-Bland mobs / NPCs ( as in the quest givers, vendors, ect ) static placement, example- Flying mobs that literally stay in one spot hovering and never move at all.
-Poor combat mechanics- ability delay mainly, does not feel fluid or responsive.
Overall the game IMO just feels sort of generic / mediocre in many ways. The instance / phasing of worlds just plain sucks. The number in the left hand corner may show 70 people in the zone, I am lucky to run across 2-3 people an hour in open world.
TO ME this is a great co op game or very small group game to kill some time. I just dont feel the Massive in the SWTOR MMO.
Hopefully they can flesh the game out some in the future. IMO they do have a window to improve, but its getting narrower as new releases approach.
I wish them the best of luck and I may check back in a few months to see if they have improved it some.
1. I would have liked a design that wasn't creatively bankrupt, with some SIGNIFICANT innovations.
2. I would have liked open world PvP in the vicinity of what they promised, instead of the blatant lie of what's actually there.
3. An engine that could handle more than 12 people in close proximity on a high-end rig.
4. Something other than 100% vertical gear progression as the entirety of the end-game experience.
5. All the voice-over work and presentation of the side-quests should have been dedicated to the class stories instead, and then the side-quests themselves would be presented like the INCREDIBLY bland combat-filler bullshit tasks that they really are.
6. A meaningful Space Combat implementation. Ideally, a free roaming space segment - complete with PvP combat. I can't think of a more obvious avenue of success than this - and any engine should be able to handle ~24-48 ships in proximity with a black starry background and a colorful nebula texture.
7. Responsive combat system.
8. A less complicated/mess gear customization system.
9. Worlds/planets with ambient sounds and a soul - rather than dreary linear open spaces.
10. Weather system and a day/night cycle.
11. A proper "auction house" with up-to-date functionality.
12. Etc.
All of this, plus a more appealing art direction as I think almost everything their art department did is utterly uninspired, uncool, and unattractive.
Star Wars as an MMORPG is just not meant to be a straight up themepark. Single player Star Wars games do that already... Star Wars fans want to live in this galaxy far far away. A Themepark/Sandbox hybrid theory should have been worked at early design stages imho.
Honestly, I could go on about how this game is NOT the Star Wars MMORPG I was looking for...
Says who? You? You are now the only word to come to what is appropriate in Star Wars games?
Sorry, I disagree... as do many others.
Anyways, sandbox games are not a populat breed. The only one that has shown any success is EvE. And, even then it's a love v. hate relationship with that game. Personally, I think it's an Excell spreadsheet with a gaming GUI attached to it. But, I'm not going to state my dislike on it is the end-all-be-all opinion. Unlike you, I understand that people have games that they like and dislike.
My opinion is just that... mine. Your opinion is just that... yours. Neither of us speaks for what should or should not be. Yet, you did, and you were called out on it.
I did not subscribe because EA/BW removed many armor sets, titles and customization options during beta. Now I am waiting to see if they return them to the game for free or if they are going to roll out a cash shop. I do not play games with cash shops, ever.
2012 is the first year since Kunark released for EverQuest that I have not had an active subsritption to a mmorpg. I left max level characters in EQ/EQ2 and WoW when those games released their cash shops and I left 2 characters with over 60 million skillpoints each in EVE this past year over their roll out of the Nex store.
Really what would have kept me is if bioware or EA had any experience at all with making and managing an mmo.
All during beta they had this attitude that they were all that, that they were the professional game designers, and we the beta testers were all idiots and had no right to make suggestions or offer feedback.
They let thier egos get in the way of making the game thier own player base was asking for.
So what would have retained me?
1) Less Attitude
2) More Experience with mmo concept and design
3) A decent engine
4) A game that doesn't release 10 years dated.
5) A game that offers more than its predecessor, not less.
6) An innovative 3rd generation game considering this is the 3rd generation of MMO design.
7) JUST A LITTLE BIT OF HUMILITY! If you screw up suck it up admit it and give a sincere apology.
Honestly bioware's attitude over this whole debacle really makes me question the direction of the company and who the hell these guys think they are. When you get right down to it, thier last few games have kinda bombed because they stopped listening to their players and decided they knew better than us.
Now as far as Mass Effect 3 goes, after all the hell raising over ME2, they say they have listened and put back some of the features that players loved about ME1, but we won't really be able to tell until we get the game,
1) the worlds appeared to be dead. No living creatures, no wind, no weather, no seasons, no NPC's living in the world. Dead.
This. I could have stayed if the worlds were a lot better designed, but they were so bland and empty of life. From the static npcs standing outside the Jedi Temple as if they'd been hit by some sort of stasis grenade mid-action, to the lack of any npc's or major activity where you would most expect it, like Nar Shaddaa casinos.
On top of that is the missing weather, the little flutter of activity as birds or their alien equivalent cross the skies, the rise and fall of the sun and the lack of any weather and it all adds up to just plain bad. It felt like I was walking around a painting rather than a real place.
1. I would have liked a design that wasn't creatively bankrupt, with some SIGNIFICANT innovations.
2. I would have liked open world PvP in the vicinity of what they promised, instead of the blatant lie of what's actually there.
3. An engine that could handle more than 12 people in close proximity on a high-end rig.
4. Something other than 100% vertical gear progression as the entirety of the end-game experience.
5. All the voice-over work and presentation of the side-quests should have been dedicated to the class stories instead, and then the side-quests themselves would be presented like the INCREDIBLY bland combat-filler bullshit tasks that they really are.
6. A meaningful Space Combat implementation. Ideally, a free roaming space segment - complete with PvP combat. I can't think of a more obvious avenue of success than this - and any engine should be able to handle ~24-48 ships in proximity with a black starry background and a colorful nebula texture.
7. Responsive combat system.
8. A less complicated/mess gear customization system.
9. Worlds/planets with ambient sounds and a soul - rather than dreary linear open spaces.
10. Weather system and a day/night cycle.
11. A proper "auction house" with up-to-date functionality.
12. Etc.
All of this, plus a more appealing art direction as I think almost everything their art department did is utterly uninspired, uncool, and unattractive.
