TOPIC: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Yeah, opening a thread about this one is a little out of sequence chronologically speaking, but since I am still currently playing this one, it was probably the one I have the most to say about.

A little over 4 years ago, I was still playing City of Heroes. There was a nasty rumor floating around that after an 8 year run, CoH was going to be shutting down. About the same time, the friend who first got me to play CoH told me about SWTOR. He talked about how there were already other friends of ours playing it, and how we would be playing frequently, and it would be a blast! I mean, it's Star Wars for gosh sake!

I was not sure I was ready to completely leave CoH behind, but I figured I could do SWTOR with the guys, and CoH solo, at least until it was gone. Well, that plan did not go the way I planned at all. There were so many of us playing SWTOR in the beginning that there WAS no time for CoH. It ended up closing down before I really had a chance to say good-bye, so to speak. But, the silver lining was that everyone was enjoying SWTOR, and it looked like there was enough content to keep folks around for a good long time. WRONG!

After a few weeks, all but a couple of the people who started playing when it went live were gone! The ones who were left are still playing with me today! So, that the brief story on how I came to play the game, but what do I still like about the game, and what do I think of it over all?

Well, I think it would be fair to say I liked the game over all right from the start. Each class had it's own story (some of which I still have yet to fully complete), and between class missions, planetary missions, heroics, and Flash Points, there is a LOT to do. Plus, there is the Space Fighter, and PvP additions for folks that like that kind of thing. Also, there are raids for large groups, which I understand are fun, and very rewarding from an equipment perspective. For the past year, or two, they seem to be concentrating on the post-game content, or adding additional planets (while raising the level cap 5 levels at a time). It has mainly been geared towards the high-level characters. It is all enjoyable, but I feel like they need to start giving a little something to the low-level story lines as well. I will use CoH for comparison here when I say that, by now, there should be multiple paths through your formative levels, and currently there is not.

The combat system is serviceable, and there are some pretty cool ways to dispose of your enemies. Recently, they have instituted a system whereby your hit points are downgraded to the appropriate level when visiting destinations that are inherently lower than your current level. That keeps you on your toes when moving around, because you are never invincible anymore. You do have more weapons are your disposal than would be the case if you were actually that level, so the danger is minimal. You just cannot count on running past a group and expecting them to ignore you anymore.

There are still innumerable ways to upgrade your weapons, and your armor, as well and finding implements to pump up your combat effectiveness. However, when it is all said and done, any computer game (and especially so for MMO-type games), is essentially "rat bashing" for lack of a better term. Basically, you are sent out to get 10 rats, so you journey to them, defeat them, loot them, and collect the reward at the end. Then you rinse, and repeat. The mark of any good game is how well it makes you forget that you are rat bashing. Let's face it, what better distraction from reality is there than Star Wars? It is really the element that keeps me coming back week, after week, and will continue to do so until another rat bashing extravaganza with a compelling disguise comes along. As there is nothing on the horizon yet (the resurrection of CoH not withstanding), I predict that I will be rat bashing (or winning light saber fights) in this universe for awhile yet.

Which server? I'm on Harbringer

I have characters on Harbinger, and Ebon Hawk.

Huh. Most of my toons are on Ebon Hawk too. It'd be funny if we've run into each other.

BZArcher wrote:
Indeed, it would! Of course, if we had (and it is possible), neither of us would remember.

SWTOR? Never played it.
My forum avatar actually isn't what that character looks like in the game anymore, largely because it's not as close to what I look like in real life anymore. And since I also play on Ebon Hawk, now I'm also curious to know if I've run into either of you!

I'm still torn as to whether I like level sync or not. On one hand, I do like that if a guildie asks for help with a mission, I no longer have to say, "hang on... I think I have a toon near your level, brb," or else the fight will be over in two seconds. On the other hand, some of the high-level stuff sends you all over low-level planets, and it was nice to not have to wade through a bunch of level 20 rakghouls when you were level 55 and doing seeker droid missions (for example). This is especially true when you're somewhere with enemies that can dismount you, so you can't even just ride past and outrun them. I wish it was something you could turn on and off, but I can't imagine that would work on PvP servers. (Or just PvP instances, now.)

I'm also still not thrilled about some of the other 4.0 changes. I wish there was a way to "turn down" your companions; especially right after 4.0 came out, it often felt like they were the hero and I was the sidekick, and I'd get to add a small contribution to the massive damage they were dealing out. (It's very telling that I heard of people kicking the healer from a flashpoint so that they could bring in a companion.) Some other changes, like Mastery or Disciplines (the latter was before 4.0) are simplifications I don't really like, but that make the game more approachable to less experienced gamers; I never had a problem keeping track of who needed Aim or Cunning or whatever, but my wife definitely did!

Still, TOR manages a great balance of storyline and socialization; it's nice to know that there are people to hang out and do things with, and equally nice to know that there's a lot of game there for me to just do on my own if I'm so inclined. I swore off of MMOs forever in 2003, and for 10 years (and lots of people trying to talk me into WoW) I felt sure that was the right decision. Then I tried TOR in 2013 on a whim (driven mostly by playing through KOTOR 1&2 and wanting more), and discovered that "forever" hadn't lasted quite as long as I had expected!

