June 19, 2013

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SWTOR Tip of the Day: How to Get the Most Out of Your SWTOR 7 Day Trial

If you are playing the SWTOR 7 Day Free Trial, here are the things that you should make sure that you do in order to get the most out of your time in game.  If you participate in these activities, you will get a good feel for the game, how things work, and what you will be spending most of your time doing if you decide to purchase the game and subscribe.

Pick Your Favorite Class

Love lightsabers and the force?  Pick a Jedi.  Love to blow stuff up with a blaster?  Pick a trooper or bounty hunter.  Want to sneak and talk your way out of trouble?  Play a smuggler or imperial agent.  So much of SWTOR keeping your interest revolves around your class story, so it is very important that you pick a story that is going to keep you engaged and wanting to see how the whole thing ends.

I’ve dabbled in most of the stories and the Jedi Knight and Sith warrior are the stories that I’ve enjoyed the most.  A lot of people say that the Imperial Agent story is quite good as well….it has a very “James Bond” feel to it.

Play Around With Crafting

You should definitely try your hand at crafting, but don’t spend too much time with it.  You will be playing a short time, and trust me….you will want to be out killin’ stuff rather than makin’ stuff.  But, SWTOR does have a few unique crafting elements.  You should make a few items, to familiarize yourself with the system to see if you like it.

Come For the Story: Stay for the PVP

Once you hit level 10, you can PvP with your character.  This is something that YOU MUST TRY.  Yes, the current system has its flaws, but PvP in SWOTR is a ton of fun.  I’ve never been a big PvP player in any of the MMOs that I’ve played, but I am having a blast in SWTOR PvP (even though Huttball is beginning to wear on me a bit).

Play With a Friend

Try to spend your trial time with a friend.  It always helps to quest with someone in order to pass the time.  Plus, you will level a lot faster.  You only have 168 hours to play, so you might as well experience as much content as you can.  Playing in a group is the only way to blaze through the quests and level up as fast as humanly possible.

Participate in an Flashpoint

You should certainly participate in some group content during your trial.  Flashpoints and operations are the “raids” in SWTOR which are designed for a group and reward you with better than average loot.  If you decide to subscribe to SWTOR and play a character to level 50, the current end game consists of completing these high level instanced dungeons.  You should certainly try one out to see if you like Bioware’s spin on difficult group quests.

 

Filed Under: Beginner, Classes, Crafting, Crew Skills, Flashpoint, Game Play, PvP, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

An Introduction to the Jedi Consular

Jae Onasi at TORWars has written a “Newbie’s Guide to the Jedi Consular” article.  This post got my attention since this is going to be the class that I play at launch (which may be as early as December 13, if you haven’t heard by now).

The article does contain some minor spoilers (such as which planet you start out on and where you progress to), but nothing in explicit detail that would make you feel the urge to take a shower in order to get the tainted feeling off of your skin after reading.  I found the article quite helpful.  For example, he states which trait you should look for on gear in order to best enhance your Consular.  WILL you be able to guess what it is?  Read Jae’s article and find out for yourself!

Filed Under: Classes, Consular Tagged With: , , , ,

SWTOR Beginner’s Guide

Are you new to SWTOR?  What about MMORPGs in general?  BloggingTor can help you!  All of the beginning player posts are included below to form the SWTOR Beginning Player’s Guide.

Classes

Tips on Choosing a Class

Economy

How to Make Money in SWTOR

Social

MMO Etiquette

 

Filed Under: Beginner Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Your First MMO- A Guide to MMO Etiquette

This is a series of posts for anyone new to the MMO genre of video game.  SWTOR is sure to be very popular and for many people, it may be the first online game that they have played.  These articles introduce the basic aspects of a MMO and offer a few tips along the way.

There is no getting around the social element of a MMO game.  When an entire genre of gaming has the words “Multiplayer” and “Online” in its description, you are sure to meet some very real and often quite interesting people along your journey of saving (or destroying) the universe.  Sometimes, these meetings develop into friendships that last years and continue on into other online games and even real life!

If SWTOR is your first MMO, please be aware that your in-game actions have an impact on other people from how they play the game to how they perceive you.  Everyone in an MMO is connected and even the slightest misstep can make or break a relationship and perhaps even prevent one from forming in the first place.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when playing SWTOR or any MMO for that matter.  While following these guidelines won’t make you more attractive or whiten your teeth, they will make you appear to be less of a “noob” and more likely to be invited into a group or good guild.

