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[Anbokr]

So I played this game at launch and bought the CE but stopped playing very quickly. I want to start playing again and I'm installing it now and plan on grabbing a sub.

Couple of questions.

1. Pointers for a new comer?
2. Any really stand out character classes or should I just pick what I want?
3. I've got 4300 cartel points. What are they? How do I spend them? Should I spend them?

i'd just convert them into credits and then buy what you want outright

the black/white dyes that come around once in awhile sell pretty quickly and hold their value, also I've heard the weekly operation unlock passes always sell (but i personally haven't sold any); apparently the instant level 60 character boosts sell as well

that way you can just directly buy what you want with creds over CC's, the former is almost always the better route because the cartel market is almost always just a crapshoot where you end up with crap most of the time.

 

[Blue Lou]

I've just received an email about this:

I just wish my PC could run it. They're rubbing it in at this point.

 

[Jrmint]

I finally finished the Shadow of Revan content and started Knights. Wow they've supported this game so well, these expansions are fantastic.

 

[Cystm]

The next chapter needs to hurry up and get here already.

 

[Jrmint]

The next chapter needs to hurry up and get here already.

Is there 11 now or 12?

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Is there 11 now or 12?

Chapter 10 comes out on February 11th. After that there will be a new chapter every month along with a new game update with new stuff.

 

[TheWorthyEdge]

Oh my god. I have become addicted to this game and I don't even have computer to run it. I've been playing on various of my friends' computers. Its soooooo gooooooood!

 

[HarryDemeanor]

They put up a giant list of Crafting changes coming in 4.1.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=867612

Also they're changing all the Level 60 starting gear from Bound to Legacy to just being bound to that character. No more creating new 60s, mailing gear, deleting the character, repeat. Now all that gear can be crafted or acquired from Alliance crates.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=867636

 

[Anbokr]

sounds like it's time to buy all those cheap and overstocked grade 8 crafting mats to get that 1:1 conversion

 

[Lashley]

What state is the game in atm?

Many people playing?

 

[LurkerPrime]

The playerbase is as large as it's ever been. The fleet's always packed, people are on every world... It's not crowded, but it can be busy. The one exception is PvP--it's dead, both on land and in space.

Not sure how easy it is finding a group for dungeons or heroics, though, especially for the middle-game stuff in the 30-50 level range. Those middle levels kinda drag, and the drop off in players is noticeable.

 

[Anbokr]

Anyone with max biochem know if it's a good money crew skill? I've been selling augments for the last few weeks but the prices keep plummeting. Got a biochem guy at 420 skill and not sure if it's worth it to get to 500. Can you make good $$$ or are the profit margins shrinking hard like slicing?

Trying to get a good credit base going, but it's a slow climb.

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

The new story content is really fun and a massive leap in quality in terms of production value. My only real disappointment is how it is focussed on solo play. I've been playing through all the game's content with a friend, then as the Shadow of Revan content went on there was more and more time we were spending in our own instances, having to mute our chat so the audio didn't bleed over, etc. And now in the latest expansion we don't even play together any more as it's a better experience playing it on your own. Seems like a shame that's the direction they went in, as it was really fun having a light side agent and dark side sith warrior wandering the galaxy.

 

[BattleMonkey]

The new story content is really fun and a massive leap in quality in terms of production value. My only real disappointment is how it is focussed on solo play. I've been playing through all the game's content with a friend, then as the Shadow of Revan content went on there was more and more time we were spending in our own instances, having to mute our chat so the audio didn't bleed over, etc. And now in the latest expansion we don't even play together any more as it's a better experience playing it on your own. Seems like a shame that's the direction they went in, as it was really fun having a light side agent and dark side sith warrior wandering the galaxy.

Sacrifices having to be made to improve storyline immersion. Problem with the game from the start was it's heavy single player focus while trying to be a MMO at the same time, as it always struggled being both that well. The story stuff was a major draw for the game, so the focus has shifted on making it more of a single player game with MP features

 

[Moff]

I think the game handled the balance between MMO and single player storyline perfectly.
I don't think it struggled with that and I never understood the criticism that the game was not an MMO but a singleplayer game.
during leveling it had more MMO components than WoW, WoW didn't have elite quests since vanilla, and SWTOR had many group quests on every planet for 2 and 4 players. what more could you ask? I never felt they forgot about being an MMO, the singleplayer stories were simply an addition to that, but never a replacement.

but I admit, I am not happy with KOTFE, it's too linear for me, I do not like that even in single player games. I like exploring a world. KOTFE did not give me the feeling of exploring a world, it was mostly tunnels, the few "open" areas were very ugly and not memorable.

the final proof is that I did every expansion with all my 5 main characters, in KOTFE, I only leveled one of them and canceled my sub. I will resub when more content is here.

