Level 50. My view of the current state of the game (wordy)

[Cooche]

Having reached level 50 5 days back and having a chance to do pvp, finish my class questline completely and run some flashpoints, I feel somewhat dissapointed overall. Now im not a cry baby troll looking for sympathy as I rage irrational expectations to the masses and declare "Im quitting" after investing a lot of time and 60 bucks into the game. The BIGGEST problems I feel this game has is as follows:

 

1. It really feels like a single player game with multiplayer functionality. (the diablo series is a good example of what I mean.) Every server is overpopped with empire and underpopped with republic. I rolled republic and its astounding how few of us there actually are. Another thing that contributes to this feeling is the constant storyzones and instances. Now dont get me wrong, I think bioware did a fantastic job with the story and the immersion of your character aspect. Unfortunately much of this is lost when you see how railed the zones and planets are. Everything feels like a straight line.

 

2. So many bugs. Now I am not naive enough and unrealistically demanding enough to expect a bug free MMO launch. Far from it. The problem here is many of the bugs are debilitating to the entire game and are broken/flawed core game mechanics. Examples: Ability delay (and at times they dont even go off at all), Raid Frames not updating properly and showing actual health (feel so bad for you healers), the absolute dependency on your companion for survival in everything outside of raids and pvp. The chat window becoming active if you click on it or near it on accident. The extremely buggy UI (again see the raid frames) and the fact that you cannot move it, customize it or change it in any way. The CC bar that displays that you cant be ccd for a short time seems to never work right. Im getting ccd when its full all the time. Abilities canceling themselves in mid attack because you happened to dodge or parry an attack. The guild window never updating. The list goes on and on. I have to reload the UI at least ten or more times per play session. These bugs were present in beta for a long time and were not ever addressed and dont even get me started on the fact that all my romantic storyline options with Kira Carsen are bugged. I have max affection rating with her and have had no dialogue with her at all. Constant settings getting changed back to defaults each time you zone. Confirmed bugs back in beta.

 

3. Features that the game should have but doesnt. A good example is the ability to /roll or the fact that you have to constantly run to your airlock and cant use your mount in the shipyard every time you want to leave a planet. The fact that when you queue for a WZ as a group and when the warzone ends you are no longer in a group. The inability to queue for the WZ that you wish to queue for. No mailbox on your ship. No dual spec feature and an extremely high cost to respec. The inability to search/filter properly on the AH.

 

4. PVP feels incredibly out of whack. I thought there was too much CC in WoW and then I played SWTOR. You move at less than 60% speed 90% of the WZ. The lack of brackets for pvp combat. The broken RNG system of getting pvp gear... why make getting pvp gear so RNG based? Feels like arch in WoW all over again. Of course I know the classes need to be balanced and that it takes time, I realize that and accept that. But how in the hell do you balance a game where level 50s are put on the same team as a level 10? No real rewards for world pvp at all. Even Ilum. Have done it, you get practically nothing.

 

Overall the game has potential if bioware can make the necessary changes and make them quickly. Right now though as a whole, the game feels unfinished. I am not a QQr crying for everything to be like wow, nor am I a fanboi. But the excuse I hear the most from fanbois when any issues are brought up is "They are adding that soon." or "They are doing that but it wasnt ready for launch." The WHOLE game wasnt ready for launch imo with so many glaring problems with basic core functionality that any modern MMO needs to have.

 

In the end I stand by my previous statement. The game feels like a single player game with multiplayer functionality. It doesnt feel like an mmo to me. Im not rage quitting, Im going to give bioware and EA a chance to make things right, but Im not going to wait around forever for basic functionality features and bugs that have been present since the first beta phase to be repaired. Worst case Id quit and come back in a few months if things are different.

 

The game has a lot going for it... Descent PVE flashpoints, awesome crafting system and a great storyline with descent voice acting, but in the end of that is all it has Id rather play SW:KOTOR 1/2 or Mass Effect because those have even better and more immersive stories.

 

Flame if you will.

