Oh.. I was not expecting this

[Macetheace]

I had no idea what to expect, first of all, the news that there would be a 4.0 came out of the blue, and that E3 trailer - that just blew every other game trailer out of the water, with a masterpiece that could have been lifted out of a star wars movie itself.

 

Sure it got us all excited about star wars again, and i know many people who had long since written SWTOR off, remerge for the first time since early 2012 to try it again on account of that trailer - and many quite surprised at the changes they dubbed "vast improvements" - i guess they had to see for themselves as those very same never listened to advocates trying to convince them much had improved since February 2012.

 

i still had no idea what to expect.. a trailer can be good, doesn't mean a game or story would be good... and well for all the star wars love, i was expecting the trailer to be a big tease flirt and the game just having minimal changes on well basically everything, hinting a lot more and delivering a lot less. So I had no expectations. Look away now if you don't want SPOILERS .. cos coming in expecting nothing, no shots no vids, I had no idea.

 

And so I got granted early access, and gave it a go.. and WOAH -- it blew my mind. This is going extremely well and so much different from earlier, it's pacey, it's engaging .. and the sets -- the videos, the planet scenes. -- it looks SCI-FI and STAR WARSY again - tbh in a way I haven't felt about this game since seeing CORUSCANT way back when I started. And whiles I loved the scenery of planets like Alderaan, Tattooine, Ilum, even Voss - it was one rural jungle after another, even Balmorra that looked a bit sci-fi - only to go into the buildings and they looked the same as inside of buildings on every other planet.

 

Things started looking better after ROTHC, Makeb was beautiful, not really high sci-fi but nice, then new sets like Asation, Manaan, Oricon, Rakata Prime - followed by SoR Rishi and Yavin 4 - started throwing in some different enough looking worlds, with some of them looking really nice.

 

but this,... this goes so much beyond that, i feel like i'm in a star wars movie proper, i've just knocked back 4 hrs of play without so much as a break, totally mesmerized and having fun watching the story, playing through.

 

My only gripe is that it's TOO EASY - the encounters, i have no challenge - but then I am a good player and have been raiding at the highest level at various points during this game's life and it's very similar counterpart WoW, so that and my gear has made it a breeze, unlike Makeb ...

 

good call on the story quests and side quests distinction although there are no side quests so far in my experience, i'm nearly halfway through, again a bit sad about that too, that i'm nearly halfway through in only 4-5 hours, but then kudos to a great story for keeping me engaged. SoR and RotHC didn't come close.

 

Anyway, the sets look so different, the score meshing in very well, it feels and looks star wars.. one concern i have so far about my character.. i've noticed that my class is having very little effect on the dialogue or actions.. i expected using a consular to have been using the force a lot in the scenes, as i would expect each class to use it's own traits, but my actions have been very generic, not unique. I know they abandoned class story lines (right?) but I'd love to have seen a bit of the personal touch during scenes/

 

Still everything is really amazing and fun and I must say big big score for SWTOR.

 

Once you finish this though, I hope there'd be enough to keep a veteran player like me playing some more.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Macetheace

[GJuliusCaesar]

What I might suggest, re: it being too easy, is that since you're in early access, it seems reasonable that you've been playing for a while and probably have a lot unlocked. The presence bonus to companions makes veteran players really, really strong, but it won't be quite so easy for new players.

[Daewan]

You know, I thought it was too easy, and then I got killed for being totally careless.

 

It is really fun, though. The writing is just excellent. I'm really enjoying it.

[Valantines]

What I might suggest, re: it being too easy, is that since you're in early access, it seems reasonable that you've been playing for a while and probably have a lot unlocked. The presence bonus to companions makes veteran players really, really strong, but it won't be quite so easy for new players.

 

Yeah comps are way stronger than your character in every aspect...

 

PS: Lana on heal mode=Immortality

Edited October 22, 2015 by Valantines

[VanderII]

Yeha really funny game, I agreed with you, Bioware have to put more challenge, companion are too strong.

[smason]

What I might suggest, re: it being too easy, is that since you're in early access, it seems reasonable that you've been playing for a while and probably have a lot unlocked. The presence bonus to companions makes veteran players really, really strong, but it won't be quite so easy for new players.

