Turn off shadows.

Subscription based games can generally get away with producing less content since thier "end-game" consists of repeating the same thing multiple times for months.

Nicotine is more of a physcological addiction than a physical addiction. The reason some people say its a physical addiciton is because of the symptoms associated to withdrawl. If a suject is addicted to video games and they quit playing for a few days, they might experience withdrawl symptoms.

I might come back to this class, one day, who knows. I rolled a commando trooper instead and I felt far more useful in PVE/PVP than the Guardian. Playing a Guardian to me was like playing on a handicap. Sure you might say it's hard or challenging but, there are different kinds of challenges. You could have broken hard, unfair hard or deceptive hard. I don't mind a good challenge but, paying the Guardian felt like the class was broken and useless. That was early levels though, I just couldn't take it anymore. After lvl 22 I've had enough.

You have to be very careful with that statement. They are mutually exclusive. People who smoke cigarettes will always invent any excuse they can think of to justify thier addiction. Fun and addiction can coexist. Since fun is subjective enough to debate this forever, it is sometimes difficult and sometimes impossible for certain individual's brains to be able to identify the two as multually exclusive. Some people are more susceptible to addictive behaviors. If you want to dive into conspiracy thoeries; remember that addictive behaviors are in fact the best consumers.

Thats right. The environment is what shapes human behavior. If you want people to behave differently, the game design has to be molded to fit a certain gaming experience. However, you must remember that in a subscription based model, having fun is detrimental to the overall experience. Being addicted is the behavior that desginers want its subscribers to expereince, wether it is fun or not is irrelevant. At the end, you're just 15$ per month to them. Thats what subscription based games are. The character progression system is the perfect fit for a subscription model.

I love this thread. You know why? Because no one figured out why Bioware did this. At lvl 50, end game will be running 4 man flashpoints for most people. In a pick up group, assumung 4 characters with 5 companions; we're looking at 6 upgradable characters per person; which is 24 upgradable characters total. Each boss drops what 1 peice if any? At the end they drop 2 or 3 peices? Think of the grind for a moment. Think of how many times you'll have to run the instances over and over and over again to gear up all those characters. Even for guilds. Although guild groups will be far more organized and loot distribution rules outlined; this still leaves the grind to be very long. Its all about the grind folks. SWTOR endgame is a grind. Or farming. I actually like that one better. Farming. Yea, I farm in video games. I'm a video game farmer.

Twitch based games have different physics and projectile/collision detection systems. It will allow developers to design content with multiple layers of complexity due to additional physics. MMO's will eventually be more action based. The players are already demanding this. We just need a development studio to design an engine to handle hundreds or thousands of players on screen with those types of physics.

A healing ability can heal 2 types of damage. Avoidable (patch player mistake). Unavoidable (designer mechanic). The avoidable type makes healing optional. The unavoidable type makes healing necessary. Designers can use a mix of both but, I advocate all damage should be avoidable. The whole idea of removing the tank and healer role is to remove the necessity of these roles so that all players regardless of class can participate in all content.

How is it bad? Wow, where do I start? -Chat channels spamming for tanks and healers -Time in game spent looking for roles instead of other players -Tanks least played class -Healers interact with an interface instead of 3D world -Tank dies, group fails -Healer dies, group might fail but, usually does When someone says people love to heal; I say they love to support. Healing is an uninnovative and primitive way to support other players. Think about it, you're clicking on a 2 dimensional box in the corner of your screen watching red bars moving left and right. Players say they love to tank; I say they love to control. Tanks control the NPC's and protect other players. The threat mechanic is what enables them to do this. Control is not isolated to threat. A stun and a snare is also a form of control.

The Trinity model is still a zerg fest. The only difference is you need a tank to soak the damage or else the boss kills everyone. You need the healer to heal the tank or else the tank dies. Without a tank, the healer is optional and no longer necessary. If threat mechanics still exist, players will have to play hot potato with aggro and use abilities that allows them to change positioning. If threat doesn't exist then there will be layers of complexity and synergy we haven't seen yet. Players will have to use thier abilities in synergy to defeat the boss. Enviromental dynamics also comes to mind.