 

[Mister_Bubbles]

Sacrifices having to be made to improve storyline immersion. Problem with the game from the start was it's heavy single player focus while trying to be a MMO at the same time, as it always struggled being both that well. The story stuff was a major draw for the game, so the focus has shifted on making it more of a single player game with MP features

Yeah, I was kinda hoping they would put some effort into what made it unique by expanding the scope of the group conversation stuff - which they could certainly have done - rather than going the other way with it. There are not many other multiplayer games that offer that experience of being able to create characters with that diversity and then have voiced conversations with both characters involved and what have you.

 

[Caineghis]

This game have been taking my whole month, I'm a returning player from when the game released, I played the month that they gave you but didn't like I much.

With the new changes I find myself playing a lot and even sub again after 3 years trying to play all the expansions from the beginning.

 

[cartographer]

The playerbase is as large as it's ever been. The fleet's always packed, people are on every world... It's not crowded, but it can be busy. The one exception is PvP--it's dead, both on land and in space.

Did they ever add their "better than cross server" PvP thing? Or did they just never address it?

Sad that PvP is dead. It was what kept me playing when I still played.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Did they ever add their "better than cross server" PvP thing? Or did they just never address it?

Sad that PvP is dead. It was what kept me playing when I still played.

Yea all that never happened.

 

[Echelon079]

Some friends and I started playing a few weeks ago, and honestly, I'm really loving it. Played a light side sith warrior, currently at 58 and doing Hutt Cartel stuff.

Again, which can't be emphasized enough, the writing is just fantastic. Some class stories are waay better than others, but its just so enjoyable. And with the change to xp, you can literally just do the class quests and level all the way up if your a sub.

I tried to use my boost to 60 on another class, but quickly realized I wanted to finish all prior content on at least one character before I jumped in. Thankfully, if you delete that character before you hit 61, you get the boost back.

My biggest gripe is just how much Cartel stuff there is. Most of the really cool stuff is from the market, and while you can buy almost all of it via credits, there is still so much of it.

That and the whole Cartel bazaar and all the stuff up there that I just flat out don't understand.

Anyone have any suggestions for a healer class to play?

 

[Anbokr]

I think the game handled the balance between MMO and single player storyline perfectly.
I don't think it struggled with that and I never understood the criticism that the game was not an MMO but a singleplayer game.
during leveling it had more MMO components than WoW, WoW didn't have elite quests since vanilla, and SWTOR had many group quests on every planet for 2 and 4 players. what more could you ask? I never felt they forgot about being an MMO, the singleplayer stories were simply an addition to that, but never a replacement.

but I admit, I am not happy with KOTFE, it's too linear for me, I do not like that even in single player games. I like exploring a world. KOTFE did not give me the feeling of exploring a world, it was mostly tunnels, the few "open" areas were very ugly and not memorable.

the final proof is that I did every expansion with all my 5 main characters, in KOTFE, I only leveled one of them and canceled my sub. I will resub when more content is here.

Yeah, I think my entire group of friends and I coming from WoW absolutely loved the story focus while leveling (many of us even leveled together to see all the class stories), and even enjoyed endgame pvp/operations and much of the group content. It was a pretty nice blend of single player and MMO, taking the best of both worlds

The #1 problem the game had was lack of endgame content. Most people enjoyed the leveling, pvp (HUTTBALL) was pretty fun, and the ops were fun, BUT they didn't add more content. Instead, they put all of their dev eggs into the "legacy" feature which, albeit nice, was a tremendous failure because they thought most players would stick around and level alts for months to come.

Na man, when you got that fresh surge of WoW playerbase, these guys wanna level 1 character to max and then experience more raids, and ranked/competitive PvP modes. They just didn't deliver that content, and whoever was in charge and made the call to focus post-launch dev resources/content on legacy and leveling over ops and ranked pvp... hope they got axed fast because said person(s) managed to bury SWTOR despite the initial success and widespread appeal. Game would have legitimately competed with WoW and kept millions playing as long as the endgame content kept coming considering TOR was basically just a very good WoW clone, but Star Wars, and with much better story/questing.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

I started when there was no F2P but it was free through level 15 or something. Did bounty hunter with my buddy. Got through the empire capital and was bored with the story.

