I'm pretty sure han never actually smuggled anything in the movies, except maybe the random boxes you see him loading into the falcon at the end of new hope.
I guess technically he smuggled luke/obiwan most of the way to alderaan, but that in itself doesn't seem very smugglerish really
That's because Han didn't spec into the Smuggler tree. He spec'd into the Snuggler tree. At least, that's what he was hoping with Leia...
He might actually be closer to an IA than a Smuggler... suave, charismatic, sneaking about trying to infiltrate stuff...
Well, movie Han was like that. If you dip into pre Episode IV EU stuff, then he was your typical smuggler, scoundrel, all around awesome dude.
But the problem is classes like smuggler and agent aren't supposed to be about combat specifically,
Exactly, which is why it would be nice to have SOME group content catered to a specific class so the content would be catered to the groups strength. Like content for smugglers which would involve a lot of stealth, deception and covert action...as opposed to a mission just for Jedi Consulars which would have difficult diplomatic choices, and combat based on a keen understanding of force powers etc. etc.
It's a bit pie-in-the-sky I know, but anything to get out of the tank-healer-DPS-utility four-pack would be nice.
Or...
How about this - Under normal circumstances, a smuggler would be just that. This will be set during a time of war however, and so everyone will be pitching in, doing things their own way. I imagine a smuggler being a "do whatever it takes to get by" kind of guy, and so having a weapon strapped to your leg would be typical. I would not be surprised to see such types to take an active part in the war. At the very least they would find ways to make profit out of it. They would not approach a fight the same way a trooper or a Jedi or an Agent or a Bounty hunter would, but in the end, everyone will fight.
They are/were considered smugglers before. Now things are different. How will things be once all of this is over?
I'm sorry, I know this sounds like rambling nonsense, I'm just hoping you guys get the idea.
Heck I'm not even sure if this is set during a certain war or not.
it seems like, in an MMO at least, different classes just mean different combat classes. But the problem is classes like smuggler and agent aren't supposed to be about combat specifically, Smuggler and Agent typically work behind the scenes and would require patience. but MMOs don't cater to the mentality of working behind the scenes and being patient. Take a game like splinter cell or Assassin's creed and dump it into a MMO. It just doesn't work against the other typical combat classes. A black ops agent like Sam Fisher isn't going to win in a straight up fight against your typical front line solider.
That's the problem with MMOs, everyone wants to do their own thing, while at the same time, be just as powerful as everyone else.
Why not both? You can have balanced combat classes and still have unique content for everyone.
Example: You are doing a raid and in the middle of the action some spacecops break in and start trying to arrest one of the people in your group for selling spice.
Guilds would ban spice selling for members lest it interrupt their raid
Hehe, I was thinking something similar.
I'm not arguing that having different gameplay for different classes is realistic at this point. I'm just thinking about SWTOR2 or at the very least, the weaknesses of the current MMO model. You have all these different classes, but it all still boils down to one thing, killing NPCs, combat xp, DPS, you know the drill. And there is definitely room for growth. It's a Massively Multiplayer game, but it's still a single style of game and I think that an MMO that has multiple styles of play that combine fast paced action with something slower paced and more strategic would be amazing to see. But yeah, balancing it out would probably be a bitch. But at some point, I think you have to get away from the mentality of "ok, how do we get it so that a damage dealer and a stealth-based class are still equal in combat" Well maybe the answer is that they aren't. A damage dealer might always beat a stealthy/strategic character in a straight up fight, but the stealthy/strategic character will have things that the damage dealer could never do. gain access, hide, dodge, hack, fix, research, etc.
I just learned I'll have to drive all night for about 8 hours.
I'm going to get that Deceived book in audio version and try to one shot it then. Hopefully I'll come out of the drive both exhausted and enriched with precious background lore.
I just think more content customized to certain races/classes would be good. Naturally you need to make an abundance of general content, but the occasional thing that's catered to your class or race (and exclusive to them) would be cool. I guess, in many respects SWTOR has much of this already, (with the various origin stories specific to your class), but it would be cool to see this augmented even more.
One of the writers of SWTOR did an interview recently. It pretty much confirms the success of the pre-order numbers (and seems to substantiate the numbers I posted earlier), and it also talks about the RPG industry as a whole, not a bad read:
You can't mix PVE and PVP without one or both suffering for it.
