MMO vets what do you think Of Sw TOR

[Anbokr]

SWTOR is the best MMO I have played at launch from all the past ones I've played (WoW, rift, guild wars, etc...). I like the class balance, the leveling is rewarding; the endgame needs some work but ranked PvP should make PvP more lasting/fun and I like the style of Bioware's boss fights--many are interesting and unique, but simple at the same time. If 1.2 introduces more challenging, fun bosses, great!

[Zekeiele]

Nothing will ever compare to Ultima Online pre trammel imo. But...since we will never have that again, WoW is boring atm. SWTOR is shiny and new. If they can fix all their performance issues/pvp issues in 1.2? Everyone might ignore the pandas.

 

1.2 better be good though...

 

Don't get me started on UO...I would still be playing that game crappy graphics and all..Baja server 5x gm archer/Mage 90/20/100...loved going to rat valley in bone armor fishing griefers...ahh the good old days..I still curse the unknown idiot that listened to the QQ and decided trammel was the answer.

[Madwooki]

Swtor in its current form is a solid 1 player experience easily released for ps3 or xbox.

For a MMO with the time and money spent it is subpar at best. Pve is acceptable and pvp is below substandard.

[Zulex]

Having played alot of MMOs since 2003, SWTOR is a dull experience with a team of designers who just are not forward thinking enough.

 

Take a look at Guild Wars 2(for example). World vs World combat, where the actual rewards are SERVER wide - not gear, or silly coms/medals. Crafting, questing, etc all get a 5% stat bonus(or something like that) if your server wins the battle.

 

SWTORs clunky design, cluttered UIs and the running joke that is/was Ilum kind of shows just how wrong these guys have got it.

 

Agree and cant wait for GW2

[Grethore]

I've actually enjoyed it very much. Played WoW for 6 years? (Was it really THAT long?) I like SW TOR, it's different and actually has a story while questing, even if it still has that "go kill x number of these, gather x number of those" aspects. Don't think you can fully get away from that in an MMO tbh.

 

The biggest problem I see, is with the players themselves. Not entirely in a bad way...just a mindset that's not right for this game. For far too long, every MMO was ALL about leveling as fast as possible and getting to end game pronto! And alts? Forget about alts and everything else until you get one toon to max level. And that there is where the problem is from what I can see. Once you get to end game and complete everything you set out to do, most people don't like to start all over from scratch again. I honestly think it's better if you have a few characters you alternate between and keep fairly close in level. This is especially true if it's different play styles, IE Jedi guardian and a Sith Sorc. This changes the pace every time you switch toons, and helps keep things fresh. I have 8 toons right now, all on one server, 6 rep 2 Imp. I get to play both sides of the coin, and it makes it really fun to be able to switch to a opposite faction toon and hunt down friends and that pesky nerfherder that was bragging all last match.

 

The only real problems I see, for PvP is there are only 3 warzones. Other than that, the 3 that are there are very fun. And yes even Huttball can be fun. The other is the over reliance on stuns, (or Mezz's) and it's irregularly might not function resolve. Knockbacks, slows and snares I've fine with, but the loss of ALL player control, to the extent it is right now, is NOT fun. I mean, WZ can be worthwhile, give good XP and credits, which then gives access to some decent gear while you are leveling up. Toss in a random chance to get a recipe in your daily/weekly goodie bag, and that might help. Get resolve working 100%, and that might help. The one thing I REALLY like about SWTOR is in WZ, you can fairly adequately fight someone 10, 20 levels higher than you and the result isn't always guaranteed. I've given my share of hell to players higher level than me, and taken my fair share as well. And THAT is what makes it more fun. The below 50 WZ bracket sounds like it's far more fun than the 50 level, which is where I get the impression that gear starts to be a far greater difference. Maybe that is part of the problem? I hear more complaints about the 50 bracket than the non50 bracket. I wonder why?

 

All in all, it's a young game yet. It's not WoW or anything else despite what some claim. ALL MMO's share roots that are common to all others, that's part of the genre. And yes, more content IS needed, a LOT more, along with a good amount of changes and fixes, but for only being what 4 months old now, it's pretty good. BW just HAS TO stay on the ball and get good things flowing out regularly.

[QuiJonPed]

About 4 years in SWG (up to the NGE).