Then I played again right after as a trooper with another friend. This friend was more invested and got a sub so I followed and actually ended up beating the trooper story. Nothing fancy but I liked it. I'm just another trooper, not a super hero. I wanted to do normal trooper stuff and that's what I got.

I then played smuggler on my own and got through Hoth before I let my sub end. I enjoyed it for the snark, kept me interested.

During this time I was reading up how everyone loved IA so I did that on the side. Never made it past the capital, I guess it just starts slow?

Then I came back for free to play. Realized I tried every class besides the actual force users so I picked up Inquisitor. Really really enjoyed Korriban and it felt like I could do the "I'm not pure incarnated evil, I just seek full power" route. Made it past the capital and quit because free to play. May come back to this one.

Then in November I played again with the original friend as a Sith Warrior. Felt less freedom than the Inquisitor, I had to be the pure evil guy. Got past the capital then bailed because Battlefront came out.

I'm now back in it with a sub again add a Jedi Consular (with yet another friend who is also subbing but as a Jedi Knight). I must say I'm looking the Consular story a lot (I'm at Alderaan). Granted if I used my sith argument in reverse I'm sure it would feel really odd trying to pay a darkside consular, but eh. Similar to the trooper, I just wanted a to experience the general life of a Jedi, and that's what I'm getting but with a small side of super hero. I like how I'm not portrayed add a direct extension of the Republic, as well as the general "plague" plot. I'll probably finish this to completion.

Only one I have yet to try is Knight, but I'll probably go back and give one if the empire characters another shot.

 

[StudioTan]

Good to see SWTOR doing well:

In Q3, STAR WARS™: The Old Republic grew to its highest subscriber level in nearly three years.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Wonder if they're still experiencing increases in sub numbers right now. With the subscriber initiatives they've been bringing out it must be helping.

 

[LurkerPrime]

I forgot huttball existed.

I hate huttball.

Wonder if they're still experiencing increases in sub numbers right now. With the subscriber initiatives they've been bringing out it must be helping.

They're doing some underhanded "subscribe for X months for a bonus thing in the KotFE campaign" (companion, mission, etc) for the past couple months. I imagine that will help the numbers, at least in the short term.

 

[fenners]

They're doing some underhanded "subscribe for X months for a bonus thing in the KotFE campaign" (companion, mission, etc) for the past couple months. I imagine that will help the numbers, at least in the short term.

It's hardly underhand - it's been quite obvious, quite clear, an obvious easy ongoing attempt to re-connect previous subscribers & to connect with potential subscribers, to anyone remotely watching the game.

It's underhand to crow about it in a financial report to folk who won't have been watching so closely

 

[Anbokr]

Wonder if they're still experiencing increases in sub numbers right now. With the subscriber initiatives they've been bringing out it must be helping.

My gut is telling me "no" simply because two guilds I've joined dropped from ~140 qualifying accounts to ~60 (for bonuses) since KOTFE launch and the GAF guild went back to being deserted. I have a feeling there was a pretty big peak at KOTFE launch (and after the Awakens premiere), but after going through the KOTFE story... there ain't much to do lol. My friends and I were hoping to do some ranked pvp only to find there hasn't been a ranked season in like over 3 months now.

As for the subscriber rewards, yeah that shit ain't underhand but it is basically worthless. They really need to offer more than 1 hour of content a month and a measly cosmetic or scrambled (probably sub-30 minute) bonus chapter to keep people going -_-.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Alright, underhanded was not the right word--too harsh.

I just have an irrational dislike towards benefits like that.


I am really curious to see how KotFE wraps up, though. If they actually manage to make it into an interesting finale I'll be there. But with how it is for the first half, I don't know where they'll go, and where they could go afterwards.

 

[BattleMonkey]

It maybe kinda eh, but the subscriber rewards are much better than our previous recolored item or pet every 3 or 4 months reward. At least we are now getting something usually actually unique and little content each month.

 

[Kadin]

Wonder if they're still experiencing increases in sub numbers right now. With the subscriber initiatives they've been bringing out it must be helping.

