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Keeping A Good Pace

June 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

How to you gauge when to leave a planet?  If you are interested in just completing your class quest, I have found that you can easily take these quests on one level behind the level indicated in the mission log.  For example, if your class quest is designed for level 25, you can easily finish it when you are level 24.  You may be able to complete the quest two levels behind, depending on how tough the boss is or how good your gear is.

The class quest is the metric that I use for moving onto a higher level area or different planet.  If I am on par with my next class quest level, I tend to skip other quests in the area.  Now that I am on my third character, I want to finish the story as soon as I can.  I took this approach with my last character since I was mainly interested in PvP.  While I did hit 50 faster than my first character, I didn’t have as many companions maxed out on affection, nor did I have a high dark side alignment rating.

If you just want to check out the class story for a character, use the class quest level in the mission log as a guide on when to move on.  If you want to increase other areas of your character, such as DS/LS alignment, codex entries, or companion affection, take on as many side quests as you feel comfortable doing.

 

Filed Under: Classes, Companions, Quests, Solo Play Tagged With: , , , , ,

5 Things SWTOR Got Wrong

February 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Following up on this post, I decided that I would take a look at the top five things that SWTOR got wrong (at least so far).  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still having a blast a month after launch, but this game has some issues.  Read on for more:

The Classes

Each faction only has four classes.  Four.  And, two of them are Jedi class.  I realize that Bioware was making some assumptions that Jedis, bounty hunters, and smugglers were going to be popular classes, but only four classes at launch?  I was disappointed in the lack of variety of class choice.  As a suggestion, perhaps Bioware could have offered a merchant class?  What about a hybrid class of soldier and being “force sensitive” where you could use blasters and have kinetic powers like sentinels in Mass Effect?

Also, I was very disappointed that there are no racial bonuses in the game.  Yes, each race has a different social ability, but I would have liked to seen something that increases your stats or gives a special ability such as quicker running.

No Sandbox

SWTOR is screaming to be a sandbox game.  Yes you are free to maneuver about and explore the entire universe at your leisure.  But with the rich artwork and planetary environments, I am disappointed that I must progress in my quest line in a linear fashion.  This is the Star Wars Galaxies yearning crying out here, but SWTOR would be such a better game if you were given a choice of which planet and how you would like to progress your quest line instead of being locked to a planet for 5-10 levels or so.

I am hopeful that a bit of the sandbox element can be introduced into this game with future planets.  Also, Bioware hasn’t introduced player housing or shops yet.  It will be interesting to see how they address these items.

Rinse and Repeat

Outside of the story quest line, the planetary quests are predictable and copies of each other:  go to this area, do the bonus mission, kill the main bad guy, turn in quest.  At least I don’t have to put on my Fed Ex hat and run delivery missions across and entire planet though.

If the game didn’t have the class story lines and most of the quests were constructed like the “normal” ones, I would lose interest in this game very quickly.  Yes, even with lightsabers.

Crafting Balance

You know you have an imbalance in crafting when a majority of the player base believes that there are only two currently useful crafting professions.  Bioware appears to be aware of this issue and has (and still plans to) make changes to the crafting professions in order to balance out their usefulness and make all professions appealing to all players.

However, this issue should have been addressed in beta.  I realize that most beta testers were focused on quests and combat and only dabbled in the crafting to see how it worked (/raises hand).  Bioware should have seen that smart players would overwhelmingly flock to anything that would give them the greatest advantage and instantly declare anything less undesirable.

I have also heard that endgame crafting is practically non-existent: that you can obtain much better endgame gear from missions and quests.  Since I haven’t hit 50 yet, I can’t confirm this but if this is true would already cripple a questionable crafting system.

Too Traditional

I was disappointed that Bioware decided create a game with the traditional MMO elements instead of taking a chance on something new and different.  At its base, SWTOR is a game where you complete quests, kill stuff and level up.  Yes the story is excellent and does offer a new element in the MMO genre that shows that story is important in a MMO and can engage its audience instead of having them mind numbingly “kill 10 rats” over and over again.

However, this was a chance to break the traditional MMO way of doing things.  SWTOR has the typical tank, DPS, healer classes.  It has a linear class progression that follows a linear quest progression.  It has junk loot, and buffs, and dungeons, and….you get the picture.  SWTOR isn’t a WoW clone, but it didn’t do enough to distinct itself from WoW, LOTRO, Everquest, or any other large MMO created over the past 10 years.

I was expecting more than an online KOTOR.  I was expecting a game that would change the MMO landscape as we knew it.

Conclusion

As I’ve said before, SWOTR is a fun game and I am enjoying my time.  I have subscribed for the next three months, but unless things change, I am going to have to seriously evaluate if my time and money are worth giving to this game.

I am hopeful that Bioware is going to address their shortcomings and do all that they can to right this ship.  The future success of the game depends on how they develop and mature this product now that such a large percentage of the player base is at or quickly approaching end game.

Filed Under: General, Popular Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

5 Things SWTOR Got Right

January 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I apologize to the seven people (Seven!  We’ve been growing our readership!) who regularly read this blog, but I haven’t written a review of SWTOR yet for three main reasons:

  1. No one cares that much.
  2. So many reviews have come out already about SWTOR’s launch.
  3. A lack of motivation.

But, I have felt that as an owner of a SWTOR fansite, I have a obligation to give a review of the game or at least my two credits worth.  If I don’t people ThatINevermMetOnTheInternetMightThinkI’mLameAndRuinMySelfEsteemForTheRestOfMyLife.  Plus, I wouldn’t have much credibility as a “blogger” if I didn’t have a review of the game on my blog about the game.

