I had a lot of fun and played every class early on but only to around 20.That was my goal to try every class to 20 before deciding on which one would be the most fun to go to max level.I would say my interest level always remained around at 75% which is not bad because the combat system was very much sub par to what i was used to.
What i found that was once i had to get into the Tree structure,i was turned off,i already was getting bored with combat because AI was always the same,every cluster group of 3 enemies reacted identical and i was playing with basically a 3-4 icon hotbar rotation.
I almost never found the story or quests fun,they were always your typical generic quest,albeit they added some nice very short cutscenes with your player in it which is nice but the actual player interaction was ALWAYS the same.This was pick from 3 choices which then give you pts to good or evil or null.That design made it feel even more like computer code than a game with immersion.
The personal quest line was designed terribly and just looked bad and came off ruining realistic immersion.Personal nope not always,sometimes you need others and they MUST be on that exact same part of the quest or guess what,yep locked out with that ugly red light.
Why this design was so bad and removed any immersion at all is because ,as soon as you crossed that 1 unit of line,the zone automatically turns red and you cannot enter back into it.That really makes the game look fake and again like computer code and not a realistic scenario for a game world.The same thing for the mini CS's you just finished talking to your commander,cross that 1 unit threshold and bam no way you can turn around and talk to him again,you were locked out,very unrealsisic.It was like every time you cross that 1 unit,someone was sneaking behind you and turning on a red light and locking the door.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
First off, I wanted to level to max and give my opinion on the new f2p model, but it justwasnt going to happen.
Imagine a free to play game that limits the player so much , that it is like Darth Vaders choke hold . This is what SWTOR is for the f2p player. They have limited almost every part of the game , right down to the emote system. It is absolutely one of the worst Free to play game and marketplacesI;ve ever seen,
What pushed me over the edge to uninstall, "weeklly limit on warfronts reached" . I was blown away that something that had pontential to drive in pvp players has a"weekly" linit. not daily, but weekly.
Spacebar'd the quest cause it is time consumming
Graphics are medicore with no high resolution and still no client side AA.
Overall, it was just boring, with the warfront giving some relif to the boring quest lines.
For most people who pay a sub this will be a good game, but this is truly not a free to play game, but an unlimited trial.
It never made me feel like "hey I should invest into the cash shop" because right out of the gate, they are asking for money on some of th emost basic mmo essentials like emots, titles, surnames, armor unlocks for the companion.
If you want to play this, sub to it.
As a "f2p" I rate this a "uninstall"
Emotes, titles, surnames are essentials in mmos?
For those who role play, they are. I've already uninstalled the game so I can't go in and llist every little thing, but for me, emotes are essential for immersion and basic fun,
It is no fun when a little thing pops up and says give me money.
Then don't play f2p games they all do it.
I am actually playing RIFT complete free and have not seen anything hindering in my gaming fun due to it.
SWtOR however, I started last year summer when they had the Free to play till level 15. I enjoyed it and subbed, had done so for about 3 months but after those 3 months I was sort of getting tired hearing I saved village's, city's and even a whole planet yet absolutely nothing really gave me that feeling of being that hero that saved everyone apart from some unknown NPC telling me I just did that.
Then about 2 months after I left I thought on trying the F2P version. It was a instant hit entering the game and seeing the cash shop. I tried to ignore it and wanted to go about my business. Atleast that was what I thought I would do. Then noticed I couldn't really craft anymore because certain things where behind the cash shop, noticed my inventory was far more limited. Couldn't make use of all the companions I had.
Now don't get me wrong I don't need to play a game completely free, but if it offers a sub I expect certain things from the game which SWtOR was not offering me. When a I game is free to play I am allot more forgiven for things I might not get aslong the game does provide me with atleast some fun even if it's guided most of the way. And sorry a MMO or MMORPG is not cappable to mimic story as done in singleplayer games. Because in singleplayer games you actually are able to effect the world around you. If this would have been possible in SWtOR I still would be playing the game and even sub for such depth.