 

Six years and counting in EVE (will probably go back to EVE full time).

 

SW:ToR:

 

The single player story is great, but then I was lucky and experienced the awesome Imperial Agent tale. My one criticism was that by doing the Space missions and PVPing from level 10, I made most of my quest content grey. I dinged 50 either on Hoth or shortly after I landed on Belsavis. Stuff happens, my choice however inadvertant it was.

 

Space PVE. Dull. Oh great, press and hold the mouse button. Spam missles when needed. SWG made the mistakle of trying to do Star Wars without any form of Space combat. They rectified that with JTL, but it took them too long. I would hope that BW review teh Space on Rails approach.

 

PVP. Three battlegrounds needs to be expanded upon quickly. You have devs from WAR, use their experience as WAR had some terrific battlegrounds. Constant pops of Huttball is just simply not fun.

 

Open World PVP. Terrible. Again you have devs from WAR, so use their experience. Set some Open World objectives like bases (read: Keeps) which you need to assault using siege weapons (read: Walkers, bombers) a la WAR.

 

The one thing we don't want from WAR devs were the cack handed approaches to balance. Oh wai...

Edited March 28, 2012 by QuiJonPed

[Knockerz]

I played a lot of different games and many mmorpgs. In all honesty, I'm on way out of mmorpg and this game will be my last mmorpg I played. I didn't expect swtor to be some thing new or to revolutionized the mmorpg genre. I don't like annoying gear grinds for pvp or the rng of pve. There is no point in farming the same raid/raids each week for months due to rng on gear drops and annoying raid locks. I'm will no longer farm endlessly mobs to level or run the same raid each week for months. That isn't entertaining when I did it and I'm not about to start again.

 

Basically, until game companies can produce pve content at a faster rate that is acceptable for a casual players I don't see the pve side of these games advancing beyond the adding a rng or long grind to prolong content, which is artificially attempting to make content last longer, but doesn't really add more content.

 

For pvp it was fun when you first started playing, but it gets boring fast especially with the horrible balancing issues in these games and the annoying epeen that people make it out to be. It's not like you did some thing great in the world. Pvp is restrict to small scale pvp. When I first started playing mmorpg I was imagine large scale pvp fights with hundreds of players fighting in one area, but it turns out that technology isn't capable of that level of pvp.

 

Overall, I really starting to dislike mmorpg in general for their lack of content. Artificial time sinks like long pvp gear grinds or running a raid instance for months is not content. It's simply a time sink that is not entertaining, but an annoyance. Swtor will be my last mmorpg I play and I don't expect to try out any new mmorpg. They are all the same at the fundamental level with artificial time sinks in order to cover the fact that mmorpg game companies can't create enough new content at a fast enough pace for casuals. Nor is the technology good enough for super large pvp battles. Thus, the magic of mmorpgs has all worn out for me.

Edited March 28, 2012 by Knockerz

[Dee-Jay]

SWTOR

-Best single-player MMO to date.

-While fun initially, it's too archaic in its design.

-Performance is a lot worse than it should be.

[Splizza]

All in all, it's a young game yet. It's not WoW or anything else despite what some claim. ALL MMO's share roots that are common to all others, that's part of the genre. And yes, more content IS needed, a LOT more, along with a good amount of changes and fixes, but for only being what 4 months old now, it's pretty good. BW just HAS TO stay on the ball and get good things flowing out regularly.

 

 

Very much agree with you on this part, people shouldnt compare with wow, but i assume the people doing so are the ones who only played wow. Wow has created a new player base in mmo`s. The ones playing the old mmo`s EQ AO etc etc Had a different attitude also regards games etc. Wow brought over alot of the fps players imo. Cmon hit me down you people !

 

The cool new thing with SWTOR is the way of levelling.

 

But i ask what else is new? That we havent seen before.

Edited March 28, 2012 by Splizza

[Theology]

EQOA 8 Years

EQ2 2 years

 

DCUO, RIFT, etc for a minimal amount of time.

 

Lack of contested content in this game really gets me soft. Contested raid bosses build community. Nothing like having your guild call you at 3 or 4 am to log in and kill a boss that just popped.

[alcek]

WoW for about 5 years, started late vanilla, and stopped shortly after Cataclysm.

