As a Story Tourist who just came for the 12x XP class stories, so frustrated. :(

[Televangelist]

Ah, there's the catch--you're assuming those things aren't fun. They are, to people who like MMOs. I have fun from the minute I start playing an MMO, grinding and sidequests included. Your argument is therefore invalid. Thread over.

 

Except that good MMOs don't have any grind. There wasn't any grind in Asheron's Call -- you just went around PvPing whoever you wanted to, and the bots leveled you and your clan automatically.

[Televangelist]

I think the OP is actually a teenager who is trying to play adult. It usually doesn't work very well.

 

Adorable, but no. I work in China-focused NatSec analysis, happy to discuss any relevant professional topics if you so desire. ;p

[theUndead]

Or he could actually be what his username says he is, in which case that would be even worse.

 

*Shudders* The very idea of him being exactly what his username is..makes me cringe.

[Heat-Wave]

Adorable, but no. I work in China-focused NatSec analysis, happy to discuss any relevant professional topics if you so desire. ;p

 

No one who actually does that would post about it on a forum like this.

[Beltane]

Except that good MMOs don't have any grind. There wasn't any grind in Asheron's Call -- you just went around PvPing whoever you wanted to, and the bots leveled you and your clan automatically.

 

Sounds boring. I like the grind. I leveled a ton of characters before XP buffs or 12x XP were even a thing because I find it enjoyable to level. Seeing every new increase on my XP bar is like the pinnacle of fun gaming to me.

 

See my point yet?

[DogeDandolo]

No one who actually does that would post about it on a forum like this.

 

Why not? It's a fairly normal job. If James Bond hadn't lost his job due to his alcoholism, rampant sexism and unsustainable approach to intelligence gathering, he wouldn't be posting about it on this forums, but the kind of thing the OP descripes seems to be more in line with reading newspaper articles and writing reports about minor Chinese politicians no one is going to read.

 

That said, it's precisely the kind of job an excellent, but fair troll would be claiming.

[Televangelist]

No one who actually does that would post about it on a forum like this.

 

....in other words, you don't actually understand how the field works? Do you think people who work at CNAS, CNA, RAND, or other places with open presences that research regional NatSec issues can't be open about the kind of work they do?

Edited November 5, 2014 by Televangelist

[Televangelist]

Why not? It's a fairly normal job. If James Bond hadn't lost his job due to his alcoholism, rampant sexism and unsustainable approach to intelligence gathering, he wouldn't be posting about it on this forums, but the kind of thing the OP descripes seems to be more in line with reading newspaper articles and writing reports about minor Chinese politicians no one is going to read.

 

That said, it's precisely the kind of job an excellent, but fair troll would be claiming.

 

That would be political analysis rather than natsec analysis, a-la the China Leadership Monitor. And yes, nobody except nerds deep in the weeds like myself reads it (though I do love me some CLM). I have a somewhat broader audience in the defense community for my writing, but that's all I would want; it's inside-baseball stuff, not written for a general audience.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Televangelist

[Televangelist]

Sounds boring. I like the grind. I leveled a ton of characters before XP buffs or 12x XP were even a thing because I find it enjoyable to level. Seeing every new increase on my XP bar is like the pinnacle of fun gaming to me.

 

See my point yet?

 

...your point is that you like what you like and it works for you, on a thread where everyone's up in arms because I like what I like and it works for me?

[Clarian]

Except that good MMOs don't have any grind.

That's what I like about this game - it has no grind. Well, no grind that's necessary to experience the story, anyway.

[Jadescythe]

Hmm, sounds like buying random green gear in GTN is a significantly better option than orange gear plus green vendor mods, thanks.

 

I take it that in terms of 'best stats' for me and my companion, the classes work the same at 55 as they do at 25, so just read up on what a given class's important stats are online and buy accordingly at my level?

 

As a damage spec Main Stat>Endurance>Power>Surge>Crit>Accuracy>Alacrity for priority in leveling. You will never get enough crit/accuracy/alacrity to matter on non-endgame gear. Most classes are best off stacking power/surge after main stat and endurance anyway at end game.

