Star Wars: The Old Republic

[CaptainCrunch]

I think that's a future development after they finish the major bug fixes.

As an aside, I did learn something new last night.

I was on my rascal (Hoverbike) on my way to a date with destiney and saw a pack of Rackghouls, I decided that I didn't want to stop and fight them, I was in a hurry and the story area was just over the hill. So I basically jumped over two packs of the damn things, jumped over the hill and landed and tried to go through the green thingy to the story area.

Of course it wouldn't let me go through because I was in combat.

Suddenly a cloud of red showed up on my radar, I looked up to see about 50 of these things jumping off of the wall at me.

I completely got swarmed under, my companion screamed "We will not win this day" then gurgled and died. I fought valiantly before they finally ripped my throat out and did unspeakable things to my corpse.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Has Bioware talked at all about doing free faction transfers to help fix the imbalance between Republic and Imperial?

Why would that fix it? People picked Imperial, why would they switch?

[CaramonLS]

Make it so Republic gets a 25-50% experience boost when leveling.

Simple - keep it in until the imbalance is fixed.

[Rathji]

I don't play TOR, but I wonder how people would respond to you changing factions if you did too many light side actions. I know faction and light/dark side are not equiv, but if you could set up a system where it would set a threshold for changing factions based on the current ratio of Rebels to Imperial. Like if there are more than 60% Imperial, it triggers the event but only if you have less than that threshold of dark side vs dark side ratio.

I know it wouldn't work, because people want control over their characters and switching factions could destroy your play group, but I think it would be an interesting way to deal with 2 concerns that people are voicing in this thread.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I don't play TOR, but I wonder how people would respond to you changing factions if you did too many light side actions. I know faction and light/dark side are not equiv, but if you could set up a system where it would set a threshold for changing factions based on the current ratio of Rebels to Imperial. Like if there are more than 60% Imperial, it triggers the event but only if you have less than that threshold of dark side vs dark side ratio.

I know it wouldn't work, because people want control over their characters and switching factions could destroy your play group, but I think it would be an interesting way to deal with 2 concerns that people are voicing in this thread.

I would love to have something like that if you're playing a Jedi, if you make too many evil choices that you fall to the dark side and go down a new path that's more about gaining power and taking out your anger with the Jedi

Or on the Sith side if you make too many light side choices when one of the Jedi blabs on about saving you your quest choice makes you go to the Jedi temple for retraining and your story paths are around redemption.

It would only work for force users.

On the smuggler side you should be able to play both sides of the fence in a hunt for profit, same with the bounty hunter, it would be great if you work for some rebel general one day and he treats you well, but you get an email from imperial intelligence willing to pay you a wack of money to kill or capture that jedi the next day.

Imperial Agent and trooper would probably be the only story paths where you shouldn't be able to change sides unless you become a double agent.

[Pacem]

Originally Posted by llama64

And speaking of MMO's - it's 2012... ffs put a LFG system in that's useful. And relax the ridiculous trifecta garbage - I've met exactly 2 people in the game that actually grasped the concept of crowd control, tanking and focused DPS. And at the level of 18, it's absolutely necessary to do this in every heroic quest and flashpoint - there is no wiggle room whatsoever. I gave up trying to do the heroic quests/flashpoints despite them being the more interesting parts of the game because I had to put up with idiots who had no idea how to play (yes, I even guilded and sough refuge there - no dice). I do recognize that it's a new MMO, but I had hoped that people would have picked up the basics by level 25 at least... (that's like 35+ hours in for god's sake)
.

I don't play this game. I play WoW alot. Some guild members have left to go give this game a try for awhile. Not a huge Star Wars fan so unless if the guild im in does a mass exit to play this game I wont be buying it. This part of your part is a general complaint about MMORPG's.

What makes the LFG tool so bad? I find the LFG tool for WoW to be just fine. I also know that if I go in alone I very well could be in a group with ######s. I usually grab a guildie or two and try and go in. Its not a big deal if I don't grab a guildie to go in with cause I'm a healer or a tank so I know what of the important roles wont be a full on ######. What kind of improves would you be looking for?