On topic: OP I was expecting a review instead you choose to complain (similar to what I did) just I did'n't post REVIEW
I'll admit that this game all but punches you in the mouth and demands a credit card to actually "play", but the story lines in this game are/were really nice. I actually wished my comp wasn't such a sloppy mess when i played it, i may have liked the game more. As soon as you quit trying to pretend that you can be competitive, or even have a dream of being competitive as a freebie, sweaters stops being bad. Just play the game for the "one player" and call it good, its what i did and it worked out just fine.
Hell, you have 5 or 6 classes for each side AND a bunch of races you can unlock that sometimes changes some of the story. Just playing the game for the one player story will last you for weeks.
IMO the best part of the game is the one that is free. You can solo level 1-max and see all of the class story content without ever spending a dime. You can even run each of the group zones once or twice pretty easily depending on how slowly you level to at least see the story. It's really only once you want to start to play the game like a MMO that the F2P restrictions really kick in. There is no way for me to play this game like I do end game MMO's without subbing. It would just cost more to unlock all the content that to just pay for a subscription. If you like the game it's worth subbing to if you don't than just be happy you can see the best part of the game for free and move on.
The best thing swtor has is the story, it was what drove me to buy it (and plenty others) and the one smart thing they did when they went f2p was keeping that free, because there's nothing else great in it. Like others said is a wow clone with starwars skin, the story is what saved it.
The creation of involving class stories is what kept me playing for almost a year, i generaly don't tend to be in a mmo more that a couple months because i get bored of it, they're either filled with generic stories that you must repeat if you do an alt or it's just a rush to endgame for raids, the first bores me and the second mean nothing to me. Unless i'm in a good guild i drop it in about 2-3 months.
As for the f2p the op is absolutely correct, it's the most cashgrab model i've ever seen. On most mmo's with hybrid models you are rewarded to be a subscriber but f2p have acess to alot of stuff. On swtor you're penalized for being f2p while subscribers get a "sorry we meesed up" coins and that's it.
When they add new class stories i'll subscribe till i finish them, otherwise is gathering dust.
On topic: OP I was expecting a review instead you choose to complain (similar to what I did) just I did'n't post REVIEW
I was reviewing the f2p model /
I am sorry didn't see you reviewing the F2P model. As said I just read a complaint in your OP, nothing wrong with that. It's just not a review nor for F2P nor for the game.
I hate to tell you jackwagons who want something for nothing. It costs money to make and maintain games. Fine if you don't want to spend your money on games that is your choice. Stop moaning about not being able to access everything. If you want to have unlimited access to everything in the game cough up the cash. A sub can be as little as 12 dollars a month. I am sick of hearing you whining little children basicly demanding that someone spend their money so you don't have to grow up!
First off, I wanted to level to max and give my opinion on the new f2p model, but it justwasnt going to happen.
Happened to my 12 alts in sub model of course, 4 remaining will also in time.
If you want to play this, sub to it.
Yep, i sub EVERY game I play and that have sub (and in general I do not play games without sub). If i do not like game will not play it free or not.... but if I like game I think it is RIGHT thing to sub.
As for the reasons it wasn't as successful as it should have been: The #1 reason is the game engine. The modified Hero Engine that they used really limited the kind of content that the game could have.
We all played a Bioware game in our lives.... you can honestly say, if you played one bioware game, you played them all. Bioware has one formula, a one trick pony, they have no other design skills outside of that pony in my honest opinion. Every single bioware game from Kotor to Dragon Age to mass effect use that same formula, and they tried to stick that same boring formula that we seen from them into a mmorpg.
Bioware #1 mistake, not understanding what an mmo is, and they cheated there way through it by linking a chain of of instances that really led to nowhere in my opinion, We flew to aplanet, and yet only went down this linear path ways to objectects with no real reason to explore or communicate with other players. That is ther #1 failure, not knowing the basics of an mmorpg, in my honest opinion.
I realize that this was a few days ago, but I don't visit these forums more than once or twice a week anymore.