 

Simply put your a whiner, no game can solve your life issues and your looking for too much within a game.

[pgumby]

Yes this is not WoW. We get it you blazed through 200hrs of content in 9 dasys or less and now your butt hurt cause of lack of content.

 

 

I am not going to sit here and day a game that is 7 days old is clean and perfect but every single one of your complaints and every other toolbox that raced to 50 to wave their epeen are having issues cause you raced to 50. Well Your fault not EA not BW.

 

 

Let see wahahahaha I am board. Oh well that cause you did 200hrs of content in 72.

 

Wahahaha I cant get a group. Well gee that cause your lvl 50 and 95% of your server isnt even 40 yet.

 

 

Wahahahah space combat. Well it was never ment to be or claimed to be anything but what it is get over your self.

 

 

Wahahahaha PvP. The game is 7 days old how much end game did your really expect?

 

 

These post are getting so old so fast it sad. You choose to race to max level in the 7 days the game has been releaeed in how is that EA or BW fault at all? Once any of you clowns that raced through the game in 14days or less can explain to me how its EA or BW fault your raced through the game I might take the time to read these pointless posts but till then.

 

Somewhere along the way to the reading comprehension area of your brain, the words you think you may have read changed. Your post is nothing but a diatribe of your own rage, take the time to read the OP and then respond, you won't look like such a fool next time.

[Deriver]

*raise hand*

 

I got several free days myself because our server cluster was absolutely horrific.

 

Been there as well... Most of the people who compares this game to WoW joined the later on the last 2 years, on WoTLK.... They have no idea how buggy that game, as almost every other one, at release and a couple years after.

[Perderedeus]

My god, I really want to slap you, OP. I'm tired of the "it feels like a singleplayer game!" nonsense.

 

What the heck is so "singleplayer" about this game? You can't be talking about the space-sim minigame. So, what else is it?

 

I go to a zone... let's say, Taris... and I start questing. I see a few fellow players around, doing their thing... and then there's a guy waiting for a repop on a nasty I'm also after. We group. We kill it. "thanks mate" "np, take care" and the group disbands... already this isn't single player. Or, okay, let's say I do all my normal questing solo... then I get a 2+ or 4 Heroic quest. I cannot solo these -- the 2+ maybe, if I outlevel it, but the 4 will be very tough for a good while. So, I look at General chat and see someone asking for a group for That Group Quest. I say I'll join. I'm in, we're questing, grouping...

 

Or I'll do a Flashpoint, or a Warzone... lots of other players there.

 

I fail to see how this isn't an MMO. It has all the social activities and grouping activities (group quests, world bosses, instances, raids, PVP) that any other MMO in recent memory has had. Cripes. Get your head on straight, OP.

[drottningu]

This game is huge, the dev staff have to be a little picky on what gets fixed, and what gets held off till a later patch. Outside of popular belief the dev staff are human, they are few, and they cannot code and fix a game 24/7/365/X years.

 

They have a list, maybe a board, maybe a data tracker, listing all the issues. They put them into a order as best they can, and then work on them, 1 by 1 issue by issue. They patch, repair, balance, and fix. Unfortantly they cannot get things rolled out perfectly. Games unlike 10 years ago are vast. The coding is tougher, and if something breaks you gotta search 5 steps back to find what started the break then repair it.

 

Ever tried making a website by hand? And coding it? Yea it's a old school method, but it's a good example. You spend countless hours coding, checking, validating the code, you view it, you function test it, and then you release it to the web...Suddenly it's not working proper..You checked it, you had it working..But it's breaking for someone else..You now gotta go line by line, and search for the break, search for that improper code line. It's a pain staking taste..And that's making a HTML website..Not a game played by 1 million players all looking for any small issue. 1 million players stressing maybe a poorly coding element..and it finally gives..

[PureHavoc]

I want to tackle some of the things I believe the OP wanted to capture. Thing is most of the ways to fix this game are DESIGN changes, there's a huge difference in bug fixes and changing a games design. so what some people would love to see most likely isn't going to happen (some games have done a complete overhaul AOC and Darkfall).