Depends on how strictly you define PvE and PvP
It's really disappointing how much the PvE/PvP debate resembles current US political discourse. If both sides are unwilling to budge even an inch, then yeah, you're right.
You can't mix PVE and PVP without one or both suffering for it.
Depends on how strictly you define PvE and PvP
It's really disappointing how much the PvE/PvP debate resembles current US political discourse. If both sides are unwilling to budge even an inch, then yeah, you're right.
Well, like Darth Vader himself said: "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy."
I feel like it works if you make abilities behave differently on NPCs and PCs. " That stun is too long in pvp but not long enough for pve encounters." Then change it so it's capped on the PCs and last longer on NPCs.
Have a stat based off all other stats that lowers the damage you take from other players some %. I'm thinking of Demon's Souls, every stat increase raised your physical damage reduction. This way passive increases from levels and just gearing up makes survivability in pvp go up. Gear still plays a factor but there aren't sets of gear that stack a single stat like WoW.
This could also be very bad if a veteran at level caps fights a new to level cap player, the vet would have higher damage and higher damage reduction. But this is really true for any mmo pvp/pve scenario. On the other hand, if he the "newb" has some tier .05 items and the damage reduction has a curve (so as it gets higher it takes more stats per dmg reduction) than he might have a good amount of pvp damage reduction compared to the vet and not get blown up right away.
It's not innovation that's the problem, it's implementation. I would cite specific examples of SWG, but basically, the whole game was an endless series of innovations in the MMO genre.
That were, by and large, horribly implemented. We could claim we'd have done a better job, or <insert company of choice> would've done a better job, but, really, let's not overdo the "well, it would be hard" handwaving. There is a reason SWG is still the go-to example of awesome innovative things, despite the fact that the game itself will be gone in less than six months.
Along a similar vein, there's a reason most of WoWs class unique requirements/group related bonuses have been sacrificed on the the alter of accesibility, to the Gods of Causality (pun totally intended). Though honestly, I quite liked most of the implementations in WoW, but then again, I quite liked attunement quests and raid wide resistance suit requirements as well.
Wow..Betacake has reached a new all-time low.
He posted this "review" half an hour ago:
(spoilered for length and brain-melting stupidity)
I had heard that the Smuggler would have the "best" conversation options and comments in the
game, so i just had to play one.
Level 1
Starting on a planet somewhere somehow, and getting a quest to do something.
Running around exploring all the new things, shooting at random mobs just to see what happens, getting a bonus quest that said that i should kill a couple of bad guys, i thought ohh that was a nice feature, but after thinking about it a little bit realizing, but if i really was a smuggler then i wouldn't KILL them i would make some kind of profit on them not necessary by being evil, but do something that would profit both me and the republic, like stealing their weapons, or some other thing. But i continued with the killing.
Level 2
Wow i leveled... err what does that do? Do i get new skills... ohh here this button looks like a talent tree thingie... "You need an advanced class to do that"... what an advanced class, how do i get that? Ok maby no new skills or abilities yet, lets continue with the questing.
Level 3
Wohoo level again... hmm it probably does something good...
Halfway to level 4 ohh look a trainer, new skills.. onwards, now i can take on the world!
Level 4-8
Questing running around like a hen without a head, exploring the "world"... Water, wonder if i can swim to the other side? swim swim swim ... taking damage, taking damage, turning back, taking damage... im going to die!.. back on dry land. finding out that some mobs are harder thatn others, and some mobs are really hard.
Finding my first holocron... so excited... getting something that i have no clue what it does... but i found a holocron.
Group2+
Ok this quests says group2+ but ive been killing everything there have been 4 mobs or sometimes even 6 mobs (overpulling) so this will be a piece of cake. Shoting the first mob, two more joins in, the first mob goes down to 80% and im at 50%.. im going to die... im dead! Ok 10 seconds wait time to be ressed by a nice medical droid... ohh and then 12 seconds of "free" running.
This i like, no graveyards or anything.
Spawning again, now i will try a different mob, one thats standing all alone, sitting in my cover, shoting it, and it runs to me and i say SPLAT, Ok died again, 30 sec res from the droid... or 10s res at the medical center. Med center it is, ressing there. Ok, if it says 2+ maby you should be 2 players... so off to more questing.
Level 9
A companion... wow i am now 2 chars, and that smuggler over there does also have the EXACT same companion not so impressed anymore, would have loved to see more difference in the companion skins.
