Star Wars: TOR Beta

[OpMegs]

With the NDA down, I figure this is open to discussion now, and with it being a significant potential draw away from CoX since it hits almost the same geek spots as CoX does, a relevant one.

My thoughts.

- CoX has spoiled me so. Most of my gripes with the game (gear-based appearance, there being very little reason to play more than one of a single class because there's not much room for alternate characterization, etc.) are apparently fairly common in other MMOs. In CoX, two Fire/Fire Blasters have the potential to be *radically* different, if only in origin and appearance. In TOR, two different Sith Warriors will be radically different if they took different advanced classes, but the storyline remains the same for them with the exception of a few alternate missions that're based off alignment (Dark/Light). If you ever did multiple runs through either of the Mass Effect games, you know about the degree of difference to expect.
- Nonetheless, I do expect to alt in the game, as each class's individual storyline is fully voice acted and well written. I plan to roll at least one of everything, and possibly a couple of certain classes whose Advanced Specializations are unique enough to want to play (Ranged/Healing Mercenary Bounty Hunter vs. Ranged/Melee Tank Powertech, ferex)
- Movement is a little annoying, as you don't gain access to a fast run ability (Sprint) until Level 15.
- The actual gameplay is hella fun, and gets better with more people. I seriously enjoy the group conversation system, where you and your party members have a random roll-off to see whose response to a given conversation branch is shown in the "cutscene". Everyone gets the light side/dark side points for what they chose, regardless of who won, and the end result is rather interestingly randomized.
- The "Flashpoint" task forces take some of the best things from the new CoX TFs and then give them full voice acting and cutscenes, as well as interesting fight mechanics. And you can generally do them with two people once you start getting Companion characters that can back you up.
- The Companions take the edge off of soloing. One character alone wouldn't be that well off in Heroic level missions, but that same character with a Companion could easily breeze through it. There's a little immersion breaking if you're teamed with someone who has the same companions as you, but overall a minor gripe, given the Compys stick around, even in team content, which leads to some awesome fights.

Overall, The Old Republic is....technically an MMO. But it's more accurately KOTOR 3, now with multiplayer. This isn't a bad thing, but I can see myself running through the available content for all 8 classes and then un-subscribing until they add new stuff, because as a non Epic Lootz style player, there's not much to grip me once I've finished the story. But that's not a bad thing, as I suspect I'm the weird anomaly in that particular sense. No matter how the replayability of multiples of a class isn't high, this is a good game, and I see a lot of people playing it for long periods of time to keep it afloat. It'll be interesting to play the full version.
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"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

[Shader]

Is there any advantage of the Collector's Edition over the Pre-order Digital edition?

My sister's seen this ... ... .... corruption of the Star Wars universe and travesty of a game ... and wants to get it. Which should she get?

[OpMegs]

The Collector's Edition will give you a metric buttload of bonus stuff that's rather neat...except it's all but impossible to get for under a 3 digit price these days, so....

Digital Pre-order is, however, a set price and fairly reasonable.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

[Ankhani]

Note that You can only get the Digital version via EA's Steam-wannabe Origin. Since you can download the client from the TOR website itself, I don't really see any benefit to the 'digital' version over the physical one. In fact, you have to pay an extra $5 to pre-order through Origin. If you can stand possibly not having it ZOMGNAO!!! due to shipping delay, getting it from a local retailer would be a plus. All you're really paying for is the serial code for your account (and a little gimmick color stone if you pre-order).

(I will admit I'm a little put out by EA forcing Origin down customers throats in other games, so I probably am biased there)
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The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[Unicorna]

EA isn't actually charging an extra 5 dollars on top of the full price, what they're doing is taking 5 dollars initially then charging the remaining amount when the game's released. But the total is the same cost as if you bought it from a store. Plus once you have the code from the Origin account, you don't have to use origin again since SWTOR has it's own separate launcher.
I ordered my own copy from Amazon and it's getting here on release day, though it'll be sometime in the afternoon I imagine. Not exactly worried though since I have to work on release day anyways.

[Shader]

Well I have some good news and some other news ... she's decided to get the Digital Deluxe verison ... until she saw that it was a MMO ... then she started to um and ah about it. She thought Star Wars game neat! The multi-player part has turned her off. How invasive is the multiplayer part?

