Is Progression in SW:TOR Too Fast?

[BCBull]

I'm asking this because it took 10 months of playing RIFT, and about 5 years of playing WoW to feel like I feel about SW:TOR.

 

As primarily a pvp'r in this game my vertical progression ended 1 1/2 moths ago. I haven't did much PvE, but I hear it's about the same. A few weeks and done.

 

I left WoW for RIFT, and pvp'd only (5 nights a week for 3 years in a world ranked WoW guild will do that to you..) for 10 straight months. Being able to play so many different specs had a lot to do with it, but when I left, there was STILL vertical progression that I had not achieved.

 

So is it just me, or is progression too damn fast for the amount of content we have to work with?

[AndasKastor]

It could very well be that for your playstyle it is too fast.

 

I thought Rift was very fast (played from early start and maxed a character within 2 months - then pretty much waited the next 4 months for my subscription to run out).

 

Star Wars is slower with the my play style. I never PvP and level my main with my wife. We have been playing since early start and are just about to hit 40. I do have a 33, 25, and 11 as alts.

[harpuax]

It is, but Bioware admits this and are working to address this with the next tier. As long as we see improvement in each new level of content, and that content comes at a reasonable pace I am happy.

[BCBull]

It could very well be that for your playstyle it is too fast.

 

I thought Rift was very fast (played from early start and maxed a character within 2 months - then pretty much waited the next 4 months for my subscription to run out).

 

Star Wars is slower with the my play style. I never PvP and level my main with my wife. We have been playing since early start and are just about to hit 40. I do have a 33, 25, and 11 as alts.

 

I hear you. Yeah I have a lot of time on my hands atm. It seems like the game must be played very casually or run the risk of staring at your screen prime time Sunday night...

[Elysith]

I can't talk for PvP because I have not done any.

 

But on the PvE side, I'm quite happy with the current progression rate.

 

I still need to play the story for the trooper, the smuggler, the sorcerer and the agent. I have finished the story for the other classes. So that still yet more PvE content I have not experienced and I've been playing since pre-order phase.

 

Now I'm not a spacebar addict. So I enjoy every moment, I just don't rush frenetically skipping all the content.

 

And once I'm done with all the class stories, I will still have Flashpoints and Operations left that I have mostly avoided for now.

 

And at last if I should be bored with the whole PvE at some point, I would still have PvP left.

Edited March 19, 2012 by Elysith

[MidichIorian]

I played through basically everything on my first char but on the second and so on char, chars I've PvP'ed a lot with, the side-quests havent been worth it. I've been constantly over-leveled due to the high EXP in WZ so it's not worth the time and it's definitely not a challenge when I can run the 4+ heroics on the same planet alone.

[Lt_Latency]

Getting loot should not be the driving force of the game.

 

It needs to be fun without going. ZOMG, I need another purple. For PvP they need a few more warzones.

 

 

I don't get why they don't just make 2 or 3 maps for each game type like FPS games.

[RikHar]

If it takes long they complain. If it takes short time they complain.

 

These forums frequently targeted by Whiners are us!

[Samborino]

It could very well be that for your playstyle it is too fast.

 

I thought Rift was very fast (played from early start and maxed a character within 2 months - then pretty much waited the next 4 months for my subscription to run out).

 

Star Wars is slower with the my play style. I never PvP and level my main with my wife. We have been playing since early start and are just about to hit 40. I do have a 33, 25, and 11 as alts.

 

I beleive you and the OP are talking about two different things. The OP is talking about end game progression, and you are talking about leveling progression.

[BCBull]

I beleive you and the OP are talking about two different things. The OP is talking about end game progression, and you are talking about leveling progression.

 

I was thinking about endgame, but I did say vertical progression, so I think his response was a good one.

 

This game is the questing altaholic dream, but for a person who like to have a main things end in a blink.

[Samborino]

If it takes long they complain. If it takes short time they complain.

 

These forums frequently targeted by Whiners are us!

 

Those are 2 different sets of people complaining. I dont think there should be anything wrong with making a longer end game progression, and then having content for casuals as well. Its a way to appease everyone.

