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

[karat]

I don't have an issue with grouping. Playing on Jung Ma I have never had issue finding groups for heroics, flashpoints or just doing the zone quests together. Though being 50 this early what do you expect? If you level that fast the mmo does not matter as you burn through to the end without enjoying the journey anyway.

[dduttonnc]

Umm.. there's about 20 "raid" ops zones for end game that are all made for 16-24 people.. why not do those to keep you busy?

[Mallagant]

First, to the OP, thanks for not ranting like a 3 year old. Well spoken =) However, here are my disagreements with your post, and hopefully, they will offer you a bit of hope and more alternatives.

 

First, you hit 50 before the game has been out a week. I don't see a problem with this, other then the fact that very few people had the time, or desire that playstyle, and you essentially outleveled 95% of your server...so of course its going to feel like a single player game when you are, for the most part, playing alone. I'm sure others will eventually catch up and offer you more for 50 play. Who knows..it could even wind up being like Rift, where the game doesn't really start until you hit 50. (unfortunately they left out level of difficulty, and kept it easy, which helped the game on its decline)

 

In terms of it feeling like a straight line, and having only one bracket..well..in my opinion, this is a good thing. First off, the game is a week old..no new content has been released yet, be patient. If you add too much at start or to fast, you run into Everquest's problems where zones are totally dead, and too much content to see at a decent pace. Hell, in a top end, hardcore guild, after 11 years in that game I STILL didn't see atleast 1/3 of the content. With WoW, yes, there aren't THAT many area's to quest, but there is more then one. However, after Burning Crusade, how often did you see more then a couple players in each zone pre-30? Not very many. And once you hit 30, there were the hub zones, questable by horde and alliance alike, and most tended to gravitate towards STV, leaving the other zones fairly dead. This game isn't quite as easy to level in as WoW, but why spend time, money, effort, and patches, building up zones that players outlevel in 2 days or less. Again, in my opinion, this is where Rift got it right by focusing on 50 gameplay. People leveled fairly quickly, and needed more to do at 50, and they responded with more and more options and content at that level. I know this feels like it alienates other players who enjoy the lower level content, but the alternative to that is make an alt or two, twink em out or don't, and experience the low level content all you like. Thats why there are 8 character slots. 4 classes per side, have at it. The alternative is, for any who remember, the beginning days of Everquest where it was damn hard to even get out of your starter zone. You heard that "ding" for the level up, you sat back, wiped the sweat off your face, lit up a cig, grabbed a beer, finally hit the bathroom, and that was after you hit level 2. Unfortunately, it wasn't very..casual player..friendly, until the later years, which by then it was kinda too late.

 

In terms of the PvP aspect, well, I think BioWare got it right here. This is one of the hardest aspects of a game to nail properly, without making the game primarily geared towards PvP. Personally, the way I see it, if you want to PvP full time or hardcore, stick to the PvP servers. When it comes to WZ's though, yeah, this I like. Eliminating the brackets has pretty much eliminated the prime complaints most people have when it comes to PvP. I went in at level 12, was till able to hold my own, and in some instances, take out a level 30+( once even a 50 ). The WZ buff we get helps keep things on an even keel. If your higher level, well, you have more chance at survival since you have more abilities then I do. "But But But I want to faceroll low levels and brag about how large my epeen is, then say I'm a PvP god even though I play on a PVE server." Well..tough ****. The warzones are a GROUP effort, and how they have it now is damn close to hitting the nail right on the head.

 

A few things I've read about in the reply's to the OP though, I have yet to see. Lag? I play on The Shadowlands, which is CONSTANTLY full, and have yet to see what people are talking about with ability lag, or really, any lag for that matter. If the area I'm in is packed, well then yeah, I get what you'd expect.

 

What I'd like to see? Well, rather then say what I dislike about this game (there is very little I dislike, and I'm having as much fun as I did early EQ days), here's a list of what we could use from other games...

 

1. From EQ, borrow some of their difficulty. People are hitting 50 within the first week of release. Your game will die early, or you wont be able to keep up with 50 content and suffer a slow and agonizing population death.

