell-TOR.jpg


The mountainous plains and volcanic islands of Ord Mantell are littered with the ravages of a ruthless civil war. Republic forces are fighting elusive separatists who are conducting guerilla style strikes against both military and civilian targets. Adding questions to an already questionable situation, the planet’s government, though loyal to the Republic, is merely a puppet regime for underworld concerns.

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Belsavis


Belsavis-TOR.jpg


At some unknown point in the past, the planet became one of the many worlds that belonged to the Rakata Infinite Empire. During that time, the Rakata made use of the world as a prison colony where they placed many dangerous prisoners that remained trapped for the millennia. It entered an ice age around 5,000 BBY. Its inhabitants dwelt in three volcanic jungle rifts.

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Quesh


Quesh-TOR.jpg


Discovered by the Galactic Republic during the Great Galactic War, Quesh's toxic atmosphere made the planet uninhabitable for many lifeforms, and was initially dismissed by the Republic. Years later, however, a young Republic chemist realized potential for some of the chemicals found on Quesh to be used for the Republic, as many of the compounds on the planet closely resembled venenit shadaaga, roughly translated as "Hutt Venom", a primary ingredient in very powerful adrenals.

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Ilum

250px-Ilum_eaw2.jpg


Ilum was an ice planet in the Unknown Regions, one of the main sources of the valuable Adegan crystals used in the construction of Jedi lightsabers. The caverns containing the crystals were long ago turned into a Jedi temple. Unlike the crystals of other planets, the crystals of Ilum could only produce green and blue lightsaber crystals.

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Voss

Voss-TOR.jpg


Voss was a planet located within the Voss system of the Outer Rim Territories. It was inhabited by Gormak and a less numerous species, who were named Voss like the planet. The two were engaged in warfare for many years circa 3,653 BBY. The Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire discovered the planet shortly after the signature of the Treaty of Coruscant.

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Nar Shadda

NarShaddaa-TOR.jpg


Nar Shaddaa was the largest moon of Nal Hutta. More commonly known as the Vertical City, the Smuggler's Moon and Little Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa was similar to Coruscant in that its surface was entirely overgrown with city sprawl for millennia. But unlike Coruscant—which was only relatively rundown and dangerous on the lower and under levels of the world city—Nar Shaddaa was filthy, polluted, and infested with crime everywhere.

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Hoth

Hoth.jpg


Hoth was the sixth planet of the remote Hoth system. A desolate world covered with ice and snow, located in the Anoat sector, a rarely-traveled portion of the Outer Rim Territories, it became famous as the one-time location of the Alliance to Restore the Republic's Echo Base during the Galactic Civil War. It was discovered in 3 ABY by the Empire, causing the Battle of Hoth, a major engagement that destroyed the Rebels' base and gave them heavy casualties.
 

Giolon

Member
There's a high-level character server already up. It's Uphrades in the server selection. People are having problems with it though.

Unless that was one of the servers that went up for the weekend, that was never one of the servers available for me. The only servers I saw that I had access to in the last couple of builds were Cosmic Turbine, The Leviathan, Darth Malak, and some European Servers that I always ignored. Are you part of the Friends & Family group? I was always only part of the General Testing group (Darth Revan server pre-PvP designation!).
 
Unless that was one of the servers that went up for the weekend, that was never one of the servers available for me. The only servers I saw that I had access to in the last couple of builds were Cosmic Turbine, The Leviathan, Darth Malak, and some European Servers that I always ignored. Are you part of the Friends & Family group? I was always only part of the General Testing group (Darth Revan server pre-PvP designation!).
No, I was just part of the weekend testers. I saw other general beta testers talking about the server and thought you also had access to it. They might have taken the server down during the weekend then since the server stopped responding.
 

mr stroke

Member
I have been avoiding the Beta and thread. Got my pre order ready for the 20th. Game must be amazing if were on a second thread already?
 

Zinga

Banned
Made it to thread 2, been a long road! glad the game is getting so much positive response and exposure.

Played through the Mandalorian Raiders flashpoint on the weekend, I loved it! really high production values and fun boss fights.
 

Giolon

Member
No, I was just part of the weekend testers. I saw other general beta testers talking about the server and thought you also had access to it. They might have taken the server down during the weekend then since the server stopped responding.

