News - SWOTR final call to guilds as pre-launch phase begins

[Merson]

Watching BW bring up additional servers to deal with the traffic has been fun, they've seriously underestimated the numbers who would be logging on.

Or they could be testing servers with high loads/people on it. This is the first full chance they have had at a first day release scenario.

[danroyle]

Or they could be testing servers with high loads/people on it. This is the first full chance they have had at a first day release scenario.

i think that is the aim it is a stress test after all.

I am a bit disappointed you can only use your character on the server you created it on. the Eu server my characters are on there was a massive wait of 12 hours last night to play so i gave up

[balsaq]

Watching BW bring up additional servers to deal with the traffic has been fun, they've seriously underestimated the numbers who would be logging on.

They've been sitting on spare servers and slowly bringing them up when the others are packed to the brim with players. By doing this they are stressing the open servers to their max rather than evenly spreading players (hence the reason for a massive beta testing stress test this weekend). Interestingly enough, I've had a good ping and very little lag spikes on my server which at the busiest time had a reported 1d queue (they are inaccurate though, so more like 1hr).

They've said they will be opening many more on launch than they have now.

[Biscuit]

I see it comes with '30 day game time'. Does that mean 30 days of actual time you spend online or or 30 days from the day you purchase the game (or the release date in this case)?

Once that's run out how much is the renewal?

[danroyle]

I see it comes with '30 day game time'. Does that mean 30 days of actual time you spend online or or 30 days from the day you purchase the game (or the release date in this case)?

Once that's run out how much is the renewal?

30 days from installation/when you load up the game.

It starts at £8.99 a month.

From swtor.com
Yes, a monthly subscription is required to play Star Wars: The Old Republic. Players will be able to select one of three different subscription options: •1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
•3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
•6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)
.


I panicked playing earlier i thought my dell u2311 had a stuck pixel when i was playing just one pixel was not changing but i tried bf3 and a few other games and the pixel is fine so i guess its just a graphical issue.

[Biscuit]

hmmm i think i iwill pass. Sounds like an awesome concept but thats just far too expensive for my tastes and the time i will have available for it.

[HalloweenJack]

got a jedi consular to lvl 12 - and sorry but im bored allready - combat is press 1 ,2 or 3 till they fall over , with 0 feedback and the voice acting is begining to annoy me - its obvious its a filler to flesh it out and by the third runthrough it would want me to kill something

[Zhaoman]

Played it briefly last night. First impressions are that the voice acting is everything it's cracked up to be.

Now onto the bad points: This RPG feels like it's 5 years late to the scene. The environments are flat and uninteresting, enemies are predictable and your character's skills and powers seem utterly uninspired. It's probably important that I was playing at very low level but there was nothing to make me think "wow I can't wait to upgrade this skill to see what I can do with it" or any evidence that the combat becomes any more interesting than stand and bash each other till one dies.

I had been told that this game was a complete WoW clone but I still held some faith that Bioware would inject a little more atmosphere into it. The atmosphere that the voice-acting creates is instantly lost when the conversation ends and you walk back out to a generic flat world with flat enemies.

The graphical style was really disappointing too and probably contributed most to the feeling of a flat/barren world. The opening cinematic of the Smuggler features his ship gliding through a warzone as if it was made of Lego and a 7 year old was steering it - dodging cannon fire with perfect manouverablity and no sense of the size or weight of such a lump of metal. They could've at least let the ship get hit to create a bit of suspense! It just loses any sense of the epic and made the start pretty whimsical. I was really hoping that the cutscenes were going to be in the same style as the trailers to spice up the feeling of immersion but unfortunately they are not.

Overall I cannot see any reason why I should play this game over the Christmas break rather than Skyrim. And I was really excited about a KOTOR sequel.

[danroyle]

hmmm i think i iwill pass. Sounds like an awesome concept but thats just far too expensive for my tastes and the time i will have available for it.

I'm in the same boat as you i'd like to get it but about £35 is the cheapest i can find it to preorder then add in the monthly subscription costs and if i pay £35 then i will feel obliged to play for at least six months, It starts racking up the bills.

If it was pitched around the £5 a month mark then i would probably do it. Or if they did a subscription deal like they did lord of the rings online beta testers were offered a lifetime subscription for £99.99 a gamble i know as that game bombed but star wars is more likely to run for a few years as there are always hardcore star wars fans

[HalloweenJack]

WOW set the benchmark for subs prices , notice how everyone else charges £8.99 a month as well? after 7 years its become the norm for pricing.

the problem for me though is purchase cost :

£35 for standard (at the supermarkets) and £59.99 for digital deluxe edition

[chelseascum]

I don't think £8.99 a month is too bad. I played Galaxies for years and that was $14.99 a month, which works out as a little more than £8.99. I also won't need more than one account, due to having 8 character slots rather than 2 (which is what Galaxies had - it was initially only 1). It's too much for some, clearly, but I'll be playing it for a few months at least.

[balsaq]

I don't think £8.99 a month is too bad. I played Galaxies for years and that was $14.99 a month, which works out as a little more than £8.99. I also won't need more than one account, due to having 8 character slots rather than 2 (which is what Galaxies had - it was initially only 1). It's too much for some, clearly, but I'll be playing it for a few months at least.

I kind of wish I had experienced SWG back in its heyday. A true sandbox MMO and the idea of only a select few being Jedi is fantastic imo and similar ideas should live on in more online games. Gives a sense of occasion when you see a special char like that I can imagine, and would be amazing to actually have one.

After the weekend, I've found that swtor feels a bit too restricted to me, maybe too linear. I felt like there was more world to explore in vanilla wow than on the planets of swtor. But I only got to level 25 maximum however, and I realise the planets get bigger.

Still preordered though, and will be on there for a few months at least I'm sure.

[GingerNinjaRay]

My husband has disappeared since this has been released ¬.¬