Just run Warzones for a few days. :smallwink:
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Alright. I just attempted Lost Island Hard Mode. Here is my long-winded, detailed, encyclopedic description of it.
HOLY CRAP THAT FIRST BOSS HITS LIKE A TRUCK
EDIT: On reflection, that battle would be a lot easier if Mercenaries had an interupt, so the Plasma attack would only get through on a rare occasion*. As is, Mercenary and Melee DPS are both pretty bad choices for this fight; Mercenaries can't interrupt the Plasma burst attack (Which requires 2 people to keep it at bay for most of the fight), while melee DPS run the risk of catching the Tank in a missed plasma burst, which is basically game over right there.
*And I pity the group that takes in 2 MErcenary DPS, since their tank will be too busy interupting Incinerate, while Healers are pushed to their limits just keeping everyone alive.
So... Ideal 1 of each class makeup would be, in my opinion:
-Sith Juggernaught Tank (although any tank should work. Elemental Damage Reduction is important here, though)
- Sniper DPS
- Sorcerer DPS (Any ranged DPS with an interupt works here)
- Mercenary Healer (Any variety of healer should work.
So I've gotten tired of playing alone and in pugs; is anyone on Rubaat recruiting? I've got a vanguard at 50, guardian in the mid 20s, and a low level sith warrior. I also wouldn't mind rolling something new, if the gitp guilds are lacking a certain role.
With both guilds, it's just a matter of cross referencing the spreadsheet to find someone who's currently online and can invite your characters. Try attempting to add every character on the list to your friends list. If you succeed at adding one of those people, that means they're online. You should then be able to shoot them a PM, and they can invite you and your alts with a bit of character hopping.
As far as roles go... In theory, Usually Lawful Evil has 2 Tanks, 2 Healers, and 3 DPS. In practice, we're not well coordinated enough to get more than half that group online at once. I think our peak number is 4 at one time. Gun Runners, unfortunately, is somewhat neglected, so we don't have much presence on the republic side of things.
I believe you can actually search for guilds in the social window, where you would normally search for players.
So, I'm coming back to the game after a school induced hiatus. I've gotta say, the legacy system is really shaping up.
I've got a question though. Pre 1.2, I was using my Logitech G13 gamepad no problem. Patched in, and logged in, and it wont even recognize that I'm pushing buttons on it. Would anyone happen to know why this might be happening?
Regarding Usually LE - my old server seems to have died in the past few months that I've been gone, so it looks like I'll be permanently moving to Ruubat. I'd be interested in leveling my tank - Powertech level 30 - or starting a new Sith healer if that's what the guild needs. I should be on later tonight around 5:30pm PST or so, though it may be later. Gotta love crunch time for school.
So... A new event is currently going on.
FInd out more at the new NEws terminal on the fleet
SpoilerCouple things of note:
1) New currency: Rakghoul DNA Samples. You can trade in 60 of these for a pet Rakghoul, or about 75 for a Black-Green Color Crystal. Or 20 for a random companion customization.
2) 3 New infected World Bosses on Tatooine: All level 50. I took out one with the help of a group of 24, here.
3) 3 New daily quests on tatooine, offering special loot.
Just so everyone knows. However, keep in mind this is level 50 content, and that world pvp has been known to spontaneously develop here.
So, I'd also been taking a mini-break and spent the weekend patching and doing a little derping around. The patch notes seem to indicate that a vendor on your ship can be unlocked with crafting upgrades for 2V and more stuff for the ship. How does one go about this? Or is it something that happens automagically at a pre-determined legacy level?
On the plus side, I kinda like having all the different class buffs on my marauder. Now I just need to get her the rest of the way through chapter 1 and I can enjoy that on all my toons.
I believe you buy it in the legacy window. They aren't automatic unlocks like the other Legacy stuff. You have to have the necessary legacy level and fundage. I am credit poor on all my characters (been focused on leveling up affection and haven't bothered with credit generation) so I haven't bought the toys.
Default keybind for Legacy Window is 'Y' I think.
I think the reason why everything is super expensive is that there are a lot of credits floating around. One guy on my server has something like 50 million credits.