 

there is no presence bonus, you go through this with totally new/different companions. The guy is right it is totally easy mode, the companions are WAY OP, the only challenge i felt was when i tussled with Arcan and had to whip out the reserve on him.... i have crap gear and breased right through it with no issues, the only time i died was when i wanted to.

[Uruare]

I think the 'too easy' part really depends on who's playing.

 

I don't have earlier access, as I didn't return to the game until sometime in September (after spending a good two months figuring out whether or not I wanted to give SWTOR one more chance or not), but an RL friend of mine does have.

 

She's not very good at these games by the Internet's sneering standards. I've been watching her scoot through some of the FE stuff and have a blast though.

 

It's not that she's stupid or lazy by any stretch of the imagination as for why this game is generally as challenging just to do dailies and putz around with the occasional Tactical in.

 

It's that she really just doesn't care that much. She has no interest in raiding and wouldn't even touch dungeons until Tactical mode came around, which she'll now do, but only if I or someone she trusts to tell her nicely what to do if she's doing something wrong is with her.

 

She's the casual that doesn't have any entitlement issues of any identifiable sort, but will happily spend hundreds of dollars a month on making her characters (that rarely make it to max level) pretty. I'm sure she's spent at least a grand on packs for outfits and stronghold pieces ages wanted, and given what we make for what we do for a living, this is no hardship in her financial life.

 

But she's also the sort that would sadly leave and never say a word on this forum or any medium Bioware would ever see, if mandatory combat sections were too hard for her.

 

She's not going to start having like I do, hotkeying everything and reading up on everything.

 

She's going to run around on an assassin in tank mode with dps gear on so she hits a bit harder and throw all the situational buttons off her bars and never give one crap to look for them ever again.

 

If Bioware wants her money, FE was exactly the way to keep getting it. She doesn't play so often as that she's burned through all nine chapters yet. She's never hurried in these games for anything.

 

I watch her play FE and its genuinely the first time I've seen her glued to her screen when playing anything other than certain single player RPG's.

 

I don't think this expansion was really meant for the elitists that seem to think that these games belong to them more than anyone else.

 

You find it too easy? My friend seems to think it's just right.

 

I'm sure I'll find it to be a total faceroll when I get access next week, but ya know what?

 

I'll take it if t means people like my friend can have that childlike look on their faces while playing this. I can find my hardcore experiences just about anywhere in a wide variety of games.

 

I don't need trash mobs in SWTOR be my idea of challenging.

[KnightDLR]

With most games, I can usually tell myself "One, maybe two hours." and be done early. However, I've managed to get through Chapter 1-8 of KotFE, and not only did I have an absolute blast playing, but I finally gave up trying to play for an hour or two and just gave in to starting at 10:30PM and then looking at the clock and seeing it was 2, 3 AM.

 

In past games, the best that they were able to do was get me excited for some little moment here and there. With this, I've been completely wrapped in entire Chapters here. And, in Chapter 8,

where HK-55, my absolute favorite expansion companion so far, was killed off,

I was freakin' shattered for a few moments. I've played a number of different story-based games in the past, some that had damn good stories, and I've never had this level of investment in any segment of a game.

 

If they keep this up for the following chapters, I don't know if I'll survive it.

[horrorfaneightys]

You know, I thought it was too easy, and then I got killed for being totally careless.

 

It is really fun, though. The writing is just excellent. I'm really enjoying it.

 

Oh snap. I died after getting a little too complacent.

 

OP: I agree about the expansion. It's the best they've released so far and I'm really enjoying playing it. Can't wait to attempt levelling again with the changes.

[CarpeSangrea]

What I might suggest, re: it being too easy, is that since you're in early access, it seems reasonable that you've been playing for a while and probably have a lot unlocked. The presence bonus to companions makes veteran players really, really strong, but it won't be quite so easy for new players.

 

Raising your reputation levels with companions, on top of whatever presence you already have, makes them absurdly overpowered. All the 2-man heroics are so ridiculously faceroll right now, and I'm even close to being able to solo the heroic starforge flashpoint(already can for the most part, towards the end is a pita).

[sentientomega]

I think the 'too easy' part really depends on who's playing.

 

I don't have earlier access, as I didn't return to the game until sometime in September (after spending a good two months figuring out whether or not I wanted to give SWTOR one more chance or not), but an RL friend of mine does have.

