Top 10 criticisms of SW:TOR with responses

[DariuszPol]

1. Bad or cartoon-y looking graphics.

 

> Its called stylized graphics. SW:TOR's graphics are not designed to be photo-realistic so that they will not look dated in a year or two. If you want photo-realism, play BF3 (great game EA).

 

Stylized for kids under age 8. For example Mirror Edge have stylized graphic that look good no matter what. Why they insist to copy WoW style instead of making their own ? "Clone Wars" style look just silly. And as you see - most people agree. Copying WoW is good only for short term.

 

2. Linear storyline.

 

> SW:TOR is a story-line driven game. All MMORPGs with experienced-based character leveling are by nature linear to some extent. SW:TOR is unique in that at each step in the storyline, you can make decisions from multiple paths that will affect the destiny of your character.

 

And what change ? Nothing. Also you can't even skip area you are in because of story quests line so EVERY time you play MMO you must do EXACLY THE SAME THING. I see you are "new mmo player" who played mostly games like WoW or RIFT and you have NO IDEA how true MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES look like. You probably never tried Ultima, EVE or other sandbox mmo. What BW should done is to create SANDBOX and put story lines there (like in Skyrim for example). So you have loot of different planets with "loot of toys to play" like in TRUE MMO (you decide what you want to do) and you have loot of good stories to pick up.

Instead of doing something like that and creating true MMO we have poor copy of WoW that is even more linear than WoW (there you can at least visit few locations on the same lvl as you and do quests there - here you must do stuff in exact same order in exact same place).

 

You never played good MMO do you ?

 

3. No open world. I dont like exhaustion or boundaries.

 

> Its a big galaxy, did you expect to be able to ride a speeder from one planet to another? Exhaustion and boundaries are part of every MMORPG including WoW. No game world goes on forever.

 

But at least you can travel to some locations and do whatever you want (sandbox) or you have few locations to visit on your level (themepark like WoW). Here you have NOTHING. Even visiting planets like Ilium (lvl 50) can get you banned. You can visit it but if you do - Bioware will ban you because... you should not visit it... So you can't do anything. Stick to whatever Bioware say and follow the path they prepare or do nothing. That's not MMO. That's a pile of crap.

 

4. No dungeon finder.

 

> Type /who and hit enter. You can find people who are LFG and in the zone where you are questing or doing heroics. Dungeon finders, especially x-server destroy MMO communities and distort character progression by removing players from the flow of the game and rewarding bad behavior. Server communities are self policing, if you behave badly, you will be removed from your flashpoint or heroic group and likely remembered so be a team player and help your group.

 

Because of sharding there is around 8 people on my planet. Try to form a group from half of the server. Good luck with that.

 

5. No x-server warzone finder.

 

> Just click the Republic or Empire button and wait, you can queue with a group from your guild or server. See #4 for x-server issues and their effect on server communities. If you want a mindless, anonymous pvp grind, SW:TOR is not the game for you.

 

6. No flying mounts.

 

> You have your own space ship, you can go anywhere in the galaxy in an instant. What more do you want?

 

They claimed that there will be minimum of kill and fetch quests while 99% of quests are kill and fetch. And they have STAGES. Kill 20 mobs. Kill 40 mobs. Use 10 items. Kill boss. Always like that. It would be nice to fly to area where you need to kill 61 mobs and use 10 items instead of SLOOOOOOOOWLY running there. Bike is on lvl 25. RUNING IS ON LVL 14. Until then you run very slowly to every dam place. Why ?

 

7. Companion crafting and gathering.

 

> You have more than one of your own personal valet, bodygaurd, cyber-@#$ toy, servant or slave. Yes, you have to equip it and give it gifts. What more do you want?

 

Real crafting instead of small panel to click on that make crafting booring and pointless ?