LOL, it was probably up and down before I ever got home from work. I saw on the forums "High level testing coming!" then "not coming yet!" then just disappeared. Which is more or less how it worked the previous builds.

Back a couple builds ago, when they tried it, if you were on it when the high level sever went down for the count, you couldn't switch to another sever and Bioware just said "Sorry folks, you'll have to wait for the next build." trolol!! Fortunately, it was only a week away.
 

Stuggernaut

Grandma's Chippy
I only got to play a few hours, tried 2-3 chars etc. Was fun but I have a couple of questions.

1) Do the worlds open up more as you level up? The zones I was in, while granted they are starter areas, felt very linear for lack of a better word. Do the zones become bigger with more area to explore?

2) Does the enemy AI get any better as you get higher? All the mobs just seemed to be scattered around in static areas with no much in the way of random, or pathing. I could just walk around most of them even at low levels. And a lot of the spawns didn't make much sense. Just some guys standing by a tree or rock and such.

The rest of the game was a refreshing change of pace for me. Lots of little touches I liked a lot. Looking forward to seeing how much it changes.expands by retail release.
 

Giolon

Member
No, I was just part of the weekend testers. I saw other general beta testers talking about the server and thought you also had access to it. They might have taken the server down during the weekend then since the server stopped responding.

I only got to play a few hours, tried 2-3 chars etc. Was fun but I have a couple of questions.

1) Do the worlds open up more as you level up? The zones I was in, while granted they are starter areas, felt very linear for lack of a better word. Do the zones become bigger with more area to explore?

2) Does the enemy AI get any better as you get higher? All the mobs just seemed to be scattered around in static areas with no much in the way of random, or pathing. I could just walk around most of them even at low levels. And a lot of the spawns didn't make much sense. Just some guys standing by a tree or rock and such.

The rest of the game was a refreshing change of pace for me. Lots of little touches I liked a lot. Looking forward to seeing how much it changes.expands by retail release.

1) Tatooine is ginormous. The Dune Sea is all open. Many of the planets after Tat felt huge to me. I think the corridors of the earlier planets are Bioware's training wheels. Still, you won't find anything the scale of say SWG's planets. Though Bioware claims Tatooine alone is the entire size of Dragon Age 1's world.

2) Not by much. You mostly only encounter pathing mobs in dungeons. Some places have cool set ups of fights between NPC's but they're few and far between.
Nobody knows what the HoloCam does.

We know it takes static images and not video. That was confirmed around Comic Con or Gamescom or something.
 

C.Dark.DN

Banned
I thought someone said the CE one was video. Maybe not.

Are there any world of warcraft style maps that we can gauge the scale with?
 

golem

Member
Now after the weekend all my friends want to play Sith.. guess I gotta reform our guild, hopefully the name is still available.
 

Axiom

Member
I really enjoyed the beta, but as an Aussie they won't me buy it. Is there a way to get this off Origin via gifting or some such, or am I stuck with Amazon?

I really want to get back to that Sith storyline.
 

syko de4d

Member
really great games but it has some problems

-There is a lack of life on the Planetes/Cities. All stands still, no animals etc.
-Too long walking distancen for questing after the Capital Planet
-Too long load times
-Why u can´t use the teleport skill to teleport directly to ur ship?
-UI Customization
-FPS fluctuate very
etc.


But still great game and i loved to play my smugler :)
 

Ningo

Member
Went into Beta weekend completely convinced that Bounty Hunter is going to be my main, played the Bounty Hunter and it confirmed my choice. Then I chose to roll the imperial agent and suddenly I'm having a change of heart, agent was just so much fun.

 

Yaska

Member
so we're finally on thread 2. I hope whoever is making the OP is already preparing it. Also makes me chuckle to see how much the art has changed from those earliest shots. (not so cartoony anymore)
 
damn that pathing thing really gets me kinda... i mean it's THIS which prevents the game from feeling like a true living breathing world right?

i am only going on what other people said here, haven't played it yet, but feel free to correct me...
 

C.Dark.DN

Banned
Mind pming me a link to this?(ill prolly
Forget to check this thread in the morning)
Sure.