Star Wars as an MMORPG is just not meant to be a straight up themepark. Single player Star Wars games do that already... Star Wars fans want to live in this galaxy far far away. A Themepark/Sandbox hybrid theory should have been worked at early design stages imho.
Honestly, I could go on about how this game is NOT the Star Wars MMORPG I was looking for...
Says who? You? You are now the only word to come to what is appropriate in Star Wars games?
Sorry, I disagree... as do many others.
Anyways, sandbox games are not a populat breed. The only one that has shown any success is EvE. And, even then it's a love v. hate relationship with that game. Personally, I think it's an Excell spreadsheet with a gaming GUI attached to it. But, I'm not going to state my dislike on it is the end-all-be-all opinion. Unlike you, I understand that people have games that they like and dislike.
My opinion is just that... mine. Your opinion is just that... yours. Neither of us speaks for what should or should not be. Yet, you did, and you were called out on it.
Methinks this guy didn't read the thread's title. It speficially asks for people's reasons for not subbing.
This is exactly what was requested. No one is trying to shove thier preferences down anyone else's throat.
For me -
MAN do I WISH I could be a Jedi Knight in this and act out my Revan/Bane fantasies. But, alas, I can't.
Here is my list -
1. Graphics - Implement the higher textures, and I will resub at least a month to see if it improves immersion for me and helps give things visual presence in the combat and world interactions.
2. Combat/Gameplay - Make the gameplay more skill based or at east less spongey - This is not likely to be possible. But make things seem like they actually are impacting one another. WoW looks ridiculous with the non-connecting swings and all the spells flying to the same spot on the boss, but somehow they got it just right enough to feel organic in their own cartoon universe. I look for more from SWTOR as it is one shade less cartoony than WoW. Lightsabers oftentimes do hit each other, but there is no collission and it doesn't even matter if you are gettign hit int he back as a tank right now (apparently the shields are all over out bodies), but for force users it would make sense to have the lightsaber be a contributing factor to not being hit.
Other than RNG and being in the somewhat right place at the right time in the right gear and handling your rotation/prioritizaion correctly, there is nothing to be proud of in this kind of game. It is time sunk getting gear and the ability to not zone out. The zoning out which is natural in such a boring and unresponsive, repetitive system. Granted, anything can get repetitive, but you can gain satisfaction from perfecting your gameplay. Currently - in SWTOR and WoW and similar games, there is nothing to be proud of doing well. It's like being a chef making great macaroni and cheese from a box. Yeah, it's possible to mess it up, but the margin of error is high and even if you do it perfectly you are still not impressive. It is just a simple, weak recipe.
TERA is MMO combat at its current best, imo. The old autotarget format is weak.
But even as a mindless backround source of distraction and a chat room (which is what WoW has been for me - despite pushing "Heroic" kills), the combat style of SWTOR could be okay, if it was just crisper. It just feels sloppy even compared to WoW.
3. Better Reconcile the SRPG and MMORPG Aspects - A solid example is the extreme case fo the Jedi Knight. It would help reconcile the 2 sides of the game by changing the end of the Jedi Knight story (SPOILER ____ SPOILER_____ my JK toon should not be able to solo defeat the emperor - even if it's "only a setback". This is very difficult to reconcile this with the fact that JKs can't solo raid bosses and have a hard time with Elites and Champions. So, Karagga the Hutt is WAY stronger than the emperor? The rancor in Karagga's litte Jaba-trap area could manhandle the emperor? Simple logic. It's fun to be told you are heroic in your little single player bubble, but that only underlines the fact that this game is currently 2 side by side games - the srpg and the mmorpg. END SPOILER).
4. Endgame Content -
a. I LOVE RAIDING - it's my favorite and if they fixed the graphics and the combat, the raiding in this game would be great. But there also should be other things to do.
b. PVP -Oh, there is PVP. The SAME PEOPLE you have been killing for weeks. Kill them again. Kill them again. capture the same thing.... Yikes. It's boring. The thing is, getting better at pvp is probably 40% gear, 30% knowing where to be and when (strategy/tactics) and 30% reflexes/doing the right skill at the right time and of course the ever-present guiding force of RNG. But that formula doesn't have enough difficulty tied to player actions to be inspiring. So nailbiters are rare and don't tie directly into this person or that team executing well. Again, the macaroni and cheese example. It's a simple recipe. How can you be proud of getting it right? I have a friend who is almost religiou about SC3, because in that game the better player wins. And the majority of what makes him win is withing him and the time he spent gaining knowledge and refining his gameplay not having a big chunk of it be the margin of error he earns each time her grabs a piece of gear.
c. Exploration - a big world and planets to go visit that don't necessarily have quests or anything but wrap the instanced world in a larger picture which could inspire awe, context and hopefully hours of fruitless exploration with the occasional - "ah, this is cool. I bet not everyone has seen this, because they were not funneled here". Datacrons do this to an extent. Getting the +10 all stats one is way off the beaten path. There is a nod to the bounty hunters on the Ziost ship in the Imp Fleet. Those things are fun, but they mangled the Sarlaac. A huge majority of Star Wars fans, I included, would have gladly searched the ends of Tattione to find the Sarlaac Pit. Wild Rancors being out and about on certain planets. I would go and find them to hunt. Don't tell me when and where, just tell me that I can find one, and I will try my best. The fanbase would pursue these things for their intrinsic joy and for the achievers - toss a title on it.
d. Dailies - Repairs of Rakata level gear are a monster in this game. I have 6 pcs of Rakata on my BH and it cost me 80kish to repair. That is from an hour or so of pushing "difficult" and buggy Hard Mode and NIghtmare mode bosses. The best way/only real viable way to make money (since crafting is crap) is to do dailies. To afford my raid repairs I was having to rehash the couple hours of dailies on Ilum and Belsavis. It was a grind of mindless, boring quests with little context. The only highlight of which is the seeing a Rancor walking around.
