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Is SWTOR online worth playing and paying 18 quid a month. I'm currently bored of Star trek online and want a new challenge. From trailers SWTOR looks good, but is it the same grinding and trying to get the best gear? or is this the start of something special
Not got it myself, but a colleague at work loved it, but he seems to love MMO's in general. Not intending to buy it myself, as I'm not an MMO person, but hoping it'll go free-to-play at some point :P
Yeah I only started to play Star trek online when it went FTP early this year after 2 years of pay monthly. So probably a few more years then given how popular the genre is before it goes FTP.Quote:
Originally Posted by =assassin=
Nevertheless i Enjoyed KOTOR I and II and if it's anything like that I would seriously consider SWTOR.
It's not 18 quid a month for a start, I'm nearly paying that for 3 months. Plus you will get 30days free with a box sale.
It's grind ofc, it's a mmo. The story and full voice acting is very good.
I can probably offer you a Friend's trial key if you want to pm me your email address, think that gives you 7 days. Best though if you know some others that play as per all mmos. Best to find a populated server as well. The Red Ellipse is one in the EU.
Also it's soon to be offering upto level 15 free trials as well...not sure when that's coming in though.
My brother, a few friends and I all started playing this earlier this year and we really enjoyed it...... Its kinda taken a back seat to Diablo III but no doubt once we are done with that we will be picking up SWTOR again. The voice acting make you want to continue on and finish quests unlike other MMOs where most people just skip the "fluff" and grind out levels. The game has lots of good features and is worth the £8 a month or what ever it is. If you do play though I would recommend you go for a high population server (we played on Tomb of Freedon Nadd) to get the best out of the game.
Rookie
Pretty much, though SWTOR's hook is that it's got a more developed story for your character than most MMOs, complete with full voicing (bit like STO did in some of its featured episodes, only SWTOR uses voice actors rather than what sounded like anyone hanging around the office at the time...) You get some overtones of the Knights of the Old Republic games like dialogue choices (sometimes with 'Light Side'/'Dark Side' consequences), but by and large it's a pretty standard, solid enough MMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by csgohan4
Thanks for heads up, it's one thing looking at footage and reviews of the game, but entirely another actually playing it for yourself and knowing it's weaknesses and strengthsQuote:
Originally Posted by Zoso
I hear the levels of subscribers are dropping. Friends of mine who've played it have all come away saying it's not that much more than a Star Wars WoW type thing, which is what put me off trying it as I was never much of a fan of those kinds of MMOs.
Are you after a solo viable MMO with some grouping and player interaction and economy? Or do you want the regular grouping experience, raiding, and more involved play?
If the former then SWTOR is excellent as the single player story line and gameplay is very nice. For the later is still decent IF you pick a populated server but it's not as polished at competitors, ie. Don't expect WoW levels of polish on raids. I don't PvP but the forums seem to suggest it's a bit of a mess. Then again, in every MMO I've played the PvP community seem to complain far more and far louder than anyone else.
You can solo level to 50 without ever running out of things to do and the loot rewards don't feel like a grind. You can get decent gear levels without running groups and raids every night. These may be good or bad points depending on your play style and expectations.
I personally enjoy it, even being on a dead server. Then again, I have a family so play at odd times, frequently AFK and only play with friends. Your mileage may vary :eek:.
That's the other thing, you have to select servers. When I play STar Trek online, there is only one server and everyone online is there. I find it a bit odd you have to choose which server or location. I suppose for lag purposes, but I don't have much lag on STO. Wouldn't it make sense to play on one server so you can interact with more ppl e.t.c
Probably a performance thing. If you have a central hub (Fleet for SWTOR) without dynamic instancing or phasing then there could be performance issues, especially for low spec PC's. There is talk of "mega servers" for SWTOR which is basically a cluster of existing servers but I think that's a long way off. In theory, if the servers reflected active populations then you could pick any server and still enjoy the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by csgohan4
On initial release people screamed on the forums that server queue times were too long and for EA/BW to open more servers. Unfortunately EA/BW got ahead of themselves (too cocky?) and opened too many servers so when the active population contracted there were dead servers everywhere. In turn that put more people off and the populations continued to decrease. Don't get me wrong, the overall population is still arguably healthy. The official active subs is still quoted at around 1.3mil, it's just that the population is spread between too many servers.
I know the above all sounds very negative but that's based on what I've seen. Still doesn't change the fact that I enjoy the game and play most nights when I can but I prefer to give you the best information I can so you can make a more informed decision.
Partially, though also a thinning mechanic, with some security benefits as a side effect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bugbait
There is talk of combining servers because some are getting too thin though.
Dynamic servers work better for that problem - see games like Guild Wars for a nice way of doing it. Problem is no security containment unfortunately.Quote:
In theory, if the servers reflected active populations then you could pick any server and still enjoy the game.
On initial release people screamed on the forums that server queue times were too long and for EA/BW to open more servers. Unfortunately EA/BW got ahead of themselves (too cocky?) and opened too many servers so when the active population contracted there were dead servers everywhere. In turn that put more people off and the populations continued to decrease. Don't get me wrong, the overall population is still arguably healthy. The official active subs is still quoted at around 1.3mil, it's just that the population is spread between too many servers.
Bit easier in GW since their world architecture was based on a central hub + instances? I only played it briefly as I never got into it. It felt more like a lobby with private rooms instead of a "world" from what I recall. Then again, with the low population on SWTOR it feels more like a LAN more than an MMO at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
Each town/area is a hub (many) and then there are instances outside, yes. But that doesn't make it any easier - forget the instances and it's quite similar.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bugbait
Yep, hence why they're investigating server merging.Quote:
I only played it briefly as I never got into it. It felt more like a lobby with private rooms instead of a "world" from what I recall. Then again, with the low population on SWTOR it feels more like a LAN more than an MMO at the moment.
From a purely selfish point of view based on how I personally play the game, I'd like to see server merges (not just transfers) for a decent player economy. I only group with friends so don't care so much about the LFG tool, etc. Do want an active GTN though!