 

She's not very good at these games by the Internet's sneering standards. I've been watching her scoot through some of the FE stuff and have a blast though.

 

It's not that she's stupid or lazy by any stretch of the imagination as for why this game is generally as challenging just to do dailies and putz around with the occasional Tactical in.

 

It's that she really just doesn't care that much. She has no interest in raiding and wouldn't even touch dungeons until Tactical mode came around, which she'll now do, but only if I or someone she trusts to tell her nicely what to do if she's doing something wrong is with her.

 

She's the casual that doesn't have any entitlement issues of any identifiable sort, but will happily spend hundreds of dollars a month on making her characters (that rarely make it to max level) pretty. I'm sure she's spent at least a grand on packs for outfits and stronghold pieces ages wanted, and given what we make for what we do for a living, this is no hardship in her financial life.

 

But she's also the sort that would sadly leave and never say a word on this forum or any medium Bioware would ever see, if mandatory combat sections were too hard for her.

 

She's not going to start having like I do, hotkeying everything and reading up on everything.

 

She's going to run around on an assassin in tank mode with dps gear on so she hits a bit harder and throw all the situational buttons off her bars and never give one crap to look for them ever again.

 

If Bioware wants her money, FE was exactly the way to keep getting it. She doesn't play so often as that she's burned through all nine chapters yet. She's never hurried in these games for anything.

 

I watch her play FE and its genuinely the first time I've seen her glued to her screen when playing anything other than certain single player RPG's.

 

I don't think this expansion was really meant for the elitists that seem to think that these games belong to them more than anyone else.

 

You find it too easy? My friend seems to think it's just right.

 

I'm sure I'll find it to be a total faceroll when I get access next week, but ya know what?

 

I'll take it if t means people like my friend can have that childlike look on their faces while playing this. I can find my hardcore experiences just about anywhere in a wide variety of games.

 

I don't need trash mobs in SWTOR be my idea of challenging.

 

This, absolute this, thank you.

 

This update makes the level sync totally worth it, and you can't solo WBs because your comps have no input, but that's fine.

 

I feel more at home with this game now than I have ever done, thanks to the companion changes.

 

All my tanks have dps stats, with a small amount of tanking stats for augments, ear and implants, for some mitigation to get some procs some of the time, as opposed to most of the time.

 

And there are ways people can make the game hard for themselves, I know, because I've done some of them. like using a dps companion with my dps char and having my char attack first, instead of ordering the dps to open up. More often that not, you'll take most of the damage, and if you get defeated your comp won't keep fighting.

 

I'll bet there are a lot of people like your friend, and they should be able to play this great game; I hope BW:A wants them to do just that, because this game should not punish anyone who isn't a top player.

Edited October 22, 2015 by sentientomega

[SyrenaEkra]

 

I genuinely cried at this part

 

I removed your spoiler as I'm new to the forums.

[Macetheace]

What I might suggest, re: it being too easy, is that since you're in early access, it seems reasonable that you've been playing for a while and probably have a lot unlocked. The presence bonus to companions makes veteran players really, really strong, but it won't be quite so easy for new players.

 

well, i just chalk it down to being well geared.. i was destroying stuff before my companion could get a hit in... and yes you're right, it's because i'm a vet player.

 

Bioware, fantastic job on the whole project - there are still a lot of things I feel the game could use, but this was top stuff . i'm hoping you'd change the planet models of many of the old planets, and also in their fly scenes. Further I hope that you would play fly scenes both arrival and depature and possibly hyperspace during loading screens instead of a picture. - probably means each destination having a really cool looking scene where the ship is seen exiting hyperspace, flies into orbit and docks/descends into the planet to landing point and also flies out of planet into orbit seeing a gorgeous space view of planet and interesting things round it before stylishly flying into hyperspace.

 

then it's a matter of just substituting the appropriate ship of transport for the scene during load up.

 

I've also felt cool looking animations should be added. right now classes just jump - how about different jump styles depending on class ? force users f lip a lot? and a dodge button too. sure a player can just move out of the way, but if he can somersault to the side (force user) or stylishly slie (agent/smuggler) or roll (tooper/BH) as an option it would look cool - and the animation would vary depending on the direction he is dodging, like back dodge has force users back flip (jedi)/back somersault (sith), spring back (trooper), jet pack boost back (BH), slide back (agent) roll back (smuggelr). side dodge would have sith side flip, jedi side somersault etc etc

 

mount special animations are a good idea, because people spend so much time moving - it's got to look cool, and a bit more realistic, and give them interesting things to do while moving. I'm sure something like that can be sorted out by one person

[Karkais]

What I might suggest, re: it being too easy, is that since you're in early access, it seems reasonable that you've been playing for a while and probably have a lot unlocked. The presence bonus to companions makes veteran players really, really strong, but it won't be quite so easy for new players.