 

I love the whole mass effect/Kotor style conversation choices but this game feels like that in a much smaller scale. It feels like i'm playing mass effect with only side missions (choices don't truly matter like they do in single player games). Back in mass effect I loved the dialogue choices so much I ran around talking to every NPC i could. I didn't know I could get tired of it until Swtor. I rush level an in the back of my head after about the six hundredth conversation, It hit me that... i'm not getting exp spacebar spacebar spacebar...

 

I would love to have seen or see them normalize exp to something like; 1000 exp per quest no matter the level 100 exp per dialogue choice mobs give 10 exp. that way you actually want to go out an explore this games million lines of dialogue and rich voice acting right? do we honestly need to have 1,000,0000,000,000 exp needed to get to the last level? but get 100,000,000 per quest?

 

Don't give mobs levels (kinda sorta). the difficulty was enough, play with that aspect. this would let a level 38 do quest on a level 25 planet with friends who are 18 25 38 47. instances could be where levels mattered? combine blizzard/bethesda (wow/skyrim/fallout/oblivion).

 

still on questing, I said it feel like mass effect on a smaller scale is because choices don't truly matter, companions aren't going to die from me choosing a particular options. They could have just had the what 20? companions in the game or a random companion generator, and have let them die or be capable of dying through the story. there is no loss in this game.

 

OK the whole this game doesn't cater to the hardcore (at all) has been realized. If your "rush to 50" its not much more than just leveling in this game. you don't go out and physically do slicing runs (save the fun stuff for the off screen npcs) you can't go to a major city and make your own armor. For people to say they like this games crafting system means they don't like having a crafting system at all because you take 0 part in it. crafting take a hot key and 3-4 clicks and everything happens behind the scenes. if there where little cut-scenes per quest to see your npc succeed or fail be some kind of reward. pretty much it's just keep your companions rolling while you sit in town waiting for a Queue to pop or get into a dungeon group.

 

PvP; way to drop the hutball. for the devs responsible for that system please fire them, create a forum post giving people their names and addresses, along with close relatives information so we can cut off the fail ideas at the source. Excuse the rant but serisouly who thought "AYE GUYZ LETZ PUT LEVEL 10S IN BGS WITH LEVEL 50S HE HE EEEEEEE HA HA" yea that could work just turn the hp and damage up. don't consider the fact that core abilities that play of the entire talent system on become available until level 25 and finally 40. Oh OH lets put in a pvp stat that increases and decreases damage so that anyone below level 39 just gets melted. Pvp does feel fps based not the pace but the gameplay.

 

ending it here... work.

 

some people like being better than average hence the concept of the term average someone has to raise the bar above fail. so raid frames that don't work... sure someone can get by but eh.....

 

excuse the errors and spelling

[rsparrowk]

I just thought this post would say, "My name is Bob and I have no life" then we would say, " hello Bob" Then and only then you could go on to write about how you have no life and your opinion of the game...

 

You make it easy for me to do what I do.

[Fozzyuw]

I realize that. But should a game that is the next generation of the genre itself need a first patch to make the game acceptably functional?

Yes an MMO PC game will need a major patch. It will need several. It will need an expansion or two or more. That's how MMO games have always been developed from EQ to DAoC to WoW and now SWTOR. It's just how it works.

 

Being "next generation" means nothing other than it's release date compared to the past. It doesn't make it easier faster to develop. Software development is complex and MMO software is some of the most complex that deals with a lot of the major programming and design topics (Networking, Servers, Clients, Graphics, Performance, Load Balancing, Client UI Design, etc).

 

Gord, you have some good points. However, point #2 repeats itself and blames a lack of feature as a "bug". It would be best to remove UI customization from the "bug" point and you've called out UI bugs already, repeating it only looks like your fluffing your statement.

 

While you're at it, pick a different color for your headlines. Blue on blue = Ouch!