That saves one hassle.

But she's sorta corrupted me... I'm seriously thinking about getting this at least a trial run for a month or so.

[Ankhani]

See Above:

Overall, The Old Republic is....technically an MMO. But it's more accurately KOTOR 3, now with multiplayer.

It's a MMO, yes. There will be other people there. You can't change that. However! This isn't a FFXI nightmare where you have to have a full team at all times or die trying. You can play the main storyline of each of the classes, likely, pretending you are the only one there. With the companions, you likely could do some of the easier group quests as well. I would definitely say don't let the online aspect of it turn you off. I'm still convinced that Bioware is one of the best developer groups out there, and should give every one of their games a try (despite the hubbub over DA2). At worst, your ignore list is full of trolls... At best you meet awesome people like me to play with. =D

Incidentally, I personally don't think the extra gimmicks you get from the deluxe version are worth the price, but that's just me. The Collector edition had some nice goodies, but I was slow on the ball and all them got sold out, and you'll be lucky to get one from a scalper for under $150.
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The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[Shader]

Ohhhh..... They have region locked the Pre-Order. "In order to maintain the quality of service"

*burn*

I'll be around that in a jiffy.

Word to the wise... Never give a geek a challenge. We Have Ways....and will overcome!
(Edit: I did find a UK store still selling the Collector Edition for 130 pounds. www.gamestation.co.uk)

[Acyl]

Pre-ordering SW:TOR from outside the launch regions

Speaking as someone also in the Oceanic region...you have four options here:-


1. Order a digital retail code from Origin anyway, damn the region lock - If you can connect to a VPN in the United States or something, this will work. You will still require an American credit card, but some folks report that putting in their real street address with a false US state worked. Others say you really do need an US card, no matter what. Still other folks report that they have been able to order from the Russian Origin store. Note that most folks from outside the launch regions haven't taken option 1. So...


2. Order a physical boxed copy and get it shipped to you  - This is what you're looking at, but it will be prohibitively expensive in shipping and it will take a while to arrive. The collector's edition in particular is a heavy box, so that may ramp up your costs in that respect. May not be worth it. Please note that most Australians and other folks in the region seem to be making their box purchases from US Amazon rather than the UK. I dunno if there's a particular reason for this


3. Get someone you know in the US or EU to order a code from Origin for you - This is what I did; OpMegs and Unicorna sorted it out for me, and I paid them.


4. Pay a third party company to order a code from Origin for you - G2play.net is doing this - you pay them, they make the purchase, they send you the codes. Though they are not promising to send you pre-order/early access codes any more. Several folks from our region say that this site is trustworthy, and has not cheated them on past codes before. Use your own judgement here on whether you think this is a good idea. Obviously you'll end up paying a little more than if a friend does it for you, because they'll take a cut.

Playing SW:TOR for the MMO-shy


SW:TOR is explicitly designed to be friendly for non-MMO players. It's a very solo-friendly or duo-friendly game - in fact you'll find that the class quests are largely designed with the assumption that people will be soloing them - any other players along for the ride are in 'spectator mode' and do not have any conversation options during dialogue sequences. You certainly can team up for those, of course. Bearing in mind also that a full team in SW:TOR is four players, two people plus their two NPC companions can complete quite a lot of stuff designed for a full team, though perhaps with greater difficulty. You can, for instance, run some Flashpoints that way, though it might be a greater challenge.

Every class gains access to a different group of companions, but your companions will always be able to fulfil whatever role you need - you'll have ones that can ranged tank, melee tank, heal, ranged DPS, or melee DPS.

As noted, Flashpoints and Operations are largely what you'll have issues with playing solo or as a duo. Flashpoints are similar to CoH Task Forces, of the modern short variety rather than the lengthy painful ones. Again, this is apparently possible even without a full team, just harder. Operations are raids, so that's clearly out of the question if you're avoiding the...full MMO experience. But that's about all you'd be gated from.

Oceanic Community

If you and your sister do play the game, the Oceanic community - mostly Australians and New Zealanders, also English-speaking Asians like myself - are mostly rolling on US West Coast servers. This may or may not affect your server choice. I'm not too antsy about this, but I at least like to keep an eye on where most folks in my timezone are heading.


