monkeydud Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 (edited) Hello all I have decided after (umm however many days since launch) to write a brief guide that I hope will help people enjoy the game more. So with out further ado... SETTINGS (I am aware some of these MAY be on as default so bear with me) Hit ESC>Options>Preferences to access these. Under CONTROLS>GENERAL tick the following []Auto-Loot on Right-Click [] Enable area Loot [] Auto Target closest enemy []Use quickslot on keypress Then DISABLE `request companion to gather`. My reasoning for this is sometimes a resource is half way up an incline or under a bridge etc. In these cases I have found Kaliyo cant get to the node and I just end up standing there twiddling my fingers. It's much easier if you just gather them yourself. With regards to the looting you will save yourself alot of clicking. Its always best to gather everything you can at low levels. Just sell all the vendor junk every now and then or send your companion to sell them if you are feeling lazy and are in a safe spot. At low levels every credit counts. SOUND Now I may get some haters on this BUT after a while the stirring BGM gets a tiny bit old. May I respectfully suggest setting BGM to 0%. Before you log in next time might I suggest: http://www.gaydarradio.com/onair/howToListen http://www.dimensionalradio.net/games.shtml I listen to either of these when playing and they both have some SERIOUS tunes to improve your gaming pleasure. You have not lived unless you have engaged in a full blown lightsaber battle in a Heroic 4 with some serious Dance Music reverberating around your skull USER INTERFACE Again as above tick the following: [] Display player information []Display target information These options add x/x hitpoints and a percentage counter to the health bars. Haven't you always needed the perfect excuse as to why the Gold starred enemy beat you? Now you can say with full authority `ah well I got him down to 5% of his health before he/she/it killed me so I was technically 95% victorious`? QUICKBARS Now this is probably blindingly obvious to any veterans but it's not immediately obvious unless you go looking for it. Tick all the following: Enable Bottom Center,left and right quickslots. Now you can put your offensive abilities on the top center bar, your Debuffs on the bottom center bar, your buffs on the left bar and your medpacs/stims on the right bar. (Well it works for me but each to their own) When you are happy with the set up LOCK the quickslots. You have not learnt the meaning of the word `frustration` until you have accidentally dragged your best AOE attack OFF the quickbar mid fight with a Boss. Oh and for all you ranged types (ie smuggler/agent) I would tick the [] Enable cover bar. CONVERSATION Tick [] Show conversation alignment gain. Any KOTOR or Jade Empire veterans will be familiar with this system of becoming progressively more Saintly/Evil. For those of you new to this idea basically certain moral choices you make in conversations will push you further towards one side of the Force. There are some peices of equipment such as Light Sabers that require you to be of a certain Light or Dark rank in order to use them. Obviously if you wish to remain `Neutral` that is also a valid choice. Either way it is always good to know which way the wind is blowing so to speak. While I'm on the subject there are certain companions that may react negatively to your choices. This can lead to a loss of companion `affection`. The solution suggested by a Guild mate is dismissing your companion (or send them crafting) if you are having a conversation of this nature. Don't forget you can always hit `ESC` to quit and restart a conversation. TOOLTIP Basically tick all the options here. You can see a detailed view of the item you are highlighting (especially useful when viewing a modifiable weapon etc). Most importantly you can see what effect it will have on your companions stats. Remember to equip them with the best you can get cos they have feelings too. MAP [] Enable magnifying glass on world map. []Map fades while moving Super useful if you are an old fart like me with dodgy vision and no sense of direction GRAPHICS Now I have seen a few posts about graphics performance. Personally I think the Hero Engine was designed by sadists and then tweaked by Lucifer. I have a decentish setup (AMD Athlon 64x2 4000+, 3GB memory and a spanky new NVIDIA 5500 GTX Tdi card). And yes graphic snobs I `can run Crysis in ooooh pretty mode` The settings I would suggest if you are having trouble and would like to play in `Non-jerky O-Vision` Resolution 1152x864 Enable conversation depth of field. (Nice FX and only takes place when static). Set Textures,Shaders and Antialias to LOW. Charatcter detail to High then Texture anisotropy an Shadow quality to LOW. Lastly (as these seem to be the GPU killers) slide Grass and trees to 0%. Since launch the 0% option on grass seems to have gone from `muddy pixellated` to SOME detail so I am guessing they have optimised the Engine somewhat. Now this may not look super sparkly but it is acceptable, doesn't look horribly ugly and allows me to run round with smooth performance to my hearts content. True I do lag a little on the Fleet or in heavily populated cities but its PLAYABLE 99% of the time. SOCIAL Tick: []Show Sith Corruption []Allow access to same class story area Now these two boxes are obviously only important if: A) You are being a mean spirited nasty ol` Sith and are going for the `Full Palpatine` look on your character. B) You actually WANT to group with another {insert character class} and have co-operative conversations with NPC`s. Remember Kids SW:TOR is an MMO and it's fun to share heroics and missions. Plus you get spanky social points and better loot drops. Lastly (for now) go to KEYBINDS and look for `Target nearest enemy` now set this as TAB. For some bizarre reason this is bound to `Target next enemy` as default. Because I REALLY want to target that enemy 20 ft away mid fight and not the Rebel Slave attempting to bash my head in with a shovel... Now as I woke up a t 4.30 am my brain has turned to mush. I do intend to expand upon this with some general gameplay tips. Hope at least one person finds this useful. Edited March 17, 2012 by monkeydud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeydud Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 (edited) Well 94 people have read this