 

However, while you have good points of things on the "to fix" list, I disagree with your conclusion that the game feels unfinished. This game has been the most finished MMO I've seen since WoW and WoW was the only MMO I felt was "polished" at release. I take that back. LotRO was pretty polished too and had the best environmental feel until SWTOR.

 

And SWTOR was a lot less buggy at release than WoW was. In comparison, they've done a great job. I wonder if I can pull up the 2+ weeks of free game time because the WoW servers where not playable for the couple of weeks.

 

So, this "unfinished" statement really doesn't hold water for me because I've seen "unfinished" games that went live, and SWTOR simply isn't one of them. ("Unfinished" in terms of quality as features and content are never finished in an MMO).

 

To get a good retrospective, it might be fun to look over the WoW Patch notes and see how long it took for things to be added or fixed.

 

http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_1.1.0

 

All the patches are at the bottom in a table.

 

Anyways, a good list.

 

I'm very concerned about UI lag and ability lag. I haven't experienced them yet, but I believe they're there and real. So far, my biggest issue is the cover system. There are just times where it just kills you because it forces you to dive behind cover that causes powers to not work because of LoS issues.

 

Thanks!

[Zantoba]

Maybe I am just a noob, but I have a level 27 and a level 11 on the same server and I am content with this game. So far, I have only experienced a few of the issues that have been brought up by you and others, and when I did it was mostly something that I could ignore or would take me a few seconds to reload my UI. I really do not see most of what you expressed to be game-breaking.

 

Now, this is coming from someone who did not power level, and spends more time out of game than in game. Reloading the UI 10 times in a play session sounds to me like you had very long play sessions compared to the vast majority of people playing (or your UI was WAY more broken than mine for some reason). Compound this with being max level in less than a week after launch and I have a feeling you may be a power-gamer (in comparison to me).

 

I do not mean this in a negative way, just that you wanted to level, and you did so with gusto. Either you skipped storyline, or you spent much more time than I did in game; and this makes you a different kind of player than me. But not in a bad way.

 

By that alone however, I can not take your review as seriously, nor can I agree that "these need fixed or the game feels unfinished" because frankly, I have not experienced as much content as you. I feel like savoring my time in game, and letting the devs know my issues as they come up through the in-game bug reporter. And because I am slowly progressing, I give the devs much more time to fix what comes up.

 

Do not get me wrong, I really hope that Bioware takes these things into account (especially the GTN) and makes some changes. At the same time, I feel that many of your complaints stem from your own rushed push to max level and affinity for other MMO's and MMO styles. You played this game for the end-game content, but reached that point before it was entirely viable.

 

Work needs done, just like it does on most new MMO's that come to market. But many of the things that are brought up are actively being worked on right now, and to me that is enough. I do not demand that Bioware change large amounts of stuff just to cater to my play style and I hope others do not either.

 

I came from WoW where I was incredibly bored, tired of the grind, and sick of the snobbish elitists that seemed to fill the servers. Here I have a chance at a new adventure (which so far is fun as hell) with my friends, with a lot of room for expansion, and plenty to do that is NOT the normal MMO formula. Just because it's not like WoW, Rift (a true WoW clone), or SWG... Does not mean it is broken.

 

The fact that it feels like a single-player game with multi-player functionality is entirely in how you play the game. I have a group of friends that play as well, but we all have different play times and we are all at different levels. However, our guild is expanding with more people and I almost always have a pool of people to pull from for FP's and likely OP's when I reach max level. Being the first of a small group to max level is a lonely place, but it will expand in time. And they will probably put in a LFG tool since so many people were spoiled by WoW's version.

 

Anyways, that's my anti-rant rant.

 

tl;dr: I respect your opinion, but have to disagree. And I think it's because you power-leveled and I am taking my time.

[Deriver]

My only real gripe with this game is the one bracket WZs. I know the boost system does a good job, but no boost system can make it up for the abilities you still don't have because of your low level, compared to the higher level players fighting alongside you.

