Star Wars: The Old Republic announced

[Arclight]

Just opened my CE package. Everything's intact. In fact, the statue was packaged like Fort Knox (solid styrofoam, taped shot).

The metal Darth Malgus statue is totally awesome!   I'll have a few  photos to share after dinner. It's very stout, very heavy, solid base. Long metal pegs on the feet holding it in place. The glossy base ships with a protective film on it.

Yeah when we talk about crafting, we just mean your companion's doing it but you're directing all that. So basically you're crafting, the companion system just takes the drudgery out of it, imho.

Yeah, but this is just another way BW has cut things short..and will leave the avid crafters wanting more. Until there is a paradigm shift in MMO's, we will still have to have grinds of various colours and shapes.

All it takes is in game currencies to craft. From what I've seen it doesn't cut into any of my gameplay at all..very simple and easy.

[ydejin]

Has anyone put any time into figuring out crafting?

I'm trying to decide if it's feasible to have my main as a gatherer and a few crafter alts produce the items.  I don't know if crafting levels are restricted by character level - in WoW you had to be a certain character level to be able to advance in crafting.

Are crafted items mostly BoP or BoE?

I've read that you can find rare patterns with some of the gathering professions - are those BoE or BoP?


Thanks to anyone who knows more than the tiny bit I know. 

As far as I can tell there are no level restrictions on crafting.  I'm crafting 140/400 but only level 20, there are lots of things I can craft that I'm not high enough level to use.  The main issue you'll run into is that while you can get "gathering skill" items by sending companions on missions, that's relatively expensive and it's easier to pick them up on your own by finding them on planet.  I suppose you could also check the auction house.  It's also possible that you'll make enough money crafting that the cost of missions won't be an issue.

All my recipes including my purple ones create Bind on Equip items.  I don't know about recipes "find in the wild."  I can't imagine that they'd be Bind on Pickup.  For example the Slicing craft is supposed to be able to find recipes for other crafting skills.  Since a slicer is unlikely to have the matching crafting skill, they'd be useless unless they could sell them.

[ydejin]

Just opened my CE package. Everything's intact. In fact, the statue was packaged like Fort Knox (solid styrofoam, taped shot).

The metal Darth Malgus statue is totally awesome!   I'll have a few  photos to share after dinner. It's very stout, very heavy, solid base. Long metal pegs on the feet holding it in place. The glossy base ships with a protective film on it.

Yeah when we talk about crafting, we just mean your companion's doing it but you're directing all that. So basically you're crafting, the companion system just takes the drudgery out of it, imho.

Yeah, but this is just another way BW has cut things short..and will leave the avid crafters wanting more. Until there is a paradigm shift in MMO's, we will still have to have grinds of various colours and shapes.

All it takes is in game currencies to craft. From what I've seen it doesn't cut into any of my gameplay at all..very simple and easy.

I've spent a huge amount of time getting my purple recipes and getting my crafting stuff together.  Probably an entire day of gameplay.  So it's definitely cutting big into my regular gametime.  I've probably spent half the time doing real regular play and half the time crafting.  We'll have to see how things go toward level 50.  The crafting and mission times go up by quite a bit.  Some of the tier 3 missions (for stuff in the mid 20's range) can take 20 minutes or longer.

[Teggy]

I might maybe be trolling a certain RP-PVP server instead of waiting in the 40 minute queue to play my main 

[The Grue]

While the smuggler story is pretty good (just hit 14 last night), the empire class stories that I've played are more interesting.  I like the voice acting for the imperial classes better too.  Just personal preference for me.  I can't stand the emotionless jedi code, so if I played one, I'd be a terrible jedi. 

 

I'm playing a female trooper and the voice for her is the voice of FemShep from Mass Effect (Jennifer Hale) and it is awesome.

[USMC Kato]

I might maybe be trolling a certain RP-PVP server instead of waiting in the 40 minute queue to play my main 

Lol I have 5 characters all at level 5 waiting for Hark to finish his download and updates. Let me know when you're on or message me on xbox live

[Pharaoh]

I might have a lvl 6 Bounty Hunter waiting on that same server.