As far as getting away from the MMORPG trifecta, how can you? If you don't have roles in place then you would have to have every "class" be the exact same which does the exact opposite of what you want. IMO, Group content should be hard enough that you NEED CC. I hate the fact they got away from that in WoW. My MMORPG days date back to Everquest, I've only played the two games. EQ and WoW over the last 11 0r 12 years. I enjoyed world bosses, and not this instance crap.

The best expansion implementation that i've ever seen was during the Scars of Velious expansion in EQ. I wish MMORPG's went that path. 3 major factions that you as a guild had to choose. Lots of world bosses and a zone (Sleepers Tomb) that had a server wide event when the bosses were finally killed, thus eliminating some of the best weapons available. They later changed it so you could still get those weapons down the road. It provided a very exciting raiding atmosphere. I'd love it if they implemented world bosses on a weekly timer. Then have instances of the same bosses, toned down a bit with a downgrade in gear. Or make it just as hard but still a downgraded version of gear. Similiar to what WoW has done with LFR dragon soul and the real Dragon Soul.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Pacem

I don't play this game. I play WoW alot. Some guild members have left to go give this game a try for awhile. Not a huge Star Wars fan so unless if the guild im in does a mass exit to play this game I wont be buying it. This part of your part is a general complaint about MMORPG's.

What makes the LFG tool so bad? I find the LFG tool for WoW to be just fine. I also know that if I go in alone I very well could be in a group with ######s. I usually grab a guildie or two and try and go in. Its not a big deal if I don't grab a guildie to go in with cause I'm a healer or a tank so I know what of the important roles wont be a full on ######. What kind of improves would you be looking for?

I think he's saying that WoW's dungeon finder system is fine. SWTOR's system is kind of like EQ's system back when I (and it looks like you) played, where you can set a LFG tag with a comment.

However, it's nowhere near as powerful as EQ's 2002 LFG implementation, as their "/who" command is absolute garbage. It's also impossible to re-size the /who screen, meaning you can't even read 90% of the LFG comment for the 2 people that DO set it.

Of course even EQ made a much better LFG interface later on, where you can actually immediately search all the players that are LFG and perhaps see what kind of groups you can put together, so SWTOR's system is really a pre-2000 type of implementation.

As far as getting away from the MMORPG trifecta, how can you? If you don't have roles in place then you would have to have every "class" be the exact same which does the exact opposite of what you want. IMO, Group content should be hard enough that you NEED CC. I hate the fact they got away from that in WoW. My MMORPG days date back to Everquest, I've only played the two games. EQ and WoW over the last 11 0r 12 years. I enjoyed world bosses, and not this instance crap.

Then you were probably on the winning side of it. If you enjoyed world bosses, the 5-6 guilds below you absolutely did not. I think this sort of cutthroat behavior worked great for its time (god, it's not even 10 years ago), but it would never fly in the mainstream market.

The best expansion implementation that i've ever seen was during the Scars of Velious expansion in EQ. I wish MMORPG's went that path. 3 major factions that you as a guild had to choose. Lots of world bosses and a zone (Sleepers Tomb) that had a server wide event when the bosses were finally killed, thus eliminating some of the best weapons available. They later changed it so you could still get those weapons down the road. It provided a very exciting raiding atmosphere. I'd love it if they implemented world bosses on a weekly timer. Then have instances of the same bosses, toned down a bit with a downgrade in gear. Or make it just as hard but still a downgraded version of gear. Similiar to what WoW has done with LFR dragon soul and the real Dragon Soul.

The problem with the server-wide event that isn't instanced is you basically have the best guild that monopolized the content. I would say it is very similar to the AQ40 gate opening that WoW did, and it's nearly guaranteed that WoW would never try something like that again.

SWTOR does have some world bosses, but they aren't anything special, and aren't farmed like they were in EQ. While griefing, racing and competition was wonderful back in the day, I think it's one of those ideas that we can only look back on and say it was fun, but wouldn't work in any modern MMO.

