Hello! New (role)player incoming, and has a couple questions.

[NathChapel]

Hello, guys. At first I wanted to ask some questions about the f2p account, but I've decided that the sub fee isn't that horrendous and I can pay it now - if it turns out I hate the game, loss won't be too high anyway . Thankfully, this drastically lowers the amount of inquiries I have, yay! *coughs* First I'll ask a few things about gameplay itself, and then about role playing. Answers would be very appreciated.

 

1. How difficult and worthwhile crafting is in this game? I come here from GW2, where crafting was costly and, aside few exceptions, not really worth the effort. Is it like this, or more like easy-peasy, occasionally worthwhile in WoW or kinda difficult but rewarding in LotRO?

 

2. How difficult is the game in general? I understand it has the regular trinity of dps/tank/healer, which, after playing GW2, will be a refreshing return. Is it easy to solo game content, at least as a tank? Should I prepare for dungeons being smooth runs or demanding experiences? Is raiding only for pro guilds with l33t mastahs?

 

And now to the role playing questions .

 

1. I'm relatively new to the Star Wars universe. I've seen the movies, and some of the animated shows, and read up stuff on wookiepedia every now and then, but that's it. I do not know the speed in which blaster laser's trajectory decreases, or how many midichlorians an average Jedi has, nor do I memorize names of planets famous events took place on... and yet, I wish to play and, possibly, role play a Jedi Guardian. You guys think I should just give up on the idea, or roll with it? If the game itself will provide me with neccessary info, I imagine I would manage, especially that my idea is to play a young Jedi, found by the Order on the most middle-of-nowhere of planets, by default knowing little about the world. What do you think? It'd be greatly appreciated if I could find myself a Master for my character, but we'll see about it.

 

2. Know any good source of human Jedi names? I've found http://fantasynamegenerators.com/human-sw-names.php#.Ve6kKBHtlHw , but somehow none of the names I find there click with me. I'd like my character's name to be a play on Nat Chapel, my character from GW2. Dunno... Nath Chapelion? Nathra Chipro? Natar Chapthar?

 

And I suppose that's it! I imagine SWTOR is a fairly straightforward game, so no need to flood you guys with questions about character builds and progression etc. Kudos!

[Dragondog]

1. I haven't played any of those games, so I cannot compare. In this game your companions do the crafting for you. The more they like you, the faster they are. You can buy schematics from your trainer and some other places and you can reverse engineer (RE) stuff to learn how they are crafted, but learning is not a certainty and sometimes you may have to RE more items than at other times. You can find, buy, or be rewarded the materials you need to build your stuff. The better an item is, the more rare or costly are the materials. And you can craft really good gear.

 

2. You can solo normal game content, but then that's what it's there for. Some quests are for two or four players, but those are indicated as such. But you can solo these too if you are overleveled, unless the mechanics require more than one character, such as needing to press buttons in several locations at the same time. FPs and OPs are easier the more familiar you are with them. So the better gear you have and the better you can control your character and figure out the content, the faster you can do it. Otherwise it takes longer to figure out. But if you play with a good group, the struggle of getting there can be quite enjoyable no matter how long or short it is. Adding to that, some FPs and OPs are more difficult than others, even if you ignore the required level.

 

1. The game will give your character a master and will teach you what you need to know about places and such. Previous Star Wars knowledge can of course be a bonus in some situations, but not to the point that a Star Wars newbie would be in trouble.

 

2. Google?

[Trinid]

http://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/name/#type=star_wars

 

Been using donjon's generators for years. Name generators are great, but if you're into pen and paper games at all then you'll be really impressed by the other stuff there.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Trinid

[ShawDou]

1. Crafting can be profitable but is hard to train top schematics. You can craft 2nd best gear in game. But to be able to craft it, you first need to get the gear, reverse engineer it (destroy gear) and hope you discover crafting receipt (20% chance). Some of receipts can be bought from trainers or GTN but for best craft-able gears, it goes as i said.