Names people! Names...

[Teggy]

I might maybe be trolling a certain RP-PVP server instead of waiting in the 40 minute queue to play my main  

Lol I have 5 characters all at level 5 waiting for Hark to finish his download and updates. Let me know when you're on or message me on xbox live

Ah, I searched on "Kato" a few times, guess you were on XBOX. I got a greedy bounty hunter (Teggy) up to 7. I'm definitely going to be working my Trooper, but if the queues stay big for the first week, I'll definitely spend time on the BH.

[USMC Kato]

I might have a lvl 6 Bounty Hunter waiting on that same server.

Names people! Names...

Yeah I missed you and Teggy

On the empire side I have:
Kato
Katos
Jenn
Marian

[Blackjack]

Guys I did set up a separate names thread for GTers so please post there too. 

Guess I'm gonna try rolling an alt or two on less crowded servers. I've had several disconnects and "buttons all stop responding" type stuff that forces me to alt-tab to desktop to shut down the game.

I'm trying to take deep breaths and say "This is ALL just part of the Early Access Plan" instead of being the soothsayer of doom that sez Bioware won't be able to avoid all the pitfalls of other high-buzz mmorpgs. 

[Hotfreak]

I might have a lvl 6 Bounty Hunter waiting on that same server.

Names people! Names...

On that server, I managed to reserve:
Kalam -- IA

[The Grue]

Guys I did set up a separate names thread for GTers so please post there too. 

Guess I'm gonna try rolling an alt or two on less crowded servers. I've had several disconnects and "buttons all stop responding" type stuff that forces me to alt-tab to desktop to shut down the game.

I'm trying to take deep breaths and say "This is ALL just part of the Early Access Plan" instead of being the soothsayer of doom that sez Bioware won't be able to avoid all the pitfalls of other high-buzz mmorpgs. 

Might be something on your end as I've played my Trooper to level 20 and I've yet to have anything bad happen.  I always stay connected, don't have bad lag.  The only bad thing I had happen was a queue last night trying to get in.

[cheeba]

Ah is it ever nice playing with my old PvP guild now. So much more fun than beta.

[USMC Kato]

If any of you guys need a vent server, just shoot me a pm

[Hotfreak]

Kato, I sent you a whisper in game but you must have been afk (Katos).

I also ran across a character named Archlyte.  If that's not you, Arclight, let me know if you want me to take him out -- or at least break his kneecaps.

[Blackjack]

I'm really digging the 4-person Heroic quests around the mid-teen level, esp. Enemies of the Republic and Locust. I'll try to get a YouTube video comp of some combat from those.

My Enemies team I mentioned was a weird mix of Smugglers (each Advanced Class) and Trooper (each AC).

My Locust group was:
Smuggler>Gunslinger (me)
Smuggler>Scoundrel
Jedi Knight>Guardian
Jedi Consular>Shadow

Worked pretty well. The Scoundrel sneaked around first, using a tranq dart on a couple targets. I'd follow up with a flash grenade later if necessary. I laid off using grenades unless a single target we were after was well away from the stunned ones. Since most of the Smuggler's pistol attacks are single-target, it really works nicely in groups.

[Razgon]

The queues on the euro servers are getting out of hand... 4 hours now on the server i choose? Now, I choose a backup server instead, which was, the only rp-pvp server...which now has a queue of around 30 minutes. Not so bad, but still.

A weird thing - on my server, pretty  much every jedi knight is a guardian, which is the tank role. I find that rather strange, since tanking isn't really normally what people want to play.

The game is awesome though - I'm really digging the voice overs and the stories.

[rshetts2]

Guys I did set up a separate names thread for GTers so please post there too. 

Guess I'm gonna try rolling an alt or two on less crowded servers. I've had several disconnects and "buttons all stop responding" type stuff that forces me to alt-tab to desktop to shut down the game.

