As much as I would like to say I just hate the PvP in SWToR, I feel like that's giving it too much of a diservice, but I do have a major problem with the PvP in the game that I did not have at the launch of World of Warcraft which is roughly in the same time frame.
For starters if you weren't one of the people who reached level 50 and immediately started to participate in the PvP content within 2-3 weeks of the game's early access, it becomes fighting a uphill battle. Equipment in this game matters so much in SWTOR that as a fresh 50 Jedi Sentinel with nearly full level 49 purple item upgrades, I was not able to scratch Sith Inquisitors or anyone really who had a Sith Inquisitor shield up, on the other hand of things, I also died very quickly to people who are able to do rapid 3k-6k critical hits.
The next problem I have is that it is not easy to get past the starting level to even the first level of PvP items. So far the only ways I've found were
-PvP daily quests (2 in total)
-PvP weekly quests (2 in total again)
-Using Warzone Commendations to Convert them into Mercenary Commendations and using them to buy Champion level bags (Basically needing 800 Commendations for a bag, which turns into either 3 Centurion Commendations or a chance at a Champion level item, the lowest costing Centurion item is about 16 tokens, that means about 4800 commendations)
And that's about it. I get about 50-90 commendations per battle, and usually double that if I win; however on our server (Sith Wyrm) the Republic very rarely wins. I've done enough Warzones to buy about 3 bags now and my progress for the weekly is 6/9 Warzones won.
Despite all of this and all of the complaining I've done to Alice, the PvP experience isn't a absolutely dreadful experience. The only redeeming factor for it though is the way the game rewards you Valor which is basically just a PvP experience stat, not much more than that. I personally like increasing stats even then however the PvP is rather unfun. As for my personal performance in PvP although I can do my biggest hit on a geared player and hardly scratch them, usually I can get in the top 1-3 highest damage done stats for both sides, as well as having the most medals rewarded, of course provided the medal system is also very.. not optimal to begin with, in that it has more possible medals for Tanks rather than DPS and Healers, healers having the worst of it.
That's my summary for how PvP has been thus far, I will be talking more about it when I get better gear which will hopefully be soon enough.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
SWTOR : Crew Skills
While I'm currently not doing much in SWTOR other than playing my main with Alice which is very limited unfortunately due to different schedules. I have been able to still accomplish a good amount of things in the game by simply clicking on a few buttons and not even playing the game or moving maybe even 100 feet. That is due to the way Bioware implemented crafting skills into ToR, and I wanted to address this because I was in the crowd that had a problem with it until I really thougth about it, at least that was the case when I first heard about this system months ago.
The way crafting in SWTOR works is that there's three types of crew skills essentially, crafting crew skills are limited to one per (player) character, but then you can also have whatever combination of gathering and mission skills that you want, be it two gathering, two mission, or one of each. While gathering and crafting is pretty much standard fare for most MMORPGs (you gather stuff with like mining for example, and then use those materials to craft into things with black smithing) the mission skills basically entirely justifies the crew skill system as it produces things that aren't found anywhere in the world, and the only way to get them is to send your companion characters on missions where they're rewarded on completion of the mission, a certain amount of that special material. Sending companions off isn't only tied to mission skills however, this is where the crew in crew skills comes into place.
With crew skills you can basically do everything with companions without moving an inch yourself, in fact the only real thing you can do on your own is gathering skills, if you have a required skill there are nodes or defeated enemies that you can obtain extra goods from if you meet the required standards. However for crafting and mission skills, you'll have to rely on your companions; you send them off from a list of short mission descriptions that give you an idea of what they're going to do but you never see them do this, so that small part is basically just flavor text. However, what does happen is that when you send someone off they get a timer before they come back and the mission is completed (or failed if you're unlucky) and you simply just have to wait around, you can still do whatever, until they come back, then you get your items and they're free to stay with you again.
