Star Wars: The Old Republic

[keg in kc]

Don't believe there's a dedicated thread, and since they're starting to release information now, I figure it's time for one.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Yummy.

Ha, nice nod to Indy at the one minute mark.....

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Dipshit of Dunder

So what class is everyone thinking of doing? I think I am going bounty hunter........and i've already got a name in mind (!)

Jedi healer. Whatever class that is. Consular, I think? I dunno . . . keg?

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Silock

Jedi healer. Whatever class that is. Consular, I think? I dunno . . . keg?

Consular advanced class Sage if you want to be the more traditional MMO-style healer. i.e. a large regenerating force pool, ability to use a wide variety of buffs and heals. You can also heal as both a Trooper (Commando) and a Smuggler (Scoundrel), though, although it's a bit different healing on those since they use each class' own cooldown systems (Ammo and Energy) rather than a force pool. I'm not sure how viable Trooper and Smuggler will be in a main healing role, and I get the impression they're still working on implementation there. Either way, if you want to be a Jedi healer, then you're talking Jedi Sage.

The cool thing about healing sounds like you'll be able to do a lot more than just sit there and repeat 'heal 1, heal 2, bubble, HoT, heal 1 heal 2' ad nausem. Supposedly you're able to mix in a lot more variety, tossing in damage skills or debuffs between heals. Should break up the monotony/tedium a good bit. And healers are viable soloing both because they're not completely gimped in a dps sense, and due to the companion system. So getting through your class story and through the world arcs won't require you to group, or to build your class a certain way as you level up and then change your build for endgame (although you obviously can if you want...). The impression I get is that the game is extremely soloable, although there are pretty clear benefits and advantages to grouping, namely xp and loot, and they give you group-focused content starting very early in the game, right on the starter planets, and the first 4-man flashpoint takes place in the level 8-10 range.

[God of Thunder]

ugh, why still no release date....

[Pants]

Pre-ordered this the other day. Thought long and hard about the CE but decided it wasn't worth it. EA was talking about limiting the supply to ensure a smooth game launch. You know the game is going to be selling for $150 on eBay when it comes out.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Dipshit of Dunder

ugh, why still no release date....

You don't generally see a release date announcement for an MMO until a few weeks (usually 3-4) before launch. They don't want to tip their hand to the established market, especially the 400-pound gorilla, who will likely announce a major content patch as soon as the release date's made official.

I don't think with a major build being put on the TOR test server beginning this upcoming week (a process they say could take 2-3 weeks) there's any real chance at an October launch, although that's what I'd been hoping for.

It's hard to make a specific guess without knowing how much of a head start they're doing, but I think it's possible the new client is a release candidate they're testing. And I think if that's the case that they could go live in the first half of November. Beyond that, you'd think they'd want to have the game on the shelves for Black Friday (Nov. 25th). All of which would fit into their official "Holiday 2011" release window.

I can't talk any specifics from my test, but let's say based on nothing but my gut (cough) I would be a little surprised to see the launch pushed to 2012. Which of course doesn't mean that won't happen.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

You don't generally see a release date announcement for an MMO until a few weeks (usually 3-4) before launch. They don't want to tip their hand to the established market, especially the 400-pound gorilla, who will likely announce a major content patch as soon as the release date's made official.

I don't think with a major build being put on the TOR test server beginning this upcoming week (a process they say could take 2-3 weeks) there's any real chance at an October launch, although that's what I'd been hoping for.

It's hard to make a specific guess without knowing how much of a head start they're doing, but I think it's possible the new client is a release candidate they're testing. And I think if that's the case that they could go live in the first half of November. Beyond that, you'd think they'd want to have the game on the shelves for Black Friday (Nov. 25th). All of which would fit into their official "Holiday 2011" release window.

I can't talk any specifics from my test, but let's say based on nothing but my gut (cough) I would be a little surprised to see the launch pushed to 2012. Which of course doesn't mean that won't happen.

I read a recent article somewhere that mentioned there's a good chance TOR would be pushed back all the way to January. Wish I remembered where I saw that.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Pants

I read a recent article somewhere that mentioned there's a good chance TOR would be pushed back all the way to January. Wish I remembered where I saw that.

Without knowing which article it was, I can't really comment, but I saw a couple this week reacting to a mention of a 2012 push made by an EA bigwig during a speech at a conference last week. Which is actually something EA's been consistently saying since an investor teleconference in May. There's probably even a mention of it in this thread somewhere. So that's not new news in any real way...

[Fish]

Gunslinger sounds interesting to me... And I want a wookie like no other...

[keg in kc]

Bowdaar!

[keg in kc]

There may well not be anything to this, but apparently internally as of the last couple of days Gamestop has changed the speculated release date for TOR from 1/2/12 to 11/22/11, and pre-order displays have started going up in stores all over the country.

[Silock]

My wife said she wanted to play this game with me. Looks like I'll be quitting WoW.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by Silock

My wife said she wanted to play this game with me. Looks like I'll be quitting WoW.

God, that's so awesome... I'm trying to convince mine but I don't think it's happening. :/

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Pants

God, that's so awesome... I'm trying to convince mine but I don't think it's happening.

Does she game at all? If she's ever been into any BioWare titles all it will take to hook her is getting her to watch for 10 minutes. It's basically kotor and ME2 melded together with the possibility for coop.