Tried Age of Conan, only to drop it when i got killed without being able to land a single shot, due to facing issues. Realized, that if i don't have a ~10-30 ms ping, no possible amount of skill and awareness will overcome this.

 

What i didn't like in Swtor:

-lots of game breaking bugs. The instance phasing and inability to get a party in the same phase of a flashpoint was infuriating

-bad graphic performance, i am running top machine, and needed to set all on minimum, to reduce the visual lag in warzones

-skill not firing when you use hotkey, the ability delay is still present on many skills

 

What i did like:

-I played almost exclusively tanking classes in mmo's. I like how my guardian tanks, on the contrary of the sea of tears on the forums. May be the whiners never did a Shattered halls heroic in TBC with zero cc with a warrior tank. THAT was hardcore.

- I enjoy the pvp, due there are some issues, the balance atm is okish. I sit on lvl63 valor atm, so sort of got a nice view how things go. The objective based pvp is a nice change to the deathmatch wow frustrating arena. Here, a tank has an actual role in pvp, and can contribute to the goal of his team.

 

Overall i can say i like Swtor. Lets hope the devs will get thing right with 1.2 and future patches.

[malistyx]

I have been a gamer for quite a long time, as far as MMOs I have done academic study on them and played, Diablo II, EQ, SWG, Vanguard, AoC, DDO before this one.

 

Quite honestly, I will side up wit the people saying that MMOs nowadays are pretty much dumped down, WoW being a decisive factor in this. While it did open the market to many more people, at the same time it lowered the standards of RPG in an MMO to cater to the masses.

 

SWTOR while closely following the steps of WoW, did close this gap a little bit, by introducing character stories and companions.

 

Taking this into account I can safely say that for me the PvE leveling of this game was the most pleasant till now.

 

Having said that though lets get to the negatives!

 

After one hits 50, the game seems VERY lacking!!! As i mentioned earlier I loved the PvE experience because of the personal storyline NOT because I love to repeat content over and over for gear... If I liked that I would be still playing DIABLO! Bioware chose themepark for their game and it remains to be seen how much they can support this by releasing new content! By new content I mean storyline NOT flashpoints or operations as timesinks...

 

I rolled on a PvP server, but I sadly realize there is no actual difference as there is no such thing as world PvP in this game. Not only Ilum was a disaster but the planets themselves once you leveled past them feel like deserted playgrounds... I still like the WZs but I cannot tell for how long...Furthermore adding one more every few patches won't help...

 

I remember thinking that SWGs planets sometimes felt kind of empty but now my standards have been reset... In fact SWG world felt MUCH MORE realistic despite the outdated graphics, because every time you drove by there was a chance you could see something different, like two NPC monsters interacting with each other or some weird elite spawn.

 

This brings us to another factor, which SWG as a semi sandbox game had successfully incorporated and SWTOR greatly lacks, which is metagames!

 

Most MMOs incorporated at some point a system of recipe system where players would need to figure out over time. SWG had quite a few of those like beastmaster system, or the cube recipies, or RE junk for equipment mods etc... SWTOR has next to none, unless you count in the relic or crystal which are childish to say the least... Now add to this the invasion system or the world Galactic civil was system, or the player city management system which SWG had as player generated PvE/PvP content past lvl cap...

 

SPACE... SWTOR really messed this one up ROYALLY! Probably the worst SW space iteration since rebel assault... Cooperating with LA they had the experience of amazing titles, such as Tie fighter, Xwing Vs Tie or even SWG's JTL... Yet they chose this garbage! In the end SWG, a little too late, managed to add to the game atmospheric flight and air to ground combat in PvP... NEED I SAY MORE?

 

 

I could go on forever with this but I sure hope Bioware with all the money invested in this will give us something superior in the future and maybe open up their game to a more mixed themepark-sandbox approach which gives people more things to do once they max out! Adding a higher level cap with another tier of items, a flashpoint and a WZ will not do it... Other MMOs to be released have gotten this already!

[mclxviii]

I once asked myself, while playing Global Agenda, what if there were more a lot more stuff to do in pve and maybe some crafting.

 

Minus a larger variety of instanced pvp maps and hourly raids and the clan turf wars that is what we have.