 

They say they nerfed presence though, it now provides percentage increase rather than fixed numbers buffs. Im not sure if thats actually a nerf though, it depends whether there is diminishing returns or not.

 

But yes, characters that start the story well-geared, are likely to utterly annihilate any opposition. I think it was made so easy just to accommodate possible new players that come into swtor for the first time and jump straight to Kotfe with a new 60.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Karkais

[Macetheace]

It's that she really just doesn't care that much. She has no interest in raiding and wouldn't even touch dungeons until Tactical mode came around, which she'll now do, but only if I or someone she trusts to tell her nicely what to do if she's doing something wrong is with her.

 

She's the casual that doesn't have any entitlement issues of any identifiable sort, but will happily spend hundreds of dollars a month on making her characters (that rarely make it to max level) pretty. I'm sure she's spent at least a grand on packs for outfits and stronghold pieces ages wanted, and given what we make for what we do for a living, this is no hardship in her financial life.

.

 

exactly . I keep saying.. making your character look pretty and look cool - is WAY higher in priority for far more people than hardcore gamers and forum posters are accounting for.

 

updating player model textures, more faces, better beards - also cool animations that make you go "ooh..ahh" my character feels even cooler is a big hard on for a lot of people - especially the casual and new kind who are use to fancier games. As is fancy cool space flight scenes - seeing you ship move in space to a planet - with a gorgeous back drop certainly beats the really dated looking fly in most old planets have.. and is worth upgrading.

 

and yes, for your friend, this is me in other games, if they didn't have that degree of optional "easy to vets" I would not last long enough to see all the really good stuff. Saying that they need to provide ways of vets having a challenge, like setting mobs to a harder mode - and the harder the mode, the better the rewards, especially credits and drops, giving extra incentive to play better, master your class more. It should be really easy to add.

 

Trust me vets will appreciate cooler looking toons, beautiful back drop fly scenes (arrivals and departures) substituting loading screens with fly scenes, there character having fancier animations - especially when you add new things later - new players will be wow'd by both the old stuff and the new stuff for animaitons, but the new stuff would be so much more appreciated and valued by older players who would find new life for old toons.

 

I wonder if bioware has ever seen my topics on a more beautiful looking game especially on player characters, animations, planet models and fly scenes???

[Macetheace]

With most games, I can usually tell myself "One, maybe two hours." and be done early. However, I've managed to get through Chapter 1-8 of KotFE, and not only did I have an absolute blast playing, but I finally gave up trying to play for an hour or two and just gave in to starting at 10:30PM and then looking at the clock and seeing it was 2, 3 AM.

 

In past games, the best that they were able to do was get me excited for some little moment here and there. With this, I've been completely wrapped in entire Chapters here. And, in Chapter 8,

where HK-55, my absolute favorite expansion companion so far, was killed off,

I was freakin' shattered for a few moments. I've played a number of different story-based games in the past, some that had damn good stories, and I've never had this level of investment in any segment of a game.

 

If they keep this up for the following chapters, I don't know if I'll survive it.

 

haha.. reminds me of me.. i give myself 30 mins to an hour tops, but KotFE had me playing for nearly 5 hours..i'm like ***! i did not expect so much fun.

[Gelious]

I thought it was easy then at the end of chapter 8

 

Arcann nearly killed me. I was extremly lucky the script for cutscene didn't require to reduce his HP to1. I had almost no HP left and he had quite a bit.

 

[Macetheace]

I thought it was easy then at the end of chapter 8

 

Arcann nearly killed me. I was extremly lucky the script for cutscene didn't require to reduce his HP to1. I had almost no HP left and he had quite a bit.

 

oh good, i haven't gotten that far yet, so i have something to look forward too

[Macetheace]

oh yeah.. before I forget.