Chatting

  • Don’t Abuse Chat.  Please don’t make the general chat channel your own personal venue for all things related to your life.  No one cares about the movie you just watched, your girlfriend/boyfriend, how awesome you think this game is, etc.  People are busy in-game.  Those messages scrolling past their screen quickly turn annoying if they aren’t relevant to gameplay.
  • Don’t Spam.  Chatting can be an effective way of recruiting for your guild or letting people know that you have some items up for sale, but don’t belt out these notices over and over again ad nauseam.  People will quickly get angered with you for the same reason as the point listed above.
  • Don’t Pester.  If you ask a question either in main chat or in a private message, don’t keep asking if you don’t get a response.  People get busy, or they may be away from their keyboard (AFK).  If you didn’t get an answer the first time, you probably won’t get a (nice) answer the fifth time you ask.
  • Research Before You Ask.  If you have a question about something in the game, use your favorite search engine to see if you can find the answer before asking in chat.  When people see someone asking “how do I get my lightsaber?” in chat, they roll their eyes, sigh, and think “great, another noob.”
  • Be Polite.  Manners go a long way in a MMO, especially with the older gamers.  A simple use of “please” and “thank you” can give you a lot of credibility as a decent sort of chap that others may want to quest with.  Don’t swear. Don’t insult people (or their mom).  Don’t be the rude, obnoxious person at the party that everyone wishes would go home early.

Grouping

  • Know Your Role.  If you have a character that does a couple of things well, ask the group how you should play for the duration of the group session.  For example, if your character can dish out DPS as well as Heal, ask what you should do.  If there is a better healer in the group, they may ask you to concentrate on DPS.
  • Be Upfront.  If you haven’t done the quest/dungeon before, let the group know right away.  If not, everyone will assume that you have done this before and if you make a mistake, people may get upset with you.  If they know that this is a new experience for you, they will most likely be a little more patient with you.  Perhaps they will have you switch into a different role in the group allowing you to learn as well as contribute to group play.
  • Don’t Desert.  If you have a limited amount of time, let the group know ahead of time.  Tell them that you only have a hour to play, or that you must log off by 9:00 in order to avoid any consequences (better do what your mom says).  That way, no one in the group will be surprised when you tell them, “Gotta go.  It was fun.  Thanks!”  If they weren’t expecting your exit, you may not get invited to the group next time out of concern that you will “abandon” the group at any moment.
  • Don’t Be Greedy.  In a group setting, don’t try to take everything.  The temptation can be hard to resist, especially if something pops up that you want.  If people see that you aren’t trying to take everything, they may be more willing to trade items with you if you let them know there is something that you really want.  

Helping

  • Other Players.  Help out other players as much as possible, especially those in a lower level than you.  They may be able to help you out later on.
  • Freebies.  Do things for free.  Buff people for free.  Give some items away for free.  Tip people.  Word will travel quickly across the game that you are friendly and willing to help people out.

Above all, remember the rule that is golden:  treat others how you would like to be treated.  This applies both in real life as well as any virtual one that you live in.  The rewards that you will get may last a lifetime.

Filed Under: Beginner, Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

Your First MMO- Making Money

This is a series of posts for anyone new to the MMO genre of video game.  SWTOR is sure to be very popular and for many people, it may be the first online game that they have played.  These articles introduce the basic aspects of a MMO and offer a few tips along the way. 

One of the first things that you will notice almost as soon as you start playing any MMO is that it features an in game economy, complete with a currency and many goods up for sale.  The currency in SWTOR will be Credits, but it could be gold, dollars, jellybeans….. anything really.

Just as in real life, everything in an MMO costs money.  In other MMOs, I’ve needed in game money to buy better (aka more powerful gear), buy raw materials, travel, repair items, and even pay taxes on my house!  While SWTOR may not require credits for all of these activities, it will certainly allow players to earn credits to buy various items that they will either want or need to help your character along its journey.

How does one go about making money in an MMO?  We don’t know the specifics that will be available in SWTOR, but the following strategies can be applied to most MMOs on the market today.  Hopefully, SWTOR will not be an exception.

Questing.  This just in from the Obvious Department:  You can earn money by questing in an MMO.  It goes without saying that questing is going to be the main source of income for your character for most of its life, especially in the lower levels.  Each quest you complete should give you a monetary reward for completing it.

The key is to maximize the rewards from questing.  Many MMOs have “daily quests,” quests that you can repeat each day for some type of reward.  Don’t always focus on which daily quests offer the biggest reward.  In an MMO, real time is precious.  Look for the ones that you know you can complete in the least amount of time.  It will allow you to earn more money before the phone rings, the baby cries, or your Aunt Linda shows up for an unexpected visit.