e. Alts - Make Legacy remove the non class quests from the alt's journey based on Republic/Emp being completed. If the quests are the same as have been done before by a preceding character, then they are completed and just going to the questgiver will giv ethe requisite XP or better the ability to level is tied into the planet's level range adn is acheived just by doing the new class quest. Example: I have a 50 BH. SO I have done the quests for he Empire sufficiently to have a 50. I have seen the content. As such, when I roll a Marauder, the marauder will only do Korriban and other quests that are separate from the BH quests and of course his/her own class quests. When I get to Tattoine, I immediately am at the mid-leel range for toons there (if I was below it) and when I complete my class quest as a Marauder on Tattoine, I am boosted to the top level of Tattoine's bracket and send tot he next area. When I pick up my class quest on the next planet, I am boosted to mid level and when I complete it, I am put to maxe level. If I grind out mobs or pvp for XP then I won't need the boost, but it will make sure I don't ahve to do stuff I already did. Maybe even state - ooops, your main didn't do all of Tattoine. Sry, you have to do it all. Or go back on your main and finish it out. Whatever. The point is, only about 15% of the tiem spent on a planet is sepcific to a class quest. So why languish repeating the other stuff?
5. Interactivity/Life to the world - Back to that Rancor. He pats around in his little, arbitrary 50 yard loop. He doesn't eat anything around him. He doesn't engage the people around him in combat. He doesn't touch the walls. Nothing. He just walks back and forth. He is indiciative of everything in the game. Rift had the invasions happen and NPC would figth NPC. The invaders would try to take over areas. The mobs would fight them. It game things a sense of life. That is completely missing in this game. All we are statue people locked into an interaction with a predetermined other group of individual statue person or backgound object. One of the things that makes the Elder Scroll games interesting is the way various elements interact with one another using AI. There is very limited AI in this game. It feels dead.
6. Load Screen/Instancing - Why is it that once it takes me an instant to get from Hoth to Ilum but takes a combined minute or so of loading screens to get from my ship to the planets themselves? I press the travel button on Ilum from Hoth - 2 extremes of the knock universe and the starts lengthen to represent hyperspace then a picture of Ilum is there and I can step out of my ship and be in Ilum space. But then I have to load screens for each section.
1) the worlds appeared to be dead. No living creatures, no wind, no weather, no seasons, no NPC's living in the world. Dead.
While I'd agree that "NPC's living in the world" are sparse, at least given the size of the worlds, it's entirely wrong to say they don't exist.
There is weather. I take it you never got to Hoth, Dromund Kaas, or Tatooine. Still, I'd agree that there should be more of it. I'd say that of most MMO's.
Only one MMO that I know of has seasons.-Ryzom.
But back to the whole "living world" thing, which is a common criticism, I wouldn't say it's unwarranted. But I do think that people miss out on alot of things. If you stop for a bit and take a look around, you catch alot more going on. My last visit to Ord Mantell was the first time(after months of playing) I noticed that shuttles were being blasted out of the sky. Seems like I see something new every time I stay in one spot for more than 30 seconds.
I think there's one big contributing factor to this sentiment though, and that's audio. Audio just seems extremely buggy in busy places. ambient effects boom in and vanish in unnatural ways; things like speeders go quiet abruptly and inexplicably as you pass through different areas. In short, I think there are sounds that simply aren't triggering when they should, and so you have alot of "miming" going on.
I never found a class that fit for me, so that was the major sticking point.
I personally would have been happier with less MMO in the game and more..say Co-RPG. I would have probably played through each classes story if there was less Fedex and kill 10 mob quests.
Short answer:nothing, it's too old hat to keep me interested.
1. I would have liked a design that wasn't creatively bankrupt, with some SIGNIFICANT innovations.
2. I would have liked open world PvP in the vicinity of what they promised, instead of the blatant lie of what's actually there.
3. An engine that could handle more than 12 people in close proximity on a high-end rig.
4. Something other than 100% vertical gear progression as the entirety of the end-game experience.
5. All the voice-over work and presentation of the side-quests should have been dedicated to the class stories instead, and then the side-quests themselves would be presented like the INCREDIBLY bland combat-filler bullshit tasks that they really are.
6. A meaningful Space Combat implementation. Ideally, a free roaming space segment - complete with PvP combat. I can't think of a more obvious avenue of success than this - and any engine should be able to handle ~24-48 ships in proximity with a black starry background and a colorful nebula texture.
7. Responsive combat system.
8. A less complicated/mess gear customization system.
9. Worlds/planets with ambient sounds and a soul - rather than dreary linear open spaces.
10. Weather system and a day/night cycle.
11. A proper "auction house" with up-to-date functionality.
12. Etc.
All of this, plus a more appealing art direction as I think almost everything their art department did is utterly uninspired, uncool, and unattractive.
Star Wars as an MMORPG is just not meant to be a straight up themepark. Single player Star Wars games do that already... Star Wars fans want to live in this galaxy far far away. A Themepark/Sandbox hybrid theory should have been worked at early design stages imho.
Honestly, I could go on about how this game is NOT the Star Wars MMORPG I was looking for...
Says who? You? You are now the only word to come to what is appropriate in Star Wars games?
Sorry, I disagree... as do many others.
Anyways, sandbox games are not a populat breed. The only one that has shown any success is EvE. And, even then it's a love v. hate relationship with that game. Personally, I think it's an Excell spreadsheet with a gaming GUI attached to it. But, I'm not going to state my dislike on it is the end-all-be-all opinion. Unlike you, I understand that people have games that they like and dislike.
My opinion is just that... mine. Your opinion is just that... yours. Neither of us speaks for what should or should not be. Yet, you did, and you were called out on it.
Methinks this guy didn't read the thread's title. It speficially asks for people's reasons for not subbing.
This is exactly what was requested. No one is trying to shove thier preferences down anyone else's throat.
Methinks you didn't read DeaconX's post. Because that is what he exactly did.
