The Old Republic - Republic or Empire?

[erilar]

Login queues for Mind Trick are currently pretty long, especially into prime time. We expect that problem to taper off as the product launch progresses.

In the mean time, if you don't want to deal with Mind Trick queues, the guildies are using the server Elysium as a lower-population home for alts. My main char will continue living on Mind Trick.

One other thing. If you can get to the character select screen, the servers seem to hold you online for some time. So, if you don't plan on playing until 9pm, for example, log on at 6pm when queues are short, log your character in, and then go back every half hour or so and log yourself back into the game proper. Even if you fall back out to the character select screen, you're still on the server.

[EvilGenius]

I am happy that you found something you like, Lance.

And, proven to not be a fluke. Played a good bit over the weekend and still having a great time. Not sure why I didn't like the other classes, but the Smuggler rocks. I am level 13 now, and specialized into the Gunslinger advanced class (dual-blaster-wielding pain dealer). Currently chasing after the treacherous jackass who stole my ship at the beginning of the game! I'm getting close though - he's in big trouble!

Lance, are you relatively satisfied with the story aspects of the game? Is it more like KotR and Mass Effect or still more like WoW?

[erilar]

Lance, are you relatively satisfied with the story aspects of the game? Is it more like KotR and Mass Effect or still more like WoW?

I like the storytelling part of it even more than KotOR and Mass Effect. Every time I get to talk to a quest-giver, or any other story NPC, I am excited to click on them.

First, the crafted story and the cutscenes themselves are very well done. We expected that - this is Bioware. However, they invented several tangible reasons for us to care about our dialogue choices. Paragon and Renegade points, in the end, didn't mean a damn thing. They do in this game:

1) Companions. When you're questing around solo in TOR, you're not solo. You always have one NPC companion with you. In fact, by level 50, you will have a ship full of them to chose from them every time you head out. They each have their own personalities, their own motivations, and their own wants. So, when you make a dialogue choice, you have to decide first what your character would want to do, but then also how your companion would react to that choice - because it matters! Your companion's level of affection for you significantly affects both their combat performance and your item-crafting options.

See, in TOR, your character isn't the one doing the crafting - your companions do that for you. Want to be able to craft some sweet custom blasters? Then you'd best not piss off your buddy Corso, 'cause he's the one who makes them. He's also the one who protects you and keeps your enemies occupied while you shoot the crap out of them. And if he doesn't like you very much, maybe he won't try as hard...

2) Light Side / Dark side. When you make strong moral choices, you can gain light or dark side points. Your overall light or dark side level affects whether you can use some of the special gear in the game. Want to wear that rad scary-looking Jedi armor with the awesome stats? Then you have to have at least Dark Side Level II. Etc., etc.

3) Groups So what happens when you're adventuring in a group? You make your way through a quest, and get into a dialogue with an NPC, who presents a touchy moral situation. Who gets to decide what to do? Everyone does. All the people in the party make their own dialogue choice, and the game rolls randomly. The winner's character responds to the NPC, and their character is awarded with some Social points. Everyone who chose that same choice is awarded half as many points, and the others get a few points as a consolation prize. Why to care about social points? Well, that badass lightsaber you've been eyeing up at the vendor requires that you're at Social Level III - that's why.

The combat itself is still pretty MMO, but maybe a bit more dynamic than WoW. Especially how it actually looks. In WoW, you and your foe basically took turns whomping each other over the head. I hit you, you hit me back. I hit you, but this time I spin around.

In TOR, it looks way more dynamic. Two jedi fighting each other are swinging and parrying, blocking and twirling. You're still hitting your 1,2,3,4 key powers, but the animations are strung together in interesting ways. If my scoundrel gunslinger shoots at a jedi, and his Block skill is successful, he actually deflects my incoming bolt with a flourish, etc. The combat looks way less generic, and the actual mechanics are perhaps a little more dynamic than WoW. Not lots, but a little.

I won't lie - there is a LOT of running. TOR is like vanilla WoW in that sense. I just turned level 14 last night, at which point I learned the greatest godsend in the game thus far: the Sprint power. It lets me run 35% faster continuously when not in combat. Thank the Maker for that power - let me tell you!