 

2. From WoW, an ingame guild finder. Typically, I'm a GL, but here, I want to take a break from responsibility and just do my own thing. However, being used to having a large group of people to socialize with, sometimes I get bored, or lonely I don't really want to have to scroll through endless posts on the forums and sort not only my server, but then faction. I'd love to be able to read just a brief guild summary while relaxing up at the Imperial Fleet.

 

3. From RIFT..well, 2 things actually. First..PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me customize my own UI. I loved being able to resize, move, change, etc...every single one of my windows. It's my UI damnit, let me play with it! Second..dynamic zone content. While I think your on the right track with Heroic Quests, the rift spawns are pretty awesome. Running around questing, then BAM, invasion, zone raid gets put together automatically. Nice break in the questing tedium.

 

General changes, or additions..

When I'm trying to look at how gear looks from the gear vendors, and accidentally buy said piece, I can't get my tokens or full amount of money back. Yes, basically it's my fault for accidentaly hitting ctrl-left, or right, or whatever. There is alot of ctrl-clicking in this game, help me out. I'm gettin up there in age and slipping. Let me get my tokens back within 2 minutes or something. Not a large time frame, but a time frame none the less.

 

Speaking of time frames! Please don't DC me, then add a kick to the groin by tossing me at the bottom of a server queue even though I only dc'd for 30 seconds. Grace period? Please? WoW and Rift do it, and if all the has been's do it, then...

 

Wow..just realized how much I typed..won't happen again, I promise.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Mallagant

[drottningu]

Very well written and polite OP. However, it sounds like you just described WoW after it's initial release (minus the zones on rails... WoW didn't have that issue imo).

 

Nearly every MMO I've played (and I've been playing since EQ), has suffered a poor release. Most of the time there are AWFUL bugs, little endgame content, extremely unbalanced classes, and just a general beta feeling.

 

Sadly, many players were introduced to MMO's by WoW and started playing WoW long after it's initial release. Thus they assume all MMO's should be as polished and as content rich as WoW is now.

 

It shocks me how pissy people are getting over TOR's problems, because nearly ALL of it's problems are basically expected of an MMO at release.

 

Man, I remember the release of WOW...Oh boy..That was a crazy time. Back when seeing a lv 19 was a OMG your amazing dude! moment.

 

But to mention bugs..How about falling through a zepplin over the dead zone and dying when trying to get to the other continent? How about warlocks being able to fear lock you for your entire life? How about professions being next to useless? How about leveling was insanely hard?

 

How about it took 2 years for raiders to get all there gear? How about instances taking skill and getting thrashed by lv 20 content? Let's not forget about no real explanation of gameplay mechanics, No leveling guides, No hints, no wikies, terrible UI's, terrible maps, long grinds inbetween content, terrible PVP balance, 6 hour PVP ques for AV, 10 hour AV battles (totally epic), No true pvp rewards till well after release.

 

This aint **** compared to the starting grounds WOW had. Yall are spoiled. You join the MMO scene years after blizzard learned there lessions polished the game...and then ruined it by making it easy. Yall have grown up spoiled. And your bringing that childish bratty attitude to a new MMO.

[DarthKaldriss]

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

 

'sigh' Says you and a few others, if the games not for you its not for you.

[Fexhie]

Fixing bugs quickly is important. Fixing bugs without adding 2 or 3 unexpected ones is more important. I hope they take their time and do it right.

[Tremelsar]

The game came out just recently. lol Give it a break.

 

I have to agree with you, most mmo are sooo much worse off at the start than Swotor.

 

Case in point, WAR, AION, DC online, and yes even the beloved WOW every game wore filled with bugs and did not have ever element the players wanted to have, but with time the edges will smoothen out as they allways do.

 

If people are waiting for a mmo that is perfect at launch day i suggest stopping you mmo career and start playing solitare.... Not Flaming, just sayin...

[NyyuSecura]

OMG I DON'T HAVE PATIENCE AND NOW THAT I PAYED 60€ FOR A GAME IT HAZ TO BE PERFECT FORM THE 1st DAY OF RELEASE. grow up, or go back to wow and play with pandas, sho sho

the game will be patched and future optimization will be added, good thing no one will watch this thread of yours cuz nobody cares. BYE! geez

[Swift]

That would be so much more readable if the bullet point titles were not in bright blue. It really does not go well with the background.

