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

[DogeDandolo]

The average MMO player does not have particularly good taste in MMOs.

 

Maybe it's just that the millions of WOW players have a decent taste in MMOs, and you've got an incredibly niche taste? Get off your high horse, it needs some rest.

[smexymage]

Are you doing missions beyond the class missions? Because I'm getting maybe 2 or 3 planetary comms per planet as class mission rewards.

 

Nope, I did a daily flashpoint a couple of times as you get 10 comms but I didn't do that every day, only did that a few times. I relied mostly on the items I got from class missions.

[TUXs]

The OP is a troll, plain and simple. I'm suprised this guy (or girl) got so many in the community to make this topic go 16 pages long. Thats the only reason I'm replying in this thread, cause I thought you all knew better. Don't feed the troll. Ignore the troll.

 

Thankfully whatever the troll says, people will ignore him and continue to love this game. He's already lost, cause he says he spent $50 on the game that will make it better for all of us cause BW will just use that money towards improving the game we all like.

 

I know right?! I've thought it was obvious from the start - the number of people who have taken his bait is shocking to me.

[azudelphi]

I know right?! I've thought it was obvious from the start - the number of people who have taken his bait is shocking to me.

 

If OP asks a question that has a direct answer, like a couple posts up where they asked about turning on the cast bar element, then fine. I'll "bite" and give the direct answer. The rest of the discussion is just a charlie-foxtrot.

[Heezdedjim]

Try this and see if it helps:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=769580

 

You don't need to mess with "collections" or unlocking orange sets to do this. Just buy one each of the cheapest seven-piece sets you can get off the GTN for you and your companion on each new character. The ugly ones are in abundant supply for stupidly low prices.

 

If that doesn't help and you have specific questions about problems you're still having, let me know.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Jadescythe]

I know right?! I've thought it was obvious from the start - the number of people who have taken his bait is shocking to me.

 

Any constructive responses have actually been received well by the OP.

[Televangelist]

Try this and see if it helps:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=769580

 

You don't need to mess with "collections" or unlocking orange sets to do this. Just buy one each of the cheapest seven-piece sets you can get off the GTN for you and your companion on each new character. The ugly ones are in abundant supply for stupidly low prices.

 

Thanks -- this is more or less what I was hearing about before, but much better explained than it was by the people I talked to prior to making this post. Just to be clear -- once I've got all 7 pieces on my character, it'll become a collection that I can pay cartel coins to unlock, right? Since I'm doing 8 characters, not having to buy 8 separate sets of armor would be nice.

 

Do you think I'll notice a major drop in stats from orange set + green mods vs just buying random cheap green armor for my level on the GTN? At this point I can go either way, since I now have a sense from the peanut gallery of when to be upgrading my armor.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Televangelist

[ImmortalLowlife]

I am basically SWTOR's dream customer. I'm someone who would have never bought their game in a million years, because I don't like paying money to Kill Ten Rats (aka standard MMO leveling/advancement), but who was lured in by the prospect of getting to see all the class stories without any grind, and now I've spent $50 on the game in the span of a month. If SWTOR can attract people like me, they'll be rolling in dough.

 

But so far, while I love the story content, this experience has just been *amazingly* frustrating. It all comes down to the insane hoops I have to jump through to gear myself.

 

 

 

People told me I needed to get GTN credits, so buy cartel coin packs and sell them on the GTN. Okay, I did that. There was a 36 hour delay for some reason, which is terrible. I had to figure out the right pricing ratios of cartel coins to GTN prices, too... if SWTOR just sold me credits directly, it would save so much hassle.

 

 

Then people told me I needed to get a speeder and a +41 power crystal from the GTN with those credits, and then unlock them across my characterse using cartel coins. Okay, I did that (bought a +41 power crystal, level 10 req, sea green hawkeye from the GTN, and a purple speeder that came in one of the packs from the GTN), but now how the hell do I unlock them?

