i have been skipping the bonus series mainly so i can have other quests to do on alts i make. however i certainly feel your pain as that was similar reaction i had in my first time in testing. however, i like that some of them are higher lvl. its way of giving a reason to come back to the planet at a later time.
I need the bonus series to help get into level range for the next planets. This is primarily due to me not liking and doing heroics. As far as I'm concerned, Bioware wraps way too much XP in the heroics dungeons, making it really difficult for hardcore soloists to level fast enough for their next quest hub and or planet. On average, everytime I go to a new area, people are generally 3 to 4 levels above me and it's because they do their heroics and I do not.
So, while the bonus series tend to be too late to help me with level discrepencies within the quest hubs of a particular planet, they at least get my character leveled enough for the next planet's first area.
I had no trouble skipping quests in WoW and other MMOs, simply because of level differences.
I have a tougher time of it in SWTOR, because of the story telling. I feel like I need to complete these quests or something bad will happen! Consequently after completing Taris I have actually outlevelled Nar Shadaa before I even started.
As a Shadow I'm starting to use stealth to skip most of the combat other classes have to engage in, and am being more selective of my quests (if some don't seem "in character" I'll start turning them down). This should make the bonus quests less frustrating.
This is said with due respect to the author of the column: this really feels like a "Have to say something bad about SWTOR" article to me. Especially considering so many dancing around with their death masks on proclaiming the game does not have enough content to keep people interested.
I agree.
I think MikeB is trying to make himself look cool to the haters since he gave ToR a good review in the roundtable write-up. I think Bioware made tons of extra content to give people more options. I for one hate Taris, so if I can quest somewhere else and skip it, I am a happy man.
Stick to your guns MikeB and don't cave to the haters. GW2 will be out before long, so hang in there. They will settle down soon and we'll be back to semi-normal.
These quests are called 'Bonus' means extra content along with your regular ones. I would care less if they are presented in 'trolling you' manner as long as there is enough content for me to level alts without repeating the same quest.
Atleast, this articles debunks another lie by SWTOR haters that there is not enough content to level up and they have to repeat every quest while leveling alts..buzzzzz..wrong!!
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
Thing is, it's not like MikeB didn't know about the bonus series, he got to test the game, and made a review of the game too.
In one of his videos he even said that he would only be doing main story, and PvP for replayability, you know a whole new experience when he runs through second time.
So ye, this write-up is either:
Trying to look cool to the haters, as mentioned by other posters or, just writing something for the sake of writing something.
MikeB, you're losing it mate, you're way off the road you were on when you did your "Unbiased" review of Aion.
I loved Aion, but I found that review hilarious.
It's like you are just trying to hang on to the fame for the sake of fame, come on man, find that creativity hat we know you got stashed away somewhere, and let's see some originality.
Haha. Some of you posters really dont pick up sarcasm and or implied tones. The article is clearly lighthearted and yet half of you are freaking out lol.
Balmorra was my least favorite planet, I ran off that place asap.
Bonus quests are a little outside the norm, you aren't forced to complete them, - some of the bonus quests you don't even get on the planets you have to go to, to complete them. Some are given in the republic fleet. Some are given to you when you've already overleveled the content, and some will be given to you when you are too low to complete them, and most of them take you to a place where theres an alternate quest hub.
It aids you in finding the bulk of the content in SWTOR as there is a lot of content people won't ever find.
The thing is, you could easily skip them, unless you really want to have 100% completion on one character, but its gotten to the point for me, that I can easily skip most of the content I've seen before, including bonus quests, even though you may miss out on some things like titles and so forth when doing. so.
Its all about doing what you like to do. Completing a million missions to find out theres really a billion is a little daunting (and grossly exaggerated) but forcing yourself to complete them when you'd rather move on is torture.
This is said with due respect to the author of the column: this really feels like a "Have to say something bad about SWTOR" article to me. Especially considering so many dancing around with their death masks on proclaiming the game does not have enough content to keep people interested.
I agree.
I think MikeB is trying to make himself look cool to the haters since he gave ToR a good review in the roundtable write-up.
