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TOR's Sense of Adventure


JediMasterShake

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Do you ever feel like you're on an adventure?

 

I'm guessing at some point in this game we all do. But in other games, if you took a wrong turn into a different zone, or took a boat/plane/etc to another part of the world, I very often felt like I was exploring, on an adventure.

 

I know TOR is a different game, and I think it tries to make you feel the adventure through the story, and for me it works sometimes (though not very often).... but my real gripe is that I never ever feel like I am exploring the game world or on an adventure.

 

I feel like I am following this path that has been laid out for me. And while that path has lots of bells and whistles and story... I think one of the greatest qualities of MMOs is that there's this enormous game world to explore and get lost in.

 

I think the "story pillar" took a bit of the luster off the exploration pillar in TOR.

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Do you ever feel like you're on an adventure?

Constantly.

 

Let me say that there are things I dislike about the game, the UI being my primary complaint, but call me a fanboi if you must - I (as a 45 Trooper) have yet to not feel like I am on an epic adventure. That feeling may wane with alts of course.

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Yes, I'm constantly on an adventure to the toilet to puke everytime something doesn't work in this game, like the gathering nodes or the fact that I STILL CANNOT SPEAK WITH MY COMPANION, after submitting I don't know how many tickets and them all closing. Edited by DarthSublimitas
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Constantly.

 

Let me say that there are things I dislike about the game, the UI being my primary complaint, but call me a fanboi if you must - I (as a 45 Trooper) have yet to not feel like I am on an epic adventure. That feeling may wane with alts of course.

 

So let me ask it in a different way, because I think I may have an idea of what an "adventure" is in my head, but it may not be the same as yours.

 

How often are you playing the game, unsure of what is about to happen next - with that feeling in your stomach like something bad might happen...

 

I get a quest, I do the stuff, I go back and enter the story, then there might be some surprises, but after a few rounds of it, you know exactly what to expect. There's a 25% chance I'm going to piss this guy off and he's going to turn into an elite and we're going to fight. That's totally cool and a great effort at trying to introduce adventure into the game.

 

But when I'm not out in the wilderness of the game... it doesn't feel the same to me. I'm always looking for this quality in games - the feeling of being on an adventure out in the game world. And TOR just doesn't give that to me.

 

I think I probably do have a different interpretation of adventure than some though.

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Yeah, because bugs never happened in any game before in the history of games, so that's a justified response, totally.

 

But, yes, as a matter of a fact most of the time I do feel like I am on an adventure, whether it is leveling my Bounty Hunter or my Sith Warrior both of which I am highly enjoying, for me the story driven element has been exactly what has been missing from MMO's and for it's part is giving me a more RPG feel to my MMORPG.

 

That being said, I'd like to see some more exploring, but I am very happy with the experience I've been sold overall and I see no reason that I'll stop being a subscriber anytime soon.

 

Time will tell how well Bioware handles the game in the upcoming future and how happy I remain, but as of right now, on the whole, I'm happy with the game I have and excited to see where it goes.

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I can definitely relate to where you're coming from. I feel like I'm going to be punished for going off the beaten path. At the very least, I'm going to have to double back on myself and go to the "correct" area so that I can do those quests to unlock the quests in the areas I've explored. You are punished by wasting gigantic amounts of time when you go off and explore on your own.

 

Also, the game world is strangely closed off. Yes, planets like Hoth and Tat are quite big, but there are so many obstacles and cliffs and walls and random objects sticking out of the ground. It's quite difficult just to explore when there are so many arbitrary walls cutting you off. Clausterphobic is the word I'm looking for. O.o

 

Some how, they forgot it was an mmo they were designing for and not a single player KOTOR 3. This applies to the ambience of the worlds and the placement of the mobs, too.

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I feel TOR is wayyyyyyy too linear to have any sense of adventure. This is a problem common in most newer BW games, but it is even more apparent in an MMO.

 

The story is fantastic, however, so even the linearity isn't too troublesome. I will confess I go into a BioWare game expecting to "play the story" rather than "be a character" - they are like the FF series in that aspect.

 

Edit: I have never once felt in this game the way I felt every time I went through Rathe Mountains in vanilla EQ - that a wrong turn would be seriously ill-advised, and that each hill I crested could be dangerous. A big part of the problem is lack of a real death penalty, but it goes deeper than that. The real issue is that the entire game feels "explored" and that I am walking in someone else's footprints.

 

Edit 2: I just once want a modern MMO to make me feel when I d/c'd in Lower Guk and had to find my way out on my own because my bind point was on a different continent.

 

That is FEAR right there.

Edited by Bekkal
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It's probably the planet as a zone system that gives that feeling.

It's not like you can accidentaly take a wrong turn on Tatooine and end up on Corellia, and the chance of you flying to a wrong planet are practically zero.

 

You can still explore, but the way it's set up, the signposts are so clear that it's practically impossible to get lost.

That's the main difference as far as exploration goes, for me.

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I have never been an explorer, so the story is really what I have to focus on.

 

I have to say as a hardcore gamer (not touting..I just play a lot of games) I tend to skip most off the main story conversations, only to find myself regretting it when something cool actually happens.

 

The main story keeps me interested enough to WANT to keep plugging along, instead of feeling like I have to or am compelled to. I don't feel like I'm missing out by not being able to wander around, when it boils right down to it for me the only reason I ever DID wander around in other MMO's was to search for resource nodes (which, yay for Tradeskills being generally automated), or because I got lost..All I wanted to do was to get where I was going at the end of the day though.

 

I DO have to say that some maps are haphazardly designed though, going "as the crow flies" doesn't always work and can create irritation when I take a wrong turn, fight through 5 groups of guys, and am forced to turn around and fight through the same groups of guys because I hit a dead-end.

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I can definitely relate to where you're coming from. I feel like I'm going to be punished for going off the beaten path. At the very least, I'm going to have to double back on myself and go to the "correct" area so that I can do those quests to unlock the quests in the areas I've explored. You are punished by wasting gigantic amounts of time when you go off and explore on your own.

 

Also, the game world is strangely closed off. Yes, planets like Hoth and Tat are quite big, but there are so many obstacles and cliffs and walls and random objects sticking out of the ground. It's quite difficult just to explore when there are so many arbitrary walls cutting you off. Clausterphobic is the word I'm looking for. O.o

 

Some how, they forgot it was an mmo they were designing for and not a single player KOTOR 3. This applies to the ambience of the worlds and the placement of the mobs, too.

 

Yep. This is what I'm talking about.

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So let me ask it in a different way, because I think I may have an idea of what an "adventure" is in my head, but it may not be the same as yours.

 

How often are you playing the game, unsure of what is about to happen next - with that feeling in your stomach like something bad might happen...

 

I get a quest, I do the stuff, I go back and enter the story, then there might be some surprises, but after a few rounds of it, you know exactly what to expect. There's a 25% chance I'm going to piss this guy off and he's going to turn into an elite and we're going to fight. That's totally cool and a great effort at trying to introduce adventure into the game.

 

But when I'm not out in the wilderness of the game... it doesn't feel the same to me. I'm always looking for this quality in games - the feeling of being on an adventure out in the game world. And TOR just doesn't give that to me.

 

I think I probably do have a different interpretation of adventure than some though.

 

I think of it like a movie. Is the good guy going to win? Yup! Is that room he is going into a trap? Sure!

 

It doesn't prevent me from enjoying Die Hard 27, and it isn't something that prevents me from enjoying SWTOR. In fact, in a weird way I enjoy it more because I get that "this is kind of like a movie" feeling when I know (but my character is apparently oblivious) that I am walking into a trap or something.

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