 

8. SW:TOR is boring, cut scenes and voice acting are time consuming and a waste of time.

 

> Voice acting and cut scenes are a key part of the game. If you have MMORPG ADHD, try ritalin. If that doesnt work, SW:TOR is not the game for you. Group or social gameplay is strongly encouraged. If you dont play well with others, there are some parts of the game that you will not experience.

 

9. SW:TOR is not a true MMORPG.

 

> By whose standard? It may not be the MMORPG you are used to but SW:TOR is definitely an MMO-ROLE-PG. Take it from a role-player, SW:TOR is a role-players wet dream.

 

Try some good sandbox MMO. True mmo that are massive and that give you loot of toys so you decide how you want to play and what you want to do instead of moving you to one area to another to kill stupid mobs 99% of your time. EVE Online is good example of S-f.

 

10. SW:TOR is buggy.

 

> More than 3 years and hundreds of millions of dollars in development. Take it from a software developer, software development is an imperfect process. BioWare does it better than most. Given the size and scope of SW:TOR, the game is remarkably stable and bug free. If you find a bug, report it. Remember that THE LACK OF A FEATURE THAT YOU WANT IS NOT A BUG. BioWare's programmers are bug-stomping as you read this.

 

Hundreds millions of dollars, 3 years and my class is buggy so I can't finish my quest line. Mail system is broken, PVP is broken, channeled abilities are broken, beta bugs are not fixed, chat is broken, some flashpoints are broken etc. What you said would be true if they could AT LEAST fix major bugs from beta but they didn't do it so your statment is wrong.

[CharagonIGN]

1. Bad or cartoon-y looking graphics.

 

> Its called stylized graphics. SW:TOR's graphics are not designed to be photo-realistic so that they will not look dated in a year or two. If you want photo-realism, play BF3 (great game EA).

 

2. Linear storyline.

 

> SW:TOR is a story-line driven game. All MMORPGs with experienced-based character leveling are by nature linear to some extent. SW:TOR is unique in that at each step in the storyline, you can make decisions from multiple paths that will affect the destiny of your character.

 

3. No open world. I dont like exhaustion or boundaries.

 

> Its a big galaxy, did you expect to be able to ride a speeder from one planet to another? Exhaustion and boundaries are part of every MMORPG including WoW. No game world goes on forever.

 

4. No dungeon finder.

 

> Type /who and hit enter. You can find people who are LFG and in the zone where you are questing or doing heroics. Dungeon finders, especially x-server destroy MMO communities and distort character progression by removing players from the flow of the game and rewarding bad behavior. Server communities are self policing, if you behave badly, you will be removed from your flashpoint or heroic group and likely remembered so be a team player and help your group.

 

5. No x-server warzone finder.

 

> Just click the Republic or Empire button and wait, you can queue with a group from your guild or server. See #4 for x-server issues and their effect on server communities. If you want a mindless, anonymous pvp grind, SW:TOR is not the game for you.

 

6. No flying mounts.

 

> You have your own space ship, you can go anywhere in the galaxy in an instant. What more do you want?

 

7. Companion crafting and gathering.

 

> You have more than one of your own personal valet, bodygaurd, cyber-@#$ toy, servant or slave. Yes, you have to equip it and give it gifts. What more do you want?

 

8. SW:TOR is boring, cut scenes and voice acting are time consuming and a waste of time.

 

> Voice acting and cut scenes are a key part of the game. If you have MMORPG ADHD, try ritalin. If that doesnt work, SW:TOR is not the game for you. Group or social gameplay is strongly encouraged. If you dont play well with others, there are some parts of the game that you will not experience.

 

9. SW:TOR is not a true MMORPG.

 

> By whose standard? It may not be the MMORPG you are used to but SW:TOR is definitely an MMO-ROLE-PG. Take it from a role-player, SW:TOR is a role-players wet dream.