I'm staying a little over 1.2 million credits so far. Most of what I make goes into stripping Rakata mods to rebuild my PvP and PvE sets. The munchkin in me is forcing me to get Augment-slot gear in every slot, which is costing me a small fortune, since I want a very specific look. :smallyuk:
As GungHo said, once you have the required legacy level (I forget what it is, something relatively low, maybe 5?) you can buy a repair droid for your ship from the legacy window. Somewhat more convenient, and it adds the droid to all ships on your legacy. The real benefits are those crafting upgrades for 2V (which I believe are the only things it sells), which for some characters (like my agent) give a crew skill crit bonus that wasn't available before. The ship droid itself is 1 mill, each crafting upgrade is 100,000.
Really though, I just wanted to hijack your message and say this: If you want the crafting upgrades for 2V-R8, you can buy them from someone else's repair droid, if you have access. I bought a repair droid, so if anyone on Rubat Crystal (Republic or Imperial) wants to buy those upgrades, just let me know, and you can use mine (and avoid spending a million credits for no real reason). Also, the upgrades are Bind to Legacy, so if you want to buy them for your alts that will also work.
Another thing to remember with the legacy stuff is that it is unlocked for all your characters ever on that server. The global unlocks, anyway, presumably at some point there will be nonglobal unlocks, which will hopefully be less money to get.
Um, due to thesis work and my current annoyance at Bioware, I've been taking a break from the game. How does the legacy stuff work? I figured it'd be like talent points - only for the entire legacy, not just the character. Kinda like guild perks in WoW, only personal. I take it from your statement that this is not the case.
You need credits in order to purchase these legacy bonuses? How expensive are they? If it's to the point you need endgame characters to afford it, it's not a great incentive to hurry back - the game rapidly ceased to be fun in the mid thirties, as the difficulty of even mundane fights spiked and my ability to get into groups remained flat (and darn close to zero).
It's not like the talent trees, it's just things to unlock.
Some things can be unlocked or purchased. An example would be the species. You can either pay moneys or get one to 50 to unlock it and be able to use it for any class.
Some things can only be unlocked. This would be stuff like the class emotes, class buffs, and companion bonuses.
Some things can only be purchased. Ship upgrades (repair vendor, mailbox, neutral GTN, etc) fall under this.
New species unlocks are 1.5 million credits (or a level 50 character of that species), so those are most likely endgame mandatory. Grouping ability is probably an issue with your server population more than anything else. The rest of the stuff varies between 100-500k or so, depending on what you're after. Some stuff is a million (ship droid I want to say...) credits, but none of the legacy stuff is mandatory for gameplay. Most of the unlocks are for convenience.
Unconfirmed: EA Layoffs Incoming Due to Disappointing SWTOR Subscriber Numbers
Both Kotaku and Startup Grind are referencing "multiple sources within Electronic Arts" as reason to believe that the company is about to lay off as many as 1000 employees due to a variety of reasons, including "disappointing" subscriber numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic. If true, hopefully anyone affected at BioWare Austin is able to land on their feet elsewhere:
Quote:
After a brief resurgence, EA has had a rough year with Star Wars not matching lofty internal expectations, an expensive Popcap acquisition, a CFO departure, and being recently named the worst company in America.
While it looked like a possible banner year, over stretching on several fronts led to a disappointing fiscal year. Estimates put Battlefield 3 sales around 13MM units, the company ‘chased’ the launch dumping an estimated $30MM into incremental marketing after the game launched according to one source within EA. The same thing was done for Star Wars to extend its run and try to improve sales. Star Wars sell through is estimated to now be around 3MM units, but the subscriptions which are needed for an MMO to payoff are already declining.
Average Startup Cost of an MMO these days is estimated around 100 million.
As for what Bioware/EA spent on SWTOR, I've heard all kinds of numbers but never seen a souce. Starting to wish I didn't sell my EA/TakeTwo Interactive stock years ago, I could just ask the company for a copy of the statements from the last Annual General Meeting.