 

Not a bad thing by any means but nothing ground breaking. Hopefully they can work on the ground breaking stuff over the next couple of years.

 

--m.

[lightertripod]

why is this in the pvp forums ?

 

what odds does it make how long someone has played MMO's for ? or which ones for that matter

 

as for my opinion the pvp is lack luster due to the game not being geared at pvp so can I really complain about the game I knew coming in that it was a PVE game with the ability to pvp

 

 

I don't pve and don't like pve what little I have seen is the same as pve in other games it holds no intrest for me why any one would want to do the same scripted nonesense over and over is totally lost on me but I see lot of complaints of nothing to do at end game but are other mmo's not the same same raids over and over ?

 

the level system was ok via quest but I really think they trying to con people with the fully voice tag line since high % of NPC don't speak basic so no voice actors needed just text to read kind of like other MMO's ?

 

current issue with the game for me

 

DEAD Servers BW need to address this now today not keep banging on about 1.2 hoping it will save them resubs and people playing again cause some will come back for sure but most wont

 

No pvp direction again my fault for picking a game that not aimed at pvp but seems most need a reason to pvp a goal a progression just pvping for the sake of it not intresting enough for most so while I will go out and fight all day if its fun just to fight theres no one to fight and no one to fight with(the latter is the case on my server)

[Herbertt]

DarkFail during the only period it was really decent (beta and EU launch until the macro/bot wars began)

 

Wow another Darkfall Player, it truly was the best pvp game I have ever played, its a shame hardly no one has heard about it.

I am still hanging on to that Darkfall 2.0

[Audenlol]

Eq1 - wow - aion - rift - swtor.

 

If this game was anything other than star wars related I would of stopped playing a long time ago.

 

This game did cheapen the sw brand in my eyes. Almost as much as the prequels.

[anstalt]

- SWG 1 Year (2003-2004)

- LOTRO 4 years (spread between launch and now)

- WAR 8 months (6 months from launch plus went back a few times)

 

 

I personally think that SW:TOR is the best of a bad bunch, hence im here and staying for a while

 

 

Let me say outright that I think sandbox MMOs as a concept completely outweigh everything that a themepark mmo has to offer. Player generated content, be it pvp, roleplaying, managing cities, crafting, whatever, has far more longevity than level caps and instance grinds.

 

 

That said, apart from SWG and Eve I dont think there have been any decent sandbox MMOs released (and im not sure about Eve as I've not played it). They are generally far too complicated for the average gamer and lack investment so are often unpolished with poor graphics/engine etc.

 

 

So, given the lack of a decent sandbox mmo to play, we're left with themepark mmos. They all have their problems. From the ones I have experienced, TOR has the least amount of problems and is backed by an amazing IP ( <3 sw!).

 

Main reasons I left LOTRO: lack of pvp, lack of content, poor design direction

Main reasons I left WAR: poor pve, lack of stuff to do solo, poor class balance.

 

 

When I log in to TOR there is still lots for me to do. There are loads of flashpoints, currently 2 full raids which are well designed (easy and buggy sure, but they look good!), I can jump in to pvp instantly and still contribute solo, or form a premade, there are the solo pve dailies to raise cash and get rakata pieces.

 

 

For that reason, I'm still here and still having fun. TOR is definitely lacking in a few fundamental areas, namely open world pvp and a lack of reason to rerun flashpoints, but I've not yet gotten bored of the warzones so for the time being, I'm OK. When I get bored of warzones then I'll have an issue, as raids have lockouts and there is no OPvP so I'll be left with nothing else to do.

[Bocherel]

i played swg for 6 years along with vanguard, gw, aion, rift, and some dabbling in lotro, ga, and ffxiv

 

i was pretty disappointed during beta and not much has changed since. im still debating on cancelling my sub after my 3 months are up

 

6 years straight? I aplaud you sir, i couldnt stand the nge even with its late "improvement"

 

 

 

SWTOR is lacking a lot of features but its fun enough atm, i might cancel when i get bored with doing alts

[emartell]

Started EQ in 2000. Then DAOC, AO, SWG, EQ2, vanguard, fallen earth, WoW beta, and maybe one more in there. It's been a long time.