The Harbinger and The Jekk'Jekk Tarr (US West PvE) are currently being targeted by Aussies and regional folks getting their early access, but it remains to be seen whether this will pan out as more servers are added. Reports say The Harbinger is getting a particular heavy load. 

The Swiftsure (US West PvP) is the server being targeted by the Oceanic pee-vee-pee community, but I don't believe either of you are interested in this.

Begeren Colony (US West RP-PvE) has been chosen as the unofficial Oceanic RP server, according to some websites. But there isn't as massive a consensus on this - I'm only getting the data from one source, as opposed to the clear 'everyone roll on Harbinger or Jekk'Jekk or Swiftsure that is coming out from other folks', so I can't make any promises. At present there are only two US West RP-PvE servers anyway; most of the RP servers are located in other zones.

This situation may change as more servers are added as we approach launch and beyond.
-- Acyl

[Shader]

Thanks for all the info.
My sister bowed out. Quote: "It's got MMO elements? Count me out." Me on the other hand... well, after much wrangling I got it off G2Play.net. I came |...| close to asking if OpMeg or Uni would mind picking up a code for me.
Yeah its the normal version, but you can get an upgrade pack for $20.
I have a US address, and a US debit Mastercard. Origin spat them out. Not Happy.
The US version is region-less, the UK version is region-locked.
As for what server... once I get in, I'll make that decision then. This week-end I'm preforming computer surgery so its probably for the best that I'm not in early.

[Acyl]

If you are keen on encouraging her to play, one could always stress to her that the two of you could duo it. Alternatively, of course, she could always mess with your account. Not that I have any insights into your sibling dynamics, of course.
The server outlook for Oceanic players is precisely as I have outlined; I will update you here if that changes. The names I mentioned above are the US servers I personally am looking at. I cannot speak for everyone you may know from this board and CoH community, but at least some folks from around here will be joining me on, well, whichever servers I pick.*
(* because I'm getting my early access within 12 hours or so, based on the officially revealed schedule.)

EDIT: As of Thursday night / Friday morning, there don't seem to be any new servers up yet, and most servers are running at Very Heavy or Full load. That said people aren't complaining of queues yet, so the tags may be deliberate underestimations on the part of Bioware to encourage folks to shift out the load - not that there are many places to shift to at the moment.

I was on Harbinger a little past midnight - I'm on the same time as Western Australia - and it was running smooth. Can't speak as to the peak, though.

EDIT2: ...okay, US primetime reports say two hour queues for Harbinger. I am not playing on Harbinger anymore, not if I want any of my US friends to roll on that server as well. 9_9
-- Acyl

[Ankhani]

I'm over on Bergeren, m'self. It was listed as "standard" when I made up my eponymous char. RP Servers FTW

(also, I should see if they have global channels like CoX or if they're following the way of the Warcraft)
Revision: Bergeren is coming up as "Very Heavy" at this time. (2138 EST) Zaalbar and Thana Vesh are the only two still Standard.
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The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[Dragonflight]

So my roommate got this for me on preorder as an early Christmas prezzie. I'm on Bergeren as well. Character name "Kiana" if you're interested.
Look forward to meeting other people I actually know.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Acyl]

Begeren Colony seems to be the server to be, thus far, by all accounts. The other extant West Coast RP server is Vrook Lamar, which seems slightly lower on load. I and a few others from here are checking that one out as well as an alternative server. As Ankh notes, right now Begeren Colony is hitting Very Heavy in server status, which is potentially worrysome.

Especially in light of the two hour queues for some servers.

Since Republic and Empire characters are separated anyway, by faction, and cannot trade with each other...I and some others are currently rolling Imps on Begeren and Republics on Vrook Lamar, splitting our eggs across two baskets. This also gives us more slots for alts. 

This is just a tentative scheme, though. One way or another, I'll be Sith'ing my way across Begeren when the servers come back up from maint, then try a Consular or Smuggler on Vrook.

