Star Wars: The Old Republic II: Hutts don't have feet!

[Salur]

My understanding is that the link is correct; only Rapid Shots uses the basic, and not Unload or Rail Shot (which are considered Special attacks, a subset of Ranged attacks).

Having said that, I get most of my info from Sithwarrior (the link you gave), so my info is just really more of the same. It'd be easy enough to check with combat logs, and the few logs I have seen (from very early testing) are consistent with the info from the link.

People generally recommend getting to 100% basic accuracy because bosses have a max of 10% defense (avoidance), so 100% basic accuracy means all non-Rapid shots attacks will hit everything (since it's 110% accuracy minus a max of 10% defense). You'll still miss with the basic attack on bosses, but it's such a minor problem that there are other stats worth prioritizing.

Ebon Hawk people: I haven't actually jumped in game in forever, but does anyone want to actually meet up in game sometime this weekend and do a flashpoint or pug an ops, now that the fleet has so many more people on it?

[Sith_Happens]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Well, I finally got my Mercenary to level 50, and thanks to an ample budget and a cybertech alt, I've got him decked out in enough custom gear modded with purples that he's nearly at 1600 Aim already. Good stuff. I'm even tempted to PVP with him, to see how much reality there is to the 'Mercs are gimp' whining I see incessantly on the SWTOR forums.

The question I have is about Accuracy. Now the formula page on the forum seems to assert that the only attack that uses your base accuracy is your level 1 free attack, ie: Rapid Shots for the Bounty Hunter, and all other attacks use a base of 100% accuracy.

http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forum...R-formula-list

Can anyone here confirm that? The post there definitely looks like the most exhaustive I've seen, but I've never seen anything corroborating it from Bioware.

Just hover over your ranged accuracy percentage. The tooltip will show a "Basic Attack" value equal to the one on the sheet and a "Special Attacks" value that's 10% higher.

As for Mercs in PvP, I think it depends on what spec you are. A lot of people have learned by now to interrupt every Tacer Missile they can, so if you're Aresnal then you might indeed have a bad time.

[The_Jackal]

Originally Posted by Sith_Happens

Just hover over your ranged accuracy percentage. The tooltip will show a "Basic Attack" value equal to the one on the sheet and a "Special Attacks" value that's 10% higher.

I'll have to double-check the in-game tooltips again when I get online, but I don't recall them being particularly clear in terms of what's a 'basic' attack versus a 'special' attack. Though I suppose it could be argued that it's an implicit endorsement of the MMO-mechanics' view.

As for Mercs in PvP, I think it depends on what spec you are. A lot of people have learned by now to interrupt every Tacer Missile they can, so if you're Aresnal then you might indeed have a bad time.

Yeah, most of the people crying about PVP seem to be Arsenal, so it's possible they're not too bright. (PVE spec in PVP is bad!?! NO!!!!)

Another question on the PVP topic: How worthwhile would you guys say it is for me to buy the basic PVP gear? It's like 320k, and I'd just assume suffer a bit more curbstomping to save some cash if it's not too terrible. I mean, it's not like I'm going to be owning face in PVP with intro gear anyway.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

I'll have to double-check the in-game tooltips again when I get online, but I don't recall them being particularly clear in terms of what's a 'basic' attack versus a 'special' attack. Though I suppose it could be argued that it's an implicit endorsement of the MMO-mechanics' view.



Yeah, most of the people crying about PVP seem to be Arsenal, so it's possible they're not too bright. (PVE spec in PVP is bad!?! NO!!!!)

Another question on the PVP topic: How worthwhile would you guys say it is for me to buy the basic PVP gear? It's like 320k, and I'd just assume suffer a bit more curbstomping to save some cash if it's not too terrible. I mean, it's not like I'm going to be owning face in PVP with intro gear anyway.

Basic Attack = your auto-attack, the one that costs no Focus/Rage/Heat/Force/whatever.
Special Attack = Anything Else.

[NEO|Phyte]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Another question on the PVP topic: How worthwhile would you guys say it is for me to buy the basic PVP gear? It's like 320k, and I'd just assume suffer a bit more curbstomping to save some cash if it's not too terrible. I mean, it's not like I'm going to be owning face in PVP with intro gear anyway.