But now we are 2, running back to the Group2+ area... its working i can kill mobs and dont die, sure i have to rest after each small encounter, but while killing some wierd looking creatures i see a trooper and invites him to the group.. now its easy.. everything dies, and we are done with the quests.
Level 10
My first Flashpoint, thinking ok, now we need a tank and a healer, and one more DPS... but ive heard that its possible to do Flashpoints on 2 (4 with companions). Grouping up with a Jedi and starts the flashpoint everything goes so smoothly. The comments from my smuggler during the video clips are priceless, this is why i played a smuggler. Getting some socail points (that i have no clue about either).
I'm not done with the FlashPoint but i turned level 11 so its feedback time.
Feedback
I like the dialogue options, that you are able to "choose" the fate of your quests. i like the feeling of a new game. But there are still a lot of things missing, as a smuggler, i have attacks that i only can perform from cover, yes i can create my own cover... but being behind a real one is so much better, the trooper i played with could just stand where ever he wanted and it didnt seam that he needed any setup at all, and the jedi in the FP was just slicing through everything, while i was deploying my cover. The bar that you get while being in cover is too slow it should be there as soon as ive pressed the cover button, or started to deploy my own cover. I really like the tokens that bosses (and thrash) dropped inside the flashpoint, and then letting you buy gear from them after the flashpoint.
Dislikes
I wanted a bigger area to explore, i want to be able to roam freely, to see everything and then some more. dont be locked in by walls but maby buy higher level mobs, so that i would know that some day i will be able to kill these and see whats on the other side.
The Looking for group for group zones, i would like to see a much easier way to find a group to do such a zone.
Difficulty
The game is really easy, pulling one group of mobs was just too easy, pulling two groups, was challenging, but not deadly, pulling three groups, has Hard and deadly but the most fun.
What i want is longer CC abilities, the 8 sec blind granate is fun but a longer CC would be awesome (at least at this level) and make the NPCs harder so, that you will have to CC one in order to kill the others. but this is only needed it the mobs get harder and/or hitting harder, the potential in group areas are infinite. and i would love to have some sort of repeatable "world" quests like
Warhammer Onlines public quests, maby not exactly like them but similar.
After everyone called him out on it in the comments section, he deleted the post containing that review and disabled all comments on his site.
Edit: however, this Imperial Agent gameplay video popped up on Reddit a few hours ago. Rather low quality, but enjoyable to watch.
Well, at one point he mentions swimming which we know isn't possible in TOR.
Let us all cling to that straw, because it'd mean that someone like that did not actually get into the beta test.
We were on the subject of lock-picking and other class specific roles earlier and I would like to return to that subject for a minute.
I actually have a solution to things like that which I think would be a fantastic addition to pretty much any MMO, TOR included.
Basically, they need to add an "Adventuring Aptitude" skill tree to all characters, which is independent and separate from class skill progression. The details do not necessarily need to be set in stone as to how it is implemented, as long as the core idea remains in tact. Basically, as a character levels up, he should be able to improve his dungeon crawling and exploration expertise in some way, which will be both beneficial to self as well as to parties. The reason why it needs to be independent of standard class progression is so that a player does not feel like he is sacrificing some of his character's power to become more adept at the adventuring side of things.
Specifically for TOR, the list of possible Adventuring Aptitudes might look something like this:
- Slicing
- Decryption
- Navigation
- Perception
- Repair
And things like that. In other games, such as D&D, these aptitudes exist in the form of racial passives, spot checks, skill checks, and out-of-combat challenges. In an MMO, they would be extra skills or abilities which would allow the player to interact with the environment in a meaningful way outside of combat.
The idea would be that as you are building a party, you would want to bring along members with different aptitudes so you can complete or overcome certain non-combat challenges. The balance would come in the form of making all aptitudes viable in some way, and making it so all dungeons, flashpoints, missions, quests, or whatever, required a number of these aptitudes so that all players would feel like they are able to contribute in some way.
Each character would be able to specialize in one, maybe two at most, to encourage people to take different ones.
