A sad reality of this game

[FunkyOne]

If they'd:

 

1. Had 2-3 seperate possible levelling paths (for side quests)

or

2. Had ~50% of your levelling content be your class story.

 

(or 3. both)

 

This would have been a completely different game.

 

Well aside from the obvious "If they'd have done everything different, this would be a completely different game" concept- yeah, I agree with what I think you meant. One leveling path for everyone on a faction... it's more painful for alts than other games. It feels like the class story is the side quest.

 

Each planet should have had a much larger level range, with different classes going at different times, with some overlap for heals/tank availability for heroics- i.e. Smugglers and Jedi Knight go to Balmorra at 30ish, while Troopers and Conulars go at 40ish. Right now, Everyone goes to Korriban for some class specific reason, but while they're there, they go take down some rebels, fix the lightning spire, join the Revanites, etc. etc. Some quests don't scream out a particular class or group of classes, but some do. Saving the Lightning Spire is generic enough to be an everyone class, the motivation is easy. Joining the Revanites, to me, screams either or both Consulars- They're ex-slaves, and sneaky devils. IA's are sneaky devils, but too obvious. I can buy Darth Baras would be sneaky enough to send you there, but he's busy with his interrogation. The BH isn't a mando, and would have too many conflicts with those who are.

 

Even within the same story, it's not as replayable as they thought it was. Each advanced class should have had it's own story. Especially the way some of the advanced classes seem vastly different. I don't think the chapters have the same feel for a Sage and a Shadow for example. So Chapter 1 feels "more" right for a Sage, but Chapter 2 feels "more" right for a Shadow.

 

The last thing I would have liked to see would have been the BH, and Smuggler being neutral characters with a story line that crossed factions, morphing the IA and Rep Trooper into a mixed Spec Ops class that wore medium/Heavy depending on Advanced class choice like the Knight, with tank and healer (+ DPS) roles.

[Petnil]

As a roleplayer i can see why the classquests would be spacebarred (someone mentioned it earlier) Why ?

Well, because how can you roleplay with other people of your class and be on the same story. Ex 2 troopers would both be leader of Havoc. Exactly the same story for all of whatever class dont make sense from a roleplaying pow.

Imo that´s the weak point of classquests. They made the classquests too personal. If you as trooper were made leader of a subgroup of Havoc, you could easy roleplay with several troopers. If Havoc squad killed some imp boss instead of you personly that too could work on RP servers.

 

Tbh. i hope to see less classquests and more fokus on the details. ex. give the npc´s a path to walk instead of just standing there cleaning the same spot on the floor since december. A few extra emotes like a sleep and a better sit and ofc enable sitting on chairs. At least 1 minigame on each planet, maybe exept starterplanet. Stuff you can do more than once. Class story have zero replayability, exept if you start an alt. All content with no replayability should be minimized or we run out of content too fast.

[Macheath]

Honestly, even skipping it with space bar, I still appreciate HAVING it there to skip.

 

First, because it WAS there on my first run, and I was overjoyed to have it then (leaps and bounds better than any other MMO's storyline, I simply can't sit and stare at long, text based NPC dialogues. Even if I wanted to, I get headaches when staring at the small type used in those dialogue windows on a computer screen.)

 

Second, because it's still more entertaining to watch a cutscene I've seen a few times, then to have no cutscene at all. I've played through the original KOTOR so many times I can almost recite the dialogue, line for line, as the character's in the game are talking. But I can't imagine playing through KOTOR with some toggle turned on where I automatically skip the dialogue. I spacebar through that game, too, and any replay of Mass Effect or Dragon Age for that matter, but the fact that the fully voiced dialogues remain in the game, even on successive playthroughs, still adds something to the game experience. I'd be quite sad if the voices suddenly disappeared from ToR, even though I've heard most of the dialogue once already at this point.

