So much bias: the true state of the game is somewhere in the middle

[Master_Halcyon]

It's been awhile since I played a new MMO. My most played MMO is CoH, which has a more stable/mature community at this point (i.e. - most people playing CoH know what to expect and have been there for awhile). So I guess I've become a bit naive because the number of unbiased rants has sort of amazed me.

 

"I can't find groups or open world PvP at 50"

"This game is the best ever! It's so revolutionary"

"This game is awful, I'm gonna cancel"

"Space combat sucks!"

"Why didn't Bioware fix my bug over Christmas!"

"It's a new MMO, let's be patient for Bioware to fix major issues for a few months"

...etc

 

As is often the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle I think. But first some caveats on my viewpoint:

- Played 2 beta weekends only; during that time I sampled every base class + opposite AC on the mirrors to ~10-15

- Since launch, I've focused on a single character - Jedi Guardian, now level 35

 

Anyway, since everyone else is happily posting their opinions, I thought I'd join the hubris and add mine. I even toss in some arbitrary and meaningless ratings in some places, and offer my own suggestions!

 

Since it's long, I bet nobody reads it. But it was fun to write.

 

 

 

1. The measure of success: Fun

I don't know how anyone else decides if a game they are playing is successful. For me, I don't own ERTS (EA) stock. Therefore, all I really care about for an MMO is one thing: Am I having fun and does it look like I will continue to have fun.

 

Right now: The answer is a resounding YES. I'm thoroughly enjoying the Jedi Guardian gameplay and story. It all feels quite heroic and exciting and like a Star Wars story. I've enjoyed a few FP's and have no issue finding either a group of guild mates or even a PUG to do the heroic quests I run into as I continue on the story. I also love the gameplay. I love that there is no braindead autoattack. I love that I have to come up with a smart keybinding strategy because there are a lot of useful abilities and options I need to consider in running my Jedi effectively.

 

That said, there are some blemishes. For example, I normally love to PvP in an MMO. I've basically shelved that since ~level 23 because personally, I hate Huttball. I know others who love it. But my opinion (and most of the statements in this forum, sorry to have to point it out, are opinions) is that Huttball is boring and obnoxious. If I could pick what PvP game I could queue for, I'd be PvPing a lot more and would give this a better fun score. As it is now the best PvP I've had was the few times I got lucky enough to not queue for Huttball (I must be cursed to have gotten it so often) and getting jumped by Sith Assassins in open world PvP and tearing off their faces.

 

Additionally, I have some real love/hate over the crafting. I love the idea of the crew members handling most of the crafting. But I still feel like it's too boring/repetitive. I'd prefer they expand the focus on "mini games" to crafting and give the player the option to run a crafting assignment with their main character for a more significant yield. Sort of like radio missions in City of Heroes. This would be sweet.

 

Fun rating: 80/100

 

2. Evolution vs. revolution

It shouldn't be a big shock to anyone, but there isn't a lot of revolution in this game. Most of the game systems expand/evolve from previos MMOs/games (and before the "WowClone" catcalls start - guys, let's get serious. WoW didn't innovate either - it attempted to perfect key features/functions in the MMO world that they thought would attract the most players. They ripped from every other MMO out there...and those MMOs ripped from CRPGs and P&P RPGs.

 

Anyway, few points.

* Story-based focus

Basically, this has evolved from CRPGs and they've tried to deliver it into the MMO space. The results are mixed. The stories, alone, are quite good. Mostly well-written, great VO, etc. I rarely feel the drag of the typically "go here kill this loot that" MMO paradigm - not because it's absent, but because the story (for me) overrides it.

 

On the other hand...I don't actually feel the impact of the story on the game world. It's been awhile since I played Guild Wars, but part of me wishes BW had some how mixed in the story progression changes to the game world that you would see in the past in GW. Granted - this can lead to player base fragmentation so it's clearly easier said than done.

 

* Crafting

As mentioned above - the crew-focused crafting is a great idea. But from my point of view, it's window dressing only right now. The crafted items still fall to the same drawbacks of crafted items in virtually every other MMO I've played, and the crafting system by itself is not "fun". So I see crafting as a few nice ideas that need to be preserved in an overhaul somewhere down the line.

 

* Space combat / ships

I know a lot of people have rage over how this works, but to be honest, I find it on the fun side of tolerable. Having "housing" (even though you can't do any customization of it) right at launch is quite nice. And the space combat is a fun diversion/mini-game that is a nice break for me.

 

Now - if I was given a choice between this and fully customizable ships and free-form space combat, would I pick this? Well, no, of course not. But in my opinion people need to do a reality check as the current system is not so bad and I can see it being "fun" for a couple of more months, with a downgrade to "acceptable" for up to a year. Beyond that and I will join the complainers.

 

I also see potential for some real innovation in whatever "Space 2.0" looks like - if BW has the courage for it. For now, I don't find any revolution or much evolution here, just a decently fun subsystem that I don't think they could have launched without.

 

* Graphics

I have a custom built system. Most of the components are 3 years old, with some upgrades I've done in the interim (graphics card is 1 yr old, upgraded RAM 1.5 years back). I can run most of the settings on high. The graphics look pretty nice and thematic to me. Only thing I don't like is the "green walls of light" that randomly appear near friendly camp areas, that many of us are familiar with - it's a jarring glitch.

 

Nothing evolutionary or revolutionary here. I feel that what they have done is quite predictable for a mass market MMO (i.e., one intended to run on a wide variety of systems) and shouldn't really surprise anyone.

