[G700 mouse]

Bind the buttons to keys in the SetPoint software.

 

Many games have issues detecting mouse buttons beyond 3 or 4, so I find it's simpler to just bind the buttons to keys and then set the appropriate keys via keybinding options in the game.

[Space Combat-Sullust Interception OP]

Polith Minefield is impossible without an EMP I think. I am 41 and I do pretty damn well at all of these space missions. I can get everything done, but at the end when it comes to taking the mine layer out it's impossible with grade 3 upgrades and one or two grade 4. I am firing everything at it constantly and I always end up with one objective that won't go down. Super annoying. I bet it will be simple with an EMP.

 

Polith is possible with Grade 3 only. (Even with grade 3 basics and no power conversion, etc. -- per my post above, I'd forgotten those even existed...) I did fail it the first time simply because I didn't know what I was looking for. Second time wasn't a problem, with grade 3 upgrades only.

 

This should probably be in a different thread, since the topic is technically Sullust, but...

 

Conserve missiles for the final minelayer and two bonus frigates (or warships, or whatever they are).

 

Don't waste missiles on the minefields -- unnecessary. You get way more time in the minefields than necessary to take out the 150 mines with blasters alone, even without a PC unit.

 

The enemy fighters on this mission are more or less irrelevant -- they do negligible damage, are quick to kill, and never come at you more than 2 or 3 at a time. (The only ones that could be remotely problematic are the heavy fighters, where you may need to use a few missiles to take them out.)

 

That in mind, ignore everything other than the minelayer as soon as it's in range. The mission will throw fighters at you as a distraction -- but that's all they are, a distraction. They don't hurt and they don't count toward mission goals. Ignore them until the minelayer is down.

 

As soon as the ML (or bonus frigate/warship) is in range, go crazy with missiles. That's all there is to it. I suggest cycling missiles around the 4 damage points and supplementing each with blaster fire. If you focus fire a bunch of missiles at a single damage point until it's destroyed, then move on to destroying the next, you'll inevitably end up wasting a bunch of missiles and (more importantly) time due to the significant travel lag before the missiles hit. Then you'll be trying to play catch-up on destroying the other 3 points, which you don't have time for. So cycle missiles around the points -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 (approximately, at least) -- so that you're reducing their HP more or less equally. After the first pass it may feel like you're not making any headway, but eventually all four will blow up at more or less the same time. Just keep firing blasters and missiles each time a new one loads and you'll get it. If you have a power conversion unit, just make sure it's set to increase blaster power and you'll have no difficulty at all.

[Space Combat-Sullust Interception OP]

Wow. Somehow I'd forgotten that the 4 "additional" ship upgrades (power conversion, EWP, etc.) existed since I first got my ship, and I'd been doing space missions with just the basic 6 upgrade slots you can use from early levels.

 

So I was cursing like a sailor at Sullust until I saw this thread, because I was trying to do it "naked" with basic blasters and missiles. Doh. Throw on power conversion and EWP and it's cake. Still rough compared to all the previous missions, but on the second run through with PC/EWP I still ended with 50% toughness and regenned to full shields... rather than dead.

 

 

Basic strat seems to be to use EWP during one of the two waves of head-on fighter attacks after the first pass over the warship. That's a no-brainer since it's where you lose the majority of your HP.

 

Second is to supplement regular fighter takedowns (particularly ones that approach from the rear, since they're not an immediate threat until they turn around) with a single missile -- that way they only need half a second of blaster fire to kill and you don't waste time tracking them. I don't know about anyone else but, during earlier missions, I got into the habit of taking down fighters with blasters alone and conserving missiles for warships, bases, etc. Not necessary -- or even a good idea -- here. Once you have the grade 5 missile mag you won't be able to fire all your missiles during Sullust even if you try, so throw them at everything.

 

Still can't believe I've spent the last 18 levels running space missions without a damn Power Conversion module... that thing is ridiculous. To the point where it would've made earlier missions completely trivial rather than just very easy. It's going to be amusing doing them on my alt with the upgrades actually on my ship.

[Why do we hate midi-chlorians?]

It changes Star Wars from Science-Fantasy to Sci-Fiction.

Exactly what I was about to post. It doesn't just change how viewers perceive the Force; it alters the outlook of the entire series.

 

The Force was only one element of the original SW trilogy, certainly. But it was the defining element. It was the differentiating factor between SW and Star Trek, Alien, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Logan's Run, Blade Runner ... a whole host of other 70s/80s IPs that were solidly grounded in sci-fi.