 

This game in its infantcy is very good. It doesn't turn the MMO world on end but the MMO world doesn't want to be turned on end, even if they proclaim they do. I'm enjoying PvP immensely, which is good because my years of HC raising are over. In a couple years it will be amazing.

 

It's a work in progress. Just like every MMO ever released. BW seems to be doing a good job with development and I'll be interested to see how things progress

[goldenarmz]

been playing since UO, DAOC, WOW, WAR, and some of the newer mmo's. im not a big fan of star wars the movies. i enjoyed them but really was never into it like alot of people are. i also was not expecting much from SWTOR. however, i really do like this game alot. i honestly havent played any mmo without burning out early on since DAOC.

 

this game just needs more content, no reason to ruin it by changing mechanics because some wow babies are crying. this game has huge potential.

[astrocanis]

DAOC, Aion, WoW, (a little bit of WAR), LOTRO (a little), Beta GW, Rift, SWTOR.

 

I find TOR, interestingly (or not) enough, to be better than most of those. Rift had a great deal of potential, but they are slowly wasting it. I don't want to spend a lot of time on specifics, but almost all of my family and friends have been stupefied by one or more of their decisions and have left, including my 300-odd account guild.

 

We are enjoying SWTOR and really trying to be patient about end-game. With the possible exception of Rift, none of those games had much to any end-game on launch, and Rift and TOR are both good examples of a fairly high quality release.

 

I do wish that BW would speak up a bit more on the boards, but the devs for Rift started out speaking and then stopped altogether. In fact, they only (as in WoW) respond to "Golly Gee, what a cute Kitten" threads and provide almost no real feedback to their playerbase. Oops, I said I wouldn't go into specifics.

 

I find the voice acting enjoyable, with the ability to pop through the conversations quickly after burning out on them in a questline useful. I find the PvP to be pretty well balanced, actually, although I really do hope that BW does a better job than the others in listening to PTS feedback. In an MMO, there will always be balance issues. The question is never "if", it's only "by how much". And TOR seems to be mostly OK in that regard.

 

I hope they add server transfers, possible faction transfers and multispec to the game. I hope they NEVER do what Rift did with mercenary, although the faction on faction WZ is close, I can't get as worked up about it. Cross server, in my opinion, is not a good thing - server merges may send a "bad" message, but having two underpop servers cross-server is not as good in many ways as simply building a merged large pop one. Just my opinion.

[Nadrojjj]

I played Final Fantasy 11 for 7 years took a break and picked this up.

 

I was excited, Star Wars in an MMO format!

 

I started with early release, picked a Marauder and leveled to 50. I really enjoyed the leveling, it seemed especially quick coming from a game like FFXI where you really had to grind levels.

 

Got to endgame, did a few raids got full columni in the course of a week. Started pvp'ing got full battlemaster in about a month and a half.

 

I haven't played the game now in three days because I feel like there is nothing to do. The gear seems pointless because there really doesn't seem to be anything to aspire to.

 

I know the game is in it's infancy but I am having a hard time playing, I'm used to time syncs, I'm used to relic weapons, I'm used to logging long hours for rare rewards. The game is so cookie cutter right now I can't really stand it. Everyone running around in the same gear, everyone logging in doing their pvp dailies and logging out.

 

With all the things wrong with ilum, at least on a tuesday when the weekly refreshed you could head there and count on a pretty good battle, even if it was a wall hump, push, wall hump type scenario. Now it's the Ilum 500. Everyone doing laps picking up armaments.

 

I more than likely won't be playing again until 1.2 comes out. Then I'll play another week, fly through their easy mode content and then be done for a while again.

 

I even went so far as subbing a WoW account last night because I was just that bored. I'm a level 9 hunter and it's been pretty fun. The worlds already seem to have more life to them than the huge barren desolate planets in ToR.

[MartyrLXXVII]

The class balance is surprisingly good.

 

However the rest of the pvp shows how little time/money they put into it. Limited options, failed ilum, large gear disparity and other itemization issues, and a poorly thought out reward system being the prime points.

 

But I am still playing mainly because the balance is pretty good. But as far as overall fun factor, WAR PVP was much more fun then this, but WAR was designed as a PVP game, swtor was designed for PVE with PVP being quite honestly an after thought.

 

But where they go from hear will be the key, because with the limited pvp options and amount of grind it gets boring fast each night. So they have their work cut out for themselves.