 

10. SW:TOR is buggy.

 

> More than 3 years and hundreds of millions of dollars in development. Take it from a software developer, software development is an imperfect process. BioWare does it better than most. Given the size and scope of SW:TOR, the game is remarkably stable and bug free. If you find a bug, report it. Remember that THE LACK OF A FEATURE THAT YOU WANT IS NOT A BUG. BioWare's programmers are bug-stomping as you read this.

 

Most of these wouldn't even make the Top 50 list of things people have been complaining about in this game. Try again.

[Samaul]

Most of these wouldn't even make the Top 50 list of things people have been complaining about in this game. Try again.

 

I am not here to support the trolls, flamers and haters:rolleyes:

 

Feel free to make your own top ten list

Edited January 2, 2012 by Samaul

[Samaul]

/bumpity

 

Lets keep the good (and sometimes bad) karma going!

[Varghjerta]

/Agreed with the OP

 

Actually find it refreshing playing a game that seems to take care of its potential

[Avrose]

These aren't the main complaints and I don't agree with your explanations.

One I would like to tackle though.

 

 

 

 

 

Marked the first issue, why can't the tool just be global?

In fact why not allow people to put themselves in queue for a flash point with this tool.

A lot of my class quests require me to travel to low level zones so I can't queue for anything or look for people.

 

I find myself sometimes going to the space station , LFG can't find than go to two different planets for my level to look around.

Ask in general just to do a flash point, I don't think this tool is nice at all or social.

 

 

As for the LFG tool well if it is all with in the server people can police it them selves as well.

I end up in an instance with people I don't know, same ones I meet through the other LFG channel except it's less loading screens and much more convenient.

If I want to go to a flash point I feel like playing, I am not trying to be a conversationalist.

 

 

Also take into account not every one plays on a full server or during peak times so finding a group with out that tool can be pretty rough.

In my opinion it can be done better so well I would like a LFG tool , maybe not how WOW has it but certainty not this.

 

I think a shard only LFG tool is a great idea with some tweaks.

 

Not to start a LFG argument thread within this one but really think about what your saying.

 

EVERY instance portal is in one zone known as imperial or republic fleet/staging zone. Being in lfg in one zones makes it easy to find you.

 

Also in the early days of the game being forced to get to know people , chatting looking for what classes best play with your own. Who you like ect is key to build your server community. if they are good add them to your friends list. if they are great add them to your guild.

 

I feel the LFG tool from WoW broke the server community.

 

Hundreds millions of dollars, 3 years and my class is buggy so I can't finish my quest line. Mail system is broken, PVP is broken, channeled abilities are broken, beta bugs are not fixed, chat is broken, some flashpoints are broken etc. What you said would be true if they could AT LEAST fix major bugs from beta but they didn't do it so your statment is wrong.

 

if your going to act like that the lest you can do is provide specific examples and offer feedback accordingly.

 

No one can address your claims if we don't know what your talking about exactly.

 

Because guess what? not everyone has the same computer, internet connection, faction, class, or planet they like to hang out in.

I'm not saying you can't be right but for the love of the Force do yourself and us a favor and wipe the foam from your lips and calmly explain

Edited January 2, 2012 by Avrose

[LogicalPremise]

I'm not ... sure... what you are trying to do here.

 

1. Bad or cartoon-y looking graphics.

 

> Its called stylized graphics. SW:TOR's graphics are not designed to be photo-realistic so that they will not look dated in a year or two. If you want photo-realism, play BF3 (great game EA).

 

There is a clear and distinct difference between stylized graphics and poor graphic conditions. Many games (Champions Online, WoW itself, etc) have exaggerated or stylistically "unrealistic" graphics.

 

On the other hand, there are a number of jarring flat out bad art and graphics decisions. Low-res 2D skyboxes for one. That isn't style, that is just bad.

 

4. No dungeon finder.

 

> Type /who and hit enter. You can find people who are LFG and in the zone where you are questing or doing heroics. Dungeon finders, especially x-server destroy MMO communities and distort character progression by removing players from the flow of the game and rewarding bad behavior. Server communities are self policing, if you behave badly, you will be removed from your flashpoint or heroic group and likely remembered so be a team player and help your group.

