Star Wars: The Old Republic

It's about time all that stuff came to TOR, but I don't think it'll be enough to usurp FF 14's hold on me.

No. All of my characters are on Harbinger, an American West Coast PVE server.

edited 19th Mar '14 11:57:21 AM by millardkillmoore

Hah, funny this thread should appear at the top of the video games list now, I happen to be reinstalling the game right now.

I got to about level 30 with a Twi'lek Jedi Knight before, I dunno what I'm gonna be this time. What's the best class to solo play as?

I think that Bounty Hunter is the most fun to play.

Depends on how you like to play. Companions make soloing a billion times easier than anything like World Of Warcraft, so it's not as big a deal as you might think. Go for DPS if you like to kill things quick, or tank if you like to never ever die. A DPS class with a good AOE that also stuns (eg, Commando and Mortar Volley, Sorcerer and Lightning Storm) will make most trash child's play, but a tank class with a healer companion out is virtually unkillable as long as you're not way underleveled or trying to solo group content. I haven't leveled a healer yet, but I hear it's a bit more obnoxious than DPS or tank is.

In terms of story content rather than gameplay mechanics, the Knight's storyline is basically KOTOR 3, and whenever anyone asks which class has the best storyline, Agent comes up a lot (though I haven't played that one yet, myself).

edited 19th Mar '14 12:21:32 PM by NativeJovian

I wouldn't really advise bringing a tank if you're a healer or a healer if you're a tank. You'll never lose, but every fight will take forever. If you're a dps, bring a healer or tank. If you're a tank or a healer, bring a dps. You'll be effective and can actually kill enemies quickly.

edited 19th Mar '14 12:42:37 PM by millardkillmoore

Depends. I played a Jedi Shadow Consular and ended up focusing on stealth, so I wasn't very good at DPS or tanking. The healer companion was crucial, especially for the Chapter 2 end boss fight.

Yes, that's true; I didn't mean to imply that a tank should have a healer NPC out all the time, just for tough fights. I've had a lot more success doing things like soloing heroics as a tank with a healer companion than anything else.

I believe that the Shadow stealth tree is the DPS tree, isn't it?

edited 19th Mar '14 12:30:05 PM by NativeJovian

DPS is... damage per second, right? So a high damage class?

I liked playing as a Jedi Knight but might try Consular this time around because Force powers are cool.

Yeah, DPS is shorthand for "class that focuses on dealing damage, rather than surviving damage (like tanks) or healing damage (like healer)". Every class and advanced class has at least one DPS tree, while a couple (gunslinger/sniper, sentinel/marauder) have two.

If you're looking for cool force powers, I'd recommend Sorcerer (advanced class of Sith Inquisitor) over anything else. They specialize in shooting the hell out of everything with lightning; it's pretty badass.

edited 19th Mar '14 12:38:16 PM by NativeJovian

As for the stories:

Knight is indeed KOTOR 3. The Knight's really does feel like the main storyline and all others just feel much less important. That doesn't mean they're worse, just that the stakes are much bigger for Knights.

Consular is a sort of Adventurer Archaeologist and Ambadassador who solves mysteries and serves as a negotiator in disputes. They're the wise Jedi as opposed to the ass-kicking Jedi Knight if that's what you're interested in playing. Definitely play the female Consular though. The male one's voice actor gives a really awful performance.

Trooper has a pretty standard military story that wouldn't be out of place in the average action movie. Best part of them is that their Lightside/Darkside choices tend to be less "Good vs. Evil" and more "Paragon vs. Renegade"

The Smuggler is a Deadpan Snarker and Loveable Rogue getting into a lighthearted adventure. It's the least serious storyline, but probably the most fun.

The Warrior is a really awesome Sith politics story with lots of great stuff.

The Inquisitor is a much less awesome Sith politics story that feels very repetitive. The Inquisitor is pretty fun to play as full darkside though.

The Bounty Hunter story is one of the more personal ones. The fate of the galaxy isn't really at stake. The Bounty Hunter is just a guy out to make a name for himself and earn a huge pile of credits. But playing as a Badass Normal with an Awesome Ego that guns down Jedi and Sith without blinking an eye is pretty fun, as is your ability to mouth off to powerful Sith Lords and Imperial moffs. I also find The Heavy to be one of the better villains, despit not getting much screen time.

The Agent is a really fun espionage/conspiracy story. Saying more would be very spoilery.

I haven't actually finished all of them, but I've at least started each one and those are my impressions so far.

Fun fact: the male Consular was played by Nolan North, because of course he's in this game since he's in everything. I thought he was okay. It's not a bad performance, he just plays the character as incredibly stoic, which sort of works for the character I guess, but it's kind of boring. I'd be more likely to blame the director in combination with the incredible amount of dialogue. It must get really boring to play these characters after a while.

edited 19th Mar '14 12:52:04 PM by Zendervai

It's Dull Surprise combined with some kind of inexplicable fake accent. It's really, really awful.

On an unrelated note: New expansion announced

http://www.swtor.com/info/news/press-release/20140319

http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140319

edited 19th Mar '14 12:55:18 PM by millardkillmoore

I'm glad they finally got around to doing player housing.

If they ever add Bespin, I hope they give the option for a sky house, with plenty of nods to the So Bad, It's Good SWEU book series The Glove Of Darth Vader. Especially if you play as a smuggler.

I'm under the impression Cloud City isn't nearly that old.

Cloud City was constructed about 2000 years after SW:TOR took place.

re: expansion, I mentioned that last page. It has its own official page, with more info than what's in the trailer, here. tldr, player housing, guild flagships, legacy bank, and free goodies for subscribers. Drops end of June for subscribers, end of July for preferred, and August for F 2 P.

Bespin the planet still exists. Give us a Gas Giant expy then. They exist.

They can still give us Bespin. Just make a Cloud City like structure and add in some dialogue about how it will likely be scrapped for parts once the war ends and quickly forgotten. They used similar logic to include the Chiss and Hoth, after all.

Preview for the Hotshots pack is up. While it's easily the best Starfighter pack yet^note The Underwater Adventurer's chestpiece is particularly great for Bounty Hunters looking for some Jetpack armor that doesn't suck , we now have four sets of godawful stripper gear in one pack. This is getting ridiculous. Nearly half the pack is wasted on this stuff.

edited 21st Mar '14 2:48:01 PM by millardkillmoore

Well, at least the male armors show roughly the same amount of skin as the female ones. You don't see that very often in video games.

True enough.

edited 21st Mar '14 4:34:05 PM by lrrose

They're just equally idiotic, that's all.

One time I had a dream there was a game like SWTOR where the Jedi gampleay was like Jedi Knight, BH and Trooper played like Star Wars Republic Commando , and Smuggler and Agent played like Uncharted.

It was a good dream.

edited 21st Mar '14 5:16:56 PM by Thorn14

I'm still holding out hope for an Imperial Commando game. The revitalized interest in the franchise with the new trilogy will inevitably lead to a whole slew of games. Hopefully a proper sequel is one of them.

Oh, is that the armor a bunch of the Mandalorian NP Cs wear finally made available to players? Nice.

I'd love some sequels to the Jedi Knight/Republic Commando games too. Don't think it's too likely with Disney making their own canon though.