[Superfraggle]

I think this game is too story driven to have people switching sides, unless you did so, but retained your class. I think it would be great if bounty hunters and smugglers were largely independent, but had to make decisions about which side to align with. Maybe something like the light/dark system, but where if you do too many missions for one side you are blacklisted for the other. Players with stronger alignments to one side could open up more missions for that side, but players who stay fairly neutral overall can work for both.

That and allowing Jedi who go dark-side to become Sith and Sith who go lightside to become Jedi. Maybe make a point after the first chapter where you can cross over and do the other's storyline, depending on your light/dark choices.

[CaramonLS]

Or take it even one step further - make either faction absolutely pointless except for a starting point.

Jedi and Sith can mix in guilds, use shared banks, Sith can kill Sith in PvP, etc.

Then you have a much better system of guild play and not faction play.

[Blaster86]

That is about the only way it would work. I don't want to roll sith, but suddenly become Jetti and not be able to play with my friends.

[Hemi-Cuda]

just had my most epic moment in TOR so far. playing huttball, and it's a close game. i grab the ball in the middle with 90 seconds left in the match, make it over the 2nd fire grate before i'm knocked down into the pit. i think it's over but then i spot a guildmate standing at the edge of the pit right in front of the goal line. i have 4 sith hammering away at me, i'm slowed, but just before i go down i make it to the passing range and lob him a hail mary. he's a shadow, so he catches the ball and sprints to the goal line for the winning touchdown with 10 seconds left

i don't care what anyone says, PVP in this game is awesome

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

just had my most epic moment in TOR so far. playing huttball, and it's a close game. i grab the ball in the middle with 90 seconds left in the match, make it over the 2nd fire grate before i'm knocked down into the pit. i think it's over but then i spot a guildmate standing at the edge of the pit right in front of the goal line. i have 4 sith hammering away at me, i'm slowed, but just before i go down i make it to the passing range and lob him a hail mary. he's a shadow, so he catches the ball and sprints to the goal line for the winning touchdown with 10 seconds left

i don't care what anyone says, PVP in this game is awesome

With my Sith Inquisitor I just got this sweet ass ability called "extraction".

Works amazing for Huttball - you cherry pick a little bit on the enemy side and once you ally gets close (within 30 m) you "extract him" and pull him right beside you.

Or my personal favorite is you team goes 'low' into the pit, wait on the other side by the goal line while everyone chases him, then do a ninja extract for the score.

[Blaster86]

incentive to keep playing maybe? me and my friends made a guild and called ourselves the Cantina Band. So awesome.

[CaptainCrunch]

I just got randomly invited into a guild unless it was one of you guys.

Since I've never done it before, what happens now, do they invite me along to flashpoints or something like that?

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I just got randomly invited into a guild unless it was one of you guys.

Since I've never done it before, what happens now, do they invite me along to flashpoints or something like that?

Most guilds are a collection of somewhat like minded folks. If you just got a casual/random invite out of the blue, you will likely find that very little will happen in the guild. They were just looking for numbers.Guilds are all different beasts. Some will only do things with other members. Some are basically just another colored chat to watch. Most are in between. Most folks will ask in guild chat if anyone needs a flashpoint, heroic quest, etc that they are near or want to do (providing the guild is big enough) and then try to fill in the rest of the group with pubbies.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I just got randomly invited into a guild unless it was one of you guys.

Since I've never done it before, what happens now, do they invite me along to flashpoints or something like that?

if you want a decent guild, /gquit the random invite one you're in and look for quality players who sport the same guild tag. remember the names of good guys you group with for flashpoints or heroics, pay attention to the good players in warzones, and once you find a group of people that are decent whisper one of them to ask some questions. you'll have a far better experience doing it that way than a guild that randomly spams out invites

[Thor]

Random invites are always fail guilds, stear clear!

[CaramonLS]

CC find us a guild, we come as a package deal.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

CC find us a guild, we come as a package deal.

you're on Daragon Trail right? try to find guys in the Kindread guild. Calgary based, and i have a buddy who guilded with them in WoW and says they're a great group of guys

[Blaster86]

Come join the Cantina Band! Play a Fanfar, Kloohorn or Ommnibox!