 

Apparently there's some way in the "Collections" to do so -- but when I look on the YouTube videos telling how to unlock your stuff (isn't it a little crazy that people have to produce YouTube how-tos for such basic features?), they have a little blue icon that does the unlock trick on the things they've obtained in the collections interface, and I don't. I see no place to unlock my speeder globally *or* my crystal. The crystal doesn't even appear in collections for some reason, even though when I mouse over it the game tells me it's a "Cartel Item"! *** is going on?

 

Oh, and I'm supposed to buy orange armor in the GTN, unlock it, and then mod it somehow, and then share the mods across characters with the same primary stat, but the armor looks insanely expensive in the GTN, to the point where I might just be better off paying cartel coins?

 

 

How the eff does any of this work? I don't want to figure out your stupid inventory system, I just want to have fun playing a cool KOTOR story.

 

 

Can SWTOR either produce a guide explaining to story tourists how to do all this mind-numbing busywork, or just let me pay 20 to 30 bucks to skip worrying about gear entirely? Just give me gear that's great for me and my companion doing the story content but wouldn't work well in a flashpoint or whatever they're called, so real players don't have anything to complain about.

 

Jesus, this is so needlessly FUBAR. It's as if they made a huge promotion for bringing new players to the game, and then totally structured it around people who already understand how all this stuff works. I've played maybe a dozen MMOs in the past, half to the endgame, and I've never seen something *this convoluted*.

 

 

The actual time I spend playing the game leaves me deeply impressed, but this meta stuff just leaves me feeling frustrated, angry, deflated. As it stands, I can't recommend SWTOR to any of my friends, because none of them have 1/10th the patience I do for figuring out this kind of arcane BS.

 

EVERYTHING you need to know can be found at http://dulfy.net/category/swtor/

[leihn]

Thanks -- this is more or less what I was hearing about before, but much better explained than it was by the people I talked to prior to making this post. Just to be clear -- once I've got all 7 pieces on my character, it'll become a collection that I can pay cartel coins to unlock, right? Since I'm doing 8 characters, not having to buy 8 separate sets of armor would be nice.

 

Almost, once you've equipped a complete set of armor on a character it should show up in your collection and be eligible for unlock account-wide, doing so will cost some amount of cartel coins (I think it's 400 or 480 or something), after paying that once you can use it on any subsequent character. But you need it to be a complete set of orange gear, not just 7 random orange pieces and they need to be equipped on one character before the unlock will trigger. It's similar for the speeder mounts, but each character needs to have speeder piloting 1 before they can unlock a speeder from the collection, by default that's level 15 I think, but you can use the legacy unlock per character to get it at 10 for some amount of credits (probably not that worth it)

 

Do you think I'll notice a major drop in stats from orange set + green mods vs just buying random cheap green armor for my level on the GTN? At this point I can go either way, since I now have a sense from the peanut gallery of when to be upgrading my armor.

 

Green mods in general are pretty equivalent to green armor, for most classes you probably won't need to regear that often because if you're outleveling the content regularly with the 12x exp boost your gear will matter less.

 

For the toons I rolled for story purposes I only geared about 2-3 times for most of them.

[Televangelist]

Almost, once you've equipped a complete set of armor on a character it should show up in your collection and be eligible for unlock account-wide, doing so will cost some amount of cartel coins (I think it's 400 or 480 or something), after paying that once you can use it on any subsequent character. But you need it to be a complete set of orange gear, not just 7 random orange pieces and they need to be equipped on one character before the unlock will trigger. It's similar for the speeder mounts, but each character needs to have speeder piloting 1 before they can unlock a speeder from the collection, by default that's level 15 I think, but you can use the legacy unlock per character to get it at 10 for some amount of credits (probably not that worth it)

 

 

 

Green mods in general are pretty equivalent to green armor, for most classes you probably won't need to regear that often because if you're outleveling the content regularly with the 12x exp boost your gear will matter less.

 

For the toons I rolled for story purposes I only geared about 2-3 times for most of them.