Going into PvP without expertise is a Bad Idea. Especially since they added a quest at the PvP terminal that gives you a set of recruit gear (or a token you can sell for the same amount as a set of recruit gear costs)

[Squark]

Originally Posted by NEO|Phyte

Going into PvP without expertise is a Bad Idea. Especially since they added a quest at the PvP terminal that gives you a set of recruit gear (or a token you can sell for the same amount as a set of recruit gear costs)

Seriously. It's not fair to your team mates, frankly.


I'd definately be up for an Ebon Hawk meat up sometime on Saturday.

[The_Jackal]

Originally Posted by Squark

Seriously. It's not fair to your team mates, frankly.

I'd definately be up for an Ebon Hawk meat up sometime on Saturday.

So noted, thanks. I guess since Expertise increases damage outbound makes it pretty crucial, unlike WoW resilience, which is defensive only. I'll buy run a few dailies and buy myself a set.

Ran my first Karagga's Palace run last night, got to the G4-BC Heavy Fabricator before we bounced. Fun stuff. But for the Fabricator, how many players normally operate the flame-thrower console? Is it better to have 2 guys running the console and one more DPS, or to have 3 and flame more often?

[NEO|Phyte]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Ran my first Karagga's Palace run last night, got to the G4-BC Heavy Fabricator before we bounced. Fun stuff. But for the Fabricator, how many players normally operate the flame-thrower console? Is it better to have 2 guys running the console and one more DPS, or to have 3 and flame more often?

2man is the usual, only times I've seen 3man was with a healer operating the far left button instead of a third DPS. Obviously only a good idea if you have a healer geared enough to handle keeping the tank up.

[Sith_Happens]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Another question on the PVP topic: How worthwhile would you guys say it is for me to buy the basic PVP gear? It's like 320k, and I'd just assume suffer a bit more curbstomping to save some cash if it's not too terrible. I mean, it's not like I'm going to be owning face in PVP with intro gear anyway.

First off, you can get a full set for free now from the quest "New Technologies" at the PvP mission terminal. Secondly, yes, absolutely do so. Any PvE gear short of maybe Campaign/Black Hole is not going to cut it, while the Recruit gear is just good enough to do well in if you have some shred of skill.

[The_Jackal]

It's not free, it costs 320,000 credits. Opportunity costs and all.

[Sith_Happens]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

It's not free, it costs 320,000 credits. Opportunity costs and all.

320k that you urgently need to get your hands on why? Credits aren't exactly hard to come by at endgame, and there isn't anything to spend them on that can't easily wait an extra day or two.

Speaking of PvP, last night ended my strangely long streak of getting every warzone except Huttball since reaching level 50. Won 6-1 in the course of about five minutes, during which I died once and helped secure four of those six scores almost purely through liberal use of Extricate, Whirlwind, and Overload/Electric Bindings. It was awesome.

On a different note, I suddenly realized something about an hour ago (brief Inquisitor Act I finale spoilers):

Spoiler

So Darth Skotia had that huge bunker under the statue on Dromund Kaas, right?
...The one that would presumably have been among the various assets of his that Zash talked her way into getting after I killed him?
...And that therefore would have been among Zash's assets that I inherited after sort-of-killing her?

Conclusion: I've had my very own Secret Doom Bunker^TM for ages now and the writers never even thought to mention it.

[VanBuren]

Star Wars: The Old Republic Executive Producer Leaves, More Layoffs

Gamasutra is reporting that Star Wars: The Old Republic's executive producer Rich Vogel has left BioWare Austin. In addition to that, more layoffs at the developer seem to have taken place:

Vogel was instrumental in the development of SWTOR, overseeing all aspects of the MMO before and after its launch in December. The online game, though, has lost around half a million paid subscribers in recent months, and BioWare Austin recently said it's considering free-to-play options for the title.

Reports also emerged on Tuesday morning that the Austin office is laying off workers, but it's unclear if this headcount reduction is part of the restructuring plan BioWare announced in May. Though its parent company Electronic Arts didn't specify then how many employees would be affected, the publisher said those layoffs were necessary in order for the team to maintain and grow SWTOR.

Former BioWare Austin's web developer Ben Marshall confirmed on Twitter that there has indeed been a second round of layoffs at the studio:

Anyone know of a web developer position open in the Austin, TX area? Second round of layoffs at BioWare Austin and my name was on the list …

Our best wishes to all those that lost their jobs, we hope we can find another sooner rather than later.

Thanks NeoGAF.