 

* Companions

For me - this is the most evolutionary thing BW has done. It's a natural thing to take NPC companions as they've had in their other CRPGs and evolve them into a sort of "pet". My one fear is whether companions will be nerfed. Right now I find them really enjoyable and useful. And I love the story lines that develop as affection increases.

 

* VO

As I mentioned earlier, the VO certainly enhances the power and polish of the stories. It's fantastically done, well-written, thorough, etc.

 

However, this isn't revolutionary either. Everyone has expected VO to become more and more common in MMOs. BW just has the most thorough and polished implementation of it. Very well done.

 

* Roles

This is one thing I love. BW is mostly stuck to the mantra that class != role. Instead, you pick a class, and your spec determines your role. And most AC's have playstyle choices to fill the same role.

 

Personally, this gives me a preference for the ACs which have 2 potential roles to spec into (Heal||Tank vs. DPS) over the ACs which just have an additional DPS playstyle choice, but regardless, I'm a fan of this idea.

 

Now, I have to say - I prefer much more free-form character generation. But it is what it is, and I can't expect BW to completely toss out what they have for something different so I'll just give them a nod for not pigeonholing every AC into a specific role.

 

Revolution, Evolution, and Polish

Basically, BW has some nice evolutionary features, and the game is quite polished. In my opinion, though, BW has taken very little risk to do anything revolutionary. I am partially disappointed given the budget they had for this game, but also partially unsurprised for the same reason.

 

Revolution: 5/100

Evolution: 60/100

Polish: 80/100

 

 

Overall

I'm enjoying the game tremendously, and I expect to be playing for some time as I cycle through the different stories. I'm hoping that as more of us reach 50 (yes - the leveling curve isn't bad, but yes - you are a power gamer if you are already 50) open world PvP on Ilum will be revamped to be more meaningful than it seems to be now (though to be fair - this is based on secondhand opinion and perhaps it's more interesting than it's been made out to be).

 

 

 

Suggestions to developers

I understand the aversion to risk given the budget of the game. So I won't recommend anything stunning. But I think you can continue to look at some other games to find high-value features, liked by specific communities, and retool them for SWTOR. Some examples I would look at:

 

 

DAOC

- RvR system. I played DAOC prior to TOA and loved the RvR. I'm sure others remember it fondly as well. I think more robust and meaningful RvR would be great for endgame here.

 

Anarchy Online

- I enjoyed Notum Wars. Basically, I think the key for endgame open world PvP: Make ownable, interesting, meaningful objectives. Valor buffs are not going to cut it.

 

City of Heroes

- Radio/Newspaper missions. I think you have an opportunity to marry the crafting system with something like radio missions and allow players to (optionally) run the crafting assignments directly for greater reward. You could integrate other minigames with this (for example: for slicing missions, there would be a mix of combat, patrol avoidance, and then a slicing minigame like in Mass Effect).

- Going Rogue. This seems like a "gimme" and I would be stunned if you don't have this planned already for some point down the road, even if it's only available for level cap. There should be story arcs that let you transition Republic<->Empire. In terms of game/PvP balance it seems like there is no issue here since the ACs all mirror each other. Mainly the issue seems like it would be tracking storylines when people go cross faction.

- Respec trials. Instead of marrying re-spec'ing to just an annoyance credit cost...why not have a level-adjusted FP or Heroic-2 to earn a free re-spec?

- Character appearance/customization. Frankly, the character creation options in SWTOR are just embarrassing when you look at what some existing MMOs have. To date, COH has my favorite appearance customization system, and it was already top-tier vs. several newer MMOs when it launched. I realize there are some notions that aren't compatible given a good part of a SWTOR character's appearance is based on gear, but the options are still painfully limited.

 

Asheron's Call

- Incredibly frequent content updates with new quests/stories/etc. I played AC for several years and for me, it's still the gold standard on frequent content updates. You guys want to earn my monthly sub, you had better dev staff to do the following in parallel:

* Maintenance: Investigate/fix/RCA on bugs. Up to weekly builds pushed

* Live content team: Run world events, frequent new quest/storyline pushes (like, monthly)

* Major content team: Working behind the scenes on major game systems (new ones or overhauling existing ones) for ~quarterly pushes

 

 

In closing, BW, I'm enjoying the game. Good job on evolving MMO features + CRPG features into one package in the Star Wars universe. You've got my attention for the next 2-3 months and I look forward to seeing your product roadmap to keep me engaged beyond that.

 

If you have somehow read this entire vanity post, here's a cookie!

Edited December 29, 2011 by Master_Halcyon

[misereor]

*munch, munch*

 

Good suggestions.

As I see it, the most critical issue, is having at least two development teams permanently working on new content. It really is a must for any MMO that wants to keep it's subscribers longterm. And they should be kept separate from the bugfixing team, or content development gets bogged down. Hope BW is already doing this.

Edited December 29, 2011 by misereor

[navycrow]

GJ a responsive post for once

[ltprudii]

You have to also remember they did push this game out pretty fast this year. Especially if you were in the first two waves of beta testing. A lot has been changed. As for graphic anomalies like the green flashes and artifacts, that is a driver issue and im sure around the new year or there sometime after ATI/Nvidia will release some bran spanking new ones to get rid of um and boost performance.

 

 

But as OP said, its still fun. I love the game. Its not perfect, but i dont expect it to be. Im just surprised server never crashed (need i remind you of other MMOs at launch...). Plus all the querks and bugs are pretty much cosmetic or very small. The storylines are amazing and the worlds are very well built.