The numbers I've heard bounce around various fan sites has been 200-500 million, and that may or may not be counting marketing pre and post launch. But, these are from fan sites and could just be made up numbers.
Either way, it doesn't take much for an MMO to burn. SWTOR was buggy, graphically it wasn't that amazing but it was very good for an MMO, the lack of endgame meant players were bored, and when the company pulled the 'bait and switch' some people said enough's enough, free month or no.
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I'm noticing a trend here. MMO's which have next to no endgame don't seem to last very long lately. Any developer can build around leveling experience all they want (and hats off to them for doing so, I think SWTOR truly excelled at that) but when people get to max level and have next to nothing to do (other than PvP) with the character who they put time and effort into and emotional investment, people seem to drop these games.
Endgame content might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's the thing that the communities tend to latch onto once they hit max level. Alt-itis in my experience seems to be not so beneficial for communities, because once someone has hit max level, if they start another character they become another unknown. I was once in a guild that in fact fell apart because all the officer's were constantly on low level alts, so guildies just assumed that there was no official presence or high level experience in the guild, and started leaving.
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Side note, I'm getting really tired of Bioware blaming all the faults of their games on release dates, investors, etc. I would love to see them produce a game without all the meddling, and see what's really what.
Okay, two things:
1. I find it hard to believe that if the game was struggling as hard as it is, that they would give, what I can only imagine, what is a large hunk of their playerbase a month free.
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2. Can someone explain to me what exactly qualifies as "endgame" content? Cause, it seems that between that 5 universal flashpoints, 3 faction specific flashpoint, 3 (? EV, KP, and the new one. I feel like I'm missing one.) Operations, PvP, and dailies, their is quite a bit to do at endgame.
Giving people a month free is either a stopgap (prevent people from leaving) or a gimmick to get people to return. Either way, it was a good move at the time.
Actually, comparatively speaking that isn't all that much compared to a few others (no I am not refering to just WoW), but I will admit that I was lumping Star Wars in with others such as DCUO. Remaining specific to Star Wars, recall that not all of that content you listed was around at launch.Quote:
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2. Can someone explain to me what exactly qualifies as "endgame" content? Cause, it seems that between that 5 universal flashpoints, 3 faction specific flashpoint, 3 (? EV, KP, and the new one. I feel like I'm missing one.) Operations, PvP, and dailies, their is quite a bit to do at endgame.
Also, not many would count dailies as endgame content, at least not endgame content in the same vein that a flashpoint or operation is endgame.
Now admittedly, the number of people who blitzed their way to 50 in the first week of release and found less endgame than they were expecting are likely to be a minority. But, how long was it before all that content was available? How many people hit 50 and found "nothing to do" ?
This is discounting of course the people perfectly satisfied with the leveling experience and have no interest in Level Cap content. Some people are really only up for solo-content, and aren't really interested by any of the content you listed. It's a hard number to speculate on, and I really think SWTOR was smart to focus leveling in such a way that the solo play really captured these sort of people, who don't want to do group stuff and don't want to PvP, etc. However, I think they sunk a lot of money into generating that content, when that group of people weren't really the bulk of the MMO going crowd, or at the very least the number of players it brought them was a lot less than expected.
On an unrelated note, am I the only one who finds THIS to be incredibly creepy? Who want that thing sitting around their house?
So basically, EA overestimated how successful their most successful games would be, and consequently spent too much money marketing titles that pratically sell themselves?
I would.:smallbiggrin:
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EDIT: Does anyone know a way to quickly convert an extremely large number of bitmaps into JPEGs? Specifically, my Fraps screenshots.
EDIT2: Nevermind, Googled it a bit and found a program called IrfanView that can do it.
No, you're not the only one. Personally, I think it's equal parts creepy and neat. It looks good, but it would freak me out to bump into that on a midnight trip to the kitchen. (I entered the contest anyway though. On the slim chance I win, I could keep it for a week or two and then sell it off. :smalltongue:)
Maybe. This link says that EA denies the rumors. "Rumors" from "EA sources" can be anything from disgruntled employees to legit informants. I honestly wouldn't be surprised, but who knows?