[Zlodo]

The game came out just recently. lol Give it a break.

 

"the game is still in beta"

"the game is still in early access"

"the game has just been released recently"

"the game still haven't had its first major patch"

 

I sense a pattern here.

 

Let's extrapolate and figure out the next excuse in the list:

"the game haven't had its first expansion pack yet"

 

You can like the game without denying that it have some potentially serious flaws, you know.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Zlodo

[pindel]

only game I've ever played where alt-tab makes you watch a loading screen

[Wrexad]

The blue burns my eyes ahhhh

[Fexhie]

I have to agree with you, most mmo are sooo much worse off at the start than Swotor.

 

Case in point, WAR, AION, DC online, and yes even the beloved WOW every game wore filled with bugs and did not have ever element the players wanted to have, but with time the edges will smoothen out as they allways do.

 

If people are waiting for a mmo that is perfect at launch day i suggest stopping you mmo career and start playing solitare.... Not Flaming, just sayin...

 

You did not mention Anarchy Online, by far the worst release ever! AC 2 was pretty close as well and no mention of it either! In fact the ones you listed pale in comparison.

[Six-Echo]

 

Flame if you will.

 

Well to state the obvious, if your 50 already you simply missed ALOT.

 

Go back and reroll and actually read the dialogs, do all the side and bonus quests, run some flashpoints. (change your bedpan first)

[elzi]

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? I am going to reference WoW's launch here. It has a lot of problems. Most of them had to do with lag, server downtime, queue times, lag lag and more lag, but the combat system worked. Grouping worked, guild windows worked... etc etc etc...

 

SWTOR is a good game, but it was released in a terrible state. Bioware did good in avoiding too harsh of queue times for most servers and the lag for me anyway is virtually non existent. No complaints there. But youd think Bioware/EA would have learned from other mmos and especially from their own beta what players expect from their gameplay/ui etc etc.

 

You obviously didn't play at the launch of WoW because at the launch of WoW it had a player base of any other MMO, which on average each mmo had about 250,000 people. They did not have server crashes on day one, they did not have server que's. They got past 1 million players 2 years later in 2006 when the game finally hit its hype. Learn your stuff before you start talking. So for SWTOR has a game that has just launched for 7 days and has over a million subscriptions...........take your invalid arguement somewhere else.

Edited December 27, 2011 by elzi

[DaMaDo]

I just want chat bubbles

[BrigOrion]

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.

 

Every MMO will feel like a single player game if that is how you choose to play it.

 

2. So many bugs.

 

I haven't found any bugs yet. As for the 'delayed response' issue, there isnt' one. Just players with 'delayed thinking'.

 

3. Features that the game should have but doesnt.

 

Those are so trivial they aren't worth mentioning, unless you simply want to impress us with your wall o' text.

 

4. PVP feels incredibly out of whack.

 

Your problem there is you are looking for PvP in a PvE game. There is no such thing as a good PvE game with good PvP.

 

 

The core of your problem is that you raced to end-game in two days after the official launch; it might have taken you up to seven days if you got into early access. You can't do that and expect to enjoy the game.

[elzi]

You did not mention Anarchy Online, by far the worst release ever! AC 2 was pretty close as well and no mention of it either! In fact the ones you listed pale in comparison.

 

Those games had bad launches as well Fexhie, I also had a bad launch with Star Wars Galaxies, you couldn't play for about 5 days because we had our first "sony experience" as I like to call it. Regardless it was rewarded with 30 days free play.

[drottningu]

You obviously didn't play at the launch of WoW because at the launch of WoW it had a player base of any other MMO, which on average each mmo had about 250,000 people. They did not have server crashes on day one, they did not have server que's. They got past 1 million players 2 years later in 2006 when the game finally hit its hype. Learn your stuff before you start talking. So for SWTOR has a game that has just launched for 7 days and has over a million subscriptions...........take your invalid arguement somewhere else.