Example of how it would work:
The group is in a Flashpoint and they come across a locked chest. Their Imperial Agent player has specialized in slicing, which allows him to open the chest and get some bonus loot for the group. A little while later, the group encounters a broken bridge. Their Bounty Hunter player has skill at repair and is able to fix the bridge control, enabling them to access a side area which would otherwise be inaccessible, or perhaps an alternate route which would serve as a shortcut. Later on the adventure, they pass by an area that appears to be just a normal rock formation. But to the Sith Inquisitor, it is a secret area which her perception ability allowed her to spot. This opens yet another side option which would not have otherwise been available to the party.
Basically, the idea is to come up with a list of Aptitudes which would bring an extra level of interactivity and immersion which is otherwise lacking. It would bring the environments to life. And it would also allow players to experience new and additional content and encourage replaying the same instances so they can find all the secrets.
Wow... I have a hard time believing that wasn't a joke. But sadly, it probably wasn't.
I've played a few classes up to or higher than level 10. What he's describing is more or less accurate, though the way he does it makes the game sound ho hum. I mean, you can pretty much describe most traditional mmos just like that. My smuggler, at 17, is the highest I've gotten. I've had virtually no problems soloing any of my quests, not including the group specific quests. Sure, I've died a few times when overwhelmed, but I have yet to find a need to sit and wait for a group for a run of the mill quest. After you complete quests you will get feedback options (not always), one of which allows you to assess the difficulty, so I imagine quest difficulty will be adjusted accordingly.
Though I just realized you were probably referring to they way he typed that out, which I agree, is pretty damn bad.
Wow... I have a hard time believing that wasn't a joke. But sadly, it probably wasn't.
I've played a few classes up to or higher than level 10. What he's describing is more or less accurate, though the way he does it makes the game sound ho hum. I mean, you can pretty much describe most traditional mmos just like that. My smuggler, at 17, is the highest I've gotten. I've had virtually no problems soloing any of my quests, not including the group specific quests. Sure, I've died a few times when overwhelmed, but I have yet to find a need to sit and wait for a group for a run of the mill quest. After you complete quests you will get feedback options (not always), one of which allows you to assess the difficulty, so I imagine quest difficulty will be adjusted accordingly.
It's not what he said that I thought was a joke, it's basically how he said it. I mean, I'm not in beta, but I could easily write up something similar to that knowing only what BW has told/shown us.
Edit: It's just funny how far he decided to take it. I'll give him that. His commitment to the trolling was pretty nice.
Well, at one point he mentions swimming which we know isn't possible in TOR.
Let us all cling to that straw, because it'd mean that someone like that did not actually get into the beta test.
He does, which we know you can't swim. However, I thought at some point I read that it's not an imaginary wall that prevents you, but that you actually just end up dieing if you try. It may be that what he said was more wading in the water than swimming and when he got too far out he started taking damage (drowning) until he got far enough out of the water.
Well it is just a class name. In D&D, your thief often didn't pick-pocket and your cleric seldom converted others to his religion or preached on a pulpit.
So going back to Gygax, a class name didn't always match the actions of your class. Most monks in D&D just went banzai and karate chopped every Kobold they ever saw.
Well it is just a class name. In D&D, your thief often didn't pick-pocket and your cleric seldom converted others to his religion or preached on a pulpit.
So going back to Gygax, a class name didn't always match the actions of your class. Most monks in D&D just went banzai and karate chopped every Kobold they ever saw.
Going full circle - The class presents a flavor of combat. That's about as RP as it's going to get.
And by the way...
Spoiled for anti-derailment - I was Vegar in Power Allegory
Wow... I have a hard time believing that wasn't a joke. But sadly, it probably wasn't.
I've played a few classes up to or higher than level 10. What he's describing is more or less accurate, though the way he does it makes the game sound ho hum. I mean, you can pretty much describe most traditional mmos just like that. My smuggler, at 17, is the highest I've gotten. I've had virtually no problems soloing any of my quests, not including the group specific quests. Sure, I've died a few times when overwhelmed, but I have yet to find a need to sit and wait for a group for a run of the mill quest. After you complete quests you will get feedback options (not always), one of which allows you to assess the difficulty, so I imagine quest difficulty will be adjusted accordingly.
Though I just realized you were probably referring to they way he typed that out, which I agree, is pretty damn bad.
I'm not really sure why this is a negative, either; I don't recall any non-group quests in WoW (or any other MMO that I've played, for that matter) that weren't solo-able, other than ones that were obviously poorly tuned and wound up getting fixed.
If you want something that's a challenge for one person to do, don't do things that are specifically labeled as doable for single players?