As I said before I had a problem with this system because it honestly didn't seem like it fit a lot of the companions that they announced at the time, they were heavily described as being famous and with no knowledge of the back round of the character that you're playing, you can just assume you start off as a lowly individual and make your way up as the game progresses. With that said, I saw no reason why famous people would even consider aiding you in gathering resources rather than having you do them yourself. I later on decided that the new system sounded actually pretty interesting with that detail aside, and it's further even more interesting when I first tinkered with it in game.
The first thing that removed my problems with the system is that I don't know why, but companions aren't nearly as famous as they're described as in the SWTOR site, in fact most of them are unique individuals in a very low profile position that somehow come to joining you in your adventure. The next thing is that I believe sending companions off is very balanced because you do still have to participate in a sense, as you're giving them money (credits) to use while they're off on missions, this turns out to be very expensive with how often you send people off, and later on when the missions are much longer before they complete, it simply just becomes more expensive rather than a small amount of money in large doses. Lastly there's the issue with time, even 5 minutes is not short compared to the 3 seconds it takes to mine a node in World of Warcraft, and later on when it takes 30 minutes to gather 5 of the most meager high level materials, it's very time costly, and while it is true that you still can be doing nothing while they're off working, you probably could gather 100 materials in 30 minutes in WoW.
So in the end, my conclusion is crew skills are a slight combination of traditional and a more unique style of crafting, you still could definitely gather materials by hand if you want, but you can't do all of it by yourself, but simply having the option there is enough for me at least to satisfy any traditionalist needs. On the other hand with the unique versus traditional part, it simply comes down to that one requires more work, the other requires more time and a small to medium degree of work. I think in that sense it balances out perfectly, and as a side benefit it's much more relaxing to be able to send companions off to gather for you while you get to eat your breakfast or something similar.
The way crafting in SWTOR works is that there's three types of crew skills essentially, crafting crew skills are limited to one per (player) character, but then you can also have whatever combination of gathering and mission skills that you want, be it two gathering, two mission, or one of each. While gathering and crafting is pretty much standard fare for most MMORPGs (you gather stuff with like mining for example, and then use those materials to craft into things with black smithing) the mission skills basically entirely justifies the crew skill system as it produces things that aren't found anywhere in the world, and the only way to get them is to send your companion characters on missions where they're rewarded on completion of the mission, a certain amount of that special material. Sending companions off isn't only tied to mission skills however, this is where the crew in crew skills comes into place.
With crew skills you can basically do everything with companions without moving an inch yourself, in fact the only real thing you can do on your own is gathering skills, if you have a required skill there are nodes or defeated enemies that you can obtain extra goods from if you meet the required standards. However for crafting and mission skills, you'll have to rely on your companions; you send them off from a list of short mission descriptions that give you an idea of what they're going to do but you never see them do this, so that small part is basically just flavor text. However, what does happen is that when you send someone off they get a timer before they come back and the mission is completed (or failed if you're unlucky) and you simply just have to wait around, you can still do whatever, until they come back, then you get your items and they're free to stay with you again.
As I said before I had a problem with this system because it honestly didn't seem like it fit a lot of the companions that they announced at the time, they were heavily described as being famous and with no knowledge of the back round of the character that you're playing, you can just assume you start off as a lowly individual and make your way up as the game progresses. With that said, I saw no reason why famous people would even consider aiding you in gathering resources rather than having you do them yourself. I later on decided that the new system sounded actually pretty interesting with that detail aside, and it's further even more interesting when I first tinkered with it in game.
The first thing that removed my problems with the system is that I don't know why, but companions aren't nearly as famous as they're described as in the SWTOR site, in fact most of them are unique individuals in a very low profile position that somehow come to joining you in your adventure. The next thing is that I believe sending companions off is very balanced because you do still have to participate in a sense, as you're giving them money (credits) to use while they're off on missions, this turns out to be very expensive with how often you send people off, and later on when the missions are much longer before they complete, it simply just becomes more expensive rather than a small amount of money in large doses. Lastly there's the issue with time, even 5 minutes is not short compared to the 3 seconds it takes to mine a node in World of Warcraft, and later on when it takes 30 minutes to gather 5 of the most meager high level materials, it's very time costly, and while it is true that you still can be doing nothing while they're off working, you probably could gather 100 materials in 30 minutes in WoW.