 

The Force (and lightsabers) turned SW from being "just another sci-fi IP" into a sci-fi/sword-and-sorcery mashup that captured the imaginations of both audiences. Guys running around spaceships and firing laser guns while wielding swords and throwing magic spells.

 

Then, 20+ years later, to take that concept and say, "Oh hey, by the way: that wasn't magic at all. Here's the mundane scientific explanation for it." ?? Ouch... especially when you grew up with the series. It's like finding a long lost chapter of the Bible with Jesus' notes and plans for pulling off the resurrection stunt. You just don't f*** with fanboys like that.

[So SWTOR, not designed for the masses? Niche game?]

I have a pentium duel core 2.0, 8800 gforce gtx, 8 gig RAM.

 

...

 

SWTOR is designed for a small niche of people who buy new computers every 6 months and constantly upgrade their computers. Do you think it was a smart move to alienate all the people like me and my friends, who are all avid gamers, but choose not to upgrade computers constantly?

 

Wait, what?

 

First, what is a "pentium duel core 2.0"? I'll give you a hint: there's no such thing. You're either talking about a dual-core Pentium-D (in which case it's not clocked at 2.0GHz) or a Core2Duo (in which case your reference to "Pentium" is very random). 8gb RAM tells us nothing either, in the context of the rest: for all we know you could be using horribly slow single-channel RAM on 32-bit WinXP...

 

Either way, you may be a programmer but your post gives the impression you know very little about hardware.

 

And also either way: there's a huge disparity between (a) "people who buy new computers every 6 months" and (b) people using computers with hardware more current than 5 years old. And I'm afraid you fall into neither bracket. Your computer isn't just dated, it's practically historical: your CPU and video card are 5+ years old. You're a programmer, I'm sure you've heard of Moore's Law. Do the math.

 

 

I do sympathize with the overall sentiment of your post: that people shouldn't need bleeding- or even cutting-edge hardware to play a new MMO. I think that's fair; I also don't think that's the case with SWTOR, but that's by the by.

 

I don't sympathize with your particular case, though. It's clear that your computer isn't not-quite-brand-new, it's ancient. If you want to play new games on a platform where you don't need to make moderate upgrades more frequently than once every 5-6 years, I seriously suggest you consider investing in a console.

[British accents = Empire]

I don't think its much of a spoiler to say that one of the very first phrases my Imperial Agent had said to him 30 seconds into the game was "Don't get cute" .. pure American.

Hah, I noticed that one too. (Though I'm a Brit living in the US, so I've adapted and it's probably not quite as obvious/grating to me.) Then again, "Keeper" can't seem to decide whether his accent is RP English or mid-Atlantic "Shakespearean theatre" American, so it's definitely not his only glitch.

 

Also, I've only come across one Imperial character so far that pronounces lieutenant the British way "LEF - tenant" rather than the American "LOO - tenant"

Definitely noticed this one because it's such a glaring difference. Many (recent generation) British pronounce it LOO-tenant anyway, through ignorance of the traditional pronunciation and/or American influence, so I could see that one slipping through even if the voice actor was British. Although an NPC with a super-formal RP accent saying "LOO-tenant" doesn't really fit.

 

(All that said, I've always thought "LEF-tenant" was a ridiculous pronunciation and it's always made me squirm any time I've had to say it... which hasn't been very often, fortunately!)

[British accents = Empire]

Pretty long thread going on this subject here, too.

 

 

You realize Britain includes Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland?

 

Because I'm yet to see an accent that could be any of them but English.

 

I've run into several Scottish and Welsh accents. No Northern Irish so far, though.

 

Not all Imperials are British, though. There's a good number of formal/mid-Atlantic/theatre accents, too -- i.e. American base accent with some acquired English-isms and manner of speech.

 

(Think James Earl Jones (as Vader), or Christopher Plummer. Or any number of Hollywood actors from the 50s and earlier with super-formal accents. They do actually have North American accents but they're so formal and carefully enunciated that they blend in nicely with the RP English.)

 

 

As a British person myself I can tell you that the Imperials in this game speak American English with a British Accent. It's almost as if an American wrote their dialogue for them

 

Definitely more than a few cases of that. The occasional super-RP-English-accented Imperial officer using colloquial US phrasing ... can be a little grating.

 

The voice actors seem to be a mix too. Some are definitely Americans putting on British accents, usually given away by their pronunciation and emphasis rather than the accent itself. (e.g. Saying "de-TAILs" instead of "DEE-tails".) But some are almost certainly English voice actors; that or they have the most convincing accents I've ever heard in games/movies/anywhere.