I realise Bioware's intent is for people to spread out on different servers, but to some degree the early access system works against this because people want to join the servers their friends are already on. So right now we're hedging bets.
-- Acyl

[Dragonflight]

From what I've heard from my obsessive roommate, the load is artificial right now. They're forcing people to split out across all the available servers, rather than having the pre-order people simply glom together on a single server or half a dozen, while the rest are ignored. As the load is spread around, they remove whatever effect is artificially enhancing the load by a few more percentage points.
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Acyl]

Yeah, I'd heard that too. There's absolutely no evidence to back up the rumour, though - it's just speculation. GOOD speculation that I AGREE with, but still speculation.

In any case, that does mean the folks I've been hanging with - Ops, Uni, so forth - we'd concluded in-game that we'll just stick to Begeren Colony for the time being. So no stress on that front, and there's a good chance we and other people here will eventually be able to hook up. It does look like the more bustling of the two West RP servers at present, though this is of course purely relative and subjective.
-- Acyl

[Ankhani]

Care to put your names down in the thread here so I can drop a mail to you and coordinate from there?
Load Note: Tonight Bergeren and Vrook Lamar hit full
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The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[Dragonflight]

So far for me, there's just one.
Kiana:Jedi Consular, Bergeren Colony.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Ankhani]

I can't say for sure, but it looks like we're all playing Sith o.o There doesn't seem to be any way to communicate cross-faction, so it might be lonely =
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[Dragonflight]

Heh. Well, I'll make a Sith soon enough. I've been tinkering with what I'd make, anyway. I have a few ideas. Probably the full Sith combat monster. Although I've been considering a bounty hunter who makes light-side choices. Not sure, yet.
But I've been approached by a RP-heavy guild I ran with earlier today, so if you're not making lightside characters, I'll put Kiana in that guild and go from there.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Ankhani]

Oh, I have every intention of making a Jedi. It's just (bad?) luck you happened to be the odd one out.
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[Shader]

Guess who just got their code... not sure if it will let me into the game though.
I fully intend to roll at least 3 characters straight off the bat.
Jelidan - Miraluka Jedi - possibly a ending up a Jedi Shadow.
her opposite
Sicthar - Zabrak Sith - Sith Inquisitor, ending up as a maybe an Assassin.
And then: Dan Evans, Cyborg. Either Smuggler or Bounty Hunter, I'm undecided yet.
Edit:
And all the servers have been polling as FULL while the game downloads... and boy, its a BIG game. Probably an overnight job. Video 1.5G, Main Assets over 10G, @.@ It seems to be downloading twice the amount of data then it says it it. Curious.

[Shader]

What in the heck is this thing downloading?

Image

Notice the difference in the stated speed of the launcher downloading and what my connection says it is downloading. And its been that way the entire time... my net connection is 2x sometimes 3x the speed of the launcher download.

What the heck?

[Acyl]

At present, the longest I've personally had to queue for our current RP server - Begeren Colony - was just a few minutes. Hopefully they'll shorten the queues as we go past today into launch...because otherwise, with the influx of folks, it'll get longer. 

I cannot comment on exactly what the launcher is doing. I don't think it's a torrentalike in disguise, but who the hell knows. These mysteries are arcane and abstract to me.

(EDIT, with character changes - 4 Jan 2011) My present active characters are:-

Zias - Imp, Sith Warrior/Juggernaut - Tank
Rak - Imp, Imp Agent/Operative - Healer
Jaska - Rep, Jedi Consular/Shadow - DPS
Karida - Rep, Trooper/Commando - Healer
-- Acyl

[Dragonflight]

Think of the game as KOTOR 3. The Asset files are audio/video bundles of character arcs for each class. When you get a cutscene, it's coming out of the main assets files. The fully installed version is about 20GB, plus whatever patches and content assets they've released since beta.
The actual *game* is maybe 2GB in total.
Edit: Anyway, drop Kiana an in-game email if you make a lightside character. There's missions in the game which require teaming (but they're clearly labeled as "Heroic" and how many people you should optimally have,) and I'll be available if you need help. Well, except for the times I'm in CoH. Even SWTOR doesn't substitute for being a superhero.
Edit 2: (Borrowing Acyl's format, since it's easier to read.)

Kiana - Rep, Jedi/Shadow - Tank
Am'y - Rep, Smuggler (new)
Sanili - Imp, Inquisitor (new, probably Assassin, not sure.)
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.