Given the changes with the most recent patch, I'm curious to hear what's still viable as a class from you hardcore testers.

Can you come to Hawaii and we can sit down and talk about the game for a few hours? I played a Sage which is a Jedi type dps/healer combo and I had a few followers. I used a tank type follower which worked out real nice.

In short, I think that this game is going to be the EQ killer that we've been waiting for.

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Musnicki

Make sure you check the tester page if you are waiting for the Beta invite and haven't received a 2nd email:

http://www.swtor.com/tester

I noticed there was an RSVP link there now, and when I clicked it, I got the download link.

The worlds are wide open, and some worlds like Tattooine and Alderaan are huuuuuuge (in comparison, the Capital planets feel very restricted, and small even if they are not) , but they are still traditional Bioware worlds, and they do feel a bit restrictive. And the quests do guide you very specifically through the worlds, to the point where I can see where people are coming from when they call this game as being on rails. Although, it is not quite on rails, but it does feel a bit less free roaming than other MMORPGs, or even RPGs like the ones you mentioned.

Which is not a bad thing, really, the game is tons of fun. I played up to level 36, Trooper, and level 20 something Imperial Agent, and other level 20s, back when I was still playing the beta (decided to stop and wait for release), and the overall fun outweighs the pet peeves I had, which are a lot, actually. But I won't spam the thread with them. Not when you all are barely jumping into the fun.

I don't know how you solve linearity in an mmo. You can't go the direction that games like Skyrim go, where it scales up to your level, because you're in a community. Not sure I even like that system the best, anyway. It create a sameness to the game, not much appreciation for epic dungeons because the AI tunes the difficulty constantly to give you the same near-challenge from level 1 to level 50.

TOR does a better job than most mmo's in letting you explore early, however. And the fact that each planet is a short hop away from another and you don't have that situation where you have to spend 30 minutes traversing the globe.

No moveable UI is ass-balls and near inexcusable nowadays. My only complaint so far. Something that will be added in later I'm sure.

It will be the game everybody plays for 5 years.

UI issues aside (no moving, no scaling, no target of target), this game pretty much exceeds every expectation.

Yep the UI is complete shit. Very much shit for PVP. I can't find any way to turn off objective windows, which cover up the right hotbar most of the time.

There's a little arrow that you can click to hide the quest tracker on the right (if that is what you are talking about). You can also right click the little people icon on the raid window thing and unlock it to move it. Funny that it is about the only thing that IS movable.

Mainly it's the PVP status windows that are the biggest problem. The big culprit is the window for the assault maps that is just way too long and stretches down over the quest tracker and into the right hot bar. It could be easily fixed by scaling the UI to your resolution, but it just doesn't happen.

Posts on the official forums about it are garbage, with everyone saying "It's a beta. Get over it."

I'd say 98.9% of the people in the beta think they are playing a demo, not a beta.

How do twileks look with visible helmets? I haven't leveled one up high enough yet.

I know that my twilek sith inquisitor wore hoods and they covered the head tails.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Just so I can find it later.

Craft - Gathering Skill - Mission Skill

Armormech - Scavenging - Underworld Trading
Armstech - Scavenging - Investigation
Artifice - Archaeology - Treasure Hunting
Biochem - Bioanalysis - Diplomacy
Cybertech - Scavenging - Underworld Trading
Synthweaving - Archaeology - Underworld Trading


Primary Stats

Smugglers/IAs- Cunning
Inquisitors/Consulars- Wisdom
Warrior/Knight- Strength
Bounty Hunter/Trooper- Aim

http://www.swtor.com/guilds/285258/nil-desperandum

New Empire version of the guild is up. There are enough people who want to play together and play Empire to outweigh the few who want to play Republic.

I've spent a fair amount of time on both factions, and I have my personal set of pros and cons, but Empire feels like a much more fleshed out experience as a whole than Republic. And I can't justify my desire to play Smuggler (easily the best class in terms of gameplay mechanics AND story) over the desire to play with people I know. Plus, I actually know how to play a Sith Assassin Tank more than I do a Scoundrel Healer. I discovered this by playing both classes from level 1 and from doing some high end content testing with premades.

Oh, and unless it got a huge nerf...Slicing is a fucking goldmine.

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I think slicing got nerfed pretty bad.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I put Nil Desperandum as an Ally to Vita. Is that what you guys are doing now? Going to the dark side?

http://www.swtor.com/guilds/45187/vita-infinita

seductive, the dark side is.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Being a PvP-atic, I really can't decide if its the best i've played yet or if its really lacking. That may sound odd but PvP is really hard to flesh out until you get real numbers on a server really utilizing everything.

So far, the games are fun but, I'm a huge advocate of having as many players in the actual game world as possible. I hate instancing and mini-games. To me, it really shrinks the world and impacts the available player base.

The game is solid, nothing explosively new as maybe people were wanting. I don't buy the idea of this being another "clone" due to MMO's have developed their own standards. Certain UI's a pretty standard, certain mechanics are standard, etc. With that being said, I find it kind of ignorant you cannot move or modify the UI but that really doesn't impact my gameplay.

I do not mesh with the non-fantasy MMO genre but this one really has a good hook. Though, so did Rift but, the major difference is I can see a greater potential for longevity than other recent MMO's.

Guildmate of mine posted this on our forums. Useful.

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Not sure if I can post a picture. I guess it will forfiet my beta until release? My Twilek was a sage and wearing cloth armour.