Shamus Young on Star Wars: The Old Republic


Author, software engineer and blogger Shamus Young, has a new series on BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic which should be of particular interest to RPG fans. Young, in his typical fashion, discusses the game's current issues across a number of different articles, ranging from critique of the game's art style, to the overly-difficult trial and subscription process, to some of its smaller issues with narrative and characters.

While it's probably not a series for the die-hard The Old Republic fan to get excited about, due to its overall negative tone, it's interesting to see this sort of critical, in-depth discussion about the game, especially given the different standards between MMOs and single-player games.

On the artwork:

On top of the homogeneous colors, a lot of areas in the game also have homogeneous architecture. It can be agonizing running around the Sith Academy where you’re charging down one long, techno-lit corridor after another. Everything looks the same and it’s easy to get turned around because the place feels like it’s made from prefab copy & pasted bits. The above corridor isn’t bad looking, but once you run down this long corridor, turn a corner, and run down another corridor just like it, you will begin to feel the boredom in your spine.

Jedi Knight was drawing from the exact same architectural palette and it took a lot longer to become wearisome. Heck, Oblivion and Skyrim use prefab bits, but they still manage to have a lot of variety. Sure, you get bored after a dozen or so hours of tombs, but in SWTOR I was visually bored almost as soon as I arrived.

I think the difference here is that the spaces in SWTOR are too large by a factor of four. In Jedi Knight and Force Unleashed, you could move at ridiculous speeds and fought entire armies of guys at once, and once you cleared an area you never saw it again. You used that huge space and you had the means to cross it quickly. In SWTOR you’re usually traversing the same couple of corridors dozens of times as you go between the quest zone and the quest givers. There’s no gameplay here, and there’s nothing that demands all this space.

And on a particular miscast voice actor:

You might remember Charles Dennis from Knights of the Old Republic, playing the role of Taris crimelord Davik Kang. His voice is obviously that of an old white guy, with a dash of Italian-American accent. So naturally they gave him the above role: A huge young guy.

It was really hard to accept the voice and the face going together, and I think the Italian accent made it worse. Maybe it wouldn’t have seemed so off if I didn’t know how old the actor was.

Although, that’s just existing Star Wars baggage talking. We don’t have a particular affiliation associated with Italian. Rebels have American accent. The Empire uses World War II German design aesthetics with British accents. In the original trilogy, the Rebels all wore earth tones and the bad guys were all black and white. Neither side had any particular skin pigmentation.

[The_Jackal]

Shamus Young is dead on, IMO. SW:TOR dumped a TON of cash to try and beat WoW at their own game, and they came up short, it's that simple, and for the same reasons that earlier attempts to fracture their death-grip on the market have failed before:

1) Poor visual design
2) Poor quest design
3) Poor gameplay design

What makes Blizzard games so successful is the amount of iteration they do to ensure that a game's look and feel really stick. If you want an example of how much iteration they do, a glance at the collectors' edition art books will show you how much they play with looks and concepts to ensure they have a look that really pops. Which is not to say that they always knock it out of the park, but even their flops look better than other games' hits.

Have a look at the 1.2 armors here for an example. The visual design here really strikes me as haphazard and ugly. There's little in the way of unifying theme, and the color choice, silhouettes, and details seem ad-hoc at best. Compare that to ANY armor set issued in WoW, and you'll see that even with less graphical complexity, the looks they create are much better coordinated.

And if the character models are that badly executed, the environment is even worse. Some of the environmental choices are constrained by the IP's canonical backdrop, but seriously, the Star Wars franchise is one of the most visually stunning environments you could hope to be asked to render, and what was delivered was a lot of samey, canned features. It's as if the level designers were given a sheaf of 10 concept drawings for each world and told to 'get 'er done'. Most zones have little variety in their geography or color palette. Odds are good you can see all that a planet has to offer visually within seconds of leaving the spaceport/shuttle, and re-use of creature and droid models means that the fauna of most systems is a re-texture of critters from another planet. Sure, you can find re-textured critters in WoW too, but the variety of mobs in WoW overwhelms what you see in SWTOR, and WoW is but one planet and a fragment of another one.