 

A dungeon finder does not have to be cross server. No one bothers using LFG hardly. Explain why a in-server LFD tool is "bad".

 

10. SW:TOR is buggy.

 

> More than 3 years and hundreds of millions of dollars in development. Take it from a software developer, software development is an imperfect process. BioWare does it better than most. Given the size and scope of SW:TOR, the game is remarkably stable and bug free. If you find a bug, report it. Remember that THE LACK OF A FEATURE THAT YOU WANT IS NOT A BUG. BioWare's programmers are bug-stomping as you read this.

 

I think the issue here is there are some bugs that are ... well, extremely egrearious. You have people who pre-ordered the game months in advance who literally cannot play what they paid for and cannot get a rerfund -- and the last thing they need is someone screaming at them that "it's coming" when the only bugs fixed so far are minor.

Edited January 2, 2012 by LogicalPremise

[Tiriensoul]

Great.....

[Misra]

 

So if you play in a group with someone you dont get companion points and your entire roleplaying experience comes down to a dice of roll, yet you say this is a key part of the game? Not everyone wants this and its a valid concerne.

 

 

 

Just wanted to mention that you do get companion points if you are doing conversations while grouped.

[Samaul]

I'm not ... sure... what you are trying to do here.

 

There is a clear and distinct difference between stylized graphics and poor graphic conditions. Many games (Champions Online, WoW itself, etc) have exaggerated or stylistically "unrealistic" graphics.

 

On the other hand, there are a number of jarring flat out bad art and graphics decisions. Low-res 2D skyboxes for one. That isn't style, that is just bad.

 

A dungeon finder does not have to be cross server. No one bothers using LFG hardly. Explain why a in-server LFD tool is "bad".

 

I think the issue here is there are some bugs that are ... well, extremely egrearious. You have people who pre-ordered the game months in advance who literally cannot play what they paid for and cannot get a rerfund -- and the last thing they need is someone screaming at them that "it's coming" when the only bugs fixed so far are minor.

 

I could live with a level and zone based single server LFG tool. I thin that x-server LFD and LF-PvP is ALWAYS a bad idea.

 

This is not a bug listing, reporting or discussion thread. Neither is this a performance optimization thread. If you are having performance issues with SWTOR

 

1. Scan your system for viruses and spyware and remove them.

2. Optimze or defragment your hard drive.

3. Run MSConfig and turn off unecessary or resource hogging memory resident programs.

4. Hit ctrl-alt-delete then click the process tab to see which programs are using the most memory.

5. Go to

 

http://www.geforce.com/Drivers

 

or

 

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

 

and download and install the latest video drivers.

 

6. Before you upgrade your drivers you might want to sweep your system for old drivers. Go to

 

http://drivercleaner.net/

 

or

 

http://phyxion.net/Driver-Sweeper/Driver-Sweeper/

 

and run one of those programs before you install your new drivers. Be sure to read the instructions and follow them for both programs.

 

Warning: I recommend that you use registry cleaners and online system checkers with extreme caution. They often do more harm than good.

 

If you find a bug, please report it in game

[OlBuzzard]

Trolls, flamers and haters get too many responses in this forum. Please keep this thread alive.

 

I agree... there is a lot of people here who are targeting the game in an aparent attempt to run folks off !

 

If this game runs for 2 - 3 years and contient is continued to be added and bugs are continued to be squashed ... it WILL be successful !

[Weepa]

totally wrong and pointless, that dindt changed my mind about cancelling

 

Cool story bro. I like the post.

[Abruptum]

I agree... there is a lot of people here who are targeting the game in an aparent attempt to run folks off !

 

If this game runs for 2 - 3 years and contient is continued to be added and bugs are continued to be squashed ... it WILL be successful !

 

The first three months of an MMO generally decide whether or not it will be successful. Plenty of MMOs have petered off after just three or four months.