 

Obviously, there are downsides. Slow story content releases is the big negative, here. However, if BioWare did a better job at implementing non-story content to keep us busy, this wouldn't be such a problem. The problem is that there isn't a lot to do in the game right now, and no player driven content of any kind (OW PvP being the joke that it is.) There's exactly zero sand box to this game, and that's a problem when you know for a fact the release of new theme park content will be slowed by the voice acting and cutscenes required.

 

A more robust crafting system and space flight system (and the inclusion of other mini-games like swoop racing and pazaak) would have been nice distractions while waiting for new story content. Some meaningful open world PvP would have gone a long way, too, instead of keeping us all segregated outside of a few designated PvP zones (where most people just sit around swapping kills, anyway.)

 

-Macheath.

[Aliddaric]

I view this game as, essentially, 8 light versions of KOTOR 3. I figure I will finish all of the class stories in a total period of about 3-4 months, meaning I will have paid about $90 for 3-4 months worth of KOTOR and 8 different story lines. Considering what a single new game of KOTOR 3 might cost, I consider that a good bargain.

 

Will I be playing this game after that? Not so sure. I have my first toon to 50th level and although there are a bunch of ops to do (once I get up enough courage to join a group and have them yell at me for all my newbie mistakes) I have to imagine that once I do each op once I will likely be done with that toon entirely. I have absolutely no desire to grind at all. I have better things to do with my time and entertainment dollars and I don't need to prove my member is bigger than everyone else's member by showing off some great gear I got by grinding out 400 dailies.

 

It may simply be that all MMOs have a life span...and that by definition the majority of players will leave, and the grinders and those with social friends will stay put.

 

But MMOs have an inherent difficulty in that they have to be able to design to handle the obsessive players who play all the time and grind the game's limits as soon as they can, but they also have to make the game accessible to casual players.

[Tuscad]

because the reputation,

because it is the BW+kotor,

it supposed to be the promised game,

just like anakin should be the chosen one,

yet......

 

Are you trying to tell me that Swtor is going to redeem itself by picking up the emperor (EA) and throwing it into a bottomless shaft (bankruptcy)?

Edited September 12, 2012 by Tuscad

[DPCummerbund]

I totally agree that they shouldn't have bothered with the side quests, and had 2-3 (or ideally, 4) planet chain quests instead. Considering that each quest had to be written, animated, and voiced, it wouldn't have cost them anything extra. And, if they did 4 of them (for each faction), then you could level each and every class without repeating a single quest. That would have been awesome. How many more people would be happy leveling toons instead of complaining about the lack of endgame content if they had done this?

[Evgen]

I still watch all the voice overs a lot of the time.

Have had more than 16 alts over time too

If I've done it recently I'll skip a lot, but I like to hear myself talk . . . wait a second . . .

 

I'm betting none of you skip about half the content do you? You totally can, and still hit 50 by the end of act 3 no problem.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Evgen

[Goretzu]

I view this game as, essentially, 8 light versions of KOTOR 3. I figure I will finish all of the class stories in a total period of about 3-4 months, meaning I will have paid about $90 for 3-4 months worth of KOTOR and 8 different story lines. Considering what a single new game of KOTOR 3 might cost, I consider that a good bargain.

 

Will I be playing this game after that? Not so sure. I have my first toon to 50th level and although there are a bunch of ops to do (once I get up enough courage to join a group and have them yell at me for all my newbie mistakes) I have to imagine that once I do each op once I will likely be done with that toon entirely. I have absolutely no desire to grind at all. I have better things to do with my time and entertainment dollars and I don't need to prove my member is bigger than everyone else's member by showing off some great gear I got by grinding out 400 dailies.

 

It may simply be that all MMOs have a life span...and that by definition the majority of players will leave, and the grinders and those with social friends will stay put.

 

But MMOs have an inherent difficulty in that they have to be able to design to handle the obsessive players who play all the time and grind the game's limits as soon as they can, but they also have to make the game accessible to casual players.

 

 

The game works quite well, if you view it as basically a single player game (barring the side quest repatition), but it could have been all that AND so much more.