Thing is, it's not like MikeB didn't know about the bonus series, he got to test the game, and made a review of the game too.
In one of his videos he even said that he would only be doing main story, and PvP for replayability, you know a whole new experience when he runs through second time.
So ye, this write-up is either:
Trying to look cool to the haters, as mentioned by other posters or, just writing something for the sake of writing something.
MikeB, you're losing it mate, you're way off the road you were on when you did your "Unbiased" review of Aion.
I loved Aion, but I found that review hilarious.
It's like you are just trying to hang on to the fame for the sake of fame, come on man, find that creativity hat we know you got stashed away somewhere, and let's see some originality.
You've got the wrong MikeB. I don't do videos nor have I ever reviewed Aion.
Our MikeB was on the gamebreaker show ONCE and that was when he played SWTOR with MikeB aka fony and he told the story of how they got the sandwiches mixed up cuz both of them just said MikeB o.o
Im sure you can find that show on the gamebreaker tv website somewhere...
Edit:
As for the quests, Im actually on an alt now doing a "No class story after Coruscant" run through the game. Going pretty well actually.
''/\/\'' Posted using Iphone bunni ( o.o) (")(") **This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**
Hahaha, when I received my first "Bonus Series", I also thought it would be a quick, little diversion that would net me a decent reward for being a series and all. Oh, how wrong I was. The series just kept giving me more and more quests and I just wanted to leave that blasted Taris. Never again will I do a "Bonus Series." NEVERRRRRRRR!
Thankfully, I missed out on Balmorra. When I left Dromund Kass, I was level 19. My class quest was actually now two quests... Go to Balmorra and another to Nar Shaddaa. When I opened the galactic map in my ship, I didn't think to look at Balmorra first given the quest that pointed to Nar Shaddaa was first on the list.
It wasn't until after completing some space missions that I realized that Balmorra was designed for levels 16-20 and Nar Shaddaa for 20-24. By the time I set out for Balmorra, I was already level 24 and focused solely on completing my class quests despite the urge to partake in some side missions.
Once again, I'm given two paths to follow: Alderan and Tatooine... While I do like the ability to complete these branches in whichever order I choose, there is clearly a more "preferred" path as the level ranges are suited to specific ranges with no overlap.
My current gripe is just that, there are clearly missions there for the sake of having missions (lots of them) and aren't in any way all that exciting. The class quests are intriguing and so are the planet-wide arcs.
This is said with due respect to the author of the column: this really feels like a "Have to say something bad about SWTOR" article to me. Especially considering so many dancing around with their death masks on proclaiming the game does not have enough content to keep people interested.
I agree.
I think MikeB is trying to make himself look cool to the haters since he gave ToR a good review in the roundtable write-up.
wat. I wasn't even in that article.
DOH! I got you and Bill mixed up for some strange reason. My apologies Sir. But, don't cave anyway
I'm with you, Mike. When you hit that station you feel this sense of accomplishment for 'finishing' the planet only to have it stripped from you, more often than not with more quests that are low level and tedious. I wondered why that wasn't weaved into the storyline as I went, rather than waiting until the end to slap me with it. Because the thing is, people want to see that story, just not as it's being presented.
Could you imagine if this happened with a movie? Relevant, considering that's essentially what SWTOR is. You get to the end of a movie, the credits role, then bam...the second half starts. It seems nitpicky, but SWTOR is filled with a lot of those moments that aren't a big deal, but annoy you anyway, and combined they are a detriment to the overall experience. Bioware should consider placing these story NPCs along the way to, or back from, the last one...as they are, they're more like those annoying traffic checkpoints.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
I did one bonus series just for the commendations (I forget which planet, maybe nar shadaa?) and none of them offered commendations as a reward. The only reason I could see doing them would be if for some reasons you weren't high enough in level to progress to the next planet.
I did one bonus series just for the commendations (I forget which planet, maybe nar shadaa?) and none of them offered commendations as a reward. The only reason I could see doing them would be if for some reasons you weren't high enough in level to progress to the next planet.
The Bonus Series in Taris got me around 15 commendations...