So in the end, my conclusion is crew skills are a slight combination of traditional and a more unique style of crafting, you still could definitely gather materials by hand if you want, but you can't do all of it by yourself, but simply having the option there is enough for me at least to satisfy any traditionalist needs. On the other hand with the unique versus traditional part, it simply comes down to that one requires more work, the other requires more time and a small to medium degree of work. I think in that sense it balances out perfectly, and as a side benefit it's much more relaxing to be able to send companions off to gather for you while you get to eat your breakfast or something similar.
Friday, December 30, 2011
SWTOR : Somewhat Review, and Impressions
Star Wars : The Old Republic (SWTOR for short, or just ToR) is the largely awaited MMORPG developed by Bioware and in some sense, the spiritual successor to Bioware and Obsidian's KOTOR games. It is not just a normal MMORPG either but it does contain many parts of it that does make it a more standard MMORPG akin to World of Warcraft which is basically as standard as you can get nowdays. In any case, there's one big part that separates it from being such a standard MMO and smaller parts that I'll talk about later, however the big part is character interaction.
I believe character interaction is what sets ToR apart from other games and chose it over story because while Bioware advertises this game basically being the forefront of bringing a focus on story to the MMO genre, I'm going to say that's not entirely accurate, MMORPGs like Lord of the Rings Online have had a huge focus on story before ToR, as well as World of Warcraft; however neither of those games had basically any character interaction at all other than your character is talked to by people, and then you do stuff for them. While that idea is still existent in ToR, and it very much is one of the things I like and dislike about the game, every single quest related character in the game is interactable, they are of course interactable on different levels but never the less you are given opportunities to respond to them in 3 different ways which usually sum up to nice, nice or rude depending on what option is given (this option usually always changes from conversation to a different conversation to a different character) and finally just rude. A majority of the time how you respond in most situations will not affect anything too drastically other than getting a different response out of the character but it will still lead to them giving you a quest. On the other hand, there are also light and dark moments where you're given two choices and sometimes three but mostly two, about how to go about a situation, and those choices drastically deliver a consequence somehow. It is unknown by me at least if those choices will actually affect anything later on in the game, the only thing that happens usually is that you get a followup letter from someone involved in a in game mail box who tells you what happened afterward.
All of that above however is just about side quests, there are main quests choices that have similar outcomes but I feel like a choice that is made in the main quest would be more likely to come back in an in game form than a side quest one.
In any case, the interactive characters and the stories that come with that are what makes ToR stand on it's own I believe, that and it being set in the Star Wars universe which brings a very unique experience to allow yourself to be immersed in to begin with. However with that said, I don't believe this game is perfect at all and that probably lies in the game play mechanics. As with most games, the PvE and PvP components are drastically different but most games also do both well, in ToR I feel like the gameplay mechanics server PvE just fine, tank, healer, and DPS serve their purposes just fine, and while it feels like the connection between one attack to another is not instantaneous and more reliant on watching the animation complete rather than being tied to the global cooldown, it isn't that much of a big deal in PvE than it is in PvP. To give an example of the not instantaneous idea, as a Jedi Sentinel I have a skill called Overload Saber, it is suppose to be an instant cast that empowers my lightsabers allowing them to do damage over time effects when they hit, the problem is that it is by no means instantaneous, if I hit the ability and then immediately do an attack afterwards, it will cancel the Overload Saber skill which again isn't very annoying in PvE but if that happens in PvP that would be a problem.
The problem with PvP isn't in the skills persay but it is because of class design and PvP zone design. The first most obvious problem to me anyways is that the game's PvP zone range for Warzones at least which are instanced areas for PvP combat, is that the level range is basically 10-50, 50 being the level cap, it probably goes without saying that entering the warzone is basically pointless at lower levels, but the game does try to balance things out by adjusting everyone's stats to basically the same level. Even still however, a higher level will have more ways and a easier time killing people than a lower level would, I've only done 1 Warzone on my sentinel at about level 20ish and a lot more on my Vanguard who is only level 23 and my experience is that because I'm a ranged class and a tank, I can do much better as a Vanguard than I did with my Sentinel at a low level ,even still however, when I fight a high level it isn't much fun to just die to CC.