 

agent/smuggler- cunning

bounty hunter/trooper - aim

inquisitor/consular - willpower

warrior/knight - strength

 

Base your companion's main stat off whichever one of these was on the armor they came with.

[Nickious]

I feel as though I should chastise the OP but I think 19 pages says that the hint wasn't taken and it would be a pointless endeavor on my part to waste my energy trying to make an argument that this game is " the bee's knees" and "there is actual story in side missions" rather than the simplistic kill ten rats analogy he keeps putting out.

 

Enjoy your stay at TOR Suites, tourist.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Nickious

[DogeDandolo]

I feel as though I should chastise the OP but I think 19 pages says that the hint wasn't taken and it would be a pointless endeavor on my part to waste my energy trying to make an argument that this game is " the bee's knees" and "there is actual story in side missions" rather than the simplistic kill ten rats analogy he keeps putting out.

 

Let's see if we can do another 20 pages of the same arguments, shall we?

[QuiDonJorn]

What I got from all this was that OP just wanted a KotOR 3, right?

Too bad there will never be a KotOR 3 I guess.

[BuriDogshin]

Most players making use of the pre-order bonus xp are returning players -- people who used to be subscribed, but now aren't.

How do you know that?

 

Most players I know that are making use of the pre-order bonus have been subscribers the whole time, such as myself (leveling four more alts using 12x XP). A few are returning players, and it is good to see them back, but they are a minority. That's just in my guild, though. I have no idea what fraction of 3.0 pre-orders are due to each of continuous players, returning players, and new players.

 

BioWare does of course, but have they released those numbers?

[DogeDandolo]

How do you know that?

 

Most players I know that are making use of the pre-order bonus have been subscribers the whole time, such as myself (leveling four more alts using 12x XP). A few are returning players, and it is good to see them back, but they are a minority. That's just in my guild, though. I have no idea what fraction of 3.0 pre-orders are due to each of continuous players, returning players, and new players.

 

BioWare does of course, but have they released those numbers?

 

Pardons, I should have said current and former subscribers. I'll go back and edit that post.

[HammerOneOne]

Why not? It's a fairly normal job. If James Bond hadn't lost his job due to his alcoholism, rampant sexism and unsustainable approach to intelligence gathering, he wouldn't be posting about it on this forums, but the kind of thing the OP descripes seems to be more in line with reading newspaper articles and writing reports about minor Chinese politicians no one is going to read.

 

That said, it's precisely the kind of job an excellent, but fair troll would be claiming.

 

Because OpSec, PerSec, non-disclosure agreements. It's just not a good idea in that career field to leave that information at the office.

 

With that said its a shame the experience boost wasn't adjustable. 12x is a little too much for a first time player. You have to stop and grind out some money.

[Vandicus]

Playing the class stories without playing the main story is kind of a bad idea. The context of the class stories IS the main story.

 

To compare the game's story model to Dragon Age Origins, class stories are like Origin stories, except sprinkled throughout the game, and the main part of the game(Redcliffe, Denerim, Ostagar, Lothering, Orzammar, Circle Tower, Dalish Forest) is the planetary storylines(which are of course radically different across faction).

 

Also, if you skip the planetary storylines, you completely miss out on the Endar Spire and finding out what happened to the people Revan led to the promised Land, etc.

 

The game requires zero grinding to level. You don't need to repeat content at all to hit max level.

 

There are planetary vendors with cheap level appropriate gear for commendations and credits.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Vandicus

[BuriDogshin]

12x is a little too much for a first time player. You have to stop and grind out some money.

Kind of agree, although then the first-time player needs to choose what other quests to run ... decisions are hard when you are new and know nothing about the game.

 

If BioWare offers improved class mission experience on this sort of scale in the future, I'd like it to be in the form of a boost to the Legacy class mission boosts you can unlock now, but bigger: 2X on the first unlock which might require Legacy Level 10, 3X on the second which might require Legacy Level 20, and so on, going up to 5X for the final unlock. Costs might be raised compared to what they are now.