and apparently NO-ONE has anything to say. Hmm... Well I have all this stuff sitting there in my head so here it is. So in no particular order a few tips with the disclaimer of `You probably or possibly already know this` ENEMY GO `BOOM` HUH HUH.. In the grand tradition of games since time immemorial (or something) the enemies in this game show an almost incredible amount of tactical awareness. Fresh from Sith/Republic intelligence training some have decided on a plan of action bordering on genius. It is known as the `hey lads lets all hang around this highly volatile container` method. Should you happen to see one of these (they look like chemical containers and have a nifty pulsing red X to identify them) feel free to Right Click it. This can be done by ranged OR melee characters from a distance. Now sit back and chuckle quietly to yourself as they all burst into flames/get flash frozen in (Carbonite?) or choke on posionous chemicals. Fun for all the Family COMBAT ETIQUETTE When grouping there are two styles I have seen (both equally valid I guess) of taking down the mobs. 1. Charge into the middle of a big group of enemies and hope that your `mad gaming skillz/The Force/My Aw3som3 armor` will protect you and not really pay attention to what the rest of the team are doing/the state of their health. 2. When you form a team decide who is going to be the `puller`. That person then RIGHT clicks his potential victim and marks him with one of the nifty targeting icons. This is usually best done by a ranged character who can soften them up with a nice grenade type AOE attack. I personally mouse click the victim so I am sure of my target as `TAB` can sometimes be a bit unpredictable. When they are all dead have a quick breather, use your self heal and rinse and repeat. Oh and loot their still cooling corpses of course This of course is up to individual choice. But honestly I am prone to quit a group if some mad man is charging round at 25% helath aggroing all and sundry and I am then calmly informed by the game `that I can't use that ability (self heal) in combat...` EXPLORE,EXPLORE,EXPLORE... One thing about SW:TOR is the the planets are kind of BIG and realistic. This means that just because you can see the quest marker you can't always just walk to it in a straight line. Odds are a great big mountain/1000 ft drop may be in your way. The best thing to do if you want to get there is follow the yellow paths on the map. With a bit of backtracking thrown in you will usually get there. On the flip side there are lots of little nooks and crannys and you never know what you may find if you go off the beaten track. I am a great one for seeing a sheer drop down a cliff and merrily jumping down it in the hopes I will get down in one peice. Take your time on the planets. Theres really no burning hurry to get to the next one cos guess what? It's another planet and more than likely bigger than this one. If you look around there are lots of lovely `Gold Star` Elite type enemies/Named Enemies just begging to be releived of that lovely Blue or Purple item. CRATFY LITTLE DEVIL Now I am not ashamed to say that I didn't know this to start with. I thought on my first toon what a horrid lot of recipes I knew and wondered when I would learn more... Eventually I found out that if you go to the fleet then you can learn improved and new recipes from your trainer. This seems to be as your skill improves by mulitiples of 20-50 points. (Open the crew skills window and check the little numbers on the bar next to it). This only applies to the actual CRAFTING skill such as Artifice and not the mission skills such as Underworld trading or Treasure Hunting. Those will only give you better rewards as you send your companions on the missions. Its worth noting that once you level these the default level will change and give you access to grade 2 rewards etc. You can always use the drop down menu and change it back to the lower levels if you still need grade 1 materials for your crafting. REVERSE ENGINEER FTW Going with the crafting theme still: When you learn a recipe it is normally a GREEN recipe. When you make the item it is a good idea to make as many copies as possible (you can stack up to 5 work orders in the window at a time) When they are complete go to your inventory and click the `reverse engineer` text in the top right of the window. Anything that you CAN'T reverse engineer will be grayed out in your inventory. Now point the little `wand` (soldering iron??) at the item you want and RIGHT click it. To start with you will disassemble the item and probably get some crafting materials back. Eventually though you should learn a BLUE version of the same recipe. This will have a slight stat increase over the previous version. Now start making these and reverse engineering them and eventually you will learn a PURPLE version of that recipe which will be significantly better again. I honestly cannot say what the numbers are on upgrading your recipes. Some seem to happen really fast for me. On my Imperial agent I tried for AGES to get a purple version (um sorry PURPLE version) of a particualr stim until I finally learnt it. MONEY SAVING TIPS When you get quest rewards ALWAYS choose `planet X` commendations. The ONLY exception is if the reward is a MODIFIABLE peice of armour or weapon that can replace your vanilla equipment. The `commendation reward` vendors offer significantly better equipment than the cash vendors. You will be astonished how fast these build up. Quite a few enemies drop commendations (even faster when you are grouping). As it stands I am roughly 1/3 of the way through Dromund Kaas on my level 15. I have so far been able to buy a modifiable light saber for me and two VERY powerful modifiable blasters for my companion. This has cost me 42 commendations so far. DO NOT buy armor or weapons from vendors. You will kick yourself if you do..trust me. Again the exception being if its MODIFIABLE and replaces a vanilla item. There are plenty of enemies who drop MUCH better stuff than you can buy. At lower levels you will need EVERY credit to upgrade your powers and expand your inventory space. There is nothing worse than levelling up and then going `D'oh I cant afford `awesome new power x` LEAVING FOR PASTURES NEW? On the subject of commendations: Before you jump on that shuttle check you don't have any spare. If you do you can buy lockboxes for a minimum of 2 commendations that hold a random peice of equipment. Sometimes these are no use but you can always sell them. I have occasionally got a VERY nice peice of armor that is much better than what I have. WHY HELLO, NICE TO MEET YOU As I said above I have 42 commendations so far. This is mainly due to partying with people ALL day long. Heroic 2 and 4 missions give you 3 commendations as rewards. The others came purley as normal drops. The rate of Blue item and commendation drops seems to be significantly higher when you are in a party. Sometimes I wasn't even nessecarily on the missons or eligible for them (ie Heroics I had already done that day). But you know what ? Just being backup is a blast and I got lots of lovely loot as well. Well I think thats about it. Again I hope someone finds this helpful... (pretty please someone SAY something about this post....) Edited March 17, 2012 by monkeydud umm i dont know... is this a test? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrickTheLama Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haliy Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Alright, i guess i can be the first to contribute. The reason I think nobody was posting before was because the first section mainly talked about the settings & options you can setup before actually playing the game. Now that you have posted something about the gameplay, this is where other players can actually say what you could possibly correct or say yes, it's absolutely wonderful. COMBAT ETIQUETTE section 1. Charge into the middle of a big group of enemies and hope that your `mad gaming skillz/The Force/My Aw3som3 armor` will protect you and not really pay attention to what the rest of the team are doing/the state of their health. For these groups of individuals, i would point out that yes, however effective... They should have a reasonable order to kill the mobs. weak/regular > strong > elite > champion. Focusing on this order when in these groups will have a greater success rate and winning rather than just going after the champion first and letting all the other mobs beat on the tank or healer. After all, the less things beating on everyone makes the job of who ever is healing just that much easier. 2. When you form a team decide who is going to be the `puller`. That person then RIGHT clicks his potential victim and marks him with one of the nifty targeting icons. This is usually best done by a ranged character who can soften them up with a nice grenade type AOE attack. the "icons" are usually put up not specifically for the "puller" but instead put up as CC targets and kill order. Normally (at least my experience) you would designate CC (crowd control) players with a certian icon so they know what they need to CC. If you have more than one person in your group that can cc, then each of those players would have a separate designated icon. They would be the ones that do the pull and then the tank picks up the remaining group keeping them away from the cc'd mobs while the DPS in the group know what to attack in what order instead of having everyone on separate mobs making the tanks job 10x harder than what it should be. EXPLORE,EXPLORE,EXPLORE... section I would add in this section that while they are exploring, make sure to remember to click on the terminals which let them fast travel to that point and grab any taxi locations that they see. This lets them travel sooooooo much faster to each point they need in the map. Many times have i grouped of members that have forgotten to click on these and then they end up having to run or use their speeder back instead of just calling on their transport to bring them where they need on the planet. MONEY SAVING TIPS section Totally agree about the not spending any credits you have on any weapons & armor because of the amount of commendations you get from the quests and random drops from mobs during the quests however, they do not need to spend them while they are on the planet. There are vendors in the fleet that sell the same commendation items that the planet commendation vendors sell. If they forget to pick something up from the planet, they always have the option to pick it up at the fleet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeydud Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 I was asked for an idea re my abilities and where I place them. so heres a link to my set up as it is now. http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t312/monkey1969_photo/demoscreen.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haliy Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I was asked for an idea re my abilities and where I place them. so heres a link to my set up as it is now. http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t312/monkey1969_photo/demoscreen.jpg Screenie is fine but its dependent on class specific. Different people will have a different setup on how they feel comfortable with how they setup their actions. Also, different classes will have a lot more actions to use compared to others. some people will say use interrupts grouped together so you have easy access and know exactly where they are where others will keybind the most used actions like myself. your screenie shows that your top row showing "rage builders/cripples and slows, then AOE". Now show me on a healers bar where you would have these... See my point? Myself playing my Sentinel, I can relate to your Marauder since we have identical attacks however, my bars are setup different than yours. It's all dependent on how others feel where they want to put things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeydud Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 I appreciate your replies. Nice to know I`m doing my bit as it were. With regards to the screen that was for a Sith Juggernaut who was just asking me alot of questions about my setup, I figured it was easier to post a screen shot than trying to communicate it all via /whisper while running around Lord Grathans Estate.. Anyhoo see ya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWiseRabbit Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 thanks for the tips. as a casual player theres a lot in your thread that helped:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mashugana Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Very helpful - thanks for the all the work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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