No one is forbidding me from giving my opinion. Which, I was correcting DeaconX for his statements that he thinks that he knows whats best for SWTOR.
i feel your pain jd, the last thing i ever want to see are those raghouls.
But to the op, the huge load screens were a major turn off, i like to trade and 50 items per char then a huge wait to log another alt just became too annoying, i enjoyed the story lines but as soon as i tried to group or pvp my abilities were a joke and so delayed it wasnt fun to play.
Also as a healer i like helping people out a heal here a buff there but i was running around this huge new mmo and was like where is everyone? just felt wierd to see so few people.
I guess if they can sort the ability delay whilst grouping and increase the amount 1 char can use on the gtn i would try it again.
6. Load Screen/Instancing - Why is it that once it takes me an instant to get from Hoth to Ilum but takes a combined minute or so of loading screens to get from my ship to the planets themselves? I press the travel button on Ilum from Hoth - 2 extremes of the knock universe and the starts lengthen to represent hyperspace then a picture of Ilum is there and I can step out of my ship and be in Ilum space. But then I have to load screens for each section.
There ya go. A wall of text.
I will edit it after I post it.
Forgive me if your question is a rhetorical question and not a technical one, because I aim to answer it technically.
The reality(of the game) is that by clicking to go to a planet, you haven't done squat to travel, as far as the game is concerned. Your ship's galactic map is essentially a remarkably pretty dropdown menu with all the planets and space missions listed. By clicking on the travel button, you are just selecting the option in the dropdown list, and when you click on your door, you're clicking the "OK" button. This is when the system starts loading the planet/space mission.
The thing to understand is, there's a point in which you have to load something. It may seem more "game matching" to have that occur when you make your selection on the map. But would having a load screen occur as you select your planet be any better than where it's at, now? How annoying would it be to choose the wrong planet by accident and have to wait, then pick the right one and wait, again?
1) the worlds appeared to be dead. No living creatures, no wind, no weather, no seasons, no NPC's living in the world. Dead.
While I'd agree that "NPC's living in the world" are sparse, at least given the size of the worlds, it's entirely wrong to say they don't exist.
There is weather. I take it you never got to Hoth, Dromund Kaas, or Tatooine. Still, I'd agree that there should be more of it. I'd say that of most MMO's.
Only one MMO that I know of has seasons.-Ryzom.
But back to the whole "living world" thing, which is a common criticism, I wouldn't say it's unwarranted. But I do think that people miss out on alot of things. If you stop for a bit and take a look around, you catch alot more going on. My last visit to Ord Mantell was the first time(after months of playing) I noticed that shuttles were being blasted out of the sky. Seems like I see something new every time I stay in one spot for more than 30 seconds.
I think there's one big contributing factor to this sentiment though, and that's audio. Audio just seems extremely buggy in busy places. ambient effects boom in and vanish in unnatural ways; things like speeders go quiet abruptly and inexplicably as you pass through different areas. In short, I think there are sounds that simply aren't triggering when they should, and so you have alot of "miming" going on.
audio has issues everywhere sometimes npc conversations will follow you to 3 rooms away. Ambient noises dissapearing or just stopping for no reason.. many are just missing. the big thing is there is a lot of space in many areas and even if theres few npcs not doing anything like most mmos at least in most mmos you see a lot of people around.. in most mmos the main towns are packed with people you see tons of people in many of the zones as well. Here i see a semi-decent amount in the fleet but hardly anyone running around in many areas I have traveled. All this together creates a huge sense of the lifeless game world so its just not 1 single thing for me its a combination of all these things.
For me it came down to game mechanics and the way the game was designed. When I played one of the open betas I thought this game would be enough to hold me untill GW2 came out(was expecting that sometime in March or April at the time). I knew from the getgo that this game was not the type I would normally play (themepark on mega rails, very linear, quest based advancement), however, the game was constructed very well and I still think well made for what it is and I was enjoying the story and the story missions.
The reason I quit and did not resub was very simple - Boredom. The quests get stale after a while - there is very little interaction on a social level within the context of the game - and pvp while enjoyable overall was very poorly thought out for long term. So in short without a complete redesign of the game(which I do not expect) there is nothing they could do to hold me as a customer.
1) the worlds appeared to be dead. No living creatures, no wind, no weather, no seasons, no NPC's living in the world. Dead.
While I'd agree that "NPC's living in the world" are sparse, at least given the size of the worlds, it's entirely wrong to say they don't exist.
There is weather. I take it you never got to Hoth, Dromund Kaas, or Tatooine. Still, I'd agree that there should be more of it. I'd say that of most MMO's.
Only one MMO that I know of has seasons.-Ryzom.
But back to the whole "living world" thing, which is a common criticism, I wouldn't say it's unwarranted. But I do think that people miss out on alot of things. If you stop for a bit and take a look around, you catch alot more going on. My last visit to Ord Mantell was the first time(after months of playing) I noticed that shuttles were being blasted out of the sky. Seems like I see something new every time I stay in one spot for more than 30 seconds.
I think there's one big contributing factor to this sentiment though, and that's audio. Audio just seems extremely buggy in busy places. ambient effects boom in and vanish in unnatural ways; things like speeders go quiet abruptly and inexplicably as you pass through different areas. In short, I think there are sounds that simply aren't triggering when they should, and so you have alot of "miming" going on.
I return to my favorite youtube clip. Whoever posted it is my hero.
From 1:20 to 2:10, though the whole thing is a good indication of what I mean. This sort of thing is simply unacceptable, you can't have npc's stuck in mid-action like that, it looks unnatural and.. frankly.. plain stupid. And things like that happen everywhere you go.
The weather you talk of is again just a static place holder, it isn't weather changes per-se, it's a location that has been told to show rain or snow. Again, it's like a painting, it's set up to look like something and that something will never change no matter how long you stand around looking at it.