 

2. About difficulty. I would say game is easier than GW2 and much more oriented for solo play. Main difference is, that each character have companion who will fight by his side at almost all times. Companion can also be Tank/DPS/Heal. Right now each comp can have only 1-2 roles but in KoTFE all should be able to have any role. This is big difference to GW2. I play mostly ranged DPS and like the way my tank companion keep mobs away from me, while i am burning them down.

Edited September 8, 2015 by ShawDou

[ForceWelder]

To the OP ...

 

You have a few questions but to cover them well require lengthy explanations.

 

Lets start with crafting ...

 

There are a number of crafting lines you can go into. Some are more worth while than others.

 

For example, your armor and weapon craft lines can make modified armor and weapons you can use. But other modified models can also be found in the game. So this part of it is not overly important. However, these craft lines also can make various augments. And these augments and augment kits can only be made by players. Research what augment you will likely want, and then make a choice as to whether you want to dedicate your crafting skill to this or not. If you do go this route, you will spend a fortune leveling this skill. When I did armsmith, I think I dropped well over 1 million credits to get all the schematics from the trainer. And that is not counting the ones you have to get as drops or buy off the trade network. (Augments are crew crafting mission rewards and drops only.) To buy the augments and the augment kits for just one toon will likely run you over 1.2 million (depending on the market on your server).

 

Note: An augment is an item you can add to any player or companion equipment. It gives you a bonus to certain stats and each augment model is different on the stat bonus they give. But it is all but required to have on your equipment for end game content regardless of whether we are talking PVP or Operations. It requires you to have the correct level augment kit to attach. You also have to have access to a modification station which will charge you to add the augment kit to the item. (1 thousand credits for a level 1 augment kit up to 42k credits to add a level 10 augment kit.)

Then there is cybertech. You can make mounts, but mounts are a dime a dozen in this game. You can make ship equipment, but just every other level. The other level gear is vendor bought. You can make grenades (this is quite useful). And you can make a variety of other items.

 

Then you have the medical skill. Useful to craft health packs and stims. These are consumable and there is a market for them, but don't expect to get rich.

 

You can also consider slicing. Places like Yavin 4 are covered in resource nodes that slicers can access. You do get a chance at schematics and rare crafting materials in missions and nodes, and this skill more than pays for itself by the time you reach end game material.

 

As for how difficult the game is ... it depends on the class you play and the gear you have. Most people would consider story mode of this game to be easy. And although I don't disagree with this view, for a new player, you might have difficulty initially. As a subscriber, you have access to 12 XP and this helps considerably. You just have to stay ahead of the game to make the boss fights easier. (Generally a level or two is enough.)

 

As for group content (Heroic +2 or Heroic +4) you can generally solo this content at a certain point. A Heroic +2 you can generally tackle solo when you are 5 levels above the content (assuming you and your companion are properly leveled gear). The Heroic +4 I wouldn't recommend solo unless you are 10 levels above it. However, this applies to learning players. Master your class and use the right companion and these fights are soloable when you are just 5 levels above quest recommendation (but expect a hell of a fight).

 

As for your RP naming ... I can only wish you luck. This game has been around for 3 years now and names can be hard to get. Even if the name is not currently being held by an active player, it is held in reserve for that player unless you have a server merger. Then all bets are off.

 

I would also recommend not using special characters or use a long name. Just makes it easier to communicate with you in chat if you keep is short and sweet. As a rule of thumb, I tend to keep my character names within 8 letters or less. You also have a name generator built into the game to help you select or tweak a name you like. On a final note, you do get a legacy name (think of it as a last name) once you unlock this feature. (I think it unlocks at legacy level 10.) So you don't have to try to build your last name into the character's name at all. This part comes naturally as you progress and complete content. And yes, the legacy name is a name of your choosing and not one generated by the game.

Edited September 8, 2015 by ForceWelder

[Cox_The_Beast]

 

[...]

 

 

 

Welcome to the game.

 

As a seasoned player and RPer in this game, I feel I can express at least my point of view about your questions. Note that's my view, so others may disagree.

Also, I apologize in advance for hte wall of text below, but I'd rather be a bit more detailed than less.

 

Regarding the Game:

 

1. Crafting is not profitable at the beginning of the game experience, but it becomes a viable choice after you level a few characters and build the proper foundations - gathering skills around the Legacy, recipes on the crafting character, a few alts that can provide credits to gather the materials, enough materials to level the crafting skills as needed...