I'm trying to take deep breaths and say "This is ALL just part of the Early Access Plan" instead of being the soothsayer of doom that sez Bioware won't be able to avoid all the pitfalls of other high-buzz mmorpgs. 

Might be something on your end as I've played my Trooper to level 20 and I've yet to have anything bad happen.  I always stay connected, don't have bad lag.  The only bad thing I had happen was a queue last night trying to get in.

Im on the same server and have had no issues.  I havent even run into a queue yet, but thats clearly due to timing.   The game itself has run smooth as silk on good old  Drunken Cantina.  Im on the Empire side of things though so maybe its just happening to you rebel scum. 

[Blackjack]

It's been fine today. I had similar connection issues on Friday nights during my two weekend tests, so I don't know if maybe it's just a Friday night thing.

I did end up starting a couple Empire characters on The Shadowlands server cause it seemed to have way less population and it sounded like it might be a bit less slammed.

[Dreamshadow]

I'm playing on Harbringer with the QT3 guys.  Thomasic, Thomasien tend to be my character names.

[Arclight]

From my perspective, having been on a couple of RP servers, they seem to be the ones most free from slammage.  Not one queue, not one crash.

[Blackjack]

I love this game but it's almost literally made me physically ill from playing it so much (I wake up groggy each morning like I've been out drinking and eating the wrong things). Is that a testimonial or a warning?  

I'll hawk my video here (I mentioned it in the screenies thread):

4-Player Heroic Quests in Star Wars: The Old Republic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7HELRGSlZA

*What I like about the 4-player team limit is everyone has to contribute (you can't have a "passenger" in a 4-player team on Heroic4 or Flashpoints, and any class/advanced class feels useful), it's easier to stick together than in 6-8 player team games and it's a lot easier to recruit a team that size (invite 3 other folks).

*As my Enemies of the Republic team showed you don't have to have a Jedi tank and Jedi healer (they're certainly always nice to have). We improvised, and if the Vanguard was taking too much damage from a boss, the rest of us tried to purposely get the boss off him.   That part of the video ends with our Vanguard seeming to "run awaaaay!" Monty Python style though I suspect he was trying to get the Inquisitor wannabe to point away from the rest of us.   In a way, that was the most fun Heroic I've been on since our group had to do some off the cuff stuff to get by.

*As with  my other gameplay vids, it's 720HD, and you might fiddle with the icons that enlarge the screen a bit. Full screen is OK but a bit smeary for my tastes even though it was originally 1920X1080.  

[PR_GMR]

Finally, I'm in game.. and can post impressions. I created a Sith Inquisitor in the Krayt Dragon server. One of my good friends is playing there, so it's my intention to join his guild. As for the game, it feels like a good olde traditional MMO with a 'Star Wars' coat over it. Don't have a problem with that. I'm enjoying the story cutscenes. Graphics are very nice, too. What I've to prepare myself for is  the typical douchebagery of other players. I inadvertly stole another player's mission objectives, and he chewed me out on whispers about it. I attempted to respond that Bioware should have done solo story instances, but I was /ignored before I could even say a thing. Guess that's one friend I didn't make in game. Before I logged out just now, there were typical immature kids in general chat fighting about whatever. Guess I'll have to turn off General chat too. Oh well, I shall keep digging deeper.

[Blackjack]

I'm constantly getting questions answered by patient folks in general chat. Maybe it's a PVE server thing, but for the most part on Dresdrae, everyone's been pretty cool and helpful. If anyone bothers me or starts ranting or babbling about off topic stuff constantly, I just right click the name and choose Ignore (I've only put maybe 2 people on my Ignore list -- I think in AoC I had about a dozen on the first day  ). That's a lot more precise than ignoring an entire channel.  

If there's X hundred thousand people playing, I just don't feel I can expect every single one to be mature, thoughtful and kind. I'm not going to stereotype the whole community, or PVP or PVE or RP players, or "turn off" general chat just because a few folks are jerks or wanna chat about off topic stuff. Every MMO's like that. I guess I'm a wussy care-bear but I think if you contribute helpful things in general chat, answer some new player's question, or even try to bring just a little welcome humor, it's pulling the game and community in a positive direction.  