I mean, they're obviously still tuning things, and many group quests are doable +2/3 levels.. but that's always been true in MMO's, if you out-level or out-gear group content you can do it without a group. There's no real way (or even real point) to creating lots of difficult single-player content early in the leveling curve, when you can just play an hour or two to outlevel the content enough to make it easy again.
We were on the subject of lock-picking and other class specific roles earlier and I would like to return to that subject for a minute.
I actually have a solution to things like that which I think would be a fantastic addition to pretty much any MMO, TOR included.
Basically, they need to add an "Adventuring Aptitude" skill tree to all characters, which is independent and separate from class skill progression. The details do not necessarily need to be set in stone as to how it is implemented, as long as the core idea remains in tact. Basically, as a character levels up, he should be able to improve his dungeon crawling and exploration expertise in some way, which will be both beneficial to self as well as to parties. The reason why it needs to be independent of standard class progression is so that a player does not feel like he is sacrificing some of his character's power to become more adept at the adventuring side of things.
Specifically for TOR, the list of possible Adventuring Aptitudes might look something like this:
- Slicing
- Decryption
- Navigation
- Perception
- Repair
The group is in a Flashpoint and they come across a locked chest. Their Imperial Agent player has specialized in slicing, which allows him to open the chest and get some bonus loot for the group. A little while later, the group encounters a broken bridge. Their Bounty Hunter player has skill at repair and is able to fix the bridge control, enabling them to access a side area which would otherwise be inaccessible, or perhaps an alternate route which would serve as a shortcut. Later on the adventure, they pass by an area that appears to be just a normal rock formation. But to the Sith Inquisitor, it is a secret area which her perception ability allowed her to spot. This opens yet another side option which would not have otherwise been available to the party.
Basically, the idea is to come up with a list of Aptitudes which would bring an extra level of interactivity and immersion which is otherwise lacking. It would bring the environments to life. And it would also allow players to experience new and additional content and encourage replaying the same instances so they can find all the secrets.
In KOTOR I and/or II, there were things like this. You would sometimes access a computer console and if your repair was high enough level, you'd get an option to fix some remote lasers or something; if your security skill was high enough, you could turn on guard droids. Performing those actions weren't absolutely necessary, but they helped make things go smoother. If none of those skills were high enough, you'd usually just have to fight more enemies or not be able to access some locked chests.
No. In fact, it sounds like a remix (or mix) of Half-Life 2 music. TOR's music is a mish-mash of new music and KOTOR music. Surprisingly little John Williams stuff.
0
AssuranIs swinging on the SpiralRegistered Userregular
edited August 2011
So, someone has leaked all the opening cinematics on youtube.
Posts
Well, movie Han was like that. If you dip into pre Episode IV EU stuff, then he was your typical smuggler, scoundrel, all around awesome dude.
PSN: OrneryRooster
he mostly gambled, treasure hunted and occasionally fought against overwhelming odds
(the lesson here is that 99% of the process of smuggling things is really fucking boring)
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Or...
How about this - Under normal circumstances, a smuggler would be just that. This will be set during a time of war however, and so everyone will be pitching in, doing things their own way. I imagine a smuggler being a "do whatever it takes to get by" kind of guy, and so having a weapon strapped to your leg would be typical. I would not be surprised to see such types to take an active part in the war. At the very least they would find ways to make profit out of it. They would not approach a fight the same way a trooper or a Jedi or an Agent or a Bounty hunter would, but in the end, everyone will fight.
They are/were considered smugglers before. Now things are different. How will things be once all of this is over?
I'm sorry, I know this sounds like rambling nonsense, I'm just hoping you guys get the idea.
Heck I'm not even sure if this is set during a certain war or not.
Well, I guess looking for such depth was asking too much from the developers.
Hehe, I was thinking something similar.
I'm not arguing that having different gameplay for different classes is realistic at this point. I'm just thinking about SWTOR2 or at the very least, the weaknesses of the current MMO model. You have all these different classes, but it all still boils down to one thing, killing NPCs, combat xp, DPS, you know the drill. And there is definitely room for growth. It's a Massively Multiplayer game, but it's still a single style of game and I think that an MMO that has multiple styles of play that combine fast paced action with something slower paced and more strategic would be amazing to see. But yeah, balancing it out would probably be a bitch. But at some point, I think you have to get away from the mentality of "ok, how do we get it so that a damage dealer and a stealth-based class are still equal in combat" Well maybe the answer is that they aren't. A damage dealer might always beat a stealthy/strategic character in a straight up fight, but the stealthy/strategic character will have things that the damage dealer could never do. gain access, hide, dodge, hack, fix, research, etc.