But the big, HUGE failing of SWTOR is the gameplay. Poorly implemented crafting, dull and uninspired filler quest content, the totally pathetic space combat minigame, and bad, bad, BAD character ability design conspire to make the game come off as being totally inferior to WoW. The UI can't be customized, and the huge number of situational and largely redundant abilities make the gameplay flat and repetitive, yet frustrating. That's because the designers saw fit to fill everyone's power choices with many, many variations of 'hit guy with weapon' or 'shoot guy with weapon'. Where gameplay choices weren't lifted wholesale from WoW, they were decidedly not worse. It's as if the designers came from playing WoW, then added their own pet design tweaks, yet never decided to playtest or iterate on those designs.

Here's an example illustrative of my point: The juggernaut's Vengeance tree is its DPS branch. Here's a list of abilities you get, fully skilled in the tree, including class skills and ones earned from talents:

Assault: Hit guy, get rage
Vicious Slash: Spend rage, Hit guy
Vengeance: Get hit, spend rage, hit guy
Sundering assault: Hit guy, get rage, debuff guy
Pommel Strike: Hit guy if he's stunned
Savage Kick: Hit guy if he's snared
Shatter: Spend rage, Hit guy who's debffed, apply DOT
Impale: Spend rage, Hit guy
Force Scream: Spend Rage, Hit Guy, apply DOT
Ravage: Channel 3 seconds, hit guy 3 times

The worst offenders in here are vicious slash, force scream, impale and shatter. Apart from animation differences, these abilities, in practice, are totally interchangable and differentiated only by animation. There's nothing random in the rotation to keep it from becoming monotonous, and the only real challenge to playing is working around the UI to get all the myriad buttons you need hotkeyed set up.

I don't know if this is the result of a design process that was 'make it like WoW, but not too much like WoW', or if it was someone thinking 'These are things I think I can do better than WoW', but the results speak for themselves.

Ultimately, what's got to happen is that other MMO developers need to stop trying to beat WoW at their own game. Blizzard has a 8 year head-start on you, trying to catch up by cribbing off their work, and changing it just enough to avoid a copyright suit is not going to deliver the goods. Instead, new titles need to focus on delivering NEW gameplay innovations, making games that are more immersive, that go beyond 'go bring me 10 snail whiskers', and bring to life a story and a world that players want to be a part of. They need to bring exciting, dynamic gameplay that is easy to learn but tough to master, that's intuitive yet challenging, instead of just a really predictable exercise in 'push the buttons when they light up'.

[Karoht]

As someone who followed SWTOR while it was in Beta, I was amazed how much certain classes felt like they had been cribbed right out of WoW.

Juggernaught = WoW Arms Warrior.
Sith Sorcerer = WoW Elemental Shaman.

Where I think Bioware did great was their storytelling, but only to a point. As I mentioned before, I think they spent a lot of money on details that really didn't enhance the game all that much.
IE-Full Voice Acting.
200,000 hours of voice acting?
How many people are going to hear 100% of that? 50%? 25%?
Especially if one can press spacebar to 'fast forward' a conversation.
As for the quality of that dialogue, quite a bit of it just went on and on. I don't need a 5 minute discussion about the force or revenge or somesuch to go off and kill 10 rabbits for you mr questgiver.
Whatever happened to "Luke, we're going to have company!"

[The Glyphstone]

You mean Elemental shaman? Sorcerers are the caster-class variant of the Inquisitor base class.

[The_Jackal]

Originally Posted by Karoht

As someone who followed SWTOR while it was in Beta, I was amazed how much certain classes felt like they had been cribbed right out of WoW.

Juggernaught = WoW Arms Warrior.
Sith Sorcerer = WoW Enhancement Shaman.

Where I think Bioware did great was their storytelling, but only to a point. As I mentioned before, I think they spent a lot of money on details that really didn't enhance the game all that much.
IE-Full Voice Acting.
200,000 hours of voice acting?
How many people are going to hear 100% of that? 50%? 25%?
Especially if one can press spacebar to 'fast forward' a conversation.
As for the quality of that dialogue, quite a bit of it just went on and on. I don't need a 5 minute discussion about the force or revenge or somesuch to go off and kill 10 rabbits for you mr questgiver.
Whatever happened to "Luke, we're going to have company!"

Totally agreed. I seem to recall agreeing with you in the discussion about the value add of all the 'derp sidequest' voice work. The class arcs are good, but what's really missing is the sense of occupying a fully realized world. Your player character in WoW may not have been the central player in the World of Warcraft, but the world still feels a lot more fully realized than the SWTOR one. Everything that's not directly related to getting missions or fighting critters is simply nonexistent, which really reinforces the sense of occupying a Star Wars themed diorama.