Could be better ones out there, but sure. He plans to do them all I think. Only these now:

For everyone else:
Sith Inquisitor lvl 1 - 5
http://youtu.be/4YkSvfZezb8

Jedi Knight lvl 1 - 5
http://youtu.be/gS9QBVzg92Q

Republic Trooper lvl 1 - 5
http://youtu.be/iOKoFKEsEAU

PVP: Sith Inquisitor vs Ballerina
http://youtu.be/LkOPWdauufA

Grouping/Questing in a story driven game?
http://youtu.be/YPrgSsCM3XA
 

Darkkn

Member
One of my biggest disappointments in beta was the fact that the world did not feel alive. Seems like it would not be that big of a deal to add animation and pathing routines to npc:s and just more of them in cities just walking around, going from building to building.
Same complaint for the enemies. At least try something to make it feel like they exist not only for you to kill.
 

Randy

Member
One of my biggest disappointments in beta was the fact that the world did not feel alive. Seems like it would not be that big of a deal to add animation and pathing routines to npc:s and just more of them in cities just walking around, going from building to building.
Same complaint for the enemies. At least try something to make it feel like they exist not only for you to kill.

Yeah, I just watched that Pop Muzik video and saw the different backgrounds/planets. It's really static, no waving trees, no flashing neon, no active NPC's, etc... It looks great, but feels pretty barren and dead.
 

MaddenNFL64

Member
There are lots of idle animations for npcs & enemies, like you will find patrolling guards, guys on overwatch, idle chatter and the like. It's more than ive seen before in these kinds of games anyway. but they are clustered for gameplay. As for weather, its there, but it's not dynamic. It's just always on.
 

Moaradin

Member
I think with it being a MMO, it kind of depends on the players to populate the game world and not as much NPCs that you would see in a single player game.
 

Wallach

Member
Pondering trying this at release. Maybe drag my brother into it since I know he's probably kind of bored of LotRO or WoW at this point.

What is the primary healing/support class? The SWTOR site is down but from what I am guessing it is Consular -> Sage path?
 

Giolon

Member
Pondering trying this at release. Maybe drag my brother into it since I know he's probably kind of bored of LotRO or WoW at this point.

What is the primary healing/support class? The SWTOR site is down but from what I am guessing it is Consular -> Sage path?

Consular Sage, Trooper Commando, and Smuggler Scoundrel all are completely viable healers when spec'd for it. Why does everybody think that Sage is the only one?
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
I'm ridiculously hyped for this game. The story will no doubt be awesome, I imagine playing with friends will be great, and I look forward to late-game armor and weapons.

KOTOR is my favorite game of all time, and I'm ridiculously psyched for ToR. But, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a tad bit disappointed in the beta.

I played a few characters to level 10, and never left the starting worlds (I don't wanna spoil things), but my early impressions are compounded by the impressions of others - that the world just feels so incredibly dead. And even worse, nothing seems truly open or vast in the sense that you can find some obscure location to camp out and hang with some close friends - carving out your own little "property" in the massive game world.

I also hate that everyone looks the same. Every class and race is just a humanoid with some low-res armor. Where are the wookies? The droids? The Ewoks? The Admiral Ackbars?

While I have my CE pre-ordered and can't wait to jump into this "for real", I still keep wishing the game was a little more similar to Star Wars Galaxies.
 

Wallach

Member
Consular Sage, Trooper Commando, and Smuggler Scoundrel all are completely viable healers when spec'd for it. Why does everybody think that Sage is the only one?

I don't know, can you explain more than that? I'm going off of a wiki since the site is down and I haven't followed much of anything about this game.

Scoundrel looks like it only has basic healing abilities. I don't want a class that can heal, I want the class that is most capable of fulfilling that role, including whatever has the most support & healing tools. If there's more than one of those to choose from, great.
 

Giolon

Member
I don't know, can you explain more than that? I'm going off of a wiki since the site is down and I haven't followed much of anything about this game.

Scoundrel looks like it only has basic healing abilities. I don't want a class that can heal, I want the class that is most capable of fulfilling that role, including whatever has the most support & healing tools. If there's more than one of those to choose from, great.

That's all three of them. Nobody is really an effective healer unless you spec for it - that goes for Sage just as well as the others. There are no "off-healers" (or off-tanks) by design. If Bioware says you can heal, and you spec for it, you can heal.

I've been healed by Scoundrels and Commandos up through level 50 content. What more can I say? They're all roughly equal with similar tools, but different strategies and play styles. Sage is like Disc Priest. One of the others is like Druid I'm told (I forget which).

