AJediKnight Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I'm sorry, but I really do hate most of TOR. At the moment, what bothers me the most is the leveling, particularly from 40-50, although I have a bag of nitpicks that you could stuff skyscraper into (skill bloat, anyone? Why have I run out of space on my bars for abilities? Why does my class need like 20 different damaging attacks? I mean, Jesus, Juggernauts don't need 'a look' right now -- they need a complete revamp. The game launched with a class that immediately needed to be completely reworked from the bottom up! But, I digress, on with the complaining). I've been playing MMORPGs since the days of UO, and have seen my share of slogs, but I don't think anything quite rivals the pain of leveling in TOR. And it's not because it's particularly long or difficult -- I mean, lord knows I have seen worse; seen questless grinding at its most absurd. But the environments and the monsters and the pulls are just so uninspired, that I just don't know what to make of it any more. And slapping dialogue onto what basically amounts to 'go kill 10 space aliens and then return to me for a prize' doesn't improve that tired formula -- it just slows it down. What's worse is, I simply don't care. I don't care about being force-fed more C-movie-grade story; I don't care about seeing another uninspired planet; and I really don't care about hitting endgame so I can mindlessly rove through the same three WZs I've been plunked into for the last 45 levels just so I can acquire gear that will be outdated in 4 weeks. But, again, it's the leveling arc that's at the root of this matter for me. It is the leveling arc that forms the core of the game's content, and it is where TOR falls totally flat. What was tiresome and predictable on Tatooine boils over into ridiculous and loathesome by the time you hit Hoth and Belsavis. I thought that Alderaan had tons of wide-open, pointless 'dead space,' but so far nothing can rival Hoth in this regard. The people who blasted TOR after seeing the size of Korriban or Hutta were wrong -- TOR does indeed have its wide open spaces -- but when there is no practical purpose to 90% of this space, why even have it at all? I keep going back to other modern games I have played that had open worlds -- WoW, LotRO, Rift -- and thinking about how they managed the space in their zones. IE, the zones might have actually been smaller a lot of the time (not always, though), but the structure of these zones was managed a hell of a lot better. I could move from a forest to a marsh to a seashore, and each place had its own unique look and feel. In TOR, so, so, SO MUCH of each planet looks exactly like the rest of it. The city worlds aside (because that's just too easy), look at a planet like Alderaan. I mean, isn't Alderaan a world kind of like Earth? IE, shouldn't there be more going on in different parts of than just A) Snow, B) Mountains, and C) Whoops, we forgot to add more snow!...? Couldn't there be like... swampy areas... or tropical beaches? Because while the 'one environment for an entire planet' concept might work for more iconic places like Hoth and Tat, I just don't think it flies elsewhere. It turns the environments into places you just want to escape. Belsavis feels like a friggin' prison, not because of any awesome design decisions on the part of developers, but because you're trapped there for like 6 hours and all you have to look at is goofy trees and ice rock walls. I dunno. This has turned into a rant... or I guess it was a rant all along. There's nothing that can be done about any of this, of course. I mean, how could they fix any of this? But that doesn't mean that I have to agree with the way TOR is put together, either, or be happy about it, or pretend like it works for me. It just doesn't. I don't know what else to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddzball Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 FUnny i just wrote a post kinda like yours. So, been playing really since June i think. SO i knew what I was getting into. But considering the last MMO I played was Fallen Earth this game was a nice change of pace. Less twitch and more button mashing if you get my drift. I probably shouldnt have played so much in beta as I burnt myself out a bit before launch, but I'll just deal with that when I decide to roll republic. I will say that everything this game has been fun for me. I'm older, and slow to play and level. I am at lvl 49 right now, just taking my time getting pvp rewards so i can get my 5 bags when i hit 50. A few things have disappointed me though. I wont go into the specifics because it has been talked to death but space combat? Blech. I could see potential if we had coop space combat, and who knows, maybe some day, but as it stands right now I fall alsleep playing it. Same old same old, quests. I was really hoping this game could come up with a more interesting formula for questing then its previous ilk. While voice acting helps to dull the pain of it somewhat, if I see another kill x mob quest or find and use clicky quest, i swear I'm going to puke. There are examples of games that broke this mold, sadly they never grew big enought o be anything but a cult following. Companions. I just find it annoying that we cant really customize our companions as much as our main character. Once you get to endgame you start seeing the same Quinn in the same gear running around everywhere. SPeaking of which, character customization. I find it really sad that we seem to have taken a step back in this category compared to other games. Not very many options, and to be honest a lot of the races are just copies of each other with differrent skin color. And who decided Cyborg would be a race? Isnt that just a modified human? Races shouldnt and dont have to be carbon copies. Star Wars has tons of lore and many of the races have very unique skills or talents that could have been reflected in game. Especially if you tied them with crafting skills. Bith for example are great with electronics/designing star ships, and Muun are bankers and good at making money. Ikothari have pre-cognative force abilities at birth, etc etc. They ARENT suppose to be carbon copies, thats what makes Star Wars great. The crafting, since I'm brng it up is pretty much subpar. Its the same old combine X items and get a shirt etc. Not very interesting, and most of the stuff you make is worse then what you can already get with commendations or endgear. I find the UI to be horrible, and even given the developer interview I just dont see it improving much, its not an issue of just moving around like the developers seem to be focusing on, its an issue of poor implementation and funtionality. Why cant i use the filter useable only option? Why cant i filter stuff out of my crafting list I dont have mats for? Or FIlter out things that wont give me a skill gain? The Trade network is a travesty to behold also I might add. SWTORs UI lacks a lot of "Quality of life" things. I wanted to also bring up what I like to call the "Illusion of choice" I will probably make a seperate post concerning it, but I feel I should add it to your list. The basis of it is, if my choices dont have meaningful or significant impacts, then do I really have a choice at all? Is the choice mechanic in the game pretty much just a meter that lets you wear differrent gear? Not since Black Talon/Esseles have I seen a flashpoint where my choice really effects the outcome of the mission in any significant way, with a very few small exceptions. FInally, it upsets me that my friends are leaving. They essentially say they are bored and after you hit level cap there is nothing to do. Once I hit 50 will I feel this way I wonder? Sure there is the gear grind, or rolling alts, but when all the quests except your story are going to be repeats, whats the point? Wehave the PvP gear grind, which to be frank, isnt my thing, and PvP in this game is meaningless anyway in my opinion. And you have operations, but how many times are folks going to be willing to run the same mission over and over again? I guess I'm glad I love Star Wars so much, and there isnt a lot of books or information about this time period, because right now what keeps me playing is learning about the era of the history more than anything else at the moment. But I suppose it is what it is, maybe in a year or so I'll see those coop spaceship battles, or guild ships, or companion customization. *shrugs* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arzhanin Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Hey folks, We do thank people for taking the time out to post about issues and concerns about the game. We do read it, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. That being said, feedback about specific issues should whenever possible be placed into the proper thread already discussing concerns. Here's a couple of suggestions: Leveling experience: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=215297 Worlds and zone concerns: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=299914 You can also find that the Suggestion Box forum is a good place to find and post specific threads with suggestions for improvement: http://www.swtor.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=349 We'll be closing this thread, but do encourage folks to post constructive feedback about the game in future threads. Thanks for your understanding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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