I know that myself along with 4 RL friends who were all in the same guild (on Harbinger) quit early December as have many others who were with us. It's a small sample size of course but I seem to remember a pretty decent amount of people leaving. We've all been playing since launch so it was more of a needed break and we'll probably be back in a few months. We simply ran out of stuff to do and it's the constant issue we have with the game. We got the time and money to play, we just need content.

 

[Anbokr]

edit: nvm

 

[StudioTan]

This is great news, item stacks are being raised from 99 to 9,999 in the next patch!

It'll clear up a shitload of storage space for me.

 

[StudioTan]

Patch notes are up.

Love this change - Increased the max grass render distance to 200 meters (up from 64). This setting can be adjusted via a new slider found in the Graphics settings.

It's always bothered me how the grass seemingly grows as you drive. You'll likely still see it do that but it won't be nearly as bad.

 

[Moff]

hmm nut sure if I'll sub for just one chapter, I think I'll wait until all of them are here

 

[Paganmoon]

hmm nut sure if I'll sub for just one chapter, I think I'll wait until all of them are here

Same thing I'll do, there really isn't anything else interesting going on in the game imo.

 

[Ashodin]

Patch notes are up.

Love this change - Increased the max grass render distance to 200 meters (up from 64). This setting can be adjusted via a new slider found in the Graphics settings.

It's always bothered me how the grass seemingly grows as you drive. You'll likely still see it do that but it won't be nearly as bad.

Their graphics are great now except that fucking grass growing shit. I'm so glad they're changing it and I want to see it in action!

 

[kurahador]

Sill no fix for Balmorra Bonus Series mission. FFS Bioware, it's been months!!

 

[Ashodin]

I can't see the grass growing any more, YESSSSS

 

[HarryDemeanor]

This chapter was okay. The ending put a smile on my face though.

 

[StudioTan]

I can't see the grass growing any more, YESSSSS

It really does make a big difference in immersion. The planets feel much more lush since you can see grass such a long way now.

That and the fact I cleared up so much cargo space with the new stacking are 2 of the best things about the patch.

The store for the next chapter was good but they need to come up with more interesting fights.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

Are there storyline recaps/summary videos that go through the arcs in a short manner. I want to return to some older characters.

 

[Anbokr]

Saw an article earlier today about Hasbro making Darth Revan figurines now, so it looks like more and more of the Old Republic is becoming cannon? Can't see Revan figures coming out alongside rebels and Awakens figures without Disney signing off. Pretty cool.

 

[Little Nemo]

Saw an article earlier today about Hasbro making Darth Revan figurines now, so it looks like more and more of the Old Republic is becoming cannon? Can't see Revan figures coming out alongside rebels and Awakens figures without Disney signing off. Pretty cool.

I don't think having an action figure makes a character canon. Only being in the movies/clone wars series or being in new media post-Disney acquisition counts toward that. However, I do think Lucasfilm is fond of Revan's character. He was almost in The Clone Wars series which would have made him forever canon. So close.

 

[Anbokr]

I don't think having an action figure makes a character canon. Only being in the movies/clone wars series or being in new media post-Disney acquisition counts toward that. However, I do think Lucasfilm is fond of Revan's character. He was almost in The Clone Wars series which would have made him forever canon. So close.

I guess "canon" is too strong a statement on my part, but it definitely shows that they are still taking inspiration and keeping things around from the Old Republic. Especially with many Old Republic themes and designs being copied straight into the new cartoon show and the like.

It's pretty cool to see them acknowledging these stories/games, and maybe they will actually be "officially canon" in some show, book, or movie down the line.

 

[bobnowhere]

However lazy and cynical these new "chance cubes" are, they haven't half crashed the market. All sorts of cool stuff available for a fraction of what they used to be.

Up to 87% in mounts with the crash!

 

[Nero's Neptune]

My guildies think I'm a lunatic for spending 30m on this.

They don't realize it was too good of a deal to pass up!

 

[Moff]

yeah I saw that one, too. it looks amazing
I will definitely try to get my hands on it when I play again
I'm also glad they didn't make it with a hilt like Kylo Ren's, the unstable effect alone looks much cooler

 

[HarryDemeanor]

30 million credits for that?

You crazy.

 

[Nero's Neptune]

It's merely a drop in the bucket.

 

[Anbokr]

i dropped all my creds on that sith recluse armor for 18 mil, it's always been floating around for obscene prices but think i snagged a pretty good deal

transmog most important thing in swtor