[AstralProjection]

Long time:

UO (From Launch)

Asheron's Call (From Launch)

SWG (From Launch)

CoH/CoV (From Launch)

WoW (From Launch)

9Dragons (From Launch)

 

Tried:

LOTRO

RF Online

Shadowbane

Warhammer

Age of Conan (from Launch)

DAOC

Tabula Rasa (Beta)

 

My Opinion:

 

TOR is a great game in many aspects. Best questing and leveling experience ever done. Fun gameplay, Fun combat. Animations mediocre despite fun combat.

 

TOR launched with more, better content than any game I've ever played, in terms of PVP and PVE. Anyone claiming otherwise is looking at finished games and not launch games.

 

TOR had the least buggy launch I've ever experienced as well, things were running far more smoothly from the get-go, with less server crashes and game-breaking problems.

 

TOR's PVP system is lacking, though still better than what most games in this genre launched with. Give it time, it will get better, as long as they don't continue to sweep RvR under the table. The PVP right now is the main thing in the game keeping me playing. Yes, there are only three maps, but it's no different than the 8-10 maps you'd get from an FPS. They all get repetitive eventually. What's fun about PVP is the competition....new players constantly making you think about, and rethink the way you do things. PVP is what challenges me, and I will love queuing up these warzones until they shut the servers down, regardless of how many times I've done them.

 

TOR's fundamental flaw was copying WoW, from a player's perspective. Unfortunately, from the people who funded it's perspective, it's the best thing they could've possibly done, and it's being proven with their success.

 

As a long time player in the genre, I've seen WoW suck the depth and life out of the MMORPG world singlehandedly. Theme park MMORPG's are the future, but they're a bleak, terrible future where the player no longer has any way to shape the world around it. The only way people find to make Theme Park MMORPG's feel like a real world is getting on the forums and talking trash to each other about who the best player/guilds are, because really, there's nothing to this type of game but items, items, and more items, and comparing e-peens. While it's great for keeping crackheads addicted to your product, and hence sales figures, it's destructive to the genre. Still, until we stop paying for it, every big company that gets its hands on one of these games is going to build the greed aspect of MMORPG's into the infrastructure. I have no problem with that by itself, but in TOR's current iteration, it is just like WoW - utterly pointless if you're not chasing a carrot.

 

TOR's crafting system needs work, but it's getting it. Until players can develop the landscape, and craft items associated with that portion of the game, it will still be very lacking in my eyes.

 

TOR's social systems are basically nonexistent (except the fun mechanic of group questing/flashpoints). I say basically nonexistent because at endgame most of that disappears, and you're left with standing around the fleet. Convenient, but not very exciting.

 

Would rather see all orbital stations removed, and fly directly into spaceports. Remove the convenience of the fleet and make Flashpoints/Operations need to be traveled to, give us a reason to revisit these worlds, and if we're on a PVP server, fight each other and actually come into contact.

 

A fun part of past MMORPG's has been seeing these new dungeons/battles "appear" on the landscape as a physical place to go to, rather than accessing everything from a convenient hub that feels like it detaches you from the "reality" of the planets/galaxy.

 

What keeps me here? Promise. BioWare is an excellent developer, regardless of what the haters say, they've made some of the best, most realistic and believable games/storylines I've ever seen in my life. They made one of the ultimate sandbox games - NeverWinter Nights. Sure, EA has their monstrous clutches around them right now, but all that means is they have the money to weather rough times and keep this game going with great support for a long time to come.

 

This game will get better, and better. As long as something besides a gear grind is added (and I'm sure it eventually will), I'll stick around for it. CapShip battles are the closest thing on the horizon I'm excited for...the rest of this stuff is just filler until then.

[mangarrage]

Well I go back to uo eq daoc

 

So basically everything has pretty much stunk since then

 

This game is entertaining I will give it that. And I do like the class stories, so I guess really they accomplished their point

 

But the game sadly falls into the wow category of EZ mode and with every patch it gets more and more ez mode

Welfare gear, raiding is an absolute joke, levelling is not 300 hours at all or even remotely close

 

There are no goals

 

I dont blame them they want to make money, so you pick the everyone can get everything without effort mode. And you will capture 90% of the market