Of course, it has to be fun.
Enlist in Star Citizen! Citizenship must be earned!
I'm going to get that Deceived book in audio version and try to one shot it then. Hopefully I'll come out of the drive both exhausted and enriched with precious background lore.
One of the writers of SWTOR did an interview recently. It pretty much confirms the success of the pre-order numbers (and seems to substantiate the numbers I posted earlier), and it also talks about the RPG industry as a whole, not a bad read:
http://www.videogamer.com/pc/star_wars_the_old_republic/news/bioware_talks_star_wars_the_old_republic.html
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Depends on how strictly you define PvE and PvP
It's really disappointing how much the PvE/PvP debate resembles current US political discourse. If both sides are unwilling to budge even an inch, then yeah, you're right.
Enlist in Star Citizen! Citizenship must be earned!
Well, like Darth Vader himself said: "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy."
Bah. Innovation has a way of making statements like this instinct.
I think the perfected blend of the two has yet to be refined, but it will. These games become more sophisticated with each passing year.
Have a stat based off all other stats that lowers the damage you take from other players some %. I'm thinking of Demon's Souls, every stat increase raised your physical damage reduction. This way passive increases from levels and just gearing up makes survivability in pvp go up. Gear still plays a factor but there aren't sets of gear that stack a single stat like WoW.
This could also be very bad if a veteran at level caps fights a new to level cap player, the vet would have higher damage and higher damage reduction. But this is really true for any mmo pvp/pve scenario. On the other hand, if he the "newb" has some tier .05 items and the damage reduction has a curve (so as it gets higher it takes more stats per dmg reduction) than he might have a good amount of pvp damage reduction compared to the vet and not get blown up right away.
3DS FC: 5086-1134-6451
Shiny Code: 3837
That were, by and large, horribly implemented. We could claim we'd have done a better job, or <insert company of choice> would've done a better job, but, really, let's not overdo the "well, it would be hard" handwaving. There is a reason SWG is still the go-to example of awesome innovative things, despite the fact that the game itself will be gone in less than six months.
Along a similar vein, there's a reason most of WoWs class unique requirements/group related bonuses have been sacrificed on the the alter of accesibility, to the Gods of Causality (pun totally intended). Though honestly, I quite liked most of the implementations in WoW, but then again, I quite liked attunement quests and raid wide resistance suit requirements as well.
When you say mix, do you mean PvP and PvE at the same time, or a game which wants to feature them both?
He posted this "review" half an hour ago:
(spoilered for length and brain-melting stupidity)
game, so i just had to play one.
Level 1
Starting on a planet somewhere somehow, and getting a quest to do something.
Running around exploring all the new things, shooting at random mobs just to see what happens, getting a bonus quest that said that i should kill a couple of bad guys, i thought ohh that was a nice feature, but after thinking about it a little bit realizing, but if i really was a smuggler then i wouldn't KILL them i would make some kind of profit on them not necessary by being evil, but do something that would profit both me and the republic, like stealing their weapons, or some other thing. But i continued with the killing.
Level 2
Wow i leveled... err what does that do? Do i get new skills... ohh here this button looks like a talent tree thingie... "You need an advanced class to do that"... what an advanced class, how do i get that? Ok maby no new skills or abilities yet, lets continue with the questing.
Level 3
Wohoo level again... hmm it probably does something good...
Halfway to level 4 ohh look a trainer, new skills.. onwards, now i can take on the world!
Level 4-8
Questing running around like a hen without a head, exploring the "world"... Water, wonder if i can swim to the other side? swim swim swim ... taking damage, taking damage, turning back, taking damage... im going to die!.. back on dry land. finding out that some mobs are harder thatn others, and some mobs are really hard.
Finding my first holocron... so excited... getting something that i have no clue what it does... but i found a holocron.
Group2+
Ok this quests says group2+ but ive been killing everything there have been 4 mobs or sometimes even 6 mobs (overpulling) so this will be a piece of cake. Shoting the first mob, two more joins in, the first mob goes down to 80% and im at 50%.. im going to die... im dead! Ok 10 seconds wait time to be ressed by a nice medical droid... ohh and then 12 seconds of "free" running.