I remember seeing those shuttles being blasted too and while I thought for a moment, "Wow, cool..", I was then distracted by the row of four troops with a commander silently walking up and down, motioning as if he's telling them something, or giving some sort of rousing speech. But it was all silence.
It's like they've put these things in the game, the commander, the npc's outside the Jedi Temple, but forgot or didn't have time to apply animations and sounds to them. I'm hoping that in the future they'll have finally got around to doing so and the world will finally look like a world, but I'm not holding my breath...
From 1:20 to 2:10, though the whole thing is a good indication of what I mean. This sort of thing is simply unacceptable, you can't have npc's stuck in mid-action like that, it looks unnatural and.. frankly.. plain stupid. And things like that happen everywhere you go.
The weather you talk of is again just a static place holder, it isn't weather changes per-se, it's a location that has been told to show rain or snow. Again, it's like a painting, it's set up to look like something and that something will never change no matter how long you stand around looking at it.
I remember seeing those shuttles being blasted too and while I thought for a moment, "Wow, cool..", I was then distracted by the row of four troops with a commander silently walking up and down, motioning as if he's telling them something, or giving some sort of rousing speech. But it was all silence.
It's like they've put these things in the game, the commander, the npc's outside the Jedi Temple, but forgot or didn't have time to apply animations and sounds to them. I'm hoping that in the future they'll have finally got around to doing so and the world will finally look like a world, but I'm not holding my breath...
I wouldn't argue with the evidence, and I'd agree that that's pretty lame. AND, I'd bet you're right as to your conclusions as to the WHY. But for ME, it's not worth quitting over. The longer it remains that way, however, the more embarrassing and inept it will look.
My experience with the weather conditions is that they aren't static. The amount of change from moment to moment isn't really enough, IMO. But my point to the post I was quoting was that there ARE things in the game that they were saying WERE NOT there.
I wouldn't argue with the evidence, and I'd agree that that's pretty lame. AND, I'd bet you're right as to your conclusions as to the WHY. But for ME, it's not worth quitting over. The longer it remains that way, however, the more embarrassing and inept it will look.
My experience with the weather conditions is that they aren't static. The amount of change from moment to moment isn't really enough, IMO. But my point to the post I was quoting was that there ARE things in the game that they were saying WERE NOT there.
please show me where weather is not static every place I have seen rain it is always raining in that same spot
A dungeon finder with relatively short wait times would have secured my subscription for a month. I won't return until this is implemented, but I predict major issues.
1) two dps per tank/healer pair is much too low If they wanted to correct some of the problems from WOW they would make 6 man flashpoints.
2) I do not think they want to or can implement cross server group finding in the next year. This will only extend wait times for a dungeon finder.
A polished, full 3D multiplayer space combat could possibly get me back, but not right away. I'll wait to see how there implementation is.
I don't think there is much of anything they can do to get me motivated for PVP. I only ranked to about 25, mostly after hitting 50. I hated the random champion ger in bags. Lotteries are bad and so it's better to just make everyone go through the same amount of effort to get those rewards. Their Ilum fiasco should have resulted in full rollbacks for everyone and capped daily valor gains in world PVP. They did neither and haven't shown an inclination to understanding the problems they have created or how to fix them.
I will be watching what they do in the next 6 months, but I will not take anything on faith. I'll wait until there has been adequate time to evaluate additions. I loved leveling my main. My alt got to around level 37 before I decided to quit. That experience wasn't nearly as fun as 90% of the quests were identical to my first go around. I'd rather try out other games than pay a subscription to level alts.
If it was part of the post-WoW MMORPGs coming out instead of being firmly attached to the WoW era of MMORPG design. I'm just not that interested in playing a game that twisted the Star Wars lore and pretzled it into the WoW formula.
I may have been able to stick with it despite the huge laundry list of issues had the game been B2P. I enjoyed certain aspects but not enough of them are viable to warrant a monthly fee.
I 100% would have continued if it was B2P. Expectations are far lower and I won't resent paying a subscription if I barely play or just level alts.
I'd prefer a model where I pay for content I want. If I just want to level characters, then the box price pays for it. If I want to run level 50 instances I can pay to unlock them. If I want to unlock PVP I pay for that. The unlock fees can be monthly or one time, depending on the game. Obviously such a model is more complicated for the server and to a lesser extend the engine. You should pay for what you use rather than having everyone pay the same price each month.
Comments
For me it was / is
-Lack of high resolution textures
-Piss Poor CS and PR
-Lack of basic UI features
- No guild features / tools
-Bland mobs / NPCs ( as in the quest givers, vendors, ect ) static placement, example- Flying mobs that literally stay in one spot hovering and never move at all.
-Poor combat mechanics- ability delay mainly, does not feel fluid or responsive.
Overall the game IMO just feels sort of generic / mediocre in many ways. The instance / phasing of worlds just plain sucks. The number in the left hand corner may show 70 people in the zone, I am lucky to run across 2-3 people an hour in open world.
TO ME this is a great co op game or very small group game to kill some time. I just dont feel the Massive in the SWTOR MMO.
Hopefully they can flesh the game out some in the future. IMO they do have a window to improve, but its getting narrower as new releases approach.
I wish them the best of luck and I may check back in a few months to see if they have improved it some.
Says who? You? You are now the only word to come to what is appropriate in Star Wars games?
Sorry, I disagree... as do many others.
Anyways, sandbox games are not a populat breed. The only one that has shown any success is EvE. And, even then it's a love v. hate relationship with that game. Personally, I think it's an Excell spreadsheet with a gaming GUI attached to it. But, I'm not going to state my dislike on it is the end-all-be-all opinion. Unlike you, I understand that people have games that they like and dislike.
My opinion is just that... mine. Your opinion is just that... yours. Neither of us speaks for what should or should not be. Yet, you did, and you were called out on it.
Less restricting worlds, more open in general. With the idea of raiding looming over my head, I was done.
