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

[RealAeiouy]

I agree, the game does play like a single player game, which is an amazing feat. For years folk like me have not taken mmos seriously because they don't resemble any traditional rpgs created in over 20 years. My experience in Skyrim/Neverwinter Nights should feel like my experience in an MMO, except, there should be many other live people around instead of npcs.

 

I get this from star wars, to a point. There are always tons of people on our servers in our zones. (they should have put a limit not just on server, but on sides on a server as the republic is very overwhelmed everywhere. ) I can always find someone to do a flashpoint or heroic with in the area, even as my trooper.

 

I do agree with you that the game is flawed. It's designed so that at some point you can do alt characters with its legacy system. It is also designed so that you can appreciate the story. I don't watch movies more than once, i don't read a book but once. So why would I want to go through the same sidequests more than once. There needs to be at least twice as many planets.

 

In Rift, there are 2 or 3 zones I have never gone in. Honestly, if Rift had an interesting story, I'd be eager to do these zones or make an alt for them.

 

I agree with this.. I want to be in a world with a lot of other people so I can group up when I need to, or buy stuff from an auction when I want to... I don't necessarily want to be in a dungeon with 50 other people running around killing monsters. That is not adventuring... it is silly.

 

So I don't really understand the complaint where people want to be out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by 50 other people. Seems not to make a lot of sense.

[DarthPeterNorth]

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

 

It s hard.

 

 

I agree with OP in some parts. I blame lack of LFD for lack of flashpoint activity. No mailboxes in your ship sucks. Not being able to get on your ship anywhere besides that spaceport sucks. AH with no search for item name sucks. So many instancing sucks. Ability delays sucks horribly.

 

 

Still its the best MMORPG out there. See how bad this market is thanks to wow.

[Malachai]

Yeah, the "Game just came out!" and "Give it some time!" arguments are pretty pointless when you need to change major parts of the game design. After spending a rumoring 135 million in development I can't see them revamping anything major.

 

This is exactly what fanbois miss. Sure, some things are only bugs that need to be fixed like constant UI lock ups, raid frames not updating, etc.

 

However there are a lot of underlying issues which you don't just throw spit-shine on and release in a hotfix; they take time. Some of them are usability issues that should have never went live (terrible Auction House interface, non-customizable UI, dungeon finder, slicing being a ridiculous mega credit generator despite being told repeatedly of this during beta, etc.)

 

WoW having problems at launch is completely inconsequential. It's not competing with WoW of 6 years ago; it's competing with WoW (and other MMO's) now. It would be like arguing that it's ok if the new car I bought doesn't have a working air conditioner; neither did the Model-T! As many other companies learned, you only get 1 chance to make a first impression. If people get bored and leave SWTOR after 1-2 months then many/most will not come back for at least 6+ months, if ever.

 

You know what other fanbois had the "WoW had problems at release!" and "Give it time!!!" battlecries? Vanguard, DC Online, Warhammer, Rift...

 

I still am enjoying my time playing, but unless these obvious things aren't fixed quickly (seriously, how can you make a UI this bad in 2011??) I'll not be subbing past 1-2 months.

[Case_Wight]

Why is this an unreasonable expectation?

 

Because Blizz has had seven years to fiddle with WOW, work on class balance, and develop content.

 

Blizzard set the bar with WoW, so if other companies aren't meeting the bar, why should people stoop down to poorly thought out games and unfinished products which ask for $15 a month?

 

This assumes that SWTOR isn't meeting the bar. You seem to be asserting it isn't. I believe the immersive story, the voice acting, and the storyline make WoW look pathetic with its scrolling quest text.

 

It doesn't matter that the game just came out, they are trying to pull subscribers from WoW therefore they need to offer similar quality from the get go. If they aren't able to provide that then they should have stuck to single player games.

 

Nonsense. The expectation that a newly released game will have the same level of polish as a game with three xpacs and seven years behind it is simply stupid. WoW at release had all of these problems. That is the appropriate comparison, not WoW now vs. SWTOR now.

[HomeSlixe]

I won't be re subbing.

 

Disappointed in so many areas I am not gonna waste my time listing them all.

 

Adios

 

cool story bro

[Celidon]

Yes, it is a promising game, and the game is unfinished, probably a result of EA's notorious business practices.

 

I think you hit the nail right on the head there. Mostly the part about EA.

[Bellumpvp]

-A meta GCW system in which players fight for control of territories on each planet (not just Illum) for control of each planet, and the galaxy. Perhaps the pvp could be centered around fighting for control of some kind of outposts in each zone. SWG added something similar to this way late into its lifespan, when it was way too late, but it was AWESOME.