 

I very much liked the new bestiary, the new armor sets etc.. i found it again too "same" in the original game where you'd go from world to world , planet to planet, and it would just be the same type of creatures and people and sets.

 

I remmeber following the Belsavis storyline hoping to see a glimpse of some truly sci-fi weird alien technology civilization once you went deeper into the prison to the original levels.. only to find out that for all it looked like the republic built the entire thing.. also i remember the droids that were suposed to be anicnet Rakata tech droids..and i'm like..why do they look like your standard republic droids? it was a huge let down, and I soon realized that I wasn't going to see any more sci-fi wonders after Coruscant - and I was right, altho Manaan came close - and the temple on Rakata Prime looked amazing, it isn't till KotFE that you get that sort of coolness

 

Still disappointed that we have a standard mailbox in a supposedly very ancient ship - i mean, the mailbox icon should be totally different from ships that have nothing to do with the republic/empire.

 

Icons and stuff like that need to change a bit more.

[-Wes-]

I had no idea what to expect, first of all, the news that there would be a 4.0 came out of the blue, and that E3 trailer - that just blew every other game trailer out of the water, with a masterpiece that could have been lifted out of a star wars movie itself.

 

------

 

Great post, Mace! Agreed on most points... except for the background music during the scene where your crew initially works on the Gravestone. I suspect they lifted that track directly out of some cheesy X-rated flick. It was hilariously out of place and altogether bad!! I'm not sure if that made the HK antics better or worse.

 

I haven't made it all the way through the chapters yet, but so far I'm enjoying it immensely.

Edited October 22, 2015 by -Wes-

[Khevar]

Having unlocked so many presence bonuses, my companions have been vastly overpowered for a long time before 4.0 (at least at low-to-mid level). And since the patch notes comment that presence bonuses are now a percentage boost (rather than a flat rate) it would make sense that they are similarly overpowered at higher levels.

 

The more unlocks you get, the easier the game gets. This is hardly a new thing!

 

And let's not forget that questing with a healer has always been the easiest way to go.

 

I find it silly when people claim the game is too easy. This is simply because the difficulty level is (for the most part) under the control of the player. Uncheck companion abilities. Wear worse gear. Dismiss your companion completely. Tackle group content. Etc.

 

Someone with a bunch of +presence, using a healer companion, tackling solo content? Yeah, sorry. That player has no credibility complaining about "OMG EZ I'm invincible"

[Uruare]

Having unlocked so many presence bonuses, my companions have been vastly overpowered for a long time before 4.0 (at least at low-to-mid level). And since the patch notes comment that presence bonuses are now a percentage boost (rather than a flat rate) it would make sense that they are similarly overpowered at higher levels.

 

The more unlocks you get, the easier the game gets. This is hardly a new thing!

 

And let's not forget that questing with a healer has always been the easiest way to go.

 

I find it silly when people claim the game is too easy. This is simply because the difficulty level is (for the most part) under the control of the player. Uncheck companion abilities. Wear worse gear. Dismiss your companion completely. Tackle group content. Etc.

 

Someone with a bunch of +presence, using a healer companion, tackling solo content? Yeah, sorry. That player has no credibility complaining about "OMG EZ I'm invincible"

 

I'm in carefully itemized endgame gear and power ranked a companion on my main up to 50, have almost every datacron in the game and am accustomed to playing well enough to be a good fit in any raid team in terms of the skill level I run around playing at as my normal playstyle.

 

Most everything I wind up doing is ridiculously easy accordingly.

 

I used to especially enjoy the solo challenge of seeing what I could and couldn't solo as far as FP's and world bosses went, though I'm not tremendously sorry that there no more doing of either now.

 

Some of the challenge I enjoyed in such capacities might simply be gone and go unreplaced in any obvious fashion.

 

So, last night I got a bunch of people the guild I recently started to go datacron hunting... Naked, with only their best weapons to console them.

 

It was a hoot. We're going to make a habit of doing useful things in goofy ways as such going forward.

 

It didn't really make it harder so much as it lent the impression of danger now and then. That combined with the panacea of doing things with new friends and laughing a lot about it on voice is plenty good enough for me.

 

I'll be a-ok making my own fun and taking others with me.

 

Awful lot of people can't seem to grasp that their enjoyment of a thing might, in any part, be their own responsibility to figure out.

 

Won't get far trying to tell such sorts any different.