 

Other than that, I could work a bit on the animation delay issue and thats it.

[Vinzky]

Mainly because the OP is already lvl 50. He must have powered through the zones and reached planets that are currently unpopulated, because the majority of people haven't reached them yet.

 

It is all the players fault, if they won't do the group quests and heroics. Socialize goddamnit, this IS an MMO. The fact that you are unable to play it like one does not make it singleplayer. I don't feel bad for OP. It's his playstyle that really is at fault here.

[Fexhie]

QUote is not working so just going to say. The guy who thinks the game is going to go down like warhammer if they dont quickly fix major bugs doesnt know what he is talking about. War died for 2 reason, 1 they were patching major fixes left and right without enough testing/double checking and they would patch more bugs than they fixed, they were fundamentally changing how characters were played left and right. It had nothing to do with how quickly issues were addressed it had to do with how BADLY they were addressed. So far bioware has neither quickly patched and added more problems nor changed the way my class plays. So I am happy. I would like to get three things fixed, warzone issues(hp not updating and skills not firing and being unable to res for like 2 minutes), player database lookup issues like /who and guild information, and as someone said earlier a sellback option for when you get the wrong crap with something other than credits. But I am not going to quit if they are not fixed today. While these things suck for me, they are not gamebreakers. This may end up being a game I only play for a few months till Tera or Secret World come out, but I won't be leaving because they did not patch quick enough.

[rijde]

level 50 5 days back

 

Mods should make a consolidated thread for all this mush (period). First, they chewed through the content and now they have to play forum warrior with thousand word essays summarized as I'm level 50 and here is $#@% we all know needs some polish. Here is your forum warrior badge. Now go get some fresh air.

[Ar-Ka-Medies]

Not sure if anyone posted this yet or not, since I just skipped to the end of the thread, but the dude said he was level 50, five days ago from yesterday. One day before launch. Either he is completely and utterly pulling your chains, or he was a preorderer, and got to level 50 in four days. I don't think he can really talk about content since he obviously played the game for levels. Also, I was a player of vanilla WoW. It was, as a matter of fact, sloppier done than this. Hell, in my opinion, it's better than Burning Crusade-era WoW. The fact of the matter is that OP cannot talk about this game if he hasn't taken the time to enjoy it. And don't give me ******** on "I'm jealous that he's a faster leveler than me", or "he may have gone fast, but he still enjoyed the nuances". No, that's ********. Don't lie to yourselves people. This man is either a troll, or unable to give a valid opinion on the game.

[Xipeify]

Am I nuts for thinking that blue font on a blue background is a bit hard to read?

 

No you are not.

[Paradoxe]

My retine died a little when seeing the blue color.

 

Lrn 2 use proper coloring.

[Tektox]

Not sure if anyone posted this yet or not, since I just skipped to the end of the thread, but the dude said he was level 50, five days ago from yesterday. One day before launch. Either he is completely and utterly pulling your chains, or he was a preorderer, and got to level 50 in four days. I don't think he can really talk about content since he obviously played the game for levels. Also, I was a player of vanilla WoW. It was, as a matter of fact, sloppier done than this. Hell, in my opinion, it's better than Burning Crusade-era WoW. The fact of the matter is that OP cannot talk about this game if he hasn't taken the time to enjoy it. And don't give me ******** on "I'm jealous that he's a faster leveler than me", or "he may have gone fast, but he still enjoyed the nuances". No, that's ********. Don't lie to yourselves people. This man is either a troll, or unable to give a valid opinion on the game.

 

You are full of crap. Why wouldnt he be able to give his valid opinions of the game. It's from his perspective. Who are you to question his perspective and opinions? You can either agree with him or not.

[HeroMystic]

A lot of MMOs have literally bombed upon release due to many bugs and unfinished designs. To say SWTOR is a rush job is like saying the MMOs before it didn't even start their development.