Sure, all crafting skills have some nice recipes, but those all come at top crafting levels mostly. While levelling, you'll pretty much just be crafting stuff to Reverse Engineer to regain the materials to craft again. Even orange shells are less profitable now that the Cartel Market is around, because most ppl would rather just buy those... Sad but true.

At top lvl, however, there's a few valuable crafting recipes many ppl would be glad to buy from you via the GTN.

186 rating Hilts and Barrels are some of those, and they belong to Artifice and Armstech respectively.

186 rating armorings and mods from Cybertech are less valuable, sadly, because there's better stuff you can get just by playing, unlike the Hilts and Barrels you need for your main weapon, but Grenades are an acceptable alternative.

186 rating Augments from Armormech, Armstech and Synthweaving are also valuable, since they're the top tier Augments you can have. Same goes for hte Augment Kits needed to install those Augments on the gear.

Armormech and Synthweaving also craft armor, but as I said that's the less valuable part of the work. Some look very nice, though.

Biochem can craft some nice Medpacs, Adrenals and Stims, plus 186 Implants, but the really valuable schematics are far harder to get than the usables, so that's up to you.

 

2. The game is pretty easy, it pretty much throws your gear at you or supplies you with enough Commendations to buy upgrades as often as you may wish. Just remember to upgrade your gear and that of your chosen Companion about every 5 levels with the proepr stats and you'll be good.

Stats are Endurance, which is everywhere, and your Mainstat.

Strength for Jedi Guardian/Sith Juggernaut and Jedi Sentinel/Sith Marauder.

Willpower for Jedi Sage/Sith Sorcerer and Jedi SHadow/Sith Assassin.

Aim for Vanguard/Powertech and Commando/Mercenary.

And finally, Cunning is only for Scoundrel/Operative and Gunslinger/Sniper.

The wrong Mainstat is only going to hurt you and your Companions. A good hint regarding Companions is to have a look at what gear they come with, as that will have their Mainstat - which you should focus on - and a secondary stat that will hint at their role, be it Tank (Defense), DPS or Healer (Critical or Power).

Depending on your Discipline and role, you want to gear differently.

Tanks want to have Endurance, Mainstat, Defence, Shielding and Absorb.

DPS want to have more Mainstat than Endurance, when possible, and a mix of Accuracy, Power, Surge and Critical.

Healers want the same as DPS, but with Alacrity instead of Accuracy.

This goes also for Companions.

Difficulty comes when you don't know how to deal with enemies. Some cast an attack that is very powerful. You want to use your Interrupt - changes depending on class, but while it doesn't deal damage, it's a must if you plan on going on.

Or CC - the attack some classes have that puts a single opponent out of the game for 1 minute unless it gets damaged - which is great if the enemy that you plan on putting out of order is not in the middle of a group of enemies.

 

As for RP:

 

1. As long as you don't use the game story as your backstory, you'll be fine. That's a big NO, otherwise we'd have countless Emperor's Wraths, Heroes of Tyrhon, Bar'Senthors and... Well, everything else, pretty much.

RPing a Jedi that was just recruited and who knows little to nothing about the big Galaxy is acceptable, so long as you make it a believable background. My suggestion is to have a look around and find a planet that is a viable place for that upbringing. I usually use Wookiepedia as a reference, but that's just me.

Also, while RPing outside of a Guild is doable, depending on your Server, tbh in my experience the best times I had RPing were inside Guilds. So, I'd suggest you to have a look around. SWTOR RP is a community of SWTOR RPers, with different Server Forums, and each of them has Guild Threads, so you can see what's around on your server. You may also find groups of unguilded ppl to RP with, who knows.

 

2. I don't use any sort of generator, so I can't help on that regard...

But notice you won't be able to pick both a name and a surname, unless you write it as "Name-Surname" or "Name'Surname". Sadly, the game doesn't allow the use of space in character names.

What I did when I started was pick the first name of my character - male Jedi Guardian, casually - as his name, and use his surname as his Legacy Name. So when it appeared as the name on top of him it was "Name Surname".