Likely any 3 of the following would have kept me around:
But to sum up ( better graphics and more interesting RPG features )
1. HD textures and just overall impressive graphics that a 2012 title should have.
2. More detailed RPG elements regarding companions ( things that were in game at one point )
a. Companions can leave
b. You can kill companions
c. leveleling up your companions yourself
3.More detailed light/dark side consequences
a. kicked out of jedi order for going dark
b. special abilities for dark/light ( not just gear )
4. Open worlds and NON-LInear design
5. Interesting class designs outside of animations
a. The classes are all very similar, this goes beyond the 4 classes and mirrored thing
b. make a BH feel like you are a BH for example, why am i the same as a trooper ?
I did not subscribe because EA/BW removed many armor sets, titles and customization options during beta. Now I am waiting to see if they return them to the game for free or if they are going to roll out a cash shop. I do not play games with cash shops, ever.
2012 is the first year since Kunark released for EverQuest that I have not had an active subsritption to a mmorpg. I left max level characters in EQ/EQ2 and WoW when those games released their cash shops and I left 2 characters with over 60 million skillpoints each in EVE this past year over their roll out of the Nex store.
FUncom putting the FU in fun since 1993.
I am still sub'd but the 3 things I'd really like to see sooner than later are-
1. Dual spec (within same AC of course)
2. Reward (xp/loot/valor/comendations) for kills in open world PvP outside of Illum quests.
3. Guild leveling / expanded guild features.
After that,
4. Legacy system
5. More/better space content
6. More/better open world PvP content
Still after THAT,
7. More gear customization through oranges/crafting/etc. especially in Visuals/aesthetics.
8. Open world PvE events
9. More dungeons/raids/warzones
10. Continuation of story
Really what would have kept me is if bioware or EA had any experience at all with making and managing an mmo.
All during beta they had this attitude that they were all that, that they were the professional game designers, and we the beta testers were all idiots and had no right to make suggestions or offer feedback.
They let thier egos get in the way of making the game thier own player base was asking for.
So what would have retained me?
1) Less Attitude
2) More Experience with mmo concept and design
3) A decent engine
4) A game that doesn't release 10 years dated.
5) A game that offers more than its predecessor, not less.
6) An innovative 3rd generation game considering this is the 3rd generation of MMO design.
7) JUST A LITTLE BIT OF HUMILITY! If you screw up suck it up admit it and give a sincere apology.
Honestly bioware's attitude over this whole debacle really makes me question the direction of the company and who the hell these guys think they are. When you get right down to it, thier last few games have kinda bombed because they stopped listening to their players and decided they knew better than us.
Now as far as Mass Effect 3 goes, after all the hell raising over ME2, they say they have listened and put back some of the features that players loved about ME1, but we won't really be able to tell until we get the game,
This. I could have stayed if the worlds were a lot better designed, but they were so bland and empty of life. From the static npcs standing outside the Jedi Temple as if they'd been hit by some sort of stasis grenade mid-action, to the lack of any npc's or major activity where you would most expect it, like Nar Shaddaa casinos.
On top of that is the missing weather, the little flutter of activity as birds or their alien equivalent cross the skies, the rise and fall of the sun and the lack of any weather and it all adds up to just plain bad. It felt like I was walking around a painting rather than a real place.
Methinks this guy didn't read the thread's title. It speficially asks for people's reasons for not subbing.
This is exactly what was requested. No one is trying to shove thier preferences down anyone else's throat.
For me -
MAN do I WISH I could be a Jedi Knight in this and act out my Revan/Bane fantasies. But, alas, I can't.
Here is my list -
1. Graphics - Implement the higher textures, and I will resub at least a month to see if it improves immersion for me and helps give things visual presence in the combat and world interactions.
2. Combat/Gameplay - Make the gameplay more skill based or at east less spongey - This is not likely to be possible. But make things seem like they actually are impacting one another. WoW looks ridiculous with the non-connecting swings and all the spells flying to the same spot on the boss, but somehow they got it just right enough to feel organic in their own cartoon universe. I look for more from SWTOR as it is one shade less cartoony than WoW. Lightsabers oftentimes do hit each other, but there is no collission and it doesn't even matter if you are gettign hit int he back as a tank right now (apparently the shields are all over out bodies), but for force users it would make sense to have the lightsaber be a contributing factor to not being hit.
Other than RNG and being in the somewhat right place at the right time in the right gear and handling your rotation/prioritizaion correctly, there is nothing to be proud of in this kind of game. It is time sunk getting gear and the ability to not zone out. The zoning out which is natural in such a boring and unresponsive, repetitive system. Granted, anything can get repetitive, but you can gain satisfaction from perfecting your gameplay. Currently - in SWTOR and WoW and similar games, there is nothing to be proud of doing well. It's like being a chef making great macaroni and cheese from a box. Yeah, it's possible to mess it up, but the margin of error is high and even if you do it perfectly you are still not impressive. It is just a simple, weak recipe.
TERA is MMO combat at its current best, imo. The old autotarget format is weak.
But even as a mindless backround source of distraction and a chat room (which is what WoW has been for me - despite pushing "Heroic" kills), the combat style of SWTOR could be okay, if it was just crisper. It just feels sloppy even compared to WoW.
3. Better Reconcile the SRPG and MMORPG Aspects - A solid example is the extreme case fo the Jedi Knight. It would help reconcile the 2 sides of the game by changing the end of the Jedi Knight story (SPOILER ____ SPOILER_____ my JK toon should not be able to solo defeat the emperor - even if it's "only a setback". This is very difficult to reconcile this with the fact that JKs can't solo raid bosses and have a hard time with Elites and Champions. So, Karagga the Hutt is WAY stronger than the emperor? The rancor in Karagga's litte Jaba-trap area could manhandle the emperor? Simple logic. It's fun to be told you are heroic in your little single player bubble, but that only underlines the fact that this game is currently 2 side by side games - the srpg and the mmorpg. END SPOILER).