 

 

But yeah, it's clear the Imperial accent is intentionally British/formal. It's even referenced in the dialog and storylines. The first Imperial Agent storyline quests send you undercover, and the quest giver specifically tells you to "lose the Imperial accent" to avoid blowing your cover -- and your character does indeed go from using his/her English accent in regular dialog to putting on a mid-west US accent when she's undercover.

[when exactly does the empire become english?]

Yet they should of put more accents, Maybe Spanish ones

 

Pretty sure there was an Italian accent (Italian Italian, not Italian-American) on... ugh... the alien guy who wasn't the Hutt or the droid on the "council of three" (forget the actual name, horrible memory) in the Nar Shaddaa storyline for the Sith. Did seem to suit the character, although definitely a little stereotypical...!

 

 

I also find I'm analyzing the Imperial accents even more since reading this thread. I started an Imperial Agent alt and noticed a couple of things.

 

One, that "Keeper" (your introductory quest giver) can't seem to decide whether he's fully RP English or the mid-Atlantic, upper-class/Shakespearean actor blend. Particularly when he comes out with "de-TAIL" (rather than "DEE-tail", which would be the English emphasis) ... giveaway that the original voice actor was American. Not the only giveaway pronunciation "glitch" I've run into on otherwise-convincing accents, though.

 

Second is that Keeper actually tells the agent to "drop the Imperial accent" for an espionage quest, going undercover with an assumed identity. Lo and behold, your character switches from RP English when speaking with Keeper to using a strained mid-west accent when she's "in character" for the undercover mission.

[Keybind transfer between characters.]

And all the other seetings to boot.

 

Not that there are many ways to customize the rest of the UI anyway, let's face it... but it looks like most of the other per-character UI settings are held here:

 

C:\Users\[uSERNAME]\AppData\Local\SWTOR\swtor\settings\xxxxxx_[charactername]_PlayerGUIState.ini

 

Graphics, sound and certain other settings are global, obviously, but these files hold settings for your chat tabs, channels, colors, etc. along with the few other UI elements that actually have options. You should be able to simply copy the content of the file for your main to the file for your alt to transfer the settings.

 

(Note that I say "should". Haven't tried this but see no reason why it shouldn't work, and I'll be trying it tonight to transfer my chat settings over to my new alt.)

[[HOWTO - RAMDRIVE] Increasing SWTOR System Performance]

Appreciate this post because I know nothing about symbolic links, and because my boot drive is an SSD but I didn't feel like putting the full 20+gb of SWTOR on there. The game is on an HDD, so at least now I can try putting DiskCacheArena on the SSD and see if that squeezes out any additional performance.

 

Quick question (which I might be about to answer myself...) You mention this:

 

Right now this focuses on placing DiskCacheArena and 2 buffer files DiskCacheStatic / DiskCacheStream on a RamDrive

 

But you only mention DiskCacheArena specifically in the symlinks. You also move "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\SWTOR" around with symlinks, yet that only appears to hold a handful of tiny INI files on my machine.

 

I'm guessing DiskCacheStatic and DiskCacheStream are created in that folder after the game is launched, and only remain while it's running? (Otherwise I'm confused on both counts: why move that folder around, and where do the other two files come in?) If that's the case: great, since C: is already on the SSD and I don't need to bother fiddling with that.

 

 

(Still not sure I understand the difference between the /J and /D flags for mklink but, like I said, I'm a noob to this.)

[People need to L2 Flag for LFG]

The currently LFG tool isn't obvious, and even when it's being used, it's about as effective as just shouting in the same chat channel.

 

You can't really blame the players for the developer's inability to code in and make obvious a useful LFG tool.

 

+1

 

(Don't usually do that, but you put it so succinctly)

[Target nearest enemy should be default "tab" binding]

From memory, every single MMORPG I have played has the default tab targetting set to next target instead of nearest.

 

This. Since the beginning of time.

 

Defaulting tab to Target Nearest would go against convention as much as defaulting W to backward and S to forward.

 

If you have no current target, tab will generally select the nearest target anyway, then cycle based on proximity. You can set a separate keybind for Target Nearest if you need a specific key to jump directly to the nearest enemy without first clearing your target.

 

____

 

Side note that this MMO convention has a basis in OS conventions too; it's not arbitrary. Tab is often used in different areas of various OSes to cycle through options. (Alt- or Command-tabbing between windows in Windows/OS X respectively; tabbing between panes in Windows Explorer; tab to move between dialog options in Windows popup dialogs.) It carries over from there.

[Change "You need to complete quests"]

+1

 

I've missed quests because of this one too. Prime example of a horribly-worded feedback message. I can't quite understand how anyone with a firm grasp of the English language didn't recognize the glaring ambiguity when they came up with it.