 

Thanks -- for finding which cheap orange set I want to buy from the GTN, do you recommend TOR-Fashion.com? Or is there another, better source? I tried just browsing the Cartel Market ingame, but they're actually pretty limited compared to the wide variety of orange armor sets out there.

[DogeDandolo]

Thanks -- for finding which cheap orange set I want to buy from the GTN, do you recommend TOR-Fashion.com? Or is there another, better source? I tried just browsing the Cartel Market ingame, but they're actually pretty limited compared to the wide variety of orange armor sets out there.

 

Most Cartel Market armour sets come from the packs, not from the actual storefront (those tend to be overpriced, though some of them do look quite nice). So yeah, check TOR-fashion.com or the Cartel Market collections (just collapse until you get to the blue-coloured armour section -- the orange stuff at the beginning is storefront only).

[Beltane]

The average MMO player does not have particularly good taste in MMOs.

 

Absolutely ludicrous, which I know you know. If someone enjoys playing a game, how can they be wrong? if I like WoW- style games like TOR I am not going to enjoy a game that's nothing like them--not really rocket science. Not a matter of "good taste." All the games you listed are super primitive and tedious compared to this one.

 

Your hipster elitism is super entertaining though.

 

BTW, your complaints are somewhat akin to playing a Mario game and complaining that you can't play it like a first person shooter.

 

(Also I find it super weird that you included AOC on your acceptable list. I like that game a lot but it is one of the grindiest MMOs I've ever leveled in. You basically just level by killing thousands upon thousands of the same NPCs and the story content is ALL tied to "go kill 10 more wolves" quests.)

[Heezdedjim]

Thanks -- this is more or less what I was hearing about before, but much better explained than it was by the people I talked to prior to making this post. Just to be clear -- once I've got all 7 pieces on my character, it'll become a collection that I can pay cartel coins to unlock, right? Since I'm doing 8 characters, not having to buy 8 separate sets of armor would be nice.

The collections feature is just something you can use if you find a set you really like the look of and want to have it always available for all your characters. How it works is you have to get one complete set (between four and seven pieces, depending which set it is), then equip it (i.e., bind it to you) on one character.

 

Then you can log in on another character, open the collections window, find that set, and "unlock" it for a price. If you pay for the unlock in Cartel Coins, then the unlock will be account wide, which means you then can get free copies of that full set on all your current and future characters.

 

This only is worth doing with sets that you really like the look of and want to be able to wear on at least a few different characters or companions. For just gearing up a few alts, I would not bother with it, if all you need to get is enough orange shells to make seven pieces for you and your companion.

 

You need a complete set in order to get the unlock, and certain pieces like the head or chest for the sets that people like will be incredibly expensive. That's not worth the investment unless you really love that look and have to have it, and have the credits to spare to assemble your first complete set.

 

Otherwise, for just getting through on a budget, you can buy mix and match sets and not give a crap what they look like and get them really cheaply off the GTN, and they're cheap enough that you can just buy the sets straight up on whatever alts you level, without bothering to "collect" anything and get the unlock.

 

TOR Fashion makes it easy to find sets that have a look you like, and it can help you find sets that look like other sets. You also can preview the items in-game from the collections window, by using the "details" button and "show items," then clicking "preview" on each one to show them on the character in a preview window.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Heezdedjim]

Do you think I'll notice a major drop in stats from orange set + green mods vs just buying random cheap green armor for my level on the GTN? At this point I can go either way, since I now have a sense from the peanut gallery of when to be upgrading my armor.

Your armor rating and weapon rating will be the same with an orange shell having a green armoring or barrel / hilt in it for any given level of gear. The only thing you might lack is some secondary stats, but you can get by fine without those as long as your armor and weapon rating are in the ballpark for your level.

 

If you can find cheap green armor for your class or companion on the GTN, that works fine as well. The only problem at the moment is the supply has been vacuumed up by all the people leveling under 12x, so the prices may be out of your reach, or you might not be able to find anything on your level.

 

Under normal conditions, you get enough gear drops from questing that this is all a non-issue, and any empty slots you ever would have easily can be filled with cheap green trash drops off the GTN. Things will return to normal after Dec 1 when 12x ends, but the solution I suggested should help to get you through until then.