 

-A revamped space system. What we have now is unacceptable, it's a cheap gimmick, pure filler content. It needs to be completely scrapped and redone from scratch. I would love a space combat system more similar to the Rogue Squadron games. This, of course, would be an open space flight game, not the rail shooter we have now. SWG had the right idea, but it was too focused on dogfighting, and had a lack of large scale Star Wars space battle action. Also, space needs to be multiplayer, as this is an MMO. Currently, it is not. SWG hit the nail on the head with their approach to space multiplayer.

 

-Player cities. The best thing about Galaxies, bar none. But don't make SWG's mistake by mucking up the landscape with random structures all over the place. Bioware made a beautiful galaxy, let's not destroy it. Instead, guilds should be able to purchase a plot of land on whatever planet they want. The amount of player cities on each planet is capped. Cities start at rank 1, and as they get more players to live in them, they rank up. Ranking up grants the mayor access to more civic structures (things like mail terminals,, a starport markets, military buildings, etc). Add a new crafting crew skill to create structures and furniture to support this system. On PvP servers, Republic players can launch attacks on Imperial cities, and vise versa. Anyway, I'm getting into too much detail, here. Obviously this is a very complicated system and deserves its own thread.

 

I have to agree with everything you said. SWG had it right, this space on rails thing is dull and boring, i see no reason to invest time in upgrading my ship to just go play rails again.

 

SWTOR is good at first glance, but once you start looking deeper into the core aspects of the game there some really large blank areas.

 

What made SWG great was player cities, customizable homes, and customizable ships, player organized world PvP battles, and a very deep RP aspect involved with guilds.

 

However Bioware isnt going to change space combat now, nor add player cities. Its the same idea when we wanted NGE to be removed and for SWG to go back to the way it was. Vast majority of the players wanted it, but it never happened. And look at SWG now.. (done.)

 

The whole NGE thing seemed to be an attempt to garner more players and cave into the "noobish" style of MMO players, this made all the hardcore gamers quit.

 

 

Look at Warhammer, another EA title. What plagued that MMO?

Imbalance- everyone wanted to be destruction, the same issue is occurring here except with the Sith, the evil side is always more appealing.

 

One thing i could see Bioware doing is adding new planets simply for players to develop their own cities. (maybe have a republic planet, a sith planet, and a neutral planet to fight over.) <--- IMO that would be saaaaweeeet.

Edited December 28, 2011 by scottgeddes

[Waypoc]

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.

 

Pretty dead on.

[ironix]

2. This game has the least bugs of any other MMO launch I am aware of. If you disagree, mention one MMO launch that had less bugs or less important bugs. I've yet to find a gamebreaking bug.

 

You don't heal at all, do you?

[DarthDolemite]

cool story bro

 

Can we stop the cool story bro ....its so 3 years ago.

[TanKKnaT]

with regards to the search function of the AH... how can you expect a company to put this function into there game when they cant even do with there own forums?

 

not flaming, i love SWTOR even with its flaws, but the good things still come out on top for me...

[bigray]

With all due respect to the OP and his elite levelling skills, this game really is not designed for the highly demanding powergamers. The game caters to the much larger group of casual players. It's a highly directed and mostly polished experience in a well known IP, designed for casual players to blow off steam for a couple hours at night. If you can't or don't want to adjust your thinking and start looking at the game from that perspective, then I fear this isn't the game for you.

 

All of the talk about "game will fail if xxx core mechanic isn't changed" is just hyperbole at this point. The game is already designed and deployed, you are not going to see drastic changes to mechanics or core systems. BW has made a bet that their design decisions will appeal to the larger market and it will sustain the game for years, and if some unhappy powergamers leave then that's just a byproduct of their design, and factored into the decision-making process.

[PagingCraig]

With all due respect to the OP and his elite levelling skills, this game really is not designed for the highly demanding powergamers. The game caters to the much larger group of casual players. It's a highly directed and mostly polished experience in a well known IP, designed for casual players to blow off steam for a couple hours at night. If you can't or don't want to adjust your thinking and start looking at the game from that perspective, then I fear this isn't the game for you.

 

I suggest you reread what he said.

[jabbaandgravy]

I like the way this post summarizes all of the game's major flaws. Having participated in the beta test and having written up bug reports on the majority of these issues during the beta I simply see the release of the game as it was in beta as nothing more than an attempt to get anything, regardless of quality, to market. There was potential here for a very long lasting MMO. Key word is - "was". The death knell is ringing for SWTOR, and it has barely opened its eyes. Edited December 28, 2011 by jabbaandgravy

[songofprecept]

I like the way this post summarizes all of the game's major flaws. Having participated in the beta test and having written up bug reports on the majority of these issues during the beta I simply see the release of the game as it was in beta as nothing more than an attempt to get anything, regardless of quality, to market. There was potential here for a very long lasting MMO. Key word is - "was". The death knell is ringing for SWTOR, and it has barely opened its eyes.