4. Endgame Content -
a. I LOVE RAIDING - it's my favorite and if they fixed the graphics and the combat, the raiding in this game would be great. But there also should be other things to do.
b. PVP -Oh, there is PVP. The SAME PEOPLE you have been killing for weeks. Kill them again. Kill them again. capture the same thing.... Yikes. It's boring. The thing is, getting better at pvp is probably 40% gear, 30% knowing where to be and when (strategy/tactics) and 30% reflexes/doing the right skill at the right time and of course the ever-present guiding force of RNG. But that formula doesn't have enough difficulty tied to player actions to be inspiring. So nailbiters are rare and don't tie directly into this person or that team executing well. Again, the macaroni and cheese example. It's a simple recipe. How can you be proud of getting it right? I have a friend who is almost religiou about SC3, because in that game the better player wins. And the majority of what makes him win is withing him and the time he spent gaining knowledge and refining his gameplay not having a big chunk of it be the margin of error he earns each time her grabs a piece of gear.
c. Exploration - a big world and planets to go visit that don't necessarily have quests or anything but wrap the instanced world in a larger picture which could inspire awe, context and hopefully hours of fruitless exploration with the occasional - "ah, this is cool. I bet not everyone has seen this, because they were not funneled here". Datacrons do this to an extent. Getting the +10 all stats one is way off the beaten path. There is a nod to the bounty hunters on the Ziost ship in the Imp Fleet. Those things are fun, but they mangled the Sarlaac. A huge majority of Star Wars fans, I included, would have gladly searched the ends of Tattione to find the Sarlaac Pit. Wild Rancors being out and about on certain planets. I would go and find them to hunt. Don't tell me when and where, just tell me that I can find one, and I will try my best. The fanbase would pursue these things for their intrinsic joy and for the achievers - toss a title on it.
d. Dailies - Repairs of Rakata level gear are a monster in this game. I have 6 pcs of Rakata on my BH and it cost me 80kish to repair. That is from an hour or so of pushing "difficult" and buggy Hard Mode and NIghtmare mode bosses. The best way/only real viable way to make money (since crafting is crap) is to do dailies. To afford my raid repairs I was having to rehash the couple hours of dailies on Ilum and Belsavis. It was a grind of mindless, boring quests with little context. The only highlight of which is the seeing a Rancor walking around.
e. Alts - Make Legacy remove the non class quests from the alt's journey based on Republic/Emp being completed. If the quests are the same as have been done before by a preceding character, then they are completed and just going to the questgiver will giv ethe requisite XP or better the ability to level is tied into the planet's level range adn is acheived just by doing the new class quest. Example: I have a 50 BH. SO I have done the quests for he Empire sufficiently to have a 50. I have seen the content. As such, when I roll a Marauder, the marauder will only do Korriban and other quests that are separate from the BH quests and of course his/her own class quests. When I get to Tattoine, I immediately am at the mid-leel range for toons there (if I was below it) and when I complete my class quest as a Marauder on Tattoine, I am boosted to the top level of Tattoine's bracket and send tot he next area. When I pick up my class quest on the next planet, I am boosted to mid level and when I complete it, I am put to maxe level. If I grind out mobs or pvp for XP then I won't need the boost, but it will make sure I don't ahve to do stuff I already did. Maybe even state - ooops, your main didn't do all of Tattoine. Sry, you have to do it all. Or go back on your main and finish it out. Whatever. The point is, only about 15% of the tiem spent on a planet is sepcific to a class quest. So why languish repeating the other stuff?
5. Interactivity/Life to the world - Back to that Rancor. He pats around in his little, arbitrary 50 yard loop. He doesn't eat anything around him. He doesn't engage the people around him in combat. He doesn't touch the walls. Nothing. He just walks back and forth. He is indiciative of everything in the game. Rift had the invasions happen and NPC would figth NPC. The invaders would try to take over areas. The mobs would fight them. It game things a sense of life. That is completely missing in this game. All we are statue people locked into an interaction with a predetermined other group of individual statue person or backgound object. One of the things that makes the Elder Scroll games interesting is the way various elements interact with one another using AI. There is very limited AI in this game. It feels dead.
6. Load Screen/Instancing - Why is it that once it takes me an instant to get from Hoth to Ilum but takes a combined minute or so of loading screens to get from my ship to the planets themselves? I press the travel button on Ilum from Hoth - 2 extremes of the knock universe and the starts lengthen to represent hyperspace then a picture of Ilum is there and I can step out of my ship and be in Ilum space. But then I have to load screens for each section.
There ya go. A wall of text.
I will edit it after I post it.
Someone please make a good MMO.
The game has enough to hold me for a few months still at least. We'll see what those bring and I'll see then.
While I'd agree that "NPC's living in the world" are sparse, at least given the size of the worlds, it's entirely wrong to say they don't exist.
There is weather. I take it you never got to Hoth, Dromund Kaas, or Tatooine. Still, I'd agree that there should be more of it. I'd say that of most MMO's.
Only one MMO that I know of has seasons.-Ryzom.
But back to the whole "living world" thing, which is a common criticism, I wouldn't say it's unwarranted. But I do think that people miss out on alot of things. If you stop for a bit and take a look around, you catch alot more going on. My last visit to Ord Mantell was the first time(after months of playing) I noticed that shuttles were being blasted out of the sky. Seems like I see something new every time I stay in one spot for more than 30 seconds.
I think there's one big contributing factor to this sentiment though, and that's audio. Audio just seems extremely buggy in busy places. ambient effects boom in and vanish in unnatural ways; things like speeders go quiet abruptly and inexplicably as you pass through different areas. In short, I think there are sounds that simply aren't triggering when they should, and so you have alot of "miming" going on.
I never found a class that fit for me, so that was the major sticking point.
I personally would have been happier with less MMO in the game and more..say Co-RPG. I would have probably played through each classes story if there was less Fedex and kill 10 mob quests.
Short answer:nothing, it's too old hat to keep me interested.
Methinks you didn't read DeaconX's post. Because that is what he exactly did.
No one is forbidding me from giving my opinion. Which, I was correcting DeaconX for his statements that he thinks that he knows whats best for SWTOR.