 

Also, just pick some logical level points at which to upgrade; you don't need to do it every level, or even after every planet. You probably can stretch green gear to every eight levels (at the start of every other planet) if you're not having too much trouble. If you are having issues, once at the start of each planet should be enough. Blue or purple gear will do you for 12 - 16 levels above the minimum where you can equip it.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Televangelist]

(Also I find it super weird that you included AOC on your acceptable list. I like that game a lot but it is one of the grindiest MMOs I've ever leveled in. You basically just level by killing thousands upon thousands of the same NPCs and the story content is ALL tied to "go kill 10 more wolves" quests.)

 

I included Age of Conan only for Tortage, which was in many ways the precursor of a SWTOR-style experience. Note that it was on the list of "games I wouldn't necessarily defend," not MMOs that I'd consider on the whole good/great.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Televangelist

[Borderlad]

I am basically SWTOR's dream customer. I'm someone who would have never bought their game in a million years, because I don't like paying money to Kill Ten Rats (aka standard MMO leveling/advancement), but who was lured in by the prospect of getting to see all the class stories without any grind, and now I've spent $50 on the game in the span of a month. If SWTOR can attract people like me, they'll be rolling in dough.

 

But so far, while I love the story content, this experience has just been *amazingly* frustrating. It all comes down to the insane hoops I have to jump through to gear myself.

..........

 

It's definitely a bummer, having something you were hoping to have fun with instead be frustrating for you. I'm sorry to hear you're having that experience.

 

I have one nit to pick with your OP....

A dream customer is a customer who at least both (1) likes the product/service, and (2) is willing to make recurring payments for the product/service. You have made it plain that does not describe you with regards to SWTOR. You are obviously not a dream customer for this game. It doesn't mean anything bad about you. Just a neutral fact.

 

You are potentially a conversion: a new/returning customer who (the company hopes) decides they like the game and makes recurring payments to continue playing it over time. But until/unless you do become that satisfied and recurring-payment-making customer, you are not yet a dream customer.

 

Which is fine. You have explained that you find many parts of the game dissatisfying and even frustrating. Totally reasonable that you would not be a dream customer for a game you find frustrating. SWTOR is not the dream game for you.

 

With so much of the game itself dissatisfying to you, it may indeed not be worth your time to keep playing once you achieve your particular goals in the game. Valid choice, either way.

 

If you decide to leave, okay. Godspeed and good luck.

 

If you decide to stay, and want to see changes to parts of the game, you are free to request changes the same way(s) the rest of us can. I know there are suggestion areas of the forums, here. There may be other avenues I don't know of.

 

Either way, good luck to you.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Borderlad

[DavidE]

It only comes off badly to people who actually like SWTOR as an MMO and are invested in it in that light; if you look on other forums of people talking about this promotion, the consensus is all "SWTOR! It was a terrible MMO, but now for $35 it can be a pretty good single player game."

 

You do realize SWTOR is an MMO, yes? It doesn't matter if people think it's a decent single player game or not, because it's a fully designed MMO. The 12x experience is there, almost explicitly, for people have to toons leveled and semi-geared before the expansion drops so they do not have to waste more time leveling to get ready.

 

12x xp shouldn't be implemented for people new to MMOs. But people, such as you claim to be, who are MMO veterans will have no issue with the 12x xp after they spend 10-15 levels getting the feel for this particular MMO.

 

Your troll post and arguments are all invalid, as you are trying to play a MMO (which I will remind you again, is something you claim to have experience at) as a single player game. Not saying you can't play it in a single player mindset. Just saying you're going to have a bad time.

[clearsighted]

I am basically SWTOR's dream customer. I'm someone who would have never bought their game in a million years, because I don't like paying money to Kill Ten Rats (aka standard MMO leveling/advancement), but who was lured in by the prospect of getting to see all the class stories without any grind, and now I've spent $50 on the game in the span of a month. If SWTOR can attract people like me, they'll be rolling in dough.