 

Bioware seems to be heading in that direction more for PVE (with hard modes getting harder and nightmare modes getting significantly harder) but for PVP they seem to want to make it easier so people cant compete on an even level and then just compete for rankings (with no gear benefits exceptt for different looking gear). I dont think bioware realizes that whether you PVP or PVE end game is all about gear progression and if people feel like they are at the end of that, there is less incentive for them to log on and want to play simply for rankings. I know there are people out there that will argue until the end that im wrong.

 

But character progression is what keeps mmo's going, not a rank in a ranked warzone. People always want to strive to make their characters better. Casuals will complain that they want things easier / more attainable, then a few months down the road they will be the same ones complaining they have nothing to do becaues bioware actually made it attainable for them. The best mmo's have soomething for everyone, but they make the very pinnacle of gear only attainable to a dedicated few, so everyone always has something to strive for. The sooner bioware gets that the sooner they will be succesful.

[ConradLionhart]

I cannot speak for raiding or PvP because I am still leveling. But leveling is too fast. Only now when I'm level 38, are the planets starting to catch up to me and missions are turning from grey to green.

 

Space missions give too much xp. They should be nerfed.

 

The danger with leveling too fast is that people will instinctively skip them. When they reach level 50 too fast, then they will complain that there is nothing to do, because they skipped a major part of the content that they paid for. The 200 hours of story is then lessened.

 

If you complete all missions, missions should hover between green and yellow. If you do PvP, flashpoints and space missions, missions should be at least green and not turn grey. By showing that there is still something to gain from doing missions, people will keep doing missions.

 

You need to give people a reason to do missions. To level and gain xp. Missions should give more xp than space missions at least. Surely saving a planet should be worth more than randomly shooting spaceships.

[Samborino]

I cannot speak for raiding or PvP because I am still leveling. But leveling is too fast. Only now when I'm level 38, are the planets starting to catch up to me and missions are turning from grey to green.

 

Space missions give too much xp. They should be nerfed.

 

The danger with leveling too fast is that people will instinctively skip them. When they reach level 50 too fast, then they will complain that there is nothing to do, because they skipped a major part of the content that they paid for. The 200 hours of story is then lessened.

 

If you complete all missions, missions should hover between green and yellow. If you do PvP, flashpoints and space missions, missions should be at least green and not turn grey. By showing that there is still something to gain from doing missions, people will keep doing missions.

 

You need to give people a reason to do missions. To level and gain xp. Missions should give more xp than space missions at least. Surely saving a planet should be worth more than randomly shooting spaceships.

The thing is i dont think the 200 hours means you have to do every single planet and bonus series, Its just how long it will take someone to go through their storyline on the different planets and cap out at 50. The game is made so that when you level up a second character there is content that you didnt do.

 

For instance i didnt do many space missions, i didnt do any fp more than once and i skipped a few as well, and i did 0 pvp while leveling. Some of the bonus series are ridiculously long and is like going back and doing a whole other planet (some of them span across 4-5 quest hubs with each one having 5+ quests and some heroics) . For me i didnt do any quests except class quests on alderaan or correllia or quesh, i didnt do the nar shadaa bonus series (on my first toon, did it on my second and it is really long and will easily take you from level 30-32) i only did half of tatooine, and i skipped the level 40 alderaan bonus series, the tatooine bonus series, i only did the first bonus series on Voss (their are three) and i only did the first bonus series on balmorra (there are 2) i didnt do the level 47 bonus series on hoth either (which i heard will take yoou 2 levels easy as well)

 

So the second time through you will have tons of content that you havent done and beable to have a different experience the second time through. The amount of leveling content in this game is incredible, more than any mmo ive ever seen (especially since its all scripted) and each faction has completely different quests. Leveling wise i think this game is fine, some of my friends that played that where new too mmo's thought THIS game was too grindy (least grindy mmo ive ever played) but mmo's probably just werent for them they cant fathom spending 200 hours + to get to the end. So i think it has a perfect balance of grind vs time spent.

[Dianoia]

It's much, much too fast.

 

This game needs a serious XP nerf, the rating system, and more exclusive PvP content at 50.

[Samborino]

I cannot speak for raiding or PvP because I am still leveling. But leveling is too fast. Only now when I'm level 38, are the planets starting to catch up to me and missions are turning from grey to green.

 

Space missions give too much xp. They should be nerfed.

 

The danger with leveling too fast is that people will instinctively skip them. When they reach level 50 too fast, then they will complain that there is nothing to do, because they skipped a major part of the content that they paid for. The 200 hours of story is then lessened.