No ability delay. I played for a week and never came back.
i feel your pain jd, the last thing i ever want to see are those raghouls.
But to the op, the huge load screens were a major turn off, i like to trade and 50 items per char then a huge wait to log another alt just became too annoying, i enjoyed the story lines but as soon as i tried to group or pvp my abilities were a joke and so delayed it wasnt fun to play.
Also as a healer i like helping people out a heal here a buff there but i was running around this huge new mmo and was like where is everyone? just felt wierd to see so few people.
I guess if they can sort the ability delay whilst grouping and increase the amount 1 char can use on the gtn i would try it again.
Forgive me if your question is a rhetorical question and not a technical one, because I aim to answer it technically.
The reality(of the game) is that by clicking to go to a planet, you haven't done squat to travel, as far as the game is concerned. Your ship's galactic map is essentially a remarkably pretty dropdown menu with all the planets and space missions listed. By clicking on the travel button, you are just selecting the option in the dropdown list, and when you click on your door, you're clicking the "OK" button. This is when the system starts loading the planet/space mission.
The thing to understand is, there's a point in which you have to load something. It may seem more "game matching" to have that occur when you make your selection on the map. But would having a load screen occur as you select your planet be any better than where it's at, now? How annoying would it be to choose the wrong planet by accident and have to wait, then pick the right one and wait, again?
audio has issues everywhere sometimes npc conversations will follow you to 3 rooms away. Ambient noises dissapearing or just stopping for no reason.. many are just missing. the big thing is there is a lot of space in many areas and even if theres few npcs not doing anything like most mmos at least in most mmos you see a lot of people around.. in most mmos the main towns are packed with people you see tons of people in many of the zones as well. Here i see a semi-decent amount in the fleet but hardly anyone running around in many areas I have traveled. All this together creates a huge sense of the lifeless game world so its just not 1 single thing for me its a combination of all these things.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/339443/Video-FollowUp-Guide-For-Enhancing-Graphics-and-Performance-in-SWTORSorry-still-Nvidia-Only.html
For me it came down to game mechanics and the way the game was designed. When I played one of the open betas I thought this game would be enough to hold me untill GW2 came out(was expecting that sometime in March or April at the time). I knew from the getgo that this game was not the type I would normally play (themepark on mega rails, very linear, quest based advancement), however, the game was constructed very well and I still think well made for what it is and I was enjoying the story and the story missions.
The reason I quit and did not resub was very simple - Boredom. The quests get stale after a while - there is very little interaction on a social level within the context of the game - and pvp while enjoyable overall was very poorly thought out for long term. So in short without a complete redesign of the game(which I do not expect) there is nothing they could do to hold me as a customer.
I return to my favorite youtube clip. Whoever posted it is my hero.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Rrk6lgi24
From 1:20 to 2:10, though the whole thing is a good indication of what I mean. This sort of thing is simply unacceptable, you can't have npc's stuck in mid-action like that, it looks unnatural and.. frankly.. plain stupid. And things like that happen everywhere you go.
The weather you talk of is again just a static place holder, it isn't weather changes per-se, it's a location that has been told to show rain or snow. Again, it's like a painting, it's set up to look like something and that something will never change no matter how long you stand around looking at it.
I remember seeing those shuttles being blasted too and while I thought for a moment, "Wow, cool..", I was then distracted by the row of four troops with a commander silently walking up and down, motioning as if he's telling them something, or giving some sort of rousing speech. But it was all silence.
It's like they've put these things in the game, the commander, the npc's outside the Jedi Temple, but forgot or didn't have time to apply animations and sounds to them. I'm hoping that in the future they'll have finally got around to doing so and the world will finally look like a world, but I'm not holding my breath...
please show me where weather is not static every place I have seen rain it is always raining in that same spot
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/339443/Video-FollowUp-Guide-For-Enhancing-Graphics-and-Performance-in-SWTORSorry-still-Nvidia-Only.html
Two things would have retained me: 1, less teenagers in the game ( I mean it.) 2, better cc mechanisms & cooldowns.
I want to do two things in a game...craft & pvp. That's it. Whatever else I do is just gravy.
A dungeon finder with relatively short wait times would have secured my subscription for a month. I won't return until this is implemented, but I predict major issues.
1) two dps per tank/healer pair is much too low If they wanted to correct some of the problems from WOW they would make 6 man flashpoints.
2) I do not think they want to or can implement cross server group finding in the next year. This will only extend wait times for a dungeon finder.
A polished, full 3D multiplayer space combat could possibly get me back, but not right away. I'll wait to see how there implementation is.
I don't think there is much of anything they can do to get me motivated for PVP. I only ranked to about 25, mostly after hitting 50. I hated the random champion ger in bags. Lotteries are bad and so it's better to just make everyone go through the same amount of effort to get those rewards. Their Ilum fiasco should have resulted in full rollbacks for everyone and capped daily valor gains in world PVP. They did neither and haven't shown an inclination to understanding the problems they have created or how to fix them.
I will be watching what they do in the next 6 months, but I will not take anything on faith. I'll wait until there has been adequate time to evaluate additions. I loved leveling my main. My alt got to around level 37 before I decided to quit. That experience wasn't nearly as fun as 90% of the quests were identical to my first go around. I'd rather try out other games than pay a subscription to level alts.
If it was part of the post-WoW MMORPGs coming out instead of being firmly attached to the WoW era of MMORPG design. I'm just not that interested in playing a game that twisted the Star Wars lore and pretzled it into the WoW formula.
I 100% would have continued if it was B2P. Expectations are far lower and I won't resent paying a subscription if I barely play or just level alts.
I'd prefer a model where I pay for content I want. If I just want to level characters, then the box price pays for it. If I want to run level 50 instances I can pay to unlock them. If I want to unlock PVP I pay for that. The unlock fees can be monthly or one time, depending on the game. Obviously such a model is more complicated for the server and to a lesser extend the engine. You should pay for what you use rather than having everyone pay the same price each month.