SWTOR Beta

[Destia]

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THERE WAS A THREAD TO SHARE MY LOVE?!

Anyway, moving on!
First, I'll most likely go Imperial even though I loved everything I played in the game. It didn't matter too much faction wise (I loved the dark side options the most in the conversations though).

Second, I've rolled everything this weekend, started at 5pm @ friday and loved every second of playtime. Rolled everything to level 10 because I didn't want to spoil it for myself with the release, however I did want to see what kind of gameplay options there were.

The classes I loved most were the bounty hunter and the inquisitor, mostly because it suits my playstyle more but I'm pretty sure I'll eventually roll everything anyway It's just too much fun! You really get sucked into the game as well, Bioware's done an amazing job. Really getting that KOTOR I and II feel back here.

As for interface options and keybind options however, I'm lacking some crucial things for my own gameplay (alt self cast and mousebutton 6-15 mainly).
This game definitely will replace WoW for me, not entirely ofcourse (once an arena junky, always one) but I'll spend most of my time in there for sure.

Here's 2 questions though, what did you all think of "their hearthstone-system" ?
And how many of you pre-ordered normal/digital or the Collector's Edition ?

[Mansen]

I love the teleport system. It's much more flexible than the one in WoW and it suits the layout of the zones. I preordered a physical standard by the way - collectors was much too pricy and I don't really like the bust that comes with it.

[Selassie]

I didn't really play enough to use the hearthstone system more than once or twice. I just leveled one of each to 6-8ish.

Beta is still open for me, not sure if it's open for everyone still.

I will definately play this when it comes out. Not sure how serious. A few friends (Seaga/Mikaya, Tarya/Nahya, maybe Eriu) will play, but.... then again we tend to try almost all mmo'ish games and give up after a week or two.

They want to go republic though

[Mhiron]

When I heard about SWTOR I told myself I wasn't going to play it, because
Star wars and more futuristic games don't really appeal to me, until I watched some streams, it was amazing how good the game actually is and playing on a friends beta account, so yea I'm going to pre-order this very soon, and cancel my sub. on wow which ends on Feb. 17. ()

Still the game I'll be playing in the end will be GW2

(Oh and Imperial ofc!)

[Mansen]

@Sel: It's basically just a "pick a destination" HS. You have to remember to find those terminals to actually go somewhere though 


From what I've heard ingame the beta should end in just under an hour, but one can always hope. Also - Imperial scum!

[Idreil]

Noooo, i just finished downloading, i logged in and no servers are up.... am i going crazy or has it ended can anyone confirm?!

[Katimi]

I've preordered cause I has monies now and I want to try it out.

As I didn't get a chance to try beta ( /cry) I haven't picked a side yet. But atm I like republic a bit more cause their outfits look less hyde park. Yeap.

In my defence, it's all I have to go on!

[Idreil]

we have fish's guild thats light side, and you have me and my friends guild thats the dark side of the force, if your feeling lonely you can join one of them

[Katimi]

I may have read wrong. But I'm pretty sure those guilds don't get implemented as they aren't 'pre-deployed'?

Unless you guys are going to just make the same guilds in game. In which case we're away!

[Idreil]

i know ours is getting pre-deployed have 4 people that pre ordered, i cannot speak for them, but apparently prophecy was taken, will see if we can make it when the game gets released, who knows.

it is not like u are forced to stay in the guilds anyway

[Mansen]

As I recall the whole "guild" system they have now is just a social thing. You sign up now and then you have X weeks at launch to actually go ingame, make the physical guild and invite members - before Bioware deletes the "guild website" feature they have now.


Edit: As far as I can tell both factions are pretty much the same in terms of "content". All that is different is how the quests are laid out and of course the setting and storyline. So for me it's republic all the way since I don't really like how they handle "good" - or shall we say imperials with a conscience. As I recall from my Sith Inquisitor, any dialogue option that didn't scream LIGHT SIDE CHOICE made my character sound like she took sadistic pleasure in even the smallest of tasks.

[Rowain]

Yes, it has a KOTOR feeling and gives a really good first impression and play experience.

At least at first. I was in the previous beta weekend too and played through all imperial class questlines and really enjoyed it. This weekend I mostly tried the same classes but the other subclasses. Not surprisingly the added value of the "KOTOR layer" was alot less, mostly it was an exercise of pushing the space button.

The underlying game is solid, but lacks any real improvements on the oldschool MMO formula:
1) the UI is not configurable which is a shame, because it has become pretty standard these days (LOTRO, WAR and Rift had very configurable UIs out of the box). The lack of buff/debuff display hurts the most, also it doesn't have reactive ability display which sucks. Sith Assassins have a very good talent that procs on melee hits, however the only way of seeing the proc is watching your buffbar on the bottom of the screen. No popup graphics like in WoW, Rift or Aion, no extra graphic effects. Really annoying.
2) I found the talent trees pretty boring, feels like vanilla WoW.
3) Your skillset after getting the advanced class usually feels a weird mixture, since you get quite a few skills up to 10 and after that they may just lose their appeal if your subclass has a different focus. It will probably clean up on your way to 50 tho.
4) Crafting is based on the WoW system with some stuff added but those are mostly gimmicks. The competition is not strong here tho: Rift did the same (WoW system with some extras), WAR's was much worse. I really liked LOTRO's crafting tho and expected to see real improvements here.

The real big question are how the PvE and PvP endgame proves to be. That will determine its long term appeal once the KOTOR layer (and the exploration factor) runs out of gas.

That said, it is a pretty solid MMO to explore so I'm gonna play it at launch.

[Aranellis]

I got a jedi knight, goody twoshoes, doormaty personality, to 27 or so, although I like how she looks! Then I tried smuggler and I really felt bad I didn`t get to try that story for more than 2 hours since she had a more fun personality.
I loved the hs system btw and I made someone preorder for me (damn EA, haters ).
I might still go smuggler though at launch, since the only appealing one, so far, in the empire is the bounty hunter, which is less fun than smuggler.

ps: the first mount you get looks like scrap metal to me y no cool bike...

[Mansen]

From my short experience with the Smuggler they are definitely the comic relief of the bunch. Straight out of the movies Han Solo style. The imperial agent (empire class counterpart) have a much darker humor, though still quite fun.

[Rowain]

Meh, until they change the voice of that companion or make it possible to turn it off, smuggler is kicking yourself in the groin.