The devil really is in the details. To really make the world come alive, you've got to do more than sprinkle it with missions and stuff to kill. You've got to hide little easter eggs, put in little details that aren't necessarily meant to just be another source of XP and treasure. But more importantly still, you've got to be committed to making the core gameplay fun, dynamic and intuitive. I spend way to much of my time in SWTOR fighting my interface rather than fighting the Jedi.

[Karoht]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

You mean Elemental shaman? Sorcerers are the caster-class variant of the Inquisitor base class.

Fixed.

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Everything that's not directly related to getting missions or fighting critters is simply nonexistent, which really reinforces the sense of occupying a Star Wars themed diorama.

The devil really is in the details. To really make the world come alive, you've got to do more than sprinkle it with missions and stuff to kill. You've got to hide little easter eggs, put in little details that aren't necessarily meant to just be another source of XP and treasure. But more importantly still, you've got to be committed to making the core gameplay fun, dynamic and intuitive. I spend way to much of my time in SWTOR fighting my interface rather than fighting the Jedi.

Bingo.
As for the interface...
Well, according to what I've read about Starwars Galaxies, this is the second Star Wars MMO with a... not very well received interface, and not much in the way of options to change it. It's like Bioware/EA didn't take even a cursory look at Galaxies to see what worked and what didn't.


PS-I was actually in the STWOR beta, I just couldn't admit it. I have a coworker who checks this site and he was incredibly excited for the game... I kinda didn't want to ruin it for him or my other KOTOR fan friends.

[The_Jackal]

Originally Posted by Karoht

As for the interface...
Well, according to what I've read about Starwars Galaxies, this is the second Star Wars MMO with a... not very well received interface, and not much in the way of options to change it. It's like Bioware/EA didn't take even a cursory look at Galaxies to see what worked and what didn't.

Well, it seems to me that if you were to undertake to copy World of Warcraft's successes, you'd better include their open interface customization API. It's one of the HUGE strengths of the game, basically recruiting an army of volunteer developers to customize and strengthen your game. But even basic stuff like the ability to create button/key macros didn't make it in, which makes it compare unfavourably to even City of Heroes, which had a pretty feeble UI for the six years I played it.

One really has to wonder who was calling the shots when it came to the feature set SW:TOR shipped with. You didn't need to launch with everything WoW has now, but the stuff they chose to include versus the stuff they chose to leave out or unfinished or half-baked just defies reason. When I think of all the money they blew on ****ty machinima cut-scenes of mission givers blabbing crap exposition at the players, and how much more of a budget for writing story, designing missions and iterating gameplay that could have paid for, it nearly makes my eyes bleed.

[Karoht]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Well, it seems to me that if you were to undertake to copy World of Warcraft's successes, you'd better include their open interface customization API. It's one of the HUGE strengths of the game, basically recruiting an army of volunteer developers to customize and strengthen your game. But even basic stuff like the ability to create button/key macros didn't make it in, which makes it compare unfavourably to even City of Heroes, which had a pretty feeble UI for the six years I played it.

One really has to wonder who was calling the shots when it came to the feature set SW:TOR shipped with. You didn't need to launch with everything WoW has now, but the stuff they chose to include versus the stuff they chose to leave out or unfinished or half-baked just defies reason. When I think of all the money they blew on ****ty machinima cut-scenes of mission givers blabbing crap exposition at the players, and how much more of a budget for writing story, designing missions and iterating gameplay that could have paid for, it nearly makes my eyes bleed.

I'm glad that new MMO's coming out are going in other directions personally. However, quite a few are going First Person Shooter in a Persistant World. My big hopes are on Firefall. Which I have a tinfoil hat theory about, and how it relates to Blizzard, but that's off topic. PM me if you like tinfoil hat theories.


MikeB and a couple other reviewers basically said the same thing two years go. There was a lineup of MMO's hitting the scene, and they all had one thing in common:
"Oh wow, people really like X, lets make an MMO out of it, we will call it X online!"
Now it's "First Person Shooter, but like, in an MMO world!" With the words Free to Play being attatched to some of them.


I dunno man. Star Wars + MMO + Story Driven honestly sounded like it should have = Licence to print money, but man...


Lets be less depressing for a bit. So, how about that Huttball eh?

[HalfTangible]

Originally Posted by Karoht

Lets be less depressing for a bit. So, how about that Huttball eh?