Now I shall stop spouting hot air to return to the game.  

[ydejin]

I love this game but it's almost literally made me physically ill from playing it so much (I wake up groggy each morning like I've been out drinking and eating the wrong things). Is that a testimonial or a warning?  

Oh man, that sounds like me exactly 

The other nifty thing about SWTOR 4-mans is if you're missing a 4th you can sometimes get by with a companion.

[rshetts2]

It had to happen eventually.  I finally caught my first queue.  300th on the list and they claim a 20 min wait.  I also faced a couple of evade bugged mobs today.  Then again thats something WoW was never able to get rid of, so I figure its just one of those things that happen.  It was just trash mobs, so no big deal.

[ericb]

I've been mostly lucky with general chat and instances but I'm getting really pissed at grouping with republic people wanting dark side points.  I'm not going into spoilers for the instances but choices were made that I hated because they wanted dark side points only.  I know my personal choices still count for me but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.  If you want to play the dark side there's a whole group called the empire just waiting for you.  Otherwise enjoying the game more and more as I play longer and get higher levels.  Still can't decide on a main but I'm leaning towards a dual Empire IA/Sniper and Jedi Knight/Sentinel.

[Barrakketh]

I love this game but it's almost literally made me physically ill from playing it so much (I wake up groggy each morning like I've been out drinking and eating the wrong things). Is that a testimonial or a warning?  

Oh man, that sounds like me exactly 

The other nifty thing about SWTOR 4-mans is if you're missing a 4th you can sometimes get by with a companion.

I was in a 4-man Esseles Flashpoint last night and a Jedi Shadow went linkdead. We finished up using the Trooper's companion, just fine. Not sure if that would work for the higher level ones, but at level 10/11, they are viable.

Something I forgot to do on my own trooper was upgrade the first companion's big gun. There were quest rewards replacing his armor, but not the gun. Around level 18 I noticed, and crafted up a better gun.  Doubled his dps.

[rshetts2]

  If you want to play the dark side there's a whole group called the empire just waiting for you. 

Why you prejudicial rebel scum!     Actually, you'll find plenty of Empire side players building light points.  My Imperial Agent has gone for light point as much as possible.  Its not a black and white universe, you know.  Keep your dark side republic punks, we dont want them!

[Soulchilde]

I've been having bad luck with groups since I left Taris.  I either get with people who think a companion can main heal a Four Man heroic or Tanks and Healers are in short supply...


Anyway, hoping I can do some flashpoints tonight

[Harkonis]

I've been having bad luck with groups since I left Taris.  I either get with people who think a companion can main heal a Four Man heroic or Tanks and Healers are in short supply...


Anyway, hoping I can do some flashpoints tonight

bad luck is all rebel scum deserves

[raydude]

  If you want to play the dark side there's a whole group called the empire just waiting for you. 

Why you prejudicial rebel scum!     Actually, you'll find plenty of Empire side players building light points.  My Imperial Agent has gone for light point as much as possible.  Its not a black and white universe, you know.  Keep your dark side republic punks, we dont want them!

Yeah, when I eventually play the Empire side I will play it as a 5th columnist and build light side points.

[raydude]

I've been mostly lucky with general chat and instances but I'm getting really pissed at grouping with republic people wanting dark side points.  I'm not going into spoilers for the instances but choices were made that I hated because they wanted dark side points only.  I know my personal choices still count for me but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.  If you want to play the dark side there's a whole group called the empire just waiting for you.  Otherwise enjoying the game more and more as I play longer and get higher levels.  Still can't decide on a main but I'm leaning towards a dual Empire IA/Sniper and Jedi Knight/Sentinel.