This i like, no graveyards or anything.
Spawning again, now i will try a different mob, one thats standing all alone, sitting in my cover, shoting it, and it runs to me and i say SPLAT, Ok died again, 30 sec res from the droid... or 10s res at the medical center. Med center it is, ressing there. Ok, if it says 2+ maby you should be 2 players... so off to more questing.
Level 9
A companion... wow i am now 2 chars, and that smuggler over there does also have the EXACT same companion
But now we are 2, running back to the Group2+ area... its working i can kill mobs and dont die, sure i have to rest after each small encounter, but while killing some wierd looking creatures i see a trooper and invites him to the group.. now its easy.. everything dies, and we are done with the quests.
Level 10
My first Flashpoint, thinking ok, now we need a tank and a healer, and one more DPS... but ive heard that its possible to do Flashpoints on 2 (4 with companions). Grouping up with a Jedi and starts the flashpoint everything goes so smoothly. The comments from my smuggler during the video clips are priceless, this is why i played a smuggler. Getting some socail points (that i have no clue about either).
I'm not done with the FlashPoint but i turned level 11 so its feedback time.
Feedback
I like the dialogue options, that you are able to "choose" the fate of your quests. i like the feeling of a new game. But there are still a lot of things missing, as a smuggler, i have attacks that i only can perform from cover, yes i can create my own cover... but being behind a real one is so much better, the trooper i played with could just stand where ever he wanted and it didnt seam that he needed any setup at all, and the jedi in the FP was just slicing through everything, while i was deploying my cover. The bar that you get while being in cover is too slow it should be there as soon as ive pressed the cover button, or started to deploy my own cover. I really like the tokens that bosses (and thrash) dropped inside the flashpoint, and then letting you buy gear from them after the flashpoint.
Dislikes
I wanted a bigger area to explore, i want to be able to roam freely, to see everything and then some more. dont be locked in by walls but maby buy higher level mobs, so that i would know that some day i will be able to kill these and see whats on the other side.
The Looking for group for group zones, i would like to see a much easier way to find a group to do such a zone.
Difficulty
The game is really easy, pulling one group of mobs was just too easy, pulling two groups, was challenging, but not deadly, pulling three groups, has Hard and deadly but the most fun.
What i want is longer CC abilities, the 8 sec blind granate is fun but a longer CC would be awesome (at least at this level) and make the NPCs harder so, that you will have to CC one in order to kill the others. but this is only needed it the mobs get harder and/or hitting harder, the potential in group areas are infinite. and i would love to have some sort of repeatable "world" quests like
Warhammer Onlines public quests, maby not exactly like them but similar.
After everyone called him out on it in the comments section, he deleted the post containing that review and disabled all comments on his site.
Edit: however, this Imperial Agent gameplay video popped up on Reddit a few hours ago. Rather low quality, but enjoyable to watch.
Let us all cling to that straw, because it'd mean that someone like that did not actually get into the beta test.
Edit: Please tell me that music is in game. Wow.
I actually have a solution to things like that which I think would be a fantastic addition to pretty much any MMO, TOR included.
Basically, they need to add an "Adventuring Aptitude" skill tree to all characters, which is independent and separate from class skill progression. The details do not necessarily need to be set in stone as to how it is implemented, as long as the core idea remains in tact. Basically, as a character levels up, he should be able to improve his dungeon crawling and exploration expertise in some way, which will be both beneficial to self as well as to parties. The reason why it needs to be independent of standard class progression is so that a player does not feel like he is sacrificing some of his character's power to become more adept at the adventuring side of things.
Specifically for TOR, the list of possible Adventuring Aptitudes might look something like this:
- Slicing
- Decryption
- Navigation
- Perception
- Repair
And things like that. In other games, such as D&D, these aptitudes exist in the form of racial passives, spot checks, skill checks, and out-of-combat challenges. In an MMO, they would be extra skills or abilities which would allow the player to interact with the environment in a meaningful way outside of combat.
The idea would be that as you are building a party, you would want to bring along members with different aptitudes so you can complete or overcome certain non-combat challenges. The balance would come in the form of making all aptitudes viable in some way, and making it so all dungeons, flashpoints, missions, quests, or whatever, required a number of these aptitudes so that all players would feel like they are able to contribute in some way.