 

Cant wait till you all quit tbh this forum is just full of the same stuff worded differently.

 

It is not wow go back if you miss it so much.

 

Game is very fun the few flaws there are do not detract at all from thst enjoyment.

 

Good luck with your ongoing campaign im sure therell be another mmo to whine about soon

[jabbaandgravy]

Cant wait till you all quit tbh this forum is just full of the same stuff worded differently.

 

It is not wow go back if you miss it so much.

 

Game is very fun the few flaws there are do not detract at all from thst enjoyment.

 

Good luck with your ongoing campaign im sure therell be another mmo to whine about soon

 

Did I mention WOW? nope. I said they had ample amount of feedback on these very issues during beta and yet they didn't fix any of them. So what exactly was the point of their beta if they didn't fix anything? Completely different than me whining about it not being WoW as you suggest.

[russmanOR]

Blue on blue, terrible color choice. As to the content of the post, I mostly agree, there is almost nothing different from the release build and the last beta builds except they slapped on orange color on "custom" gear. Which, among other things, just served to render 85% or so of quest rewards into vender crap.

The ability delay is my biggest problem. My first 50 is a Jedi Guardian, and it is completely broke than when I dodge or parry, it can cancel attacks. That makes no sense in an MMO and I can not believe they thought it was a good idea/that it made it to release. The Kira bug, the fact that some quests simply do not work, getting trapped in areas because the way out refuses to function, graphical glitches, inconsistent fps on decent hardware, UI that often shows different cast bars for the same ability, but different times, or shows no cast bar at all but the ability is still casting. Or worse, the ability fails to go off due to some animation glitch, but the cast bar still goes as though it went off properly.

PvE feels very..untuned. The difference in difficult of same level mobs from one planet to the next, or even one area to the next, is very inconsistent. On that same level is how you feel weak as a character, dependant on a companion at all times outside group content or pvp.

PvP is a flat out failure at this point, the unresponsive ability system is only made worse with moving targets, CC will go off but the target keeps running, general lag not related to ping.

 

All that said, I too am giving Bioware a chance to patch. WoW went down a road with cata and now panda whatever that I am not interested in, and I hoped this could fill the gap, but so far I am not impressed. KotoR lite with some multiplayer features.

[Tyraelium]

Well said OP. I largely agree with most of your points.

 

How is this MMO supposed to be a WoW-killer when it is still largely inferior in almost every way? Past the cutscenes and long winded stories, SWTOR is still lacking many of the evolutionary traits that WoW has picked up in 7 years. That alone will keep me playing WoW. Bad things I've experienced in WoW should not be repeated in a new game slated to be its successor...

 

ie.

Extremely long queue times. (1hr+ to log in some nights)

Random DCs that lead back to long queues

Many game crashing bugs still exist (some known since beta)

Some class quests unfinished or bugged

Jumbled talent trees

Broken endgame

no DR on CC in PvP? lol.

No dual spec

No guild bank

etc. can go on..

 

Also, the lack of modding/addons is also going to hold the game back.

 

I feel like this game would've done a lot better with another 6 months of beta instead of rushing it out before Christmas.

 

1-50 will be a good investment, but I'm not so sure this game has what it takes to keep me subbed.

 

A few months from now, everyone will be complaining about how noobs wont skip cutscenes in flashpoints/group quests, and you'll be stuck rewatching cinematics for the 190239413 time...

[_Zefire_]

I feel u mate i have all these problems and more.

The truth will come after the first month when there will be only 20 people per shard.

It will be a lot of fun seeing people paying per month for a single player game.hahahaha

Edited December 28, 2011 by _Zefire_

[SaltAU]

I won't be re subbing.

 

Disappointed in so many areas I am not gonna waste my time listing them all.

 

Adios

 

This.

[archifikoss]

This is a prime example of how a constructively critical post should be. I'm nowhere near 50 and won't be for a while, but I must applaud OP for his effort in writing the post... And no I'm not being sarcastic.

 

I wish more people on the boards posted like this.

[StephaneBlouin]

I 100% agree

[IAmYourGod]

Agree with this, lv50 assassin and im already bored and trying to figure out whta to do.. usually logging out solves it. ^.^

[Mandrax]

The blue in your post is unreadable, so I didn't read it. Please alter that horrible colour so that I can read it and pass comment.

 

Thanks.

[PhantomKnight]

I'm surprised your thread hasn't been locked/deleted. Me and a few others posted the same exact issues, almost as well articulated as yourself with no raging or anything.

 

Bioware customer service locked/deleted all of the threads. They did it for hours on end because people saw the injustice and reposted the closed threads.

 

But you are exactly right, this game is completely unfinished, and was clearly rushed by EA to come out. It doesn't have basic MMO functionality.