Edit:

Let me put things this way. Everybody is DPS by default. A Jedi Guardian is not automatically a tank. A Sage is not automatically a healer. You have to spec into your non-DPS tree if you want to be effective at that role. For those not following along up until now, those are as follows:

Jedi Knight Guardian/Sith Warrior Juggernaut: Tank or DPS
Jedi Knight Sentinel/Sith Warrior Marauder: DPS only

Jedi Consular Shadow/Sith Inquisitor Assassin: Tank or DPS
Jedi Consular Sage/Sith Inquisitor Sorceror: Healer or DPS

Smuggler Scoundrel/Imperial Agent Operative: Healer or DPS
Smuggler Gunslinger/Imperial Agent Sniper: DPS only

Trooper Commando/Bounty Hunter Mercenary: Healer or DPS
Trooper Vanguard/Bounty Hunter Powertech: Tank or DPS

All tanks and healers are designed to be equal when properly spec'd for their role (yes, Jedi Shadows Light Armor Tank and do so damn well). Nobody is designed to be a crappy off-healer/off-tank only. Bioware knows that's a shitty path to go down.
 

Jibbed

Member
I've been holding off on posting my impressions until now, so yeah, here we go..

I'm a relative newcomer to MMO's (I've only tried WoW and EVE for a few days at a time), but being a huge fan of Bioware's previous work, Mass Effect in particular, I thought it would be worth giving this a try.

Well, I'm disappointed to say I don't really get what all the fuss is about. Sure, the cutscenes and initial character interaction were of the standard I was expecting at the beginning of the game, and I was actually excited to get going right up until I actually gained control of my character (tried both bounty hunter and jedi consular).

The first thing that hit me was the god-awful camera/movement controls. It wasn't necessarily the default button maps that bugged me, but just things like having no way to adjust the camera perspective without clicking the mouse were frustrating. Jerky character movement seems to be an issue aswell, I found moving around just.. awkward (especially in combat).

Secondly, although I appreciate this was a stress test and lag was pretty much a given, I encountered a lot more than I was expecting. This, along with generally inadequate performance on my system (averaged <20 fps*, come on Bioware), really put me off playing for more than an hour.

I will give this game another try at some point after release, but if it's anything like it is now, I'm not interested. This thing had so much potential it's untrue.

*i3-350m @ 2.26ghz, Radeon 5650HD, 4GB RAM - runs most modern games (eg. Skyrim) >30fps at 1080p on high settings, older games (pre-2009) at 60fps. I wasn't expecting this game to be taxing on my system at all.

EDIT:
I also hate that everyone looks the same. Every class and race is just a humanoid with some low-res armor. Where are the wookies? The droids? The Ewoks? The Admiral Ackbars?
This x100, really detracted from the overall feel of the game. If there weren't things like blasters and lightsabers around, you'd be hard-pressed to find much else that made this game unique.
 

Moaradin

Member
All of your issues seem fps related to be honest. At 60fps, everything is smooth as butter. I had a weird bug this weekend where my FPS dropped to 20 for no reason, and I had a lot of issues that you seem to be experiencing. I'm hoping the game is more optimized near release when Nvidia/AMD start releasing drivers and Bioware optimizes their engine more.
 

Yaska

Member
Edit: Removed the pic as it served as anything but as intended (aka showing the lightsaber colour)

So a bad screenshot (best I had of the preorder crystal) Also wiped out some stuff just for sure and to ensure no spoilers.
 

Jibbed

Member
All of your issues seem fps related to be honest. At 60fps, everything is smooth as butter. I had a weird bug this weekend where my FPS dropped to 20 for no reason, and I had a lot of issues that you seem to be experiencing. I'm hoping the game is more optimized near release when Nvidia/AMD start releasing drivers and Bioware optimizes their engine more.

Yeah, I imagine I'll get a lot more out of the game when it performs as it should, but I'm still disappointed with how it's turned out. I didn't want my previous post to be a wall o' text, so I didn't mention a few more little things that made the whole experience ..boring.

Aside from the cinematic and interaction aspects, the game doesn't seem to be doing anything new. Expanding on my edit aswell, I really feel as though the omission of a lot of key SW races and themes has killed my interest in it.
 