I won't know about the other classes until I try them, but I'm loving the Scoundrel story. I'm beginning to wonder if my reaction to the other classes had been a bit tainted. My general outlook at the time hadn't been great (things are going much better for me now). Second, I knew that all the progress I was making with those characters would get wiped when Beta was over, and all that "work" was going to waste. We shall see. For now, the scoundrel effing rocks my socks.

I still don't have my ship back. I tell you this: when I finally catch up to that lying, dirty thief, I'm taking a few dark side points and shooting him in the face with both barrels.

[EvilGenius]

Glad to hear that, Lance. you're the first person I know personally who has started playing the full game. I'm glad the early impressions from folks were accurate.

[Upweekis]

I got my copy today and hopefully it will run well on my system. I'll be starting with an Alliance char on the Mind Trick server.

[erilar]

I got my copy today and hopefully it will run well on my system. I'll be starting with an Alliance char on the Mind Trick server.

And, thankfully the login queues have gotten better as Bioware has stepped up their efforts. My main character's name is Kalli, so send me a friend request.

[Lars Porsenna]

Got SW TOR from Santa!

Damon.

[erilar]

Got SW TOR from Santa!

Yay! Mind Trick - Republic side!

[EvilGenius]

I've got all of the components now. New computer + game. But I'm still not going to be able to play for at least a week.

[Lars Porsenna]

OK rolled up a character on Mind Trick. Character name is...Quest, and yes he is a Jedi..,

Damon.

[Lars Porsenna]

OK rolled up a character on Mind Trick. Character name is...Quest, and yes he is a Jedi..,

Damon.

[EvilGenius]

I rolled a character on mind trick but I haven't gotten to play yet because I only had about an hour to spare and the wait time was approx 20 min!!!

Are you allowed to move characters to another server? The population is listed as full. Does that mean we're going to continually have long waits to login?

[Lars Porsenna]

OK guys, post up your characters and we'll all be friends...

Damon.

[erilar]

I rolled a character on mind trick but I haven't gotten to play yet because I only had about an hour to spare and the wait time was approx 20 min!!!

Are you allowed to move characters to another server? The population is listed as full. Does that mean we're going to continually have long waits to login?

20 minutes is actually a really short queue time during an MMO launch, believe it or not. Bioware has done a really good job on this launch. A week or so ago, the wait times on Mind Trick were more like 45 minutes at prime time, and as long as a little over an hour. They are continually adding more servers and such to improve waits.

The upside to Mind Trick is that it's populated largely with experienced MMO players. Bioware let people create their guilds ahead of time, and let them ally with (or declare themselves rivals of) other guilds. The problem was they jammed all the guilds onto only a few servers in each time zone. But, there's always people to ask questions of, group with for Heroics and Flashpoints, the auction house (Galactic Market) actually has stuff on it, etc.

When I know that I'll be wanting to play during busy evening times, I just go log myself in 20 mins before I will actually be playing. It will hold you on your character login screen for a while. I know it's a pain, but don't know what to tell you. Before long, all the servers will fill up, and they will all be the same (but hopefully with no queues).

If you really want a low-pop server, let's use Elysium. As far as I know, there is no way to move characters. WoW used to charge $25 for that, and it took them a while to start offering that. I personally won't be starting over though - I have a lvl 22 and a lvl 10, and don't want to re-do all that hours and hours of content. The queues will get continually shorter with time.

[erilar]

OK guys, post up your characters and we'll all be friends...

On Mind Trick, my characters are:

Kalli - Smuggler/Gunslinger (lvl 22)
Celesta - Jedi Consular/Sage (lvl 10)


Kalli is doing Armstech (blaster-making), and Celesta will be doing Biotech (healing packs and stims).

Cybertech seems to be a really useful profession. In this game, Orange-quality items level up with you, and Cybertech makes the armor improvements and items mods that work in all types of items, so it's useful to all characters. Basically, once you find an Orange item that you like the look of, you can keep upgrading it to make your character keep that same look. (Kalli also makes the blaster barrels that upgrade Orange blaster damage.)

I'll be back online tonight and will /friend Quest so I'll see when you log on!