 

That's not to say this MMO wasn't rushed out, but the hard truth is no MMO is ever finished upon release. Hell, they usually end up not being finished ever. Anyone who has played Final Fantasy XI would know how terrible that game was upon release, and anyone who bought Final Fantasy XIV would know just how terrible that game bombed to the point where Square Enix had to make the game F2P and is currently spending about a year and a half to redesign the entire game.

 

After 19 pages all I've been reading is TOR has ability lag (something I've witnessed myself).

 

Sorry, that's a DAMN good job from Bioware if that's the only major complaint.

[Majestic_Jazz]

1. It really feels like a single player game with multiplayer functionality. (the diablo series is a good example of what I mean.) Every server is overpopped with empire and underpopped with republic. I rolled republic and its astounding how few of us there actually are. Another thing that contributes to this feeling is the constant storyzones and instances. Now dont get me wrong, I think bioware did a fantastic job with the story and the immersion of your character aspect. Unfortunately much of this is lost when you see how railed the zones and planets are. Everything feels like a straight line.

 

 

How is this bad? This is the main reason why I love SWTOR and why I am playing this MMO and never even tried to play the others.

 

SWTOR DOES feel like a single player game but that does not mean you HAVE to play like it. If you want, you can group with friends and help each other out with their class stories. You can group with friends to knock out many of the world quest. You can group with friends to do Heroics, Flashpoints, Operations, and queue together for Warzones.

 

HOWEVER, if you want, you can ignore all of that and play like how I play and only group when I do Flashpoints/Heroics.

[Godsfear]

omg stop it with the stupid the game just came out argument, it's the core of the game that is problematic and that is really hard to patch

 

This^

 

Having played Warhammer for over a year from launch. I have been one of the fanboi's who hangs on patch after patch hoping, wishing and waiting the the game will get a "incredible" patch that fixes everything. The fact is though that WARHAMMER was built on a crappy engine and pushed out 1 year too early at least.

The thing that really worries me about this games future is how out of whack their priorities were for a mmo.

 

Tight gameplay should trump all else in a video game. Tight gameplay is what makes or breaks a game. There are lot's of bad games with tight gameplay that see success. There are very few games with sloppy gameplay that ever do well. DEAD ISLAND is a good example of this. The story sucks but the gameplay and enviroment are top notch.

 

People can handle bad stories in games but bad gameplay is a deal breaker for most gamers.

 

Truth is if all these bugs weren't super problematic they would have already fixed them.

[Yowfatto]

omg stop it with the stupid the game just came out argument, it's the core of the game that is problematic and that is really hard to patch

 

If you lvl to 50 in a few days that's your fault you got nothing to do. How many alts did you roll in WoW doing the same boring grind OVER AND OVER AND OVER. How many years did you do that for? If that didn't bore you for years why are you complaining here? The game just came out, they'll have a lot of new content. This game has so much content at launch it's ridiculous, BW isn't going to cater to the 10%ers who are impossible to make happy. This game has over a dozen flashpoints end game, 2 operations, a whole planet that is several wow zones dedicated to pvp. If that's not enough content for you well you can always go back to WoW that still has the same content and be bored there.

[LaurV]

I agree with the OP 100%

[Yowfatto]

Wall of text and blue font hurts the eyes can't even read.

[Quirnheim]

The more I play, the more I see that this game just wasn't ready for a December launch. I blame EA for wanting a short term cash cow.

 

There are so many features missing from this game that every other MMO has, such as the ability to sit, lay down, chat bubbles, anti-aliasing, damage metres, a non-bugged and near worthless crafting system.

 

There are just so many small things missing from the game, it's almost like it's just full of holes. Not to mention the bugs and broken class gameplay. The game needed at least another 3 months in development, for a March 2012 release. That would have allowed the designers to polish it up and get more done.

[Yowfatto]

OP this game has far more content than any other MMO at release. It's polished and the bugs are minor compared to other MMOs at release. This game is in a far better state than any other MMO i've seen at release and I've played all the big ones at launch. If the game is of this quality now it will only get much better.