Cash for Loot.  Most enemies in an MMO drop items or “loot” when they are killed.  This can be money, gear (such as weapons or armour), or junk items that you can sell to a NPC vendor for some loose change.  Valuable loot items can be sold in the in game auction house.  Here, real players will determine the value of the item by bidding on it.  It’s pretty neat, since you will get to see the concepts you learned in high school economics class about supply, demand, and the free market in action.

Crafting.  Often, crafting (making) virtual items in a MMO can feel like you are running your own real life business.  You have to obtain raw materials (either buying them, or finding them yourself), monitor your inventory, make the item, advertise/promote your services, and monitor your pricing.  Depending on how deep and complex the crafting system is, it can truly become a “game within the game.”

Becoming one of the better crafters on your server can put you on the path to fame and fortune.  However, crafting typically takes a large investment of time in order to start out, master your craft, and get to a point where you can sell your better goods for a nice profit.  For those willing to put in the time, crafting is worth the investment.  However, many people don’t and would rather spend their game time in battle, not over a workbench.

Playing the Auction House.  This method requires a little more patience, as well as a deep understanding of your server’s local economy, but the payoff can be very lucrative as well.  This strategy involves browsing the auction house to “buy low and sell high.”  People place items selling below market value up for auction all the time.  Reasons for doing this may be that they may not know what they are truly worth, are trying to clear out space in their inventory, or just want to have a sale (my favorite ones are the “leaving the game” sale).

If you know that you can sell a particular item for more than the asking price, buy it, turn it around and sell it for a higher price.  This method of “flipping” virtual items has worked out well for many players.

We don’t know the details of the SWTOR economy, or the different methods you can use to make credits in the game.  However, it would be a fairly safe bet to assume these four methods (or at least some variation of these methods) should work in the game since they are present in almost every other MMO on the market today.

Do you have a favorite way to make money in an MMO?  Let me know in the comments below.

Filed Under: Beginner, Economy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Your First MMO- Tips on Choosing a Class

This is a series of posts for anyone new to the MMO genre of video game.  SWTOR is sure to be very popular and for many people, it may be the first online game that they have played.  These articles introduce the basic aspects of a MMO and offer a few tips along the way. 

SWTOR has 8 main classes to choose from.  How do I decide which one to play?  This is perhaps the most fundamental question in any MMO, and one that must be answered before you can start playing the game.

I envy those people who immediately know which class they are going to play.  They’ve read the forums and scoured the internet for every last tidbit of information about their favourite class.    Most likely these are the type of people who always knew what they wanted to be when they grew up.

For the rest of us, choosing a class can be a very difficult decision.  Each class has something about it that appeals to us (a bounty hunter has a jet pack, but….but….but…..LIGHTSABERS!)  Here are a few tips to consider when choosing your class:

Pick a Faction First.  Good or evil?  Whichever side you choose will automatically eliminate four of the main classes.  Think it will be fun to play a bad guy?  Light-side Jedis, the trooper, and smuggler are off limits.  Want to save the galaxy and contribute to the greater good?  No Sith, imperial agent, or bounty hunter for you.

Pick a Class Based on Your Playstyle.  Once you know your faction, concentrate on what type of playstyle you enjoy.  Do you like to charge head first into battle?  Then, perhaps a Jedi would best suit you.  Do you like to stand back and pick enemies off from a distance?  A trooper or imperial agent may be good at that.  What about using a little strategy when you play instead of aimlessly clicking on the keyboard?  It looks like a bounty hunter or smuggler may be your best bet for that.

There is no “Best” Class.  “What is the best class for this game?”  This question will get asked at least once a day on the official forums.  The answer is usually the same:  there isn’t one.  Most MMO games (and TOR is no exception) strive to ensure that all classes are in “balance” with one another, meaning that one single class does not have an overwhelming advantage over another.  On occasion, this may happen, and players may complain that “X class is overpowered and needs to be made less powerful” (a term called nerfing). 

If developers agree, then any overpowered class will be nerfed, restoring more balance to the classes (and the Force, and your own life….really…just wait).  Each class will have their own advantages and appeal, but MMO publishers want to ensure that one class doesn’t get too powerful, or else everyone will be playing it.  Just as variety is the spice of life, it is one of the key elements of any MMO along with interdependence.

Give ‘Em All a Whirl.  Still can’t decide?  Try them all.  Depending on how many character slots are available, create a character and play it for the first 10 levels or so.  That should give you a good idea about the ins and outs of the class, the playstyle, and most importantly for SWTOR, how well you enjoy the story.

Remember, the best class for you is the one that you enjoy playing.  Don’t be afraid to play a few of the different classes.  It may turn out that the one you thought you would enjoy the least ends up being the one that you take all the way to the end.


Filed Under: Beginner Tagged With: , , , ,