Thoraxes

Member
I've been holding off on posting my impressions until now, so yeah, here we go..

I'm a relative newcomer to MMO's (I've only tried WoW and EVE for a few days at a time), but being a huge fan of Bioware's previous work, Mass Effect in particular, I thought it would be worth giving this a try.

Well, I'm disappointed to say I don't really get what all the fuss is about. Sure, the cutscenes and initial character interaction were of the standard I was expecting at the beginning of the game, and I was actually excited to get going right up until I actually gained control of my character (tried both bounty hunter and jedi consular).

The first thing that hit me was the god-awful camera/movement controls. It wasn't necessarily the default button maps that bugged me, but just things like having no way to adjust the camera perspective without clicking the mouse were frustrating. Jerky character movement seems to be an issue aswell, I found moving around just.. awkward (especially in combat).

Secondly, although I appreciate this was a stress test and lag was pretty much a given, I encountered a lot more than I was expecting. This, along with generally inadequate performance on my system (averaged <20 fps*, come on Bioware), really put me off playing for more than an hour.

I will give this game another try at some point after release, but if it's anything like it is now, I'm not interested. This thing had so much potential it's untrue.

*i3-350m @ 2.26ghz, Radeon 5650HD, 4GB RAM - runs most modern games (eg. Skyrim) >30fps at 1080p on high settings, older games (pre-2009) at 60fps. I wasn't expecting this game to be taxing on my system at all.

EDIT:
This x100, really detracted from the overall feel of the game. If there weren't things like blasters and lightsabers around, you'd be hard-pressed to find much else that made this game unique.

The game is more CPU intensive though, and your clock speed certainly is not helping that cause at all. While you have hyperthreading, the clock speed is very slow. It seems, based on progression of builds so far, that they're slowly optimizing their system to run better and better. This build was way ahead what I played in Oct. as far as that goes.

One reason why you'd be able to run Skyrim fine is because the game only uses 2 cores. It's something left over by the console optimization that apparently they didn't enable for PC users, according to tweakguides.com.
 

Jibbed

Member
The game is more CPU intensive though, and your clock speed certainly is not helping that cause at all. While you have hyperthreading, the clock speed is very slow. It seems, based on progression of builds so far, that they're slowly optimizing their system to run better and better. This build was way ahead what I played in Oct. as far as that goes.

One reason why you'd be able to run Skyrim fine is because the game only uses 2 cores. It's something left over by the console optimization that apparently they didn't enable for PC users, according to tweakguides.com.

Right, so is it even worth picking this up then - even a few months down the line? I don't anticipate forking out a few hundred for a more powerful PC in the near future, I've never felt the need until experiencing the issues with this game.
 

markot

Banned
So speaking of star wars... who decided that dark side would make people turn all evil looking and decaying?

So was the Emporers puffy face actually what he really looked like? I thought it was cause of the lightning hands he did at himself via Jacksons lightsaber.

Kotor was my first experience with the stupid 'dark side points? BAD SKI CONDITION!' thingy >.< is that where it came from? Cause its stupid and dumb.
 

Thoraxes

Member
Right, so is it even worth picking this up then - even a few months down the line? I don't anticipate forking out a few hundred for a more powerful PC in the near future, I've never felt the need until experiencing the issues with this game.

I guess I would say to just wait to see what optimizations take place over the next month or so and what tweaks will be available to mess around with when the game launches. I only know the i3M uses two kinds of sockets, so if you have a PGA988, upgrading to an i5 should be pretty easy if you wait for the right sale.

However, if you don't want to spend money at all, yeah. I would just check in and see what tweaks the community makes and what kind of optimizations Bioware accomplishes. Chances are that a solution will found through some ini tweaks that will be able to be supported once we get the release build. Just hang in there.

So speaking of star wars... who decided that dark side would make people turn all evil looking and decaying?

So was the Emporers puffy face actually what he really looked like? I thought it was cause of the lightning hands he did at himself via Jacksons lightsaber.

Kotor was my first experience with the stupid 'dark side points? BAD SKI CONDITION!' thingy >.< is that where it came from? Cause its stupid and dumb.
You can actually turn that off in your preferences. I think it's the social tab under preferences you're looking for. (If i'm wrong about the tab, I know for sure the option is in the preferences though. I totally saw it.)
 
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