 

But so far, while I love the story content, this experience has just been *amazingly* frustrating. It all comes down to the insane hoops I have to jump through to gear myself.

 

 

 

People told me I needed to get GTN credits, so buy cartel coin packs and sell them on the GTN. Okay, I did that. There was a 36 hour delay for some reason, which is terrible. I had to figure out the right pricing ratios of cartel coins to GTN prices, too... if SWTOR just sold me credits directly, it would save so much hassle.

 

 

Then people told me I needed to get a speeder and a +41 power crystal from the GTN with those credits, and then unlock them across my characterse using cartel coins. Okay, I did that (bought a +41 power crystal, level 10 req, sea green hawkeye from the GTN, and a purple speeder that came in one of the packs from the GTN), but now how the hell do I unlock them?

 

Apparently there's some way in the "Collections" to do so -- but when I look on the YouTube videos telling how to unlock your stuff (isn't it a little crazy that people have to produce YouTube how-tos for such basic features?), they have a little blue icon that does the unlock trick on the things they've obtained in the collections interface, and I don't. I see no place to unlock my speeder globally *or* my crystal. The crystal doesn't even appear in collections for some reason, even though when I mouse over it the game tells me it's a "Cartel Item"! *** is going on?

 

Oh, and I'm supposed to buy orange armor in the GTN, unlock it, and then mod it somehow, and then share the mods across characters with the same primary stat, but the armor looks insanely expensive in the GTN, to the point where I might just be better off paying cartel coins?

 

 

How the eff does any of this work? I don't want to figure out your stupid inventory system, I just want to have fun playing a cool KOTOR story.

 

 

Can SWTOR either produce a guide explaining to story tourists how to do all this mind-numbing busywork, or just let me pay 20 to 30 bucks to skip worrying about gear entirely? Just give me gear that's great for me and my companion doing the story content but wouldn't work well in a flashpoint or whatever they're called, so real players don't have anything to complain about.

 

Jesus, this is so needlessly FUBAR. It's as if they made a huge promotion for bringing new players to the game, and then totally structured it around people who already understand how all this stuff works. I've played maybe a dozen MMOs in the past, half to the endgame, and I've never seen something *this convoluted*.

 

 

The actual time I spend playing the game leaves me deeply impressed, but this meta stuff just leaves me feeling frustrated, angry, deflated. As it stands, I can't recommend SWTOR to any of my friends, because none of them have 1/10th the patience I do for figuring out this kind of arcane BS.

 

Stop listening to people and just play the game. All these stupid hoops you're describing are entirely of your own devising.

 

Even on 12x xp it's not that hard to stay up to date on gear, provided you can put together an orange set. Which are incredibly cheap, and can be acquired very easily. It is not hard to stay stocked in green mods, and green mods every 4 levels is all you need.

[BaronV]

OMG why are people still responding to the OPs troll post!

[foxxecho]

I just returned to the game myself. I last played prior to rise of the hutts and have played many MMOs in the past, & to be honest I was pretty overwhelmed at first. I'm a week in and still wrapping my mind around the new stuff. -But it is coming along.

 

I imagine if I didn't have a history with the game I would still be overwhelmed.

My point is to hang in there! I think ultimately it's good there is a lot to absorb. Far better than not having enough!

Edited November 7, 2014 by foxxecho

[NogueiraA]

As a Beta tester I can afirm, the 12x XP is NOT for you.

[Rawbee]

Yep, as they say, the devs completely said that x12 XP was for all of the players that had lvl 55 characters and wanted to see all of the other class story lines, because it is a long process to gain that many levels.

 

I had subscribed in Beta, then at launch and then because my computer couldn't handle the game, I didn't play for a long time. Suddenly I faced the fact that I liked strongholds and would give it a second chance. Now with the new release in DEC, I pre-purchased the expansion and surprise I get x12 XP.

