Gryndyl.8576

Just jumped from Jade Quarry to Ehmry Bay today.

BEHOLD! Our absolutely EPIC review of Guild Wars 2!

http://gamingtrend.com/game_reviews/guild-wars-2/

I'd love any feedback you guys have. 

Wow, massive review. Good read.

Might want to fix this though...

but over 250 years have passed.  In that quarter century,

Did WoW ever have underwater combat? I dont think so. Neither did Warhammer, Vanguard, SWTOR (That I know of) The Secret World or Conan, or any of the other MMO's I played. I havent played EQ1 so I cant comment on that.

WoW, EQ1 and EQ2 all had underwater stuff. One of the WoW expansions, in fact, has an entire underwater zone.

I think GW2's is good or bad depending on your class. I love underwater stuff with my ranger because I like the attacks that I have (piranha swarm for the win!). My guardian, on the other hand, seems to have pretty lame underwater attacks and I tend to avoid doing it with that character.

I ran into something that made me smile the other night while exploring the desert in Act 2.  I listened to a very funny journal entry of cult member that reminded me immediately of the the well written (and hilarious) journal entries of beastman#xxxx from Titan Quest.  The guy who wrote them would post on OO or here?  He was even recognized by the TQ developers at some point.  I think the writers for D3 were heavily inspired by his creativity...and by heavily I mean copied  

http://www.titanquest.net/tq-forum/threads/3903-I-Beastman!-A-Titan-Quest-AAR

That's the link to the origin of the Beastman letter

Yes I belive he did post here and OO under the same name.

That's it!  Thank you.  Always a funny read.

I knew they added those journals to IT, but I never knew until now that they also added Beastman #783 to the game as a random rare mob.

Always nice seeing these get dusted off and trotted out again. You can find the whole series as well as the Titan Quest Lich series and the Age of Conan snake series here: http://beastman-archer.livejournal.com/  Entries are in reverse order.

And, while I don't know if it's completely true, I do like to think that my AAR had some sort of ripple effect on action RPGs that ultimately led to Diablo 3 NPC journals

I briefly entertained the notion of doing a Diablo 3 one. Steeping into the Highlands and getting attacked by goatmen made me think that I'd somehow strolled out iof Diablo and back into Titan Quest. One of those Goatmen archers looks a tad familiar...

A note on ranger pets for those feeling they were dead all of the time: Are you aware that you can have two pets and swap between them just like you can with weapons? Your downed pet will heal up when swapped out. And yes, different types of pets have very different strengths and weaknesses. You can start the fight, say, with a cat for a high initial burst damage and then, once it's taken a pounding, insta-swap to a bear for something that can take a little more abuse. There are about 30 or so different pets available so you have a lot of options for your pair o' pets. You can also set up a different pair of pets to have when you go underwater.

Her handlers probably decided that she was polling too low with the 'gibbering idiot' demographic.

"They're interfering with us pushing our own agenda on society!"

/quotethatshouldhavebeen

Would love to be added to the invite list. Yogscast just did a preview vid-looks great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=A0-C_iEmWkM

They've since corrected that to saying that you need an active net connection to start the game but that once you're in game you won't be affected if your internet goes down. Not that I personally consider that any better but figured some folks might.

You might have to pay people to take them. Not one of the hottest commodities these days I think.

This is absurd. I get that you didn't like the game but your constant hate campaign against it has become ridiculous. It's far from a perfect game but there is a great deal of fun to be had playing it.

Just out of curiosity are there any of the locations from the original game? If so, I'd love to see what they've done to the places.

Yup, there is quite a long section that deals with Taris and what became of it (and its people). The are even specific appearances (of a sort) by some of the people you met there. I've never really gotten farther than that in KOTOR, so I don't know about the other locations

Couple of shots of (pre AA) Taris:

Clearly it was just a matter of time before the game made people... lose their heads!  
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=818429
*They need to write this into a quest some time. "Help the Voss find their lost heads!"   

I had no issues last night. Bioware said it's looking into it.

Are any other people reporting this issue? Just looks to me like he has a corrupted file somehwere.

Michigan says call us when you people get some real snow.

It's not the depth of the snow here that matters, it's a whole host of other factors.
http://sportspressnw.com/2012/01/critics-of-seattle-in-snow-shut-the-hell-up/

What do you guys think about the review that's up?
First time I can remember disagreeing totally with a GT review.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But what happens if the beholder is blind in one eye and can't see out of the other?

Just kidding..........(not really)?. ...

I'd pretty much agree with his review.  A few minor quibbles aside, I'm thoroughly enjoying the game and it's the first (and only) MMO that has ever kept my interest for more than a couple days. I'm sure folks will have a different perspective if they've spent hundreds of hours in WoW or Rift, but for those of us without a ton of MMO experience (and those who are SW fans), SWTOR is an very fun and compelling experience.