Originally Posted by Silock

My wife said she wanted to play this game with me. Looks like I'll be quitting WoW.

It'll be interesting to see how long-time WoW players react. I don't think you're going to see anything you haven't seen before in terms of gameplay, other than the main selling point, which is the story and cinematics. It's not WoW reskinned, or anything like that, but it is a very traditional cRPG and a very traditional MMO. It will feel very familiar in a lot of ways. And as far as story goes, I think I remember you saying one time that you never really cared about your avatars in games in the past, so it may be a hard sell to get you to follow a story, instead of focusing on the grind to the cap.

I've heard a lot of WoW players say they can't go back to WoW after playing TOR, that the game feels dead to them after experiencing the cinematics, and that they were surprised by how much the story really did grab them. But I have heard some negative reactions as well. Although there have been (much) less of those than the other.

And the endgame at this point is still a question mark. Which is I think going to be very important. The leveling is not fast in TOR. I don't expect that even the fastest levelers (and those would have to be people from beta, or who know people from beta) will get to the cap in much less than two weeks. But I do think a lot of people will reach it in 4-6 weeks. And it remains to be seen what they'll be able to do then. I'll know I'll be moving on to other toons (well, I'll actually be playing several simultaneously straight from launch) but I'm not sure how easy it will be for Bioware to get people schooled in previous MMOs to not think of rerolling as playing the same game over again. It's not, not in ToR, particularly if you play different factions, but I don't know how you get people of think of it like playing a completely different game (which it is when you play Republic as opposed to Empire, and vice versa) instead of playing the same game over again. So if you can't get them to reroll you get people sitting a month or two months after launch wondering "okay, that was fun, what now?"

We know there will be the one Operation (and they say it's the first indicating more are coming), that there are level 50 flashpoints, it's rumored that the lower level flashpoints can be run heroic at level 50, 3 Warzones, open world PvP, level 50 solo content and daily repeatable heroic quests, and I do think that's enough to occupy people (who don't reroll) for 3-6 months, but I also think they'll need to start updating with new content by at least 6 months in. I know for me there's enough game at launch to probably last an entire year, but I think they also need to think in terms of people who won't want to jump into another story right away. We'll see what they do.

This is kind of a tough post for me to make when on one hand I'm trying to limit your expectations but on the other hand, my own expectations for the game are clearly out the roof...

[Pants]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Does she game at all? If she's ever been into any BioWare titles all it will take to hook her is getting her to watch for 10 minutes. It's basically kotor and ME2 melded together with the possibility for coop.It'll be interesting to see how long-time WoW players react. I don't think you're going to see anything you haven't seen before in terms of gameplay, other than the main selling point, which is the story and cinematics. It's not WoW reskinned, or anything like that, but it is a very traditional cRPG and a very traditional MMO. It will feel very familiar in a lot of ways. And as far as story goes, I think I remember you saying one time that you never really cared about your avatars in games in the past, so it may be a hard sell to get you to follow a story, instead of focusing on the grind to the cap.

I've heard a lot of WoW players say they can't go back to WoW after playing TOR, that the game feels dead to them after experiencing the cinematics, and that they were surprised by how much the story really did grab them. But I have heard some negative reactions as well. Although there have been (much) less of those than the other.

And the endgame at this point is still a question mark. Which is I think going to be very important. The leveling is not fast in TOR. I don't expect that even the fastest levelers (and those would have to be people from beta, or who know people from beta) will get to the cap in much less than two weeks. But I do think a lot of people will reach it in 4-6 weeks. And it remains to be seen what they'll be able to do then. I'll know I'll be moving on to other toons (well, I'll actually be playing several simultaneously straight from launch) but I'm not sure how easy it will be for Bioware to get people schooled in previous MMOs to not think of rerolling as playing the same game over again. It's not, not in ToR, particularly if you play different factions, but I don't know how you get people of think of it like playing a completely different game (which it is when you play Republic as opposed to Empire, and vice versa) instead of playing the same game over again. So if you can't get them to reroll you get people sitting a month or two months after launch wondering "okay, that was fun, what now?"

We know there will be the one Operation (and they say it's the first indicating more are coming), that there are level 50 flashpoints, it's rumored that the lower level flashpoints can be run heroic at level 50, 3 Warzones, open world PvP, level 50 solo content and daily repeatable heroic quests, and I do think that's enough to occupy people (who don't reroll) for 3-6 months, but I also think they'll need to start updating with new content by at least 6 months in. I know for me there's enough game at launch to probably last an entire year, but I think they also need to think in terms of people who won't want to jump into another story right away. We'll see what they do.

This is kind of a tough post for me to make when on one hand I'm trying to limit your expectations but on the other hand, my own expectations for the game are clearly out the roof...

No, she's never played a game in her life that didn't run in a browser window. It's not her thing, but I was still trying to convince her to be my personal healer. I think I was maybe getting somewhere until she heard I would have to pay a monthly fee for her account...

As far as endgame goes, I don't think it'll be too much of an issue. As long as they have that first raid in there at launch and it's challenging, everyone will be fine with it. Shit, WoW didn't even have Molten Core at launch, did they? They only had that 10 man UBRS run, right?