Yeah, I know what you mean. For the first flashpoint there are definitely a few places where, if you were playing a la "WWLD" (what would Luke do?), some of the choices would leave a bad taste if they actually happened. You can definitely run through the instance again to get the story your way. If not with your main character then certainly when you come back to it w/ your alt.

[Blackjack]

I had a gigantic "duh" moment of realizing that we buy schematics to craft better stuff at our respective trainers, with at least some of the stuff requiring a certain character level (not "crafting ability") to use. I'm working on some pretty cool biochem stims that aren't (afik) available at vendors. The initial ones give you about 15 seconds of some sort of mega buff. One's +400 armor, one can absorb a tremendous amount of damage for that period of time etc.

[Blackjack]

I love this game but it's almost literally made me physically ill from playing it so much (I wake up groggy each morning like I've been out drinking and eating the wrong things). Is that a testimonial or a warning?  

Oh man, that sounds like me exactly 

The other nifty thing about SWTOR 4-mans is if you're missing a 4th you can sometimes get by with a companion.

I was in a 4-man Esseles Flashpoint last night and a Jedi Shadow went linkdead. We finished up using the Trooper's companion, just fine. Not sure if that would work for the higher level ones, but at level 10/11, they are viable.

Something I forgot to do on my own trooper was upgrade the first companion's big gun. There were quest rewards replacing his armor, but not the gun. Around level 18 I noticed, and crafted up a better gun.  Doubled his dps.

I'm pretty sure filling w/a  companion won't work on Hammer Station's finale (the rest of it I'm sure would be fine) unless someone is really overqualified level wise. The last boss just has too many inc waves of "adds" and soaks up dps like a sponge.

I just was a bit peeved that it felt too easy for about 99% and then boom, here's this boss from hell to wipe your team over and over. I'd prefer a solid challenge over time to the "rinse and repeat until you get a false sense of security" routine.  So far I'm having more fun with 4-player Heroics and feel more inclined to do those than Flashpoints.

Still, even with the 4 player limit, there are so many combinations of classes, you can't really perfectly balance end bosses for every single combination. I find it funny when pug players will say "you tank, you dps, you cc and you heal and it'll work perfectly." And after 7 team wipes, they still keep saying the same thing. 

That's why I was pleased on this Heroic 4 I mentioned that our tank wanna be said after a couple wipes "Hey this isn't working, let me think of something." And he did, and while it maybe didn't look very brave (playing ring around the rose with a droid boss and a large stone column), it was very smart.  I'm gonna try to remember that next time I'm on a group that's struggling with something.

[Soulchilde]

I've been having bad luck with groups since I left Taris.  I either get with people who think a companion can main heal a Four Man heroic or Tanks and Healers are in short supply...


Anyway, hoping I can do some flashpoints tonight

bad luck is all rebel scum deserves

Stench the of dark side is strong with this one.  Caution you must be

[USMC Kato]

I've been having bad luck with groups since I left Taris.  I either get with people who think a companion can main heal a Four Man heroic or Tanks and Healers are in short supply...


Anyway, hoping I can do some flashpoints tonight

bad luck is all rebel scum deserves

Stench the of dark side is strong with this one.  Caution you must be

"Our PVP server join you must Soulchilde, your destiny it is. A noob, do not be."

 

[Teggy]

<nerd>You people need to stop confusing time periods. There are no rebels in this game.</nerd>

[Harkonis]

<nerd>You people need to stop confusing time periods. There are no rebels in this game.</nerd>

you are quite wrong fwiw, I just had a mission to kill 25 of them. 

[Teggy]

<nerd>You people need to stop confusing time periods. There are no rebels in this game.</nerd>

you are quite wrong fwiw, I just had a mission to kill 25 of them. 

Republic rebels? I mean, you've got two factions in this game, the existing Republic government and the attacking Sith Empire. You might have rebels inside Sith space (just like there are separtists on the Republic worlds), but anyone who creates a Republic character is not a rebel, they are a member of the existing Republic. "Rebel scum" is a term that dates much in the future, when the Empire has taken over and a rebellion rises up.

So there.