Star Wars: The Old Republic

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Presence / Loyalty are supposed to improve their effectiveness in Combat.

Not sure much else beyond that vague statement.

Plus you get to pound her.

[Thor]

Is there a way to see how my decisions will affect my companion before hand, I usually know what Khal wants to hear but I get a few here and there that don't jive with him.

I WANT KHAL AND ME TO BE BUDDIES FOR LIFE.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Thor

Is there a way to see how my decisions will affect my companion before hand, I usually know what Khal wants to hear but I get a few here and there that don't jive with him.

I WANT KHAL AND ME TO BE BUDDIES FOR LIFE.

Torhead gives breakdowns on responses and effects on companions as well as dark/light changes. Kinda hard without a dual monitor setup though.

[Komskies]

Originally Posted by Thor

Is there a way to see how my decisions will affect my companion before hand, I usually know what Khal wants to hear but I get a few here and there that don't jive with him.

I WANT KHAL AND ME TO BE BUDDIES FOR LIFE.

This list has some pretty good companion info, including what type of behavior they respond well to:

http://www.swtor-spy.com/companions/

For example for Khem Val:

Likes: Killing Force users, displays of strength, making foolish people unhappy
Dislikes: Weakness in any form, not killing Force users

[chemgear]

Here is also a good summary if you are trying to increase the companion affection stat via gifts:

http://www.darthhater.com/articles/f...ompanion-gifts

[Hemi-Cuda]

or you can just buy a bunch of companion gifts on the market. buy one of each type and figure out what their favorite is (or just look on torhead) and just keep giving them that gift. my Jedi is full dark side and Kira hates most of the decisions i make, but i have her at over 6000 affection just by spamming gifts. they're not that expensive and their favorite type can yield 100+ points per gift

i wish you could turn a companion over to the dark side though like you could in KOTOR, that would make things much easier

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

or you can just buy a bunch of companion gifts on the market. buy one of each type and figure out what their favorite is (or just look on torhead) and just keep giving them that gift. my Jedi is full dark side and Kira hates most of the decisions i make, but i have her at over 6000 affection just by spamming gifts. they're not that expensive and their favorite type can yield 100+ points per gift

i wish you could turn a companion over to the dark side though like you could in KOTOR, that would make things much easier

I think there is one companion per class that you can basically corrupt, they mirror your path.

With the Sith Warrior its the third companion.

She's distinctly different in her appetites based on her dark/light side alignment

[Muffins]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

or you can just buy a bunch of companion gifts on the market. buy one of each type and figure out what their favorite is (or just look on torhead) and just keep giving them that gift. my Jedi is full dark side and Kira hates most of the decisions i make, but i have her at over 6000 affection just by spamming gifts. they're not that expensive and their favorite type can yield 100+ points per gift

i wish you could turn a companion over to the dark side though like you could in KOTOR, that would make things much easier

One thing to remember is that the higher affection you get the higher rank the gifts have to be to be effective (you still get some from lower ranks).

I think its every 2000 affection that you should go up a rank in gifts

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Muffins

One thing to remember is that the higher affection you get the higher rank the gifts have to be to be effective (you still get some from lower ranks).

I think its every 2000 affection that you should go up a rank in gifts

Yeah, there is some good detail in the link I put above:

Companion affection levels go from 1-5 separated by 2000 points of affection, i.e. - Level 1 = 1-1999 Level 2 = 2000-3999 and so on. Each affection level also dictates the ideal gift rank use, i.e. - Level 1 = Rank 1 Gift or Higher and so on. Players that intend to maximize their companion’s affection will want to take heed of this as companion gifts below the rank suggest will yield less affection and become economically imprudent.

If players do it correctly, gifts should yield 24 affection for like (good), 54 affection for love (better), and 96 affection for favorite (best). Keep in mind that those yield values are for gifts of common (green) value and ones that are rare (blue) or superior (purple) rating will yield much higher values. Gifts that do not correspond with at least the like category will gain zero affection points.

[Komskies]

Companion gifts graphically:

Spoiler!

[Thor]

So if I get full affection from Khal does he then top me in some twisted bondage crying game type scenario?

[Thor]

Damn I want ashara so I can make sex with her. What level is that, 30?

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Just to add on, between reading the new Darth Plageus book and playing a Sith in this game, its incredibly easy to immerse yourself in the Sith mentallity.