I'd rather have too much content that I can do on an alt if I miss it on my main (which I think was a big factor for throwing so many quest into TOR) than having to grind some snow giants for the last 3 levels since the quest ran out (vanilla WoW) -.-
Comments
i have been skipping the bonus series mainly so i can have other quests to do on alts i make. however i certainly feel your pain as that was similar reaction i had in my first time in testing. however, i like that some of them are higher lvl. its way of giving a reason to come back to the planet at a later time.
I need the bonus series to help get into level range for the next planets. This is primarily due to me not liking and doing heroics. As far as I'm concerned, Bioware wraps way too much XP in the heroics dungeons, making it really difficult for hardcore soloists to level fast enough for their next quest hub and or planet. On average, everytime I go to a new area, people are generally 3 to 4 levels above me and it's because they do their heroics and I do not.
So, while the bonus series tend to be too late to help me with level discrepencies within the quest hubs of a particular planet, they at least get my character leveled enough for the next planet's first area.
I had no trouble skipping quests in WoW and other MMOs, simply because of level differences.
I have a tougher time of it in SWTOR, because of the story telling. I feel like I need to complete these quests or something bad will happen! Consequently after completing Taris I have actually outlevelled Nar Shadaa before I even started.
As a Shadow I'm starting to use stealth to skip most of the combat other classes have to engage in, and am being more selective of my quests (if some don't seem "in character" I'll start turning them down). This should make the bonus quests less frustrating.
I agree.
I think MikeB is trying to make himself look cool to the haters since he gave ToR a good review in the roundtable write-up. I think Bioware made tons of extra content to give people more options. I for one hate Taris, so if I can quest somewhere else and skip it, I am a happy man.
Stick to your guns MikeB and don't cave to the haters. GW2 will be out before long, so hang in there. They will settle down soon and we'll be back to semi-normal.
Now...in other "important" news...
This is a problem....why exactly?
Seriously, you aren't intended to do every darn quest with one character. I don't understand why MMORPG.com posts features to troll it's readers!
These quests are called 'Bonus' means extra content along with your regular ones. I would care less if they are presented in 'trolling you' manner as long as there is enough content for me to level alts without repeating the same quest.
Atleast, this articles debunks another lie by SWTOR haters that there is not enough content to level up and they have to repeat every quest while leveling alts..buzzzzz..wrong!!
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty -- Mahatma Gandhi
Thing is, it's not like MikeB didn't know about the bonus series, he got to test the game, and made a review of the game too.
In one of his videos he even said that he would only be doing main story, and PvP for replayability, you know a whole new experience when he runs through second time.
So ye, this write-up is either:
Trying to look cool to the haters, as mentioned by other posters or, just writing something for the sake of writing something.
MikeB, you're losing it mate, you're way off the road you were on when you did your "Unbiased" review of Aion.
I loved Aion, but I found that review hilarious.
It's like you are just trying to hang on to the fame for the sake of fame, come on man, find that creativity hat we know you got stashed away somewhere, and let's see some originality.
Balmorra was my least favorite planet, I ran off that place asap.
Bonus quests are a little outside the norm, you aren't forced to complete them, - some of the bonus quests you don't even get on the planets you have to go to, to complete them. Some are given in the republic fleet. Some are given to you when you've already overleveled the content, and some will be given to you when you are too low to complete them, and most of them take you to a place where theres an alternate quest hub.
It aids you in finding the bulk of the content in SWTOR as there is a lot of content people won't ever find.
The thing is, you could easily skip them, unless you really want to have 100% completion on one character, but its gotten to the point for me, that I can easily skip most of the content I've seen before, including bonus quests, even though you may miss out on some things like titles and so forth when doing. so.
Its all about doing what you like to do. Completing a million missions to find out theres really a billion is a little daunting (and grossly exaggerated) but forcing yourself to complete them when you'd rather move on is torture.
I remember those quests from the beta.
I had to pick them all up and still were ending up level 47... without warzones and a few group quests.
the presentation was just generic and cheap but I guess you guys are used to stuff like that. lololol
I would scratch them all out and raise the xp, felt like another time sink.
wat. I wasn't even in that article.