Instead of writing a review, I decided that I would write two articles.  The first one will be a list of the top things that I think Bioware did an excellent job with.  I’m hoping that by not turning out the standard canned review, people will notice that I’m “creative” and am willing to “go against the grain” and not concede to typical standards.  Other men will want to be like me.  Children will look up to me.

So without further ado, I proudly present this self serving article where I describe the five things that SWTOR got right about the game:

The Story

I won’t spend a whole lot of time on this point (see #2 above) since so much has been made about the quality of the SWTOR class stories.  I must also stand up and applaud the writing team at Bioware for their ingenuity at crafting the various story lines.  I’ve enjoyed the Jedi Consular story up to level 35 so far, and have dabbled a bit in the Jedi Knight story.  Both have been awesome.

The Companions

Many worried that companions would ruin SWTOR as a MMO and turn it into a PvE only game.  When the game was launched, most everyone quickly realized this was not the case.  The combat has been adjusted accordingly (ever try to fight a mob without your companion?) and more difficult challenges in the form of Herorics and Flashpoints exist for those who want to group with real players.

I love the witty banter and comments from my companions as well as how their presence affects my dialogue choices.  I must confess that SWTOR is the first MMO where I’ve read every line of dialogue and every quest description our of fear of missing something important or doing something that will send my companion back to my ship, stomping their feet and locking themselves in their quarters until I apologize or at least lure them out with a Twinkee.

The Scenery

SWTOR has some of the best landscapes that I have ever seen in a game.  The immediate foreground landscapes aren’t anything special, but the ones in the distance are marvelous.  If you get a chance, climb to the top of a mountain, or look off into the distance and admire the sun (or suns) rising up above the horizon.  Star Wars has always been known for its diverse and exotic planet locations and Bioware did a great job of capturing that, from the bright lights of a big city like Coruscant to the desolate sand dunes of Tatooine, this game feels like Star Wars and the art team deserves major Kudos for making this happen.

The Little Things

Bioware did away with a lot of the little things that have annoyed me in past MMOs:

  •  Inventory full?  Send your companions off to sell your trash.
  • Area Loot enables you to pick up all of your drops all at once.
  • You can craft with resources in your bank.
  • YOU CAN SEND COMPANIONS TO CRAFT FOR YOU.  I don’t have to spend countless hours over a workbench trying to create an Epic Robe of Awesomeness.  My companions can do that for me while I’m out blowing stuff up.
  • You can complete crafting missions OFFLINE.

All of these little annoyances with other MMOs aren’t an issue here and it has been wonderful.

Security

Having the security authenticator available at launch and smartphone apps available soon after have been awesome.  With a secure account, I won’t have to worry about anyone stealing my password and emptying out my cargo hold.  I don’t even have to think twice about playing SWOTR over an open WiFi connection.  If someone steals my key code, who cares?  I will have to use a different one the next time I want to log in.

I’ve also been pleasantly surprised to see almost no credit farming spam in the game.  I believe that I’ve had a credit farmer whisper me once in game about buying credits from a site somewhere.  In other MMOs I’ve played, you couldn’t escape the farmers.

Bioware has shown that they are serious about their customer’s security and play experience.  They get the highest marks for security out of any MMO on the market.  It’s kind of sad to think that my favorite video game is more secure than my bank though.

Conclusion

I won’t bother assigning a random score, number of stars, or even lightsabers to this game.  I would encourage everyone to pick it up and try it for a month.  If you’re having fun, keep on playing.  When you stop having fun, stop.  But definitely, spend some time in the SWTOR universe.

 

 

Filed Under: Game Play, General Tagged With: , , , , , ,

TOR as a Solo MMO is a Great Idea

July 26, 2011 by 1 Comment

I’m 30, 28, 35, 30ish.  I have a wife, three kids under the age of ten, a 40+ hour  a week job, and a honey-do (or you’re sleeping on the couch) list longer than Jar-Jar’s tongue.

One of the big questions still surrounded TOR is just how “massively” and “multiplayer” is this game going to be.  Much has already been said about NPC companions and how their inclusion in the game indicates that much of the game will be spent playing solo, without much grouping with other real players.

While the balance of solo vs. group play has yet to be determined, having a game geared toward the solo player is not a terrible idea.  According to the Entertainment Software Association, the average gamer is 37 years old.  I would wager that the average 37 year old, on average, is dealing with an average amount of real life (RL) issues that I am….on average.

My gaming sessions frequently last about an hour, in the early morning before the wife and kids are up.  In my current MMO, Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), an hour gives me an opportunity to knock out a few quests, craft a few items, check my in game mail and search the auction house.

LOTRO has many instanced dungeons designed for small to large groups of players.  The action is fierce and the rewards are compelling, but the downside is that these dungeons can take an hour or more to complete.  More time is added on to this process when you factor in finding and assembling a group of people willing and ready to participate in your RAID of choice.  You can argue that is what your guild mates are for, but few are online at 5:00 AM.

If the majority the content in TOR ends up being solo, this could appeal to a large player base.  Flashpoints have shown us that EA does plan to incorporate dungeons that require group play, but I don’t think they will be a requirement for advancement of your character.  Some of my most frustrating moments in MMOs is reaching a point where I need to complete a group quest in order to advance to the next series of quests.  More often than not, I simply don’t have the time.

If this prediction comes true, EA has adopted a brilliant strategy:  a MMO based primarily on solo content but includes optional multi-player content that gives rewards worth the time investment.  It is one aspect of a MMO that appeals to me, and I would wager that I’m not alone.

Filed Under: Solo Play Tagged With: , , ,