I agree with the review as well. I've played many MMOs and am having more fun out of the gate with this one that I've had in any other.

Poulsbo area. Maybe an inch here and now it's basically just misting ice particles. Not very apocolypsy, at least, unless it's not done yet?

From what I've seen to far this is waaaay too anime for me to tolerate it more than about 5 minutes. Hopefully, if they managed to pull off large scale open world action style combat, other MMO companies will take note. Preferably ones less inclined to have your character make squeaky noises. 

Begeren Colony (PvE-RP West Coast)

Empire

Djynn, Marauder
Leng,  Sniper
Leech, Sorcerer
Gryndyl, Powertech

Republic

Wick, Shadow
Kallysta, Marksman
Meesha, Guardian
Kanjia, Commando

Got a decent looking helmet from a Hoth commendations vendor

Why does that smuggler have a kneepad strapped to his balaclava?


That is one of the silliest things about many games in general and RPG/MMO's in particular.  It may be a bit much to ask but I expect "armor" to at least appear functional towards it's intended purpose.  It seems a bit silly that I can go from a full helmet with face shield (Armor rating 150) to something that looks like John McEnroe's headband with a Casio calculator watch taped to it (Armor rating 400).

I mean, how exactly does that work?  At least in a fantasy setting one can claim "magical" protective properties but in a sci-fi setting it's a bit off-putting.

Force fields and nanites.

Are you aware of other people on your server having similar problems? Admittedly, I'm on a different server but I've never seen a random disconnect or lag spike since early access started.

Hate to be the unpopular voice of reason here and yes, they should have made it more clear (they did have the info on the launcher all day yesterday), but...

EVERY pay to play MMO I have ever played requires you to set up your payment plan in order to use your free game time.

They just concluded the two day grace period during which you could have set that up before the mad rush.

And yes, the site is overwhelmingly slammed right now as it's under an effect similar to a ddos attack.

There's also a special items vendor that I ran into on...Balmora maybe? He was in a cantina. Had about 6 custom heads for each companion. I assume there's a Republic equivalent. They weren't cheap; 12,500 each.

HD Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEOM13UyZ0A&feature=youtu.be

Buddy of mine registered his code the day the game was available for purchase, he was in the beta.  He has been invited to start playing on the 13th; I registered my code 3 days after his.

I think your buddy may be blowing smoke up your ass. It's *likely* he'll be in on the 13th, but no one has been invited to anything yet.

This quote was taken out of context.

He started by saying that the strike was great because of the lack of traffic, then said, "This is BBC, so we have to be balanced," and gave the execution joke. He was making fun of how BBC flops around trying to placate all the extremists. And, of course, the kind of people who can't live without something to gripe and whine about selectively chose to take him seriously.

I finally hopped into a pvp match and, woah, suddenly my aging machine didn't cut it at all.  Completely unplayable.  Frame rate dropped to a crawl.  I was doing pretty well up until then, so I dropped everything down to low.  Still no go.  In one match I got 10 killing blows and saw absolutely none of them.

Sadly, that's a deal-breaker for me.  I was really enjoying the storytelling up until then. And the voice-acting is superb -- really a cut above.  Perhaps the best I've ever experienced.

From the new patchnotes:

Fixed an issue that was causing lag in Warzones and Flashpoints.

Don't worry.  ibDoomed was the only around here who seemed to have an inordinate amount of almost psychotic hatred for all things Apple...and he's been absent for a while.

I do as well but I tend to just keep quiet in mac threads. It's like trying to explain evolution to a creationist.

I say 'actually useful' as the only other one I've found outside of the main quest is one that makes wildlife not run from you, and I doubt I'll be spending a soul to unlock that one.

Is that "Kyne's Peace"? If so, it's possibly my most used shout as, apart from causing animals not to run it causes them to not be aggressive. Try blasting it off when there's a cave bear charging at you and he'll let you go about your merry way.

[Spoiler]

Question regarding the 7,000 steps (Not a spoiler if you've been to High Hrothgar):

Spoiler for Hiden:

So on the way up I read the tablet at each of the shrines. When I read the last shrine there was a little swirl of light and a message saying "Voice of Sky Added" (if I'm remembering correctly). I've searched through all of my inventory, shouts and spells and can't find this, whatever the hell it is. Anyone know? It occurs to me while writing this that maybe it's some kind of shout perk? Will have to look and see if those exist next time I play.

The invites that went out friday are NOT for this weekend's test. They're for an upcoming one.

That's interesting, since my login is enabled on the server and I'm patching.

Atomic

That's very strange indeed.

It would have been nice if they had emailed me my invitation before 12:30 pm Friday. Woke up, checked my email at 2:30, got the email, and the swtor site was down for maintenance, so I couldn't download the patcher, had to go to work.