 

I did it because I like the game now, it is fun to PvP and battle in the stars. I created so many characters in my legacy that I have a whole family tree of heroes and villains (too bad they cant battle each other, and they live in the same strong hold??? Lol). But I would say to everyone trolling this thread that if you are x12 XP nutz then don't get gear crazy. I don't know how many upgrades I performed.

 

The side quests? Well unless you are sneaking past everyone to get to the Class missions then you are missing an opportunity. The reality of it is that all of those # of things to collect or kill for the side quests are right there on your way to the main Class mission. I often kill something and if it doesn't register on my missions then go by them. I am also over powered for my class missions because of the x12 XP. Most everything is grey.....

 

I have all my legacy characters in the 30s right now and I have only been playing since August. My mains have gear that is well over their level and my alts (all the new x12 XP) has way over leveled the gear.

 

So Yea, I would take on the side missions and if they don't follow your path to the class story then you can always abandon them.

 

BTW the Sorcerer is the best class story so far for me. I love the lightning, the evil and the companion creature.

[Dhubh]

Again, this isn't about SWTOR as an MMO, this is about SWTOR as KOTOR 3 through 10.

 

Quote: Originally Posted by Heat-Wave View Post

Let me guess, you spacebar through the conversations, even the first time.

Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, is it? I'm here for the story, not to kill ten rats. The planetary quests can be done when I'm 55 and everything is one-shottable.

 

Why on earth would we want to do warzones or flashpoints? the actual "MMO content" in SWTOR is terribad, worse than vanilla WoW back in the day. We'll do that stuff in games where the gameplay is actually *good*.

 

I think the main thing that you are missing is the the class stories are not the main story line. The planetary story lines, mixed with some of the flash points are. The class stories are the side story to that main story line. If you are looking for the KOTOR connection, its mainly through two flash points ( Taral V & Maelstrom Prison Pub side, and Boarding Party & The Foundry Imp side) as well as a few planetary missions on Dromund Kaas and Nar Shaddaa.

[Marlaander]

I'll echo the sentiments of many before me in this thread. If you're truly playing this game purely for the story in a single player experience (similar to KotOR 1 and 2), you're completely missing out by skipping the side quests, especially the main story arc for each planet, while you're leveling up. And I'd even argue the level appropriate flashpoints as well. All add to the over-arcing story of the game and are what make the game great.

 

Also, I'd wager that 75% of the "kill 10 rats" type quests that you despise are bonus quests that are completely avoidable and don't add any extra story.

 

Honestly, the most time consuming part of working through the content in this game isn't killing trash mobs, it's travelling across big planets. The side quests and class quests progress to the same parts of the maps at the same time which is actually a time saver in the long run to run them concurrently and the rewards for these quests will easily keep you geared up for the content you on each planet.

 

Based on what it looks like you want out of this game, you'd be better off doing the side quests along with the class quests but just ignoring the bonus objectives that pop up. Then you wouldn't have to worry about how to gear up, worry about kill counts, or miss any story.

 

The 12x class quest xp bonus was really a perk for players that had leveled numerous alts but burned out on leveling more because they had seen all of the side quests 5+ times. This allows them to see the NEW content (i.e. class quests they haven't played yet) without having to replay the side quests for the seemingly hundredth time. I play this game primarily for the storylines and I wouldn't dream of skipping the side quests on my 1st playthrough on each side. That'd be like playing KotOR and never engaging a single NPC in dialog that wasn't the main story NPC. You'd miss 80% of those games too.

[Edzew]

I've joined two, one on my Republic and one on my Empire chars. Nobody has any clue. "Oh, isn't there an icon that unlocks it? Well, if you're not seeing it, dunno what to tell you"

 

not sure if this has been answered yet or not but.. to unlock it on your other toons you have to log into one of those other toons, go into your collections, scroll down to mounts and click on the top left box to open up all the mounts, find the one you got on your main toon and then there will be a lil icon to unlock it for all your toons.. same goes for armor and crystals. its a bit of a pain but once you figure it out its real easy.

 

 

doh just saw how old this thread was and didnt notice it went past 3 pages B^( o well

Edited November 7, 2014 by Edzew