As to your first point: The Repopulation is using a "finished" version of the Hero Engine. Not only are they using a completed version of it, they have agreed not to make drastic changes to it in order to receive updates to the engine from the manufacturer. BioWare snatched up an extremely infant stage version of the Hero engine before the company was even willing to sell it, but BioWare threw so much money at them that they couldn't turn it down.
Not only that, but the developers of Hero engine refuse to support the BioWare version in any way shape or form due to the fact that BioWare has made so many changes to how it runs. It's simply unsupportable now except for in house.
On to your second point, I will agree that from Mass Effect onwards every BioWare games is pretty much the same cut and paste formula, hell the same cut and past story with just different faces. But there's simply no denying the brilliance of the Baldur's Gate series, which was so good that the modding community is still active to this very day and people like myself still play it a few times a month. KOTOR 1 and 2 were also very well produced stories with extremely good graphics for their time. Then along came Mass Effect and it was a huge hit... so they stopped being creative in any way shape or form and simply started throwing the same linear, TV show plot, formula at us with every game since 2007.
As for your last point, I completely agree. BioWare simply had/has no clue what makes an MMO tick. They took their standard storytelling formula and plopped it down into these depressingly linear, lifeless planets and then tacked some hilariously simple raiding on at the end. The difference between learning to take down The Zodiac or The General in Age of Conan vs the difficulty of Terror From Beyond Hard Mode is just lol-worthy. Sure you can do the ultra buggy Nightmare Mode for epeen stroking if you want, but the loot is the same so who cares.
Originally posted by RebelScum99 It is a terrible F2P system when you compare it to other Freemium models. There really isn't any denying it. I don't hate the game they way so many on this site do. I had some really great, fun months in the game, playing through various storylines, and I liked a lot about it. I'll still come back to it from time to time. But when I do, I renew my sub. I don't even mess around with the F2P options. I just find them way too limiting to enjoy myself.
It's what I did too. I didn't even bother trying to play it as F2P. Not even With Premium or Prefered or whatever status. Doesn't mean squat! All those idiotic restrictions in the UI even is ridiculous.
At least when you pay a sub, you play the old game again. And that's fine.
I spent the last week giving this game a try as an unsub.
----Graphics were pretty good.
----Felt like a solo game, did not have that nice ow feel you come to expect in mmo's.
----Hard to find things in game vendors and other plays in group. The map systems is horrible.
----Good questing and challenging at times.
----Story: many times I wanted to just to have the option to bypass the story so I could actually "play the game". I like the story and started really getting into and thinking about my choices. Because of this I couldn't play the game for hours and hours like I can in other games. I needed breaks. I even tried to tab out so the story could get finished while i do something else online. Also, you cannot do this it in a sense pauses the conversation and requires a quick loading screen to get back into the game.
----Friendly community: maybe the best I have experienced ever.
----Enjoyed the pvp games as I do any warfront/battlegroud. Felt like people die to quickly and it lacks a lot of skill. Was astonished when I realized the amount of games you were restricted to (5)! I typically play 50+ a day in other games. I looked into buying unlimited warfronts. It made no sense on how expensive it was. $4.99 = 450 cc and for a week pass it costs 240cc for each weekly pass.
960 cc around $10.66 a month where you can spend $3.5 more to sub and have normal pvp and pve xp and everything else in the game. It would make no sense to not sub. It seems like they are upset that they had to go to f2p and are dragging there heels every step of the way.
----Final thoughts: I would have been happy to pay $5 a month for the warfronts, which are sub par. However, the game does not offer me enough on other levels to justify paying $15 or even $10 a month.
Comments
Myself the freemium models never really mattered.
I had a lot of fun and played every class early on but only to around 20.That was my goal to try every class to 20 before deciding on which one would be the most fun to go to max level.I would say my interest level always remained around at 75% which is not bad because the combat system was very much sub par to what i was used to.
What i found that was once i had to get into the Tree structure,i was turned off,i already was getting bored with combat because AI was always the same,every cluster group of 3 enemies reacted identical and i was playing with basically a 3-4 icon hotbar rotation.