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Musnicki

NDA was lifted, so I doubt it.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

you're safe

Fuck Sage armor is ugly...and lizard boy looks dumb in Trooper armor

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Ever have that game that just doesn't trip your trigger ?

has all the hype, good mechanics overall and that, content etc

but you play beta and it just doesn't do it for you ?

idk why but SWTOR has been that game for me

weird.

The marketing washes over me without leaving a mark. Maybe I'm too soon out of Rift, but this just isn't pulling me in.

There's marketing?

This game could make Shadowbane look like X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter in terms of brilliant design, and I would still play it.

How sad is that?

Oh man, now I wanna play X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter.

I didn't see any Rakghouls. Anyone else? I thought that it would have been cool to see a few in game.

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Musnicki

At first, I didn't get this comment.

Then I realized the problem: I actually liked Shadowbane. How sad is THAT?

Also: It looks like ToR releases on a Tuesday...and early access starts on a Tuesday. I swear, if they use the same raid reset schedule WoW did, I'm gonna be pissed. I work late tuesday nights, makes it hard to find a raid team when almost everyone raids on reset night.

There was a shit load of them on Yaris (Taris maybe?) for the republic.

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Taris

I, however, have seen a Rakghoul or two drive a yaris before. >_>

I'm not sure why but Tuesday seems to be the magic day for a lot of MMO's. Even EVE releases expansions on Tuesdays... but they have an hour of downtime every day.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

If I recall, they always had forum maintenance on Wednesdays. Maybe they will do their server maintenance on wednesdays. Who knows. Doesn't really matter to me either way.

Day before early play start 12/13, when the fuck are the slotting emails coming out? They took down their forums? Friend said they are assigning prebuilt guilds to a server, and the first character you create on that server auto joins the guild.

Which day will you be assigned? 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, or 19?

Soon (tm)


Yes, they wiped the old forums


Your friend is right


Nobody knows yet

BioWare said you will get the email the day your early access begins...no sooner. So, that means the first batch will get it sometime early morning tomorrow then.

Since the servers will be live at 4:00AM PST (7:00AM EST), and I will check my email before going to work tomorrow



Now this is interesting, because what if the Guild leader does not have early game access? Will the guild still be made, and it's members are auto joined? It will be interesting to see how this works tomorrow and going forward

This info is all over fan sites...

It's actually on the FAQ, and also, check the guilds page on swtor.com, the servers are posted there. My guild got put in Lord Praven server, whoever the fuck that dude is.

Also, the way it will work is, once you create a character on your assigned server, your character will get a guild invitation upon logging in, you can either reject it or accept it. Every character you make on that server will get the same treatment. So what I take is, the guilds are already made, don't need to do anything other than log on.

My early start date is all over fan sites?

Vita's Server is Kaas City.

All of the details to your panic-stricken questions.

I'm looking to setup a Vent server for my little coworker guild... Has anyone used a Mumble server? Thoughts on that vs. vent?

And, any particular service providers I should use/avoid?

I think you should google that...

IMO mumble > vent.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

The prices seem comparable... Vent has never impressed me much in terms of audio quality.

Email on the morning you get early access?
So each day eagerly checking email to see if you got a golden ticket?
They can't crunch the numbers and provide a roll out plan?

I did google it, and there is no fucking info. Just the obscure bits you guys found and enjoy telling people to go look it up. People who take the time to type, go look it up instead of just answering deserve a sharp stick in their eye.

Bottom line is nobody has any answers yet. And if you happen to visit websites like reddit.com on a semi-regular basis, you'd see the same questions you asked literally 100 times a day. That's probably why your answers were a bit more snarky than usual.

- They want people to have a positive experience re: server performance and population.
- They are giving out access earlier than the official launch.
- They've stated a willingness to cap the pre-orders to ensure a positive experience.
- They've communicated on their sites and those items have been copied on fan sites exactly how access will work in the early access phase. This is not a new concept...

It is what it is... Just be patient. I'd rather have some ambiguity and get to play before the holidays happen, when I'll be focused on family. It will also be nice to see people trickle in over a situation where you can either not play for the first day due to lag, or it be so over populated that you might as well not play. We'll see how they pull it off.

They are sending out emails the day of your start it seems. So I would just keep checking your email to see when. Pretty much all you can do.

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Having used both, I prefer Mumble over Ventrilo. It's easier to customize your space, security's better, and it's better at tolerating network condition changes.

I live in Hawaii (GMT -10)...it's the 13th on some parts of the world. Anyone in yet? Mine keeps telling me that I need an active subscribtion but I don't see a window to enter payment info.

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Musnicki

Did you get an email saying you were in? If not, then you're not in. But yes, some people are already in.

I got an email this morning, and I'm in.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I pre-ordered a collector edition, registered my code on the day I ordered and no news, a friend who ordered at the same time as me received a mail telling him he would start on the last day wtf .

According to posts on the forum somepeople who ordered on the last weeks got in already... WTF is that shit they are doing random start now instead of when you registered your product code?

I'm not in, but that's ok.. Just hope to be by the time I get home.

I got mine just now, but woot can't play because I'm on a film shoot all damn day!

P.S. Also authenticators are available for pre-order. Check the bottom of your account page.

What date did you register your code? Also, I was under the impression that they only sent out the early invites on the day you had the invite, not a week in advance. Your friend must be quite special to get his notice so early.