You call it a zerg fest as if the trinity system is any different. Without a tank and healer, each player is responsible for themselves. In addition, poistioning now becomes extremely important if you want boss fights to be challenging. This means everyone will HAVE to be aware of thier surroundings at all times. You can add multiple layers of complexity and encourage team work. Class 1 uses an ability that enhances the power or helps Class 2. Example: Class 1 force pushes Class 2 towards the boss for an increase in charge damage. Class 1 pulls Class 2 to save his life. Class 1 creates a portal for Class 2 to walk through. Class 1 errects a rock from under the ground to create cover for Class 2. I can keep going...

As appose what? DPS the boss as fast as you can beofre it kills the tank or the healer falls into a hole? Funny how when the tank or healer is an idiot and dies the whole group is dead. In a non trinity system, we'll just keep going without them. Sure it'll be much more difficult when shorthanded but, at least we'll be able to keep playing and not call a wipe or in TOR's case; EXIT AREA. LOL EXIT AREA GUYS THE TANK DIED!

Not true. The very existance of the tank role requires a healer. Eliminate the tank and the healer is also gone. Make the damge avoidable and healers are no longer dedicated. You can replace the entire healing class by giving everyone a potion. I never understood why a someone has to babysit someone elses health bar. If players had to manage thier own health bars, errors could not be covered up and you'd have a much easier time seeing who the weakest links are just by seeing who keeps dying.

Thats not how it feels at all. The "role" concept was designed to force people to group together. If the tank fails, the group will fail. If the tank doesn't show up, the group can't play. If the tank's gear is crap, the group will fail. If the tank doesn't pull correctly, the group will fail. So much responsibility and weight on 1 role. Ever wonder why no one plays a tank? This isn't rocket science dude. The trinity model is old, outdated and just plain terrible at encouraging teamwork. Period.

You'd think we'd have choices? Like choices in appearance of gear, ship, interior decorations? Nope. This is an MMO, there is no choice. You just take what they feed you and like it.

Not really. All you need is different designers with different ideas. The trinity model isn't hard coded into the game. The enviroment and NPC system designers could trash the tank and healer model in a single patch. You can design a boss enounter without needing a tank. This is not complicated. You can desgin NPC damage to be avoidable thus removing the need for a healer. This is not complicated. You can retool the class tool box with different skills and reblanace them. The only thing you really need are different people with new ideas. Copying and pasting systems that already exist from other games is getting old.

I'm playing a Jedi Guardian in PVP. Does it get better or worse? At lvl 22 I feel this class is so gimp and boring that I feel like tossing it out completely. I can get medals by guarding people and using taunt but, those mechanics are so boring I would rather play duck hunt on the NES without the gun. Be honest, does it actually get any better?

Or lazy. When you have bureaucrats forcing the release of an incomplete game, that doesn't help either.

Decent? In 1998 Quake 2 was released and the textures were 256 x 256. I'm sure TOR is using a higher resolution that that but, still, I expect 2k x 2k resolution by now. This is 2012 not 1998. My video card's bandwidth pipe is over 75 times faster than the 3DFX Voodoo 2; which is what I was using in 1998.

Then you my friend are a star. I can get Battlefield 3 running with anti-ailaising in Directx 11 with full details at a smooth 60 FPS. TOR? Forget it. I find the game running badly with shadows OFF nevermind ON!

Dude. Come on. The texture quality in this game is like 1998 quality. Turn shadow quality to max and my system is begging me to shut it down. There are FPS spikes, jitters and lag. Mix that with ability delay/animation bugs and its just one whole barrel of monkies.

You know what's even more puzzling? The voice acting system combined with the daily quest system. Seriously, who invented this? Do you think people won't space bar through that after the second time? What were these developers thinking?

I think Bioware made it perfectly clear that innovation and creativity aren't even considered in thier development process. I wouldn't expect anything that hasn't been done before coming from them.

Hving fun is no longer important when there are gear grinds and valor grinds. You have to win as fast as possible to get all the best stuff. Fun? No such thing. Thats not important. Most people know for a fact that video games aren't supposed to be fun.