 

Best wishes, hope you'll enjoy the game!

[Icestar]

They will change crafting and merge the primary stats into one mastery stat in the expansion.

 

My advice is to keep an eye out for the official posts in the upcomming weeks.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Icestar

[NathChapel]

Thank you guys for all the replies and a valuable insight. I will take a closer look at crafting when I finish the starting area, and will DEFINITELY look for an RP guild. If any of you are a member of one, and wouldn't mind a newbie to join, do poke me in game - name's Chapell (not sure if it's all that good, but I'm too lazy to make a new character now). Again, thanks.

[Adric_the_Red]

2. I don't use any sort of generator, so I can't help on that regard...

But notice you won't be able to pick both a name and a surname, unless you write it as "Name-Surname" or "Name'Surname". Sadly, the game doesn't allow the use of space in character names.

What I did when I started was pick the first name of my character - male Jedi Guardian, casually - as his name, and use his surname as his Legacy Name. So when it appeared as the name on top of him it was "Name Surname".

Be aware that if you decide to use your character's "surname" as your Legacy Name, that all characters you have on the server will have that name. So if you have a Sith alt, named Joe, he will have the same Legacy name/surname as your Jedi (which may or may not bother you).

 

If you name your Jedi "Nat", and and your Sith "Joe" and choose Chapel as your Legacy Name, your characters will all have the following three options:

 

1) Don't display the Legacy name. So the character nameplates would just show Nat or Joe.

 

2) Display Legacy name. This puts the Legacy name as a separate line below the character name:

Nat

The Chapel Legacy

 

or

 

Joe

The Chapel Legacy

 

 

3) Show Legacy name as Surname. Your character nameplate would show Nat Chapel, or Joe Chapel.

 

These options are assigned per character, so you can have your Jedi's name displayed as "Nat Chapel", and the Sith's name as just "Joe". And then you could have another alt and have his name show as:

"Bob

The Chapel Legacy".

 

On a final note, you do get a legacy name (think of it as a last name) once you unlock this feature. (I think it unlocks at legacy level 10

Your Legacy unlocks when you first get a character to character level 10. As soon as you unlock your legacy, you can choos a Legacy name. Having to wait till Legacy level 10 to choose a Legacy name would take rather a long time, as it takes nearly 2 million Legacy xp to get there. And it takes quite a lot of character levels to earn that much Legacy xp: half a dozen to level 30 or so, or three or four to the 35 - 40 range, or one character to around level 56 or 57. That would be a long time to go without a Legacy name. Edited September 8, 2015 by Adric_the_Red

[Cox_The_Beast]

Be aware that if you decide to use your character's "surname" as your Legacy Name, that all characters you have on the server will have that name. So if you have a Sith alt, named Joe, he will have the same Legacy name/surname as your Jedi (which may or may not bother you).

 

If you name your Jedi "Nat", and and your Sith "Joe" and choose Chapel as your Legacy Name, your characters will all have the following three options:

 

[...]

 

True, I thought it was clear, but your explanation is much clearer.

 

That said, my Legacy Name is shown only on my Guardian as his surname, my other characters use Legacy Titles in its place...

[Dragondog]

They will change crafting and merge the primary stats into one mastery stat in the expansion.

 

My advice is to keep an eye out for the official posts in the upcomming weeks.

 

I haven't seen Bioware mention a new, merged primary stat. Did you get this from an interview posted on another site?

[SteveTheCynic]

2. About difficulty. I would say game is easier than GW2 and much more oriented for solo play.

There's a big difference with GW2. If you can't manage something while levelling in SWTOR, go away and level up a bit, and you can come back and overpower it, which isn't like GW2 at all.

[Icestar]

I haven't seen Bioware mention a new, merged primary stat. Did you get this from an interview posted on another site?

 

It was mentioned at the Gamescom Cantina.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Icestar

[ForceWelder]

They will change crafting and merge the primary stats into one mastery stat in the expansion.

 

My advice is to keep an eye out for the official posts in the upcomming weeks.

 

You do have a valid point.