These days, I mainly play for the social aspect. We have a long standing group of guys that play together, while also conversing on Mumble, and sometimes the banter over the microphones is more fun than the game! So, I will likely keep playing until something else I like better comes along, and they are in agreement so we can all continue to play together.

Well, on Pubside if you see Xuffash (Consular), Sao-wei (Smuggler), or Kalyinn (Knight) say Hi.

Impside, if you see Sarr'Kash (Warrior), Rakhael (Inquisitor), or Ashul'a (Bounty Hunter), Likewise.

I have a few others, too, but those are the ones I'm most likely to be on right now either for Fallen Empire or trying to finish up class storylines.

ah swtor its a great game but since they changed the talent tree system its hard to be a tank and dps at the same time when i started playin it 5 years ago it was quite the ride and it still is just not as much as it once was and i recently before the old republic just quit world of warcraft after my account got suspended because of a hacker,
i got the game as a christmas gift and started playing after installation even if i was a newbie i learned somehow how to play after a day or 2
i eagerly wait for the next chapter of knights of the fallen empire on tomb of freedon nadd
also im trying to gather alot of black cloth for a thexan cosplay to make

LIke Jedikind said I used to love the game, but recent changes have pushed me away from it. My issue with the current state is anything other than raid or PvP seems so watered down and easy. I like the cinematic aspects, but I also want it to be a video game and provide some challenge/anticipation of risk.

My favorite moment was playing it shortly after release and finding "NoObjectName" in the popup lol.

Jedikind wrote: Yeah. It's definitely true that you usually were best off sticking in one tree, but not always. For leveling, I was splitting my sage between a couple of trees so she was ok for healing but still usable for DPS; with the Disciplines system, I had to go pure healing. (That did, at least, get me to start controlling and paying attention to my companions more rather than just letting them do their own thing.)

I'm sure EA would never release the info, but I'm curious to know if they've actually gotten an increase in new players from the dumbing-down changes. I hope so, because it would be annoying if they made a change that annoyed experienced players without any benefit. I do know that my wife finds it easier now than the first time she tried a couple years ago; on the other hand, she was annoyed by the overpowering of companions, too, which makes me think that was probably a fail across the board.

For some reason, I feel like now when I'm playing the game that when I get into a fight, I either live or die, and there's not a $&@# thing I can do to change it. The story is intriguing, but I haven't found myself playing much.

Interesting. When I die (which is much less common than it used to be) I feel like I can look back and count how many things I screwed up. That might depend on the character, though. I think when I played my sniper more I usually felt like you said, even before the KotFE changes; she always felt so formulaic that I just had to keep hitting the exact same rotation throughout a fight and whatever happened, happened. With most of my other characters, though, whether healer, tank, or DPS, I can usually look back and go "Oh, if only I'd managed energy better" or "if only I hadn't wasted my interrupts" or sometimes just "wow, I don't even know what the hell I was doing there".

If anything, I think I more often felt a fight was "doomed from the start" before KotFE, but that might also have to do with experience; prior to that, I was mostly playing new classes, while now I'm either playing high-level characters or opposite-faction versions of classes I've already gotten to at least level 50. I don't think that's all of it, though; I think it was easier to get into unwinnable fights then than it is now.

Of course, it could be that you're a better player than I am, and don't frequently lose fights out of stupidity.

Or maybe, I'm stupid enough not to realize what I've done wrong, and you're the better player. I feel like it's more on this end of the spectrum.

This is a conundrum... I don't want to admit my idea may be incorrect, but you do make a convincing argument!

Seriously, though... What classes do you play mostly?

I haven't played in awhile. I'm only F2P, so I've got one Smuggler and one Jedi Knoght on the Harbringer, and one Sith Inquisitor on... That one PvE East Coast server. I can't even remember the name.

I don't play much with college and all, but I hope to play some in May. My current laptop is about 5 years old, so it doesn't handle the game well. I'm basically just running around with my head cut off mashing buttons because my graphics processor can't render the game environment nearly fast enough for even remotely smooth gameplay. Hence why I'm mostly an xbox one gamer lol (PalmettoLady SC in case anyone also plays xbox)! It's frustrating but I'm getting a newer laptop soon so I hope I can actually play the game more properly now.

I used to be on Harbinger but I personally decided to move back to my original server, Jedi Covenant. Doesn't seem like many people have characters there but if anyone does or decides to make any there, definitely look around for my characters! Most of them are brand new:

Savannah-lee (Republic)
Ay'sana (Republic)
Raelona (Empire)

... anddddd some others I can't remember (shows how little I do play lol)

Wait, I remember. Tal'rea and Jakora too! They're all basically new since I started over on Jedi Covenant, and I wasted enough years on WoW instead. Thankfully I no longer play it so I can focus on SWTOR

Savannah95 wrote:
Yay Jedi Covenant! I have a few characters on there... the best is probably Auggeir, my Zabrak Guardian. I wish I got around to playing more often... I still need to beat the rest of the story arcs My time management is only gonna get worse once my Vive arrives as well.

Anyone want to start fresh and level up with me? Could be fun.