Sometimes though the choices that you make in TOR are counter to what you'd do as a Sith in the Star Wars era

For example in the game you promise a woman that you'll protect her for information that you need. The light choice is that you agree to honor your deal. The dark choice is you turn her over to your ally who is obsessed with her.

In the Plageus/Sideous/Bane era you don't make evil choices because your evil, you make the choice that best benefits you and your path to power.

the logical choice would be to protect her, and bend her to your will, and use her to forward your plan and serve you in that way.

But protector her in the game is a good guy choice.

Earlier in the game, I chose to spare some republic soliders (got major light points for that) and then they came to my rescue later. The evil choice was to slaughter them. To me I made the proper Sith choice in sparing them and using them as a took and I actually got penalized for it.

Morality in video games is broken like that. Look no further than Mass Effect. You can't effectively be a Han Solo like charming rogue. You're either as vanilla as Jesus or just a massive prick.

[Blaster86]

Some of the choices are ridiculously off. "Kill Him" (Lightside) "Kill Him and smile" (Darkside). There's no difference =-o

[Ashasx]

So... do you ever get any cool looking armor?

I was looking at the class descriptions on the website, and they had pictures of the armor they could use. They looked so kickass, yet everybody I see in game looks like a dingus with ugly robes that show no resemblance to what I saw on the website.

Besides that, one thing I really don't like about this game is how isolated and confusing the world feels. You can see this huge world, you travel over it between zones... but you can't actually go there. It just doesn't feel at all like an MMO... it feels like I'm in an instance with 150 other people when I'm in a "zone". Nothing feels connected. I just don't know where I am in the grand scheme of things.

I've been a big critic of WoW over the last few years, but if there's one thing it does right... it's this.

[CaptainCrunch]

Yeah, I got all matching high end armor a cloak and a totally kicka$$ mask. I've got over 400 armor protection on the chest plate alone.

I am having trouble with two misions on Alderaan, Choke Point and Regicide.

They seem to counter your strength by overloading you.

The frustrating point is that if you fail they kick you out of the story area and you have to start over from the start, that's incredibly frustrating. I really think it sucks that you have to continually fight your way in, go through the whole dialogue thing over and over again.

[Blaster86]

Early on for me and my armor already looks Sith-tastic.

[Hemi-Cuda]

i'm level 36 and i've already got 2 pieces of my level 40 PVP set. looking forward to seeing how my Commando will look decked out in the full set

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

Some of the choices are ridiculously off. "Kill Him" (Lightside) "Kill Him and smile" (Darkside). There's no difference =-o

This is probably my only complaint.

While I think some of the cinematics and reactions are really cool after performing a lightside or darkside option, there's really no consequence (good or bad) to doing things.

The only difference is the flavor text that you get in the form of mail some time after the quest (and I really enjoy the flavor text). For example, if you accept a cash bribe, you get 1000 credits in the mail from the briber saying "thanks for taking the bribe, cheers." If you refuse the bribe, you get...1000 credits in the mail from the officer saying "thanks for not taking the bribe, we got the briber!"

Another one I found recently, is you have a choice to ask someone to basically give their life for you defending a position, or to let him retreat in the face of impossible odds. In theory, defending the position should give you more time/better chances/less resistance at the cost of his life, while letting him retreat saves him, but piles on the difficulty for you. Unfortunately, neither happens - there's no effect, except the person dies. Thus, the light-side choice is clearly the "right" choice.

Not that I care what the "right" choice is =D I just play the way I want, but I'd have liked a bit more consequence in your actions, where if you don't "kill the few to save the many", sometimes the many ACTUALLY DIE.

[Mike F]

Gamespot has an interview with BioWare's James Ohlen discussing an imminent update, Rise of the Rakghouls, a big update in March, and some interesting new features, including a way to encourage players to play through different class story lines:

JO: So the legacy system, it's kind of inspired by the fact that the family dynamic is so important in the Star Wars movies. You have Luke being Anakin's son, the most famous father-son relationship in movies. We wanted to have a system that encouraged players to create alts and to play the game through the different story paths. So the legacy system is meant to do that. It essentially allows you to, instead of just having a bunch of alts that have no relation to each other, you can actually create a family tree where your alts can be related to your main character, either as, you know, a sibling, a son, a father, a family friend, or a husband and wife.

You can actually choose the relationship your characters will have with each other. And then you gain legacy experience points and legacy levels, and with legacy experience points and levels, that gives you--that allows you to unlock abilities, perks, a whole slew of different advantages, essentially, that all the members of your legacy tree will be able to enjoy.