You want to lighten the mood so you bring up HUTTBALL?!

[Karoht]

Originally Posted by HalfTangible

You want to lighten the mood so you bring up HUTTBALL?!

It's certainly better than what we've been talking about so far.

Isn't it?

[HalfTangible]

Originally Posted by Karoht

It's certainly better than what we've been talking about so far.

Isn't it?

.... Yes... Yes it is...

(i hate those ball-throw games. The first rule of team games involving balls is to pass. And yet passing in "MMO soccer" is a nightmare in every instance i can think of.)

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by HalfTangible

.... Yes... Yes it is...

(i hate those ball-throw games. The first rule of team games involving balls is to pass teamwork. And yet passing teamwork in "MMO soccer" is a nightmare in every instance i can think of.)

Fixed that for you there.

[HalfTangible]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

Fixed that for you there.

...Point well made, sir.

[The_Jackal]

Originally Posted by Karoht

I'm glad that new MMO's coming out are going in other directions personally. However, quite a few are going First Person Shooter in a Persistant World. My big hopes are on Firefall. Which I have a tinfoil hat theory about, and how it relates to Blizzard, but that's off topic. PM me if you like tinfoil hat theories.

Well, I have some bad news for you if you're pinning your hopes on a FPS MMO being anything but utter, undiluted tripe. I'm a network engineer and systems administrator, and I can tell you without fear of contradiction that there's no way you can get 'massive' in the same game with 'good FPS game'. That's because we just don't have the processing power or network performance to adequately handle high quality graphics and game physics interactions between more than a dozen or so players on the same server.

That's because each action a player takes is brokered by a UDP packet exchange between the game client and the server. Even in current peer-hosted games like MW3, the only difference is that one of the clients is elected as the server, and that host is responsible for processing all player positioning data, and relaying it to the other players. Now, even with optimal network latency, you're talking about a 20-40 millisecond delay between server and client, and most broadband subscribers will experience latency in the ~100 millisecond range.

As you migrate into the massive range, however, life gets considerably more difficult. Any experience MMO player will tell you that even with a good network connection, your combined network and server latency will routinely tip into the 200-250 millisecond range. That's why the current generation of MMO titles feature very little in the way of physics interactions. There's a basic range check, but otherwise whether you hit or your target or miss is handled by a hash-table lookup. It performs a LOT faster than the vector calculations you'd require for even the most basic polygon intersection, and these calculations need to be handled server-side, to prevent rampant cheatery.

The upshot of all this is that any massive shooter is going to either be very crummy from a precision standpoint, or very crummy from a performance standpoint, or, in all likelihood, both. Even in the Battlefield series, where player counts started to push up to the low 30's, you began to see the upper bounds of server performance limits. I can't begin to imagine how poorly a MMO-scale battle of 40 on 40 would behave, even with truly epic server hardware.

Originally Posted by Karoht

Lets be less depressing for a bit. So, how about that Huttball eh?

Sorry, I guess I flubbed that. Anyway, it's for the best I'm not discussing MMO-PVP, if you think I've got bile for SW:TOR, wait til I unload my WoW Arena rant.

[Karoht]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Well, I have some bad news for you if you're pinning your hopes on a FPS MMO being anything but utter, undiluted tripe. I'm a network engineer and systems administrator, and I can tell you without fear of contradiction that there's no way you can get 'massive' in the same game with 'good FPS game'. That's because we just don't have the processing power or network performance to adequately handle high quality graphics and game physics interactions between more than a dozen or so players on the same server.

Well, from what I've seen of the Firefall Beta, they seem to be handling it somehow. Check out a Firefall stream sometime on twitch.tv if you want to see first hand. And there are some physics at play, mostly jumping/hovering stuff, but nothing we haven't seen elsewhere. I'm not certain what kind of ranges the weapons have but it appears to be going well.

Sorry, I guess I flubbed that. Anyway, it's for the best I'm not discussing MMO-PVP, if you think I've got bile for SW:TOR, wait til I unload my WoW Arena rant.

I'm not a PvP fan really. But feel free to PM me that WoW Arena rant some time. I'm mildly curious.


Okay, so Huttball is a wash. Um. How about them ship combat sequences? Yay Millenium Falcon ripoff shooting the guts out of capital ships?