 

However, my gut says the changes to the stats in the expansion will only impact the expansion and not the rest of the game. BW is literally make story mode (which is easy to begin with) even easier. To bring this design model into the rest of the game I think would require a major code rewrite and I just don't see them putting that level of resource into this project.

 

I do think the mastery stat is a test to see how the player population takes it in. But I think it is a bad idea. Novice players already don't pay much attention to their stats and gear in PVP, and this change is just going to make this worse.

 

I may be completely wrong about this, but if the devs made any mistakes in coding, it is going to be discovered in PVP and your hard core players are going to find the exploits and take advantage of them. You are going to have a generation of new comers who are going to be one shotted in PVP even in regs and wondering what the crap just happened.

[Sheritanas]

I was wondering if I could ask a quick question about something mentioned earlier. I'm new to the game as well and trying very hard to get into some RP but like the OP I'm new to this part of the Star Wars story.

 

It was mentioned earlier not to take the backstory the game gives you. ( I think Cox said this? Can't remember the poster now) Could you elaborate? I'm only a level 33 Sith Inquisitor at the moment so there's a lot I haven't seen and done yet so there's probably a lot of endgame stuff that you were referring to. I'm just trying to create a backstory for my toon and thought we'd use the ones given to us (which would make things waaay easier for me since I don't know the lore).

[Cox_The_Beast]

I was wondering if I could ask a quick question about something mentioned earlier. I'm new to the game as well and trying very hard to get into some RP but like the OP I'm new to this part of the Star Wars story.

 

It was mentioned earlier not to take the backstory the game gives you. ( I think Cox said this? Can't remember the poster now) Could you elaborate? I'm only a level 33 Sith Inquisitor at the moment so there's a lot I haven't seen and done yet so there's probably a lot of endgame stuff that you were referring to. I'm just trying to create a backstory for my toon and thought we'd use the ones given to us (which would make things waaay easier for me since I don't know the lore).

 

Yes, I'm the one who mentioned that.

What I meant is, the story the character you play lives is a standard for all playing characters of the same starting class - Sorcerers and Assassins have the same story, to make an example, so Advanced Class doesn't come into play.

 

Imagine this. You use that story, so you're the Sith that went through that. But my Sorcerer did too, and perhaps I want to do the same, since I could. Can we be the same person? No. Can I force you not to do that? No, it wouldn't be fair. Could you do the same? No, for the same reason.

 

NPCs are off limits aswell. Imagine if someone wanted to RP the Sith Emperor... Sure, he could redo the outfit and maybe the face, but it wouldn't be fair to the others, since he'd be allowed to pretty much do anything he wants. So, exhisting NPCs in general are not acceptable as characters to RP either.

 

That's why the story you play through is off limits. Otherwise we'd all be the same person. Lore Characters of any kind are off limits. Which means all the NPCs you meet during the game and all the playing characters that you use, can't be RPed in general. Because of the reasons I mentioned.

 

For now, my suggestion is, if you don't know the Lore, to just play through the stories and postpone RP for the moment. Or, find yourself a Guild that can help you with Lore. Most RP Guilds are very serious in that regard, and usually they're glad to share what they know.

Most of what you need to know comes just with playing through the game, though. If you want to deepen some subjects - like Sith history, perhaps, that's what got me started reading there - find yourself a site like the one I mentioned before, Wookiepedia. And read. Read everything you find interesting, even species, because why not?

 

Hope this was of some use. GL in game, and with RP.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Cox_The_Beast

[SteveTheCynic]

NPCs are off limits aswell. Imagine if someone wanted to RP the Sith Emperor... Sure, he could redo the outfit and maybe the face, but it wouldn't be fair to the others, since he'd be allowed to pretty much do anything he wants. So, exhisting NPCs in general are not acceptable as characters to RP either.

You could create a character who *looks* like some NPC or other (I did this for Tari Darkspinner, so I could have Tari talking to not-Tari at the end of that part of DK), but your character would not *be* that NPC. I deliberately made my character's name not at all like "Tari Darkspinner" (partly to avoid the name police, partly to limit just how lame a player I am, "Be-bop'alula" - a different character - being about at my limits for lameness), and it will be interesting to see if, during group play somewhere, anyone notices her appearance.