I almost never found the story or quests fun,they were always your typical generic quest,albeit they added some nice very short cutscenes with your player in it which is nice but the actual player interaction was ALWAYS the same.This was pick from 3 choices which then give you pts to good or evil or null.That design made it feel even more like computer code than a game with immersion.
The personal quest line was designed terribly and just looked bad and came off ruining realistic immersion.Personal nope not always,sometimes you need others and they MUST be on that exact same part of the quest or guess what,yep locked out with that ugly red light.
Why this design was so bad and removed any immersion at all is because ,as soon as you crossed that 1 unit of line,the zone automatically turns red and you cannot enter back into it.That really makes the game look fake and again like computer code and not a realistic scenario for a game world.The same thing for the mini CS's you just finished talking to your commander,cross that 1 unit threshold and bam no way you can turn around and talk to him again,you were locked out,very unrealsisic.It was like every time you cross that 1 unit,someone was sneaking behind you and turning on a red light and locking the door.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I am actually playing RIFT complete free and have not seen anything hindering in my gaming fun due to it.
SWtOR however, I started last year summer when they had the Free to play till level 15. I enjoyed it and subbed, had done so for about 3 months but after those 3 months I was sort of getting tired hearing I saved village's, city's and even a whole planet yet absolutely nothing really gave me that feeling of being that hero that saved everyone apart from some unknown NPC telling me I just did that.
Then about 2 months after I left I thought on trying the F2P version. It was a instant hit entering the game and seeing the cash shop. I tried to ignore it and wanted to go about my business. Atleast that was what I thought I would do. Then noticed I couldn't really craft anymore because certain things where behind the cash shop, noticed my inventory was far more limited. Couldn't make use of all the companions I had.
Now don't get me wrong I don't need to play a game completely free, but if it offers a sub I expect certain things from the game which SWtOR was not offering me. When a I game is free to play I am allot more forgiven for things I might not get aslong the game does provide me with atleast some fun even if it's guided most of the way. And sorry a MMO or MMORPG is not cappable to mimic story as done in singleplayer games. Because in singleplayer games you actually are able to effect the world around you. If this would have been possible in SWtOR I still would be playing the game and even sub for such depth.
On topic: OP I was expecting a review instead you choose to complain (similar to what I did) just I did'n't post REVIEW
IMO the best part of the game is the one that is free. You can solo level 1-max and see all of the class story content without ever spending a dime. You can even run each of the group zones once or twice pretty easily depending on how slowly you level to at least see the story. It's really only once you want to start to play the game like a MMO that the F2P restrictions really kick in. There is no way for me to play this game like I do end game MMO's without subbing. It would just cost more to unlock all the content that to just pay for a subscription. If you like the game it's worth subbing to if you don't than just be happy you can see the best part of the game for free and move on.
The best thing swtor has is the story, it was what drove me to buy it (and plenty others) and the one smart thing they did when they went f2p was keeping that free, because there's nothing else great in it. Like others said is a wow clone with starwars skin, the story is what saved it.
The creation of involving class stories is what kept me playing for almost a year, i generaly don't tend to be in a mmo more that a couple months because i get bored of it, they're either filled with generic stories that you must repeat if you do an alt or it's just a rush to endgame for raids, the first bores me and the second mean nothing to me. Unless i'm in a good guild i drop it in about 2-3 months.
As for the f2p the op is absolutely correct, it's the most cashgrab model i've ever seen. On most mmo's with hybrid models you are rewarded to be a subscriber but f2p have acess to alot of stuff. On swtor you're penalized for being f2p while subscribers get a "sorry we meesed up" coins and that's it.
When they add new class stories i'll subscribe till i finish them, otherwise is gathering dust.
I am sorry didn't see you reviewing the F2P model. As said I just read a complaint in your OP, nothing wrong with that. It's just not a review nor for F2P nor for the game.