You've got the wrong MikeB. I don't do videos nor have I ever reviewed Aion.
Of course you'd say that wouldn't you... we're going to have to have a lineup now.
Case of mistaken identity?
MikeB aka Fony != MikeB of mmorpg.com
Our MikeB was on the gamebreaker show ONCE and that was when he played SWTOR with MikeB aka fony and he told the story of how they got the sandwiches mixed up cuz both of them just said MikeB o.o
Im sure you can find that show on the gamebreaker tv website somewhere...
Edit:
As for the quests, Im actually on an alt now doing a "No class story after Coruscant" run through the game. Going pretty well actually.
''/\/\'' Posted using Iphone bunni
( o.o)
(")(")
**This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**
Hahaha, when I received my first "Bonus Series", I also thought it would be a quick, little diversion that would net me a decent reward for being a series and all. Oh, how wrong I was. The series just kept giving me more and more quests and I just wanted to leave that blasted Taris. Never again will I do a "Bonus Series." NEVERRRRRRRR!
Bonus = not mandatory
The TORHEAD comment made me think: "Really? Someone is complaining about there being too much content in this game?"
Because that is what this boils down to. The past few years of games had too little content. Now we have more than we care to do.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Thankfully, I missed out on Balmorra. When I left Dromund Kass, I was level 19. My class quest was actually now two quests... Go to Balmorra and another to Nar Shaddaa. When I opened the galactic map in my ship, I didn't think to look at Balmorra first given the quest that pointed to Nar Shaddaa was first on the list.
It wasn't until after completing some space missions that I realized that Balmorra was designed for levels 16-20 and Nar Shaddaa for 20-24. By the time I set out for Balmorra, I was already level 24 and focused solely on completing my class quests despite the urge to partake in some side missions.
Once again, I'm given two paths to follow: Alderan and Tatooine... While I do like the ability to complete these branches in whichever order I choose, there is clearly a more "preferred" path as the level ranges are suited to specific ranges with no overlap.
My current gripe is just that, there are clearly missions there for the sake of having missions (lots of them) and aren't in any way all that exciting. The class quests are intriguing and so are the planet-wide arcs.
All the author said was that he didn't like the presentation of these "bonus" quests. From the sounds of what is written here, I don't blame him.
He was not complaining about "too-much" content. The fans here are just getting way defensive.
Thanks for the article Mike.
DOH! I got you and Bill mixed up for some strange reason. My apologies Sir. But, don't cave anyway
I'm with you, Mike. When you hit that station you feel this sense of accomplishment for 'finishing' the planet only to have it stripped from you, more often than not with more quests that are low level and tedious. I wondered why that wasn't weaved into the storyline as I went, rather than waiting until the end to slap me with it. Because the thing is, people want to see that story, just not as it's being presented.
Could you imagine if this happened with a movie? Relevant, considering that's essentially what SWTOR is. You get to the end of a movie, the credits role, then bam...the second half starts. It seems nitpicky, but SWTOR is filled with a lot of those moments that aren't a big deal, but annoy you anyway, and combined they are a detriment to the overall experience. Bioware should consider placing these story NPCs along the way to, or back from, the last one...as they are, they're more like those annoying traffic checkpoints.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
I did one bonus series just for the commendations (I forget which planet, maybe nar shadaa?) and none of them offered commendations as a reward. The only reason I could see doing them would be if for some reasons you weren't high enough in level to progress to the next planet.
The Bonus Series in Taris got me around 15 commendations...
I got 99 problems but a bonus quest line aint one. Play or not Play there is no time to whine.
Refugee from UO,EQ,AC,AC2,AO,DAOC,L2,SB,HZ,CoH,PT,EQ2,WoW,VG,SWG,EVE,WAR,DF,MO,AI,GA,LOTRO, SWTOR... Gw2 on Deck
I'd rather have too much content that I can do on an alt if I miss it on my main (which I think was a big factor for throwing so many quest into TOR) than having to grind some snow giants for the last 3 levels since the quest ran out (vanilla WoW) -.-