 

If you complete all missions, missions should hover between green and yellow. If you do PvP, flashpoints and space missions, missions should be at least green and not turn grey. By showing that there is still something to gain from doing missions, people will keep doing missions.

 

You need to give people a reason to do missions. To level and gain xp. Missions should give more xp than space missions at least. Surely saving a planet should be worth more than randomly shooting spaceships.

Also if story isnt a good enough reason to do missions then i dont know what is.

And if you dont like the side quests, you could easily do all the main planet storylines , class storylines, and then bonus series storylines (most of which are incredible, especially liked narshadaa) to get to level 50, especially if you do the bonus objectives for these missions.

 

Although alot of the sidquests dont have deep storylines i still enjoy them, and there are still some good side quest chains with deep storylines scattered throughout the planets. Some of them are funny etc. like the one on balmorra where that species (same as the one in my forum avatar) asks you to go collect meat for him from spiders and is really creepy about it, and what he is using the meat for lol, he cant hide his excitement about eating it.

[Samborino]

It's much, much too fast.

 

This game needs a serious XP nerf, the rating system, and more exclusive PvP content at 50.

 

I think its fine, 200 hours (what it should be if your not skipping dialogue and you are questing etc) could be more like 175 but thats like 7-9 days played time for most people which is acceptable IMO. Especially because it will continue to get longer as more expansions come out etc.

 

I mean personally id like it a bit longer as well, but as for making a game that appeals to a wide market i think they did a pretty good job.

[grunttwice]

I love it. I have a very busy schedule and don't get a lot of time to play, but when I do I still feel rewarded for my time. I love the variety of places you can get xp as well, it allows each person to level their character through their own playstyle.

 

But that's just me.

[RabidPopcorn]

As I've said on some other posts: as long as the rate at which the devs roll out new content is faster than the rate at which we clear it, then the rate at which we clear current content is irrelevant; but can they?

[sjmc]

I dont think bioware realizes that whether you PVP or PVE end game is all about gear progression and if people feel like they are at the end of that, there is less incentive for them to log on and want to play simply for rankings....The best mmo's have soomething for everyone, but they make the very pinnacle of gear only attainable to a dedicated few, so everyone always has something to strive for.

Certainly the "dedicated few" will agree with you on this. If you ask everyone in a hardmode if they think that gear progression is important, you will probably find most of them agreeing that it is.

 

The people that don't think gear progression is important tend not to play gear-progression activities. So you probably don't meet them where you are doing them. Personally, I'm ok with gear progression for top NPC content. I won't do it, but others probably like it.

 

For PVP, I'd like it to be about skill and tactics. I don't see any need for gear progression in PVP. You progress in PVP by killing other players and rising in the rankings.

 

Your rank should not be dependent on what gear you have.

 

That said, you shouldn't get a full set of good gear issued to you at level 50, any more than you get it issued at earlier levels. But it shouldn't be particularly difficult to get (or require PVE grouping).

[KennethHoover]

I must say I thought it was a little fast. But in this day and age of instant gratification I guess we can just count ourselves lucky there's not an Instant Level 50 button as well.

[Harlin]

There's nothing wrong with the normal progression xp. It's the pvp xp that's the problem. It needs to be reduced or taken out of the equation. No xp from pvp would give one plenty of incentive to progress through their story and side quests. I was kinda aggravated when I discovered I leveled past my current questing area because I did some pvp.

 

If no xp from pvp would be considered too harsh then throw an xp reduction buff on the vendors.

Edited March 19, 2012 by Harlin

[Toonces]

There's nothing wrong with the normal progression xp. It's the pvp xp that's the problem. It needs to be reduced or taken out of the equation. No xp from pvp would give one plenty of incentive to progress through their story and side quests. I was kinda aggravated when I discovered I leveled past my current questing area because I did some pvp.

 

If no xp from pvp would be considered to harsh then throw an xp reduction buff on the vendors.

 

No, absolutely not, this is the only thing that would make me leave the game at this point. I don't enjoy PvE much, never really have, and for every character but my first one (and on him too, but I did go through the story more) I have leveled almost exclusively through PvP.

 

Want to throw a debuff on a vendor? Sure, that's a great idea actually, but do not nerf my pvp xp. I agree with you though, the current rate of PvE xp seems perfect for the content we have.