 

"Your quest log is full. You must delete or complete some quests before you can accept any more."

 

There you go Bioware; I won't even charge.

[Keybind transfer between characters.]

It astounds me how games continue to get released without the same basic, user-friendly functionality that EVERY prior game has requested.

 

Do the Devs not play MMOs?

 

On that note, how is it that the guild window in every single MMO is absolutely dire, lacking core functionality, or just flat-out broken at launch? True of every game I can think of, and SWTOR is no exception.

[I've figured out why i'm not enjoying the game]

Most recent MMOs seem to follow the trend of gradually expanding the quest area around a hub or within a new zone.

 

You reach a new zone. The first quests are all very close to the first hub. As you progress, they move further out but you still end up running back to the hub. And as you get further through the quests in the zone, you get sent further and further afield for each quest, and a greater and greater proportion of your time is consumed by travelling rather than actively questing/killing.

 

Fortunately, another general trend in MMOs is to include WAY more quest XP in a zone than is necessary to progress past its level range, and subsequently to have substantial overlap in zone level ranges.

 

So just get to the point where you can feasibly begin questing in the next tier zone, then go there and start the quest cycle over again, beginning with the "local" quests that require little running around.

[Binding my mouse]

Probably a driver issue. Without knowing which specific mouse the OP is using, it's hard to give much more constructive feedback than that. :\

 

In WoW i could at least assign them as keystrokes and then keybind the keystrokes...but that doesn't even work in this game.

 

Assign them as keystrokes in the driver software? I can guarantee that works in SWTOR because that's exactly what I've done with my G700. If a game has problems recognizing keystrokes bound in that fashion, it's more frequently a problem with the driver software since -- if it's doing its job properly -- the game shouldn't care (or even be aware of) whether the keystrokes are coming from the mouse or an actual keyboard.

[Space Combat should have been X-wing vs TIE-fighter]

Didn't know what space combat was about until I jumped into my first mission. I was a little surprised (and disappointed) that it was just point-and-click on rails.

 

Yet...

 

I find I kind of enjoy them now, oddly. Took a few runs to see what they were about but now they make a nice change of pace and gameplay from the whole rest of the game. 5 minutes per mission, 10 total to knock out a daily quest is a great little timeframe for an evening when I don't really have time to "play" play, but want to get a quick XP fix before bed. I don't have to remember which planet I'm on, which quest hub I need to get to, run around or wade through a bunch of dialog choices, compete with people for mobs, or worry about grouping, etc.

 

 

That said... expanding them to allow group play, making PvP-ish versions (still on rails), or making full-blown, open, PvP space combat would all be appreciated.

[Make. It. Stop. "Excellent! I was just wondering what i could do to please you!"]

On the plus side, when you go back and watch Ep.I, Jar Jar doesn't seem half as annoying any more...

[Have people forgotten common courtsey?]

Common courtesy died in MMOs many years ago.

 

Pat on the back for being a fellow holdout, although expecting the same of anyone else you group with is generally an exercise in futility and exasperation.

[Your companion is back...STOP EVERYTHING!]

Signed.

 

 

Worst so far was while healing a PvP match, just as I went to click on a teammate in the Ops window to throw an emergency shield. That damn droid came back from a long Diplomacy mission with some sycophantic bloody remark -- irritating enough in itself -- and popped the 'reward' window up right over my Ops window.

 

Goes without saying that the teammate didn't fare so well.

[Please let us Un-bind or Re-bind \]

This. This. A thousand times this.

 

Technically it's a bug because the Keybind window doesn't obey your settings.

 

But on top of that, it's insanely annoying. Why would I ever need to hotkey the Customer Service window? Are you really expecting that many player problems, Bioware?

 

 

 

Edit: Hah, just realized you're on a UK keyboard with \ next to Z. On the US keyboard it's above Enter and below Backspace -- annoying enough that I'm forever clipping it while typing in chat. But next to Z would be infinitely more annoying, since that's one of my go-to keybinds ... I'd be punching my monitor before the end of the first PvP match.

[Companions are a part of you , you should roll for gears for them.]

Put 3 buttons on the roll window. Instead of just Need/Greed, you have:

 

• Need
  
• Companion
  
• Greed
  

 

Prioritized in that order.

 

Doesn't solve the problem of people being dishonest; no system ever will. But it would offer an in-game mechanic for a potential source of clashes.

[Targeting, targeting, targeting, fix it]

Target Next (i.e. Tab) tends to get the nearest player if my target is currently clear. Subsequent presses seem to prioritize by distance, which is what I'd expect.