 

Sadly, alot of these "mmo" players are to young, or just joined during the massive hype phase that was WOW. I meet so many folks that started during Wrath, and they compare every MMO to that standard..They don't understand how many years, how many bugs and issue the game had to reach that point. A bunch of spoiled brats coming to SWTOR and expecting a polished wow experience that took blizzard 7+ years to create.

[SonicViper]

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

 

This in my opinion is what scares me the MOST as far as this mmo failing completely. Bioware can/will be making the game better as it has only been out for 7 days. However, Bioware being bought/sold to a "public" company was the worst mistake Bioware could have done but..w/e. Nothing last forever.

[mobywv]

I won't be re subbing.

 

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

 

Adios

 

 

Must be fun being a MC Raider! Have fun leveling fishing on your alt!

[Fexhie]

You obviously didn't play at the launch of WoW because at the launch of WoW it had a player base of any other MMO. On average it had about 250-600,000 people. They did not have server crashes on day one, they did not have server que's. They got past 1 million players 2 years later in 2006 when the game finally hit its hype. Learn your stuff before you start talking. So for SWTOR has a game that has just launched for 7 days and has over a million subscriptions...........take your invalid arguement somewhere else.

 

We must of played on diff. release dates. My wow crashed and server went down on the first day, just minutes after opening and many days after. They did not have ques tho you are right about that, they also had very little content. At max (inside of a week after release) I was running around in circles most of the time and the only thing to do was attack some town where horde liked to hang out.

[fallenvirtues]

More like ability lag, the fact that having animations attached to everything easily makes you waste GCDs (i.e melee channeled abilities especially, if my target moves out of range during ravage while I'm stuck going through my little twirl...no damage), animations can also interrupt your own abilities because your dodged for some reason (unexpected realism mayhaps?), erratically updating hp bars and other such pleasantries.

 

As someone who has played WoW for the grand total of two days back when BC came out, the constant comparisons are kind of annoying =/

 

I agree that interupting ravage by hitting another ability is annoying, BUT, I have had no issues with combat..Especially since I have adjusted for it and I actually like that the hits correspond with the animations...By the way, Ravage still hits the target if they move or whatever...Just pay attention to it...We were in foundry last night and the boss ran past me..My toon automatically turned to face him and still hit him though he moved a little out of range

 

Now when the animations run longer then the GCD, I can see how that would be annoying and I think that will be one of the first things adjusted...But seriously guys, its a different approach then the all mighty WoW and you just arent used to it...Adjust your gameplay to compensate for it...You all complain its to much like WoW and then immediately ***** that it isnt WoW-like enough...smh

 

I understand the points made, I just cant agree with them all...I would like to see some stuff modified and etc, but overall, I love the game...That doesnt make me a fanboy!

 

EDIT: My ravage has never been interupted by me dodging or etc...None of my attacks have ever been interupted like that so I'm gonna assume you are full of it...no offense

Edited December 27, 2011 by fallenvirtues

[Karai]

is it just me that feels like this game has no replay value since there's only 1 planet per lvl bracket? First character is fun but why would I make a second one? I don't feel like doing all the same boring side-quest only to see a new story thats probably doesnt even represent 10% of my quests. WoW usually had atleast 2 zones per lvl brackets.

 

Yeah, wow had 2 zones per level brecket. Both zones were boring, so once i actually got into endgame content I just didn't have strenght to level again. I spent 2 years in WoW with single max. lvl toon, cause i couldn't bring myself to go through the torture again.

In this regard, SW:TOR does much better.

[Darkhosis]

My view is you're going at this game all wrong. While everyone should enjoy their game and be allowed to play as they wish. SWTOR is not a traditional MMO.

 

SWTOR is geared towards altaholics that enjoy the stories and cutscenes. It isn't geared towards the WOW crowd of gear grinding and raiding. It's a game for those that love Star Wars especially KOTOR.

 

You are meant to play through this game several times. If there was ever an MMO more about the journey than the endgame. Well you're looking at it.

 

To make it to 50 at the speed you did it is obvious you didn't watch the cutscenes or get into the story. I'm doing a video series which includes all the cutscenes- it would be physically impossible for you to have watched them all.

 

You ate up SWTOR in one bite and should have savored the flavor a bit more. Once again this is not a traditional MMORPG and it won't appeal to those into hardcore gear grinds.