[Kalantris]

My biggest issues are not even on the list.

 

1. Warzone lags. It doesn't happen anywhere else, even on the fleet. When I try to heal my heals land 2s after I finish the cast. When I spam another one both land at the same time. That's how bad the lag is. Same goes for some of my other skills including interrupts (which sucks).

 

2. Bad queueing system pairing high level premades with low level pugs. I've seen it countless times and the steamroll, that's going on, makes baby Jesus cry. I just turn my DPS mode on, farm medals and hope for some MVPs in the end to make up for the loss.

 

3. Nonexistant world PvP. Same happened in all games, where quests were about taking objectives. Why fight for them when we can just trade them? You take it, then we retake it, you take it again, we retake it again, daily done, catcha later sith friend!

 

4. No real guild management, no targets for guilds as a whole excluding flashpoints. No guild quests, nothing the entire guild has to focus on in order to achieve something.

 

5. FPS issues in warzones. Sometimes FPS just drops to nada for a second or two for no reason at all. Not a problem if that happens when you, for example, run towards an objective, but it really pisses me off, when it happens during my chain.

 

6. Warzone issues in general for example:

- Badly designed respawn timers on Voidstar, which allow the attackers to complete a whole objective before the enemy team has a chance to stop them (for example after destroying the first door it's possible to run down, extend the bridge and plant a charge before the enemy team has a chance to respawn).

 

I'd love to see those issues adressed.

 

Regards,

Kalantris

[Okato]

In WoW it's only the oceans that do that. Here we have invisible walls EVERYWHERE. Don't try to justify this, because you can't and nobody else can.

 

Not true. There is flight-based exhaustion as well. Every area in Wow that does not border another zone, has an exhaustion zone. In SWTOR it is more obvious because you are dealing with individual planets.

 

Think for one moment how much uproar there would have been if Bioware made all the planets link together in the same way as Azeroth?

 

Running across the snowy wasteland of Hoth, climbing a hill and... Tatooine!

Edited January 2, 2012 by Okato

[kineticdamage]

> Voice acting and cut scenes are a key part of the game. If you have MMORPG ADHD, try ritalin. If that doesnt work, SW:TOR is not the game for you. Group or social gameplay is strongly encouraged. If you dont play well with others, there are some parts of the game that you will not experience.

 

Dude, I really like your style

 

[lycrates]

1. Bad or cartoon-y looking graphics.

 

Yes, SWTOR graphics are outdated. Sad but true, get over it.

 

2. Linear storyline.

 

THere are no real decisions because your "decisions" dont affect your storyline. The aspect of decisions in coversations is just filling. Futhermore, the Linear story is basically 80% the same for all classes. Once you have seen it once, you have seen them all. 0 replayability value except between factions. You are basically a prisoner in an semi-open world. You have to follow the story and cannot do your own thing or follow your own story.

 

3. No open world. I dont like exhaustion or boundaries.

 

Yeap, you are a prisoner to the story and to a confined game world.

 

4. No dungeon finder.

 

No only is there no Dungeon Finder, there is NO serious tool to help players to groups together. As you are reading this there are dozens of groups NOT being formed because its so time consuming to put one together, than there would have been if there was some short of tool to help people group.

 

5. No x-server warzone finder.

 

Nobody cares about that. The OP just made that criticism up. The things that most people dont like is that they cannot choose which Warzone they will play next and that there is no serious PvP; i.e. no rated Warzones, no Realm v. Realm, no Arenas, no Heroic PvP etc.

 

6. No flying mounts.

 

Nobody cares about that. Thats another critism that the OP is making up.

 

7. Companion crafting and gathering.

 

Again, thats is not one of the criticism most commonly cited by other players. The OP needs to stop making stuff up.