 

I disagree that Target Nearest needs to have cycle functionality. The nearest person is the nearest person, period ... if you need to switch off to the next nearest, you have Target Next. Having the two functions separate and clearly defined gives me a lot more control than merging Nearest/Next functionality into one key.

 

Overall I'm pretty happy with the tab-targeting in this game. It seems pretty well-behaved and predictable, which is key. (Now, if you want a game where tab-targetting was an utter nightmare of unpredictability and inconsistency, try Rift! I swear I lost years off my life from that targeting system...)

 

 

Click-targeting, I agree: slightly bigger hitboxes would help, whether that's expanded to include nameplates or just the character model.

 

 

Honestly, I'd say more critical needs are:

 

a) dual targeting (friendly and enemy simultaneously)

 

b) a half-decent Focus target system; not the unreliable, inflexible piece of junk we have now

 

Again, this coming from a healer's perspective. The game has such a strong focus on single-target heals that having to constantly switch friendly-enemy-friendly-enemy targets is annoying and reduces the enjoyability of healing, particularly in PvP. And the lack of focus target system (for all intents and purposes) to even partially compensate for the lack of dual-targeting just compounds the irritation factor.

[This game takes travelling back 7 years]

• Having to run through 3 sreens to get back and forth to your ship is overkill. Yes it is immersive and believable, but there is a fine balance between that and functionally convenient.
  

 

It's only a matter of time before this disappears and transit between planets becomes a one-click deal.

 

It's cute, it gives a more authentic and immersive feel, but ultimately it's a completely unnecessary and annoying timesink -- especially for people on slower machines.

 

And it's exactly the kind of streamlining that other games have made in the past. In fact I was slightly surprised to see it still existed so late in beta, let alone into launch. Other recent games have tried similarly "immersive" travel elements before, and they've been stripped out within the first few months after complaints from the playerbase in favor of simpler, faster mechanics.

 

 

The current process to get from one planet to another:

 

Run to origin spaceport -> enter hangar (quick zone) -> run to ship -> enter ship -> cutscene -> (slow zone) -> run through ship -> access map and select destination -> run through ship -> exit ship -> cutscene -> (slow zone) -> run through hangar -> enter destination spaceport (quick zone)

 

That's 13 steps: user-driven interactions/movements, cutscenes, or full zone loads. (And I'm not even including the significant fact that you have to listen to that sycophantic *@#!ing droid every time you run past him on the ship.)

 

 

Streamlined, while retaining some integrity of travelling to the spaceport, the process only needs 4 steps:

 

Run to origin spaceport -> access map and select destination -> (slow zone) -> enter destination spaceport

 

 

I have no doubt most of those "authentic" elements will eventually disappear in the interest of convenience. Such things are the first to go when you're past launch and trying to reduce friction to retain customers.

[Why it's impossible to get good FPS in crowded areas]

I think I read once that the best engines on the market can handle 10-12 3-D high definition characters top. This is why even top of the lines machines crawl into rendering current-gen MMO social hubs at peak hours

 

The problem is that you get the same lag even when it isn't rendering a single character model.

 

Try standing in the fleet at peak hours, then scroll in to first-person view, look down and stare at the floor so that you can see nothing except the floor texture... and tell me if your framerate improves substantially.

 

I'll save you the trouble: it doesn't.

 

 

The problem isn't as superficial as simply the speed of rendering the current scene. I'd guess there's an issue somewhere with the way in which texture and model data is being cached.

 

Yes, the engine has to preload a bunch of stuff before it's actually rendered, based on who or what is in the vicinity, so that it's not desperately trying to play catchup and load from disk when you spin around and look at something new. And yes, that can have a substantial resource load when there's a ton of people around.

 

But the point is that many games seem to achieve that background management and caching without affecting framerate to the same extent when the current scene is relatively simple.

 

 

I usually choose to play a healer in MMOs. This means I'm very, very familiar with finding a cozy corner and staring at the floor during raids, in order to minimize unnecessary framerate drops. So I'm also pretty familiar with how well different games perform in exactly this scenario: when the currently-rendered scene (staring at the floor) is ultra-simple despite there being a ton of people, objects, and activity in the vicinity. Pretty sure any other raid healer is similarly familiar with these situations.

 

And SWTOR seems to handle the situation particularly badly. I'm not saying it's completely unplayable -- it's not a complete slideshow -- just that a 70%+ drop in FPS (from 60+ fps under regular load, down to 20fps and below staring at the floor in the fleet) is unusually poor in comparison to other games, and seems to indicate poor engine optimization somewhere.