Each character would be able to specialize in one, maybe two at most, to encourage people to take different ones.
Example of how it would work:
The group is in a Flashpoint and they come across a locked chest. Their Imperial Agent player has specialized in slicing, which allows him to open the chest and get some bonus loot for the group. A little while later, the group encounters a broken bridge. Their Bounty Hunter player has skill at repair and is able to fix the bridge control, enabling them to access a side area which would otherwise be inaccessible, or perhaps an alternate route which would serve as a shortcut. Later on the adventure, they pass by an area that appears to be just a normal rock formation. But to the Sith Inquisitor, it is a secret area which her perception ability allowed her to spot. This opens yet another side option which would not have otherwise been available to the party.
Basically, the idea is to come up with a list of Aptitudes which would bring an extra level of interactivity and immersion which is otherwise lacking. It would bring the environments to life. And it would also allow players to experience new and additional content and encourage replaying the same instances so they can find all the secrets.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
I've played a few classes up to or higher than level 10. What he's describing is more or less accurate, though the way he does it makes the game sound ho hum. I mean, you can pretty much describe most traditional mmos just like that. My smuggler, at 17, is the highest I've gotten. I've had virtually no problems soloing any of my quests, not including the group specific quests. Sure, I've died a few times when overwhelmed, but I have yet to find a need to sit and wait for a group for a run of the mill quest. After you complete quests you will get feedback options (not always), one of which allows you to assess the difficulty, so I imagine quest difficulty will be adjusted accordingly.
Though I just realized you were probably referring to they way he typed that out, which I agree, is pretty damn bad.
PSN: OrneryRooster
It's not what he said that I thought was a joke, it's basically how he said it. I mean, I'm not in beta, but I could easily write up something similar to that knowing only what BW has told/shown us.
Edit: It's just funny how far he decided to take it. I'll give him that. His commitment to the trolling was pretty nice.
He does, which we know you can't swim. However, I thought at some point I read that it's not an imaginary wall that prevents you, but that you actually just end up dieing if you try. It may be that what he said was more wading in the water than swimming and when he got too far out he started taking damage (drowning) until he got far enough out of the water.
So going back to Gygax, a class name didn't always match the actions of your class. Most monks in D&D just went banzai and karate chopped every Kobold they ever saw.
Going full circle - The class presents a flavor of combat. That's about as RP as it's going to get.
And by the way...
*Vader NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*
although at least I did find somewhere to download it and got it all ready on my pc
Awesome, man! Don't worry about not getting on right away... even small scale, I imagine you'd rather avoid the headaches of it coming back up.
No child left behind...left someone behind.
he literally sells guns and spice to criminals, as opposed to the "breaking through Imperial blockades to deliver food to starving civilians" nonsense
still, he was a smuggler with a heart of gold.
There are definitely plenty of opportunities for the smuggler to be a snarky ass, but you do have the option to be mr. nice guy as well.
PSN: OrneryRooster
I'm not really sure why this is a negative, either; I don't recall any non-group quests in WoW (or any other MMO that I've played, for that matter) that weren't solo-able, other than ones that were obviously poorly tuned and wound up getting fixed.
If you want something that's a challenge for one person to do, don't do things that are specifically labeled as doable for single players?
I mean, they're obviously still tuning things, and many group quests are doable +2/3 levels.. but that's always been true in MMO's, if you out-level or out-gear group content you can do it without a group. There's no real way (or even real point) to creating lots of difficult single-player content early in the leveling curve, when you can just play an hour or two to outlevel the content enough to make it easy again.
As I think I've told you before, the guild I am rolling with is probably going to end up on an RP server with Rouge Squad. (Vote YES on Sixty Six)
EDIT: Should probably also mention its Republic side. Trooper heavy, we just decided to not tell all the Jedi what 66 is.
In KOTOR I and/or II, there were things like this. You would sometimes access a computer console and if your repair was high enough level, you'd get an option to fix some remote lasers or something; if your security skill was high enough, you could turn on guard droids. Performing those actions weren't absolutely necessary, but they helped make things go smoother. If none of those skills were high enough, you'd usually just have to fight more enemies or not be able to access some locked chests.
No. In fact, it sounds like a remix (or mix) of Half-Life 2 music. TOR's music is a mish-mash of new music and KOTOR music. Surprisingly little John Williams stuff.
Bioware is gonna be hella peeved.