[BuriDogshin]

The game requires zero grinding to level. You don't need to repeat content at all to hit max level

... until you roll your Nth alt.

[AlaricSevGirl]

The game requires zero grinding to level. You don't need to repeat content at all to hit max level.

 

There are planetary vendors with cheap level appropriate gear for commendations and credits.

 

First, you can't compare this at all to DAO. Second, the class quest is the main quest, it is the story of the character. Last, those of us with 14 characters or more, don't want to do all the quests every single time...boring.

[TheNahash]

... until you roll your Nth alt.

 

There are many different ways you can level in the game.

You can choose to do only PVE or focus only on PVP, or do just the class story and the Flashpoints, or just the Normal Flashpoints and the Tactical Flashpoints or level through GSF or level through the old Space mini-game or any combination of the above.

 

You don't have to repeat the content you either don't like or are simply bored of seeing. For instance, I almost never do Makeb.

 

And even that is pointless because once you hit 55, it's ONLY a certain amount of content that's available to you that you...guess what.... repeat it endlessly until something new comes along.

 

In all MMOs you're bound to end up doing the same PVE/PVP content to either level or keep yourself busy at max level. And that's understandable, because always having something new to do would require new content every week or so. Maybe even more frequently for some hardcore players.

 

The difference with SWTOR is that the story makes it much more interesting to play through again for the Nth time than most other MMOs.

Edited November 5, 2014 by TheNahash

[Vandicus]

First, you can't compare this at all to DAO. Second, the class quest is the main quest, it is the story of the character. Last, those of us with 14 characters or more, don't want to do all the quests every single time...boring.

 

With the exception of the JK, what you do in planetary quests is pretty much on the same level of importance as what you do in your class quests(and once we include flashpoints and operations, the degree of importance is actually higher). The difference is in how personal the stories are and amount of content.

 

The DA:O analogy is to make it easier to understand what the main storyline represents.

 

 

... until you roll your Nth alt.

 

Repeatedly doing warzones, heroics, or flashpoints is grinding. Play any asian MMO and you will learn what it truly means to grind.

 

The game is built in such a way that you don't need to repeatedly grind anything on a single character to level.

 

 

I know we're a rather pedantic lot on this forums, but really guys? Trying to get across that the planetary storylines hold the majority of the game's story content and hold crucial context for class stories(not to mention pretty much all the KoTOR related stuff).

[ashikagaoda]

Yep, and you get to lvl 50 or 55 and don't really have any idea what you're doing.

 

Then you queue for a warzone or a flashpoint and bumble around like an idiot.

 

The past few weeks I've probably seen it in 1/3 of the GF FP that I've been in, completely clueless people who have no idea what they are doing.

 

You're leveling too fast in a game that you don't understand. It would be as if someone bought WoW, got a free lvl 90 toon, without having played the game, then wondered why they kept getting kicked from raids and group content.

 

You can call it however you want to see it but clearly Bioware wants both current (and new) players to be near the end game and ready to experience the Shadows of Revan content. Most the current users are already prepared for SoR with 55's throughout their accounts. It's the new players that benefit the most from the XP boost.

Edited November 6, 2014 by ashikagaoda

[BaronV]

My good man. You are a new player and naturally have many questions. So please join a beginner-friendly guild where they can properly advise you and help you out.

 

The 12x xp is not meant for what you want. This is an MMO not a single player game. The game was never designed to allow easy power levelling like they are allowing right now. You are a first time player - of course you are going to have trouble getting appropriate level gear and speeders and what not. You are outlevelling the content much faster than it is designed for.

 

Veteran players have multple alts with lots of credits, and comms and crafting that can be used to support this type of power levelling. A new player needs to still do all the other content. BTW if you are only doing the class story quests as a first time player you are missing out A LOT.

 

Join a guild. Do the planet story quests, do some PVP & GSF do all the levelling flashpoints. Experience ALL the content the way the game was designed to be played and you will find you have enough credits & comms to easily level up and get all the gear you want.

 

If you are not willing to do this then SWTOR *is not* the game for you. This game has plenty of solo aspects but it is not a solo RPG where you can only focus on the main storyline.