Loving this Game: My Opinion

[Belaeren]

I am reading so many negative posts on this forum that I just can't help myself - I feel compelled to share my own viewpoint. The Stephen Reid article on Reddit noted that the devs do read the forums, so I hope I can provide a counterpoint to the negativity with some constructive feedback. I absolutely love this game. I am having a blast playing it! I have been a multi-year devotee of LOTRO (hated WOW though), and the only time I've been back since early access opened was on Tuesday morning when the maintenance patch took the TOR servers down.

 

Flashpoints are super fun. The first time I ran through Esseles, my jaw dropped. I had a permanent grin on my face the whole time. I loved how the story unfolded as you went along through the instance, rather than traditional MMO fare of trash-trash-boss-loot. It felt fast-faced and engaging. I also love the light/dark options with social voting to choose whose selection wins. Unexpected dark side choices by a Jedi led to many OMGs and LOLs in the chat window.

 

I love PVP here. I am only level 27 so haven't seen any open world PVP yet, just Warzones, so I haven't experienced the "no rewards / rankings from open world PVP" issue being reported. And I'm playing the Republic side, so I haven't experienced the anecdotal never-ending "Huttball Express" that Sith players have reported. I do grant that mixing level 10 players with players of level 30-40 (or higher) is a bit odd, since the low-ranked guys have so few skills, but it works well enough IMO. I've been PVPing in Warzones now since level 10 and did get kills of high-ranked people even at that low rank - and had FUN doing it. I loved the XP, I valued the credits (I use it to supplement my income now when I burn it all on buying new skills or on a speeder or on crafting), and I especially loved the Warzone commendations. I managed to get something like 450 commendations by the time I hit level 20, which I used to buy amazing orange set pieces that not only looked cosmetically awesome, they also gave me a major stat boost. Nice job on PVP Warzones!

 

People say this isn't a social game. It's true, there isn't much chatting in General chat. But I have had zero issues finding people for help with Heroics and Flashpoints at any time, on any world (or fleet). I can see how an LFD tool might marginally help assembling a group, but I feel it would significantly set back even the little social interaction and chat we see in General now. So an LFD tool definitely NOT desired by me. While I’m at it, I have seen some very strident requests for chat bubbles on this forum. Also, for me, definitely not wanted – that would break the immersion (I even turned off character names of other players). I always thought those chat bubbles looked ridiculous in SWG.

 

I think the game performance has been phenomenal. I realize some other people have had issues, but I have never had lag, have no FPS issues, and have only ever seen one bug: the six-inch NPC in a quest cutscene. Frankly, that was hilarious so I didn’t mind. I’m playing this on a generic laptop with no special video card, too, and it works and looks great. I’ve also never been bothered by login server queues; I play Republic on Sith Meditation Sphere and Sith on Harbinger, so it’s not like these are low-pop servers. The very few times I have seen queues my wait has been just a few minutes.

 

My minor gripes / requests:

 

• 
  I'd like to see a "cosmetic armour" option, such as exists in LOTRO, so you can display whatever nice-looking gear you like while still equipping the proper (unmatching) gear. I don't want the proposed "match colors to chest piece" idea since it's a partial measure. What really prompted this: when I equipped a helmet on my Jedi Sage, it turned what was an awesome looking hero into someone who resembled a churchman from the 1700s. That hat made my Jedi look like a pansy!! And I can't disable display of the hat without un-equipping it, unless I missed an option – I like the hair on my Jedi and don’t want to display any helmet. So this is a small issue, but important to me.

 

• 
  The Galactic Trade Network (GTN) needs enhancement so you can just click/drag an item in your inventory to pre-populate a search field rather than forcing us to wade through filters. For that matter, just having a search field you can type into would be great. I do think we have the start of a good economy, though, I am heartened; when I logged in this morning I had sold 10 items, making 22k credits overnight. Nice!

 

• 
  I’d like a way to use keyboard shortcuts to access all button options, so I don’t have to click everything. This means I’d like one row accessible via buttons 1 through = (as they are currently), but also by Ctrl-1 through Ctrl-=, Alt-1 through Alt-=, and Shift-1 through Shift-=. At the same time, the two rows which are allowed to be visible are too few – I need at least 3 visible key bar rows to fit skills and consumables I use in a normal day. I prefer them all at the bottom, not two on bottom and 2 on either side. Perhaps you could give an option to display more than 2 bars at the bottom at once, as well as an option to reduce the size of the buttons (they are huge) to ¾ or ½ proportional size from today.

 

• 
  Further, I want to be able to use F1-F12 to access party members. I need this when healing given how much context switching I have to do with multiple people/Companions and multiple heal skills. It seems I can do this today, but it’s backwards. I expect F1 to reference me, and F2 to reference the party member whose picture is on top of the list on my screen. Right now, F2 seems to access the bottom person, F3 is the middle, and F4 is the top-most person on the party list. This needs to be fixed so it’s more intuitive, F1-F4 for people from top to bottom. Further, pressing F2 twice should let me access the Companion of F2’s character.

 

I recognize that the game just shipped and there is plenty of time for enhancement. I am here for the long-haul; I subscribed for 6 months, and would have subbed for 12 months if it were given as a option. Heck, I would have bought a Lifetime subscription if it were offered! All in all, a great, fun game IMO. Nice work, Bioware!

[Belaeren]

One other thing that is pure win about this game: Companions. Being able to auto-sell vendor trash while still in the field? Yes please! Being able to craft while questing? Yes please! Having a complementary soldier to help me quest (ie. tank with DPS/healer)? Very nice.