 

8. SW:TOR is boring, cut scenes and voice acting are time consuming and a waste of time.

 

SWTOR is boring because 80% of the quests is "fetch this" or "kill 10 of X". The background of the stories that is the basis for these quests is not that interesting at all. Most of the quests are "Oh, i lost my "x", help me get it". Thats not interesting. I thought that SWTOR was all about story and story in quests, but lets be serious, only the Character storylines are interesting, the rest of the quests are boring as hell.

 

9. SW:TOR is not a true MMORPG.

 

No, when you are in a zone and see maybe 20 other people in a 2 hour period on a full server then it is not an MMO. It is a single player game with some Co-op opportunities. I fully expect Diablo III to be more multiplayer than SWTOR.

 

10. SW:TOR is buggy.

 

Yes.

 

Below are some true critisms of SWTOR:

 

11. There is no serious PvP for people who like to PvP

 

Yes. There are no rated Warzones, no Realm v. Realm, no Arenas, no Heroic PvP etc. In fact, for a PvPer there is nothing he/she can do. You are definately NOT going to see any serious PvP guilds in SWTOR.

 

12. Endgame PvE is broken

 

There is nothing more to say. Its bugged and almost unplayable.

 

13. There is no point to the Space battles.

 

It sucks to have something that looks amazing, but have no point to it. Not only it does not have a point, but space battles get boring really fast: the space ship follows the exact same path with the exact same mobs at the exact same times.

 

14. The game is basically still in Beta

 

Yeap.

Edited January 2, 2012 by lycrates

[Samaul]

 

Yeap.

 

You dont seem to like the game as designed. Sounds like you need to find another game.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Samaul

[Kernunno]

3. No open world. I dont like exhaustion or boundaries.

 

> Its a big galaxy, did you expect to be able to ride a speeder from one planet to another? Exhaustion and boundaries are part of every MMORPG including WoW. No game world goes on forever.

 

Most of your statements I agree with (especially the bug part; there is a good reason compnies even hire external experts for a few months to get rid of a single bug) but this one is bogus imo.

 

When you walk on Tatooine and you go from A to B (both legitimate destinations on the map) and suddenly you find yourself in an exhaustion zone, out of nowhere, it just blows major donkey balls. Especially when the same zone is so filled with mountain and canyons that you have about as much freedom of movement as in the average 8-bit super mario game. Honestly; this was quite the let down. While I think it's a bit dissappointing that I can't take a group of friends and sack Coruscant or even Anchorage (why the huge exhaust zone in between the quest area and the city??) I can live with that part but there realy was no reason to limit the rest of the maps like that.

[Scandana]

RE- number 6...

 

Do those flying whale taxis count as flying mounts? LOL

[Samaul]

RE- number 6...

 

Do those flying whale taxis count as flying mounts? LOL

 

Flying taxi?

[Shaede]

1) Make thread about "top 10 criticisms".

2) Post some random unpopular criticisms.

3) Post solutions to those criticisms.

4) Profit?

[Samaul]

1) Make thread about "top 10 criticisms".

2) Post some random unpopular criticisms.

3) Post solutions to those criticisms.

4) Profit?

 

1) Troll thread about "top 10 criticisms".

2) Fail?

 

Make your own top 10 list if you dont like mine

Edited January 2, 2012 by Samaul

[Dougmysticeye]

Agree with OP.

 

TOR is a solid addition to the MMO space. Is it bug free, no, and no MMO is.

 

Are there some things I am looking forward to being improved on, absolutely, but still the best MMO I have played in years and years. I have not enjoyed an MMO this much since.....I just don't know. Maybe WOW, maybe LOTRO.

 

TOR is the first one for me since EQ to capture some of that magic that makes me stop to look at something in the world just to look at it cause its cool.

[McAvinue]

Thats not an issue for me or anyone I know. I like the pace of combat as is.

 

I have to ask, are you really looking for responses about the game or not? I ask, because a thread about this very problem, in its 3rd iteration, cannot constitute a mass of trolls. Just because you did not experience the problem, does not mean there is not one.