I hate to tell you jackwagons who want something for nothing. It costs money to make and maintain games. Fine if you don't want to spend your money on games that is your choice. Stop moaning about not being able to access everything. If you want to have unlimited access to everything in the game cough up the cash. A sub can be as little as 12 dollars a month. I am sick of hearing you whining little children basicly demanding that someone spend their money so you don't have to grow up!
If you come to a public forum be prepared to run into people that have a different opinion then you.
Not everyone lives in N Korea/China/Russia so everyone's entitled to their own opinion.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Happened to my 12 alts in sub model of course, 4 remaining will also in time.
Yep, i sub EVERY game I play and that have sub (and in general I do not play games without sub). If i do not like game will not play it free or not.... but if I like game I think it is RIGHT thing to sub.
I realize that this was a few days ago, but I don't visit these forums more than once or twice a week anymore.
As to your first point: The Repopulation is using a "finished" version of the Hero Engine. Not only are they using a completed version of it, they have agreed not to make drastic changes to it in order to receive updates to the engine from the manufacturer. BioWare snatched up an extremely infant stage version of the Hero engine before the company was even willing to sell it, but BioWare threw so much money at them that they couldn't turn it down.
Not only that, but the developers of Hero engine refuse to support the BioWare version in any way shape or form due to the fact that BioWare has made so many changes to how it runs. It's simply unsupportable now except for in house.
On to your second point, I will agree that from Mass Effect onwards every BioWare games is pretty much the same cut and paste formula, hell the same cut and past story with just different faces. But there's simply no denying the brilliance of the Baldur's Gate series, which was so good that the modding community is still active to this very day and people like myself still play it a few times a month. KOTOR 1 and 2 were also very well produced stories with extremely good graphics for their time. Then along came Mass Effect and it was a huge hit... so they stopped being creative in any way shape or form and simply started throwing the same linear, TV show plot, formula at us with every game since 2007.
As for your last point, I completely agree. BioWare simply had/has no clue what makes an MMO tick. They took their standard storytelling formula and plopped it down into these depressingly linear, lifeless planets and then tacked some hilariously simple raiding on at the end. The difference between learning to take down The Zodiac or The General in Age of Conan vs the difficulty of Terror From Beyond Hard Mode is just lol-worthy. Sure you can do the ultra buggy Nightmare Mode for epeen stroking if you want, but the loot is the same so who cares.
It's what I did too. I didn't even bother trying to play it as F2P. Not even With Premium or Prefered or whatever status. Doesn't mean squat! All those idiotic restrictions in the UI even is ridiculous.
At least when you pay a sub, you play the old game again. And that's fine.
I spent the last week giving this game a try as an unsub.
----Graphics were pretty good.
----Felt like a solo game, did not have that nice ow feel you come to expect in mmo's.
----Hard to find things in game vendors and other plays in group. The map systems is horrible.
----Good questing and challenging at times.
----Story: many times I wanted to just to have the option to bypass the story so I could actually "play the game". I like the story and started really getting into and thinking about my choices. Because of this I couldn't play the game for hours and hours like I can in other games. I needed breaks. I even tried to tab out so the story could get finished while i do something else online. Also, you cannot do this it in a sense pauses the conversation and requires a quick loading screen to get back into the game.
----Friendly community: maybe the best I have experienced ever.
----Enjoyed the pvp games as I do any warfront/battlegroud. Felt like people die to quickly and it lacks a lot of skill. Was astonished when I realized the amount of games you were restricted to (5)! I typically play 50+ a day in other games. I looked into buying unlimited warfronts. It made no sense on how expensive it was. $4.99 = 450 cc and for a week pass it costs 240cc for each weekly pass.
960 cc around $10.66 a month where you can spend $3.5 more to sub and have normal pvp and pve xp and everything else in the game. It would make no sense to not sub. It seems like they are upset that they had to go to f2p and are dragging there heels every step of the way.
----Final thoughts: I would have been happy to pay $5 a month for the warfronts, which are sub par. However, the game does not offer me enough on other levels to justify paying $15 or even $10 a month.