Someone tell me why it should be worth my time to download 20 gigs so that I can test for just a few hours tomorrow evening. Since this is theoretically the last beta weekend and all.

* TheAtomicKid growls unhappily.

edit: that's assuming I can get it downloaded. My connection does about a gig an hour. started at midnight, 11/12

Atomic

The invites that went out friday are NOT for this weekend's test. They're for an upcoming one.

Don't hate me for this, but apparently I've been selected for an upcoming weekend again (not this weekend afik -- I hope not, as I'll be out most of Saturday). 

I'm excited cause if I'm going to test again, I'd like it to be as close to the end of the testing period as possible. I hope it's for the weekend after Thanksgiving, that would be about perfect. 

It's for an upcoming stress test weekend and they're inviting all 1.5 million beta applicants.

More tips:

The first time you launch the client you may experience a rather lengthy black screen. Wait it out. It hasn't crashed and it only does this the first time you launch.

Quests that occur in areas with elite mobs can be soloed once you have your first companion

Quest areas are often larger than they first seem. If an area is too crowded, wander a little deeper into the area and you may find much less crowded areas.

Here's my official review in case you're one of those anti-front page types.

So....what order SHOULD one play the campaigns in?

So that we can go back to the good old days of the filthy rich, mongerin', deeply corrupt and perverted Papacies of the middle ages?

I'm trying to determine which of these doesn't apply to the current papacy as well.

I keep forgetting that I'm in.

This just screams a "that's what she said" quote 

In other news...I'm still not selected for the beta (or really any damn beta I've applied for in the past year).

They haven't invited anyone since Oct. 11th.

[In thecoming weeks we'll invite hundreds of thousands of players into our biggest Beta test to date.]

From the EA 2012 Q2 earnings conference c all on the 27th (emphasis mine):

Next, our biggest event of the year, the December 20th launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
This is inarguably the most anticipated game of the year, an epic MMO that makes each player
the hero of their own Star Wars saga. The Old Republic is in Beta right now and players are
blown away by the immersive story, dynamic combat and authentic Star Wars feel. In the
coming weeks we'll invite hundreds of thousands of players into our biggest Beta test to date.

On the other hand, if you're making a comparison, you're better served by choosing the MMO that the highest number of people familiar with it. Saying it's "Everquest with lightsabers" would probably not do much for, say, a 15 year old reading it.

1. Other players actually SEE the character face that you spent an hour customizing

Most people after level 15ish or so wear masks/helmets that cover up that face. And why are you spending an hour creating a face? There aren't that many options .

I always hide my helmet.

5. Builds much stronger community on the server as you're more likely to remember the folks in the PUG you were in due to the direct interaction with their character.

Very strongly disagree here. In practice in beta this is just not the case at all. People don't think about the situation and then come up with a response. Rather, they look at the responses and figure out, "ok I'm bad evil guy, so which option is appropriate for that?" What's more, every Sith Assassin and Sith Sorcerer, regardless of light or dark, sounds exactly the same. Same with every other male/female by class. And we all look largely the same. So there's pretty much no individuality whatsoever. I don't really remember a single person I grouped with, except one guy who was a dick. I have made a couple friends through PvP though.

I distinctly remember everyone in the group I PUGed in. So, guess your mileage may vary.

 group conversation rolls are the "stealth" feature of this game. Scoff if you will, but mark my words -- I all but guarantee folks will have fun and a smile on their faces the first time they experience it. Or you'll get mad your group mates wanna respond differently than you, and you'll frown. So I don't guarantee a smile, I just guarantee a reaction.  

I agree-this was the thing that absolutely 100% impressed me. It accomplishes a huge number of things-

1. Other players actually SEE the character face that you spent an hour customizing
2. No matter how much of a dribbling tool the actual player is, their character will speak in intelligible and appropriate sentences.
3. Every mission will play out slightly differently on any repeat plays depending on how the conversations go and the classes involved.
4. Adds a much stronger roleplaying element to the game as your character acts in their role regardless of if you, the player, are an RPer or not.
5. Builds much stronger community on the server as you're more likely to remember the folks in the PUG you were in due to the direct interaction with their character.
6. Allows for a much more involved story progression than you've ever seen in an MMO instance.
7. As with the single player conversations, players are all fully aware of what's going on in the story due to the conversation presentation and their interaction with it, particularly with the added focus of watching to see if your character's choice came up. Players have a much better idea of what the immediate objective is compared to other game's group instances.

"the reach" ? Seriously, is there an npc named Zed who fetches the sword of truth from beyond it?

Reach: (noun) A continuous extent of land or water, esp. a stretch of river between two bends, or the part of a canal between locks