(I'm trying to take the conversation back in a positive direction, really I am, honest)

[The Glyphstone]

Space combat is fun, though it gets repetitive fast.

[Sith_Happens]

Originally Posted by Karoht

Lets be less depressing for a bit. So, how about that Huttball eh?

I barely get Huttball any more, which makes me sad because I'm one of the people that actually likes it (it definitely beats the heck out of Alderaan any day).

Now, as for taking the concersation in a more positive direction (which, Karoht, if you really are trying to do that, then you suck at it )...

Fun fact: Advanced Augment 21s differ from the 22s by just one point of endurance, but cost half as much to craft and only need a MK-5 slot. Good way to save a nice bundle of credits if you don't care about having all of 140 extra hit points.

[The_Jackal]

Originally Posted by Sith_Happens

Fun fact: Advanced Augment 21s differ from the 22s by just one point of endurance, but cost half as much to craft and only need a MK-5 slot. Good way to save a nice bundle of credits if you don't care about having all of 140 extra hit points.

That is a fun fact, although I find money so wildly easy to come by in the game, I don't find the augment costs to be prohibitive. Did you know that the Ilum dailies pay out more than the Belsavis ones? 10k each. I've also been selling blue quality armor inserts by my Cybertech for 12k apiece. I don't do much too much volume, but given that my ingredients are a waste product from trying to get Mandalorian Iron, I view it pretty much as free money. I'm thinking of getting all the recipes and just keeping 2-4 of each armor and mod in blue quality up.

[VanBuren]

EA lets us know in a press release that starting this Fall Star Wars: The Old Republic's F2P mode (now available up to level 15) will be expanded to level 50, and the game will essentially be a F2P/subscription-based hybrid.

EA Expands Award-Winning MMO Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ with Free-to-Play Option This Fall
New Free-to-Play Option Will Open Up the Critically-Acclaimed MMO from BioWare and LucasArts to Millions of Additional Star Wars™ Fans and Gamers Worldwide

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BioWare™, a Label of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA), announced today that it will be expanding the story-driven, massively multiplayer online game Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ by adding a new Free-to-Play option this fall. This option will give players access to each of the eight iconic Star Wars character class storylines, all the way up to level 50, with certain restrictions*. Unlimited game access, including new higher-level game content and new features, will be made available through individual purchases or through a subscription option.

"Players want flexibility and choice. The subscription-only model presented a major barrier for a lot of people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic™ universe," said Matthew Bromberg, GM of BioWare Austin.

Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic added, "Since launch, we've been listening to feedback from our fans and adding new content and refining The Old Republic at a breakneck pace. We believe we are in a position to help improve the service even more, not only by continuing to add new content, but also by expanding the game to many more Star Wars fans, increasing the populations on worlds and the vibrancy of the community."

Starting this fall, there will be two different ways to play Star Wars: The Old Republic:

Subscription — A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. In addition to gaining access to all game content as our current subscribers do now, subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins, the new virtual currency that will be introduced later this fall. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable in-game items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the game play experience.
Free-To-Play — The first 50 levels will be Free-to-Play, with restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be "unlocked" with Cartel Coins.
As the first step towards adding the new Free-to-Play option this fall, Star Wars: The Old Republic will go on sale in August for $14.99 USD, including one-month of free subscription.

Current and former players will also find additional benefits as part of this program. BioWare will be increasing the frequency of game content updates, with the first of many new releases coming in August. In addition, current subscribers will receive Cartel Coin grants and qualify for access to special in-game items. Even former players who re-activate now will qualify for special benefits. To learn more about these rewards, please visit www.StarWarstheOldRepublic.com/FREE.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the most critically acclaimed MMOs of all time, having won MSNBC's "Game of the Year" award in 2011, "Editor's Choice" awards from IGN, PC Gamer and "Best MMO of 2011" awards from Game Informer, GameSpy, AOL Massively, Ten Ton Hammer and more. The game is set thousands of years before the classic Star Wars movies, with the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire locked in the middle of an epic, galactic war. Players choose one of eight iconic Star Wars character classes, including the Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler, Trooper, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent, becoming the hero or villain of their own personal Star Wars saga.

For more information on Star Wars: The Old Republic, please visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/FREE, follow the game on Twitter at http://twitter.com/swtor or "Like" Star Wars: The Old Republic on Facebook at http://facebook.com/starwarstheoldrepublic. For additional press assets, please visit http://info.ea.com.