So while I haven't admittedly done much in ToR yet these are some of the problems that I've encountered with the game. There is much more things better with the game than there are bad things, however the bad things do mar what would be a great MMO experience for me.
One last thing I'll say about ToR is that I think it is still designed for a very specific audience. If you don't enjoy either Star Wars or games with heavy emphasis on interaction and story, then ToR probably isn't the game for you. It does have the standard MMO components of go out to a area, gather quests, then go complete them, but honestly those almost feel like they hurt the experience more than helping it. It's not a bad thing of course because it allows for a extended multiplayer experience beyond simply character conversations, however at the same time it is somewhat of a real disappointment to be having this interesting conversation with a character, and then the next person you talk to basically just says kill 30 so so things, and collect so so things while you're at it. Nevertheless however, ToR is a excellent game, that I'll be writing more in depth about as I play it more.
I believe character interaction is what sets ToR apart from other games and chose it over story because while Bioware advertises this game basically being the forefront of bringing a focus on story to the MMO genre, I'm going to say that's not entirely accurate, MMORPGs like Lord of the Rings Online have had a huge focus on story before ToR, as well as World of Warcraft; however neither of those games had basically any character interaction at all other than your character is talked to by people, and then you do stuff for them. While that idea is still existent in ToR, and it very much is one of the things I like and dislike about the game, every single quest related character in the game is interactable, they are of course interactable on different levels but never the less you are given opportunities to respond to them in 3 different ways which usually sum up to nice, nice or rude depending on what option is given (this option usually always changes from conversation to a different conversation to a different character) and finally just rude. A majority of the time how you respond in most situations will not affect anything too drastically other than getting a different response out of the character but it will still lead to them giving you a quest. On the other hand, there are also light and dark moments where you're given two choices and sometimes three but mostly two, about how to go about a situation, and those choices drastically deliver a consequence somehow. It is unknown by me at least if those choices will actually affect anything later on in the game, the only thing that happens usually is that you get a followup letter from someone involved in a in game mail box who tells you what happened afterward.
All of that above however is just about side quests, there are main quests choices that have similar outcomes but I feel like a choice that is made in the main quest would be more likely to come back in an in game form than a side quest one.
In any case, the interactive characters and the stories that come with that are what makes ToR stand on it's own I believe, that and it being set in the Star Wars universe which brings a very unique experience to allow yourself to be immersed in to begin with. However with that said, I don't believe this game is perfect at all and that probably lies in the game play mechanics. As with most games, the PvE and PvP components are drastically different but most games also do both well, in ToR I feel like the gameplay mechanics server PvE just fine, tank, healer, and DPS serve their purposes just fine, and while it feels like the connection between one attack to another is not instantaneous and more reliant on watching the animation complete rather than being tied to the global cooldown, it isn't that much of a big deal in PvE than it is in PvP. To give an example of the not instantaneous idea, as a Jedi Sentinel I have a skill called Overload Saber, it is suppose to be an instant cast that empowers my lightsabers allowing them to do damage over time effects when they hit, the problem is that it is by no means instantaneous, if I hit the ability and then immediately do an attack afterwards, it will cancel the Overload Saber skill which again isn't very annoying in PvE but if that happens in PvP that would be a problem.
The problem with PvP isn't in the skills persay but it is because of class design and PvP zone design. The first most obvious problem to me anyways is that the game's PvP zone range for Warzones at least which are instanced areas for PvP combat, is that the level range is basically 10-50, 50 being the level cap, it probably goes without saying that entering the warzone is basically pointless at lower levels, but the game does try to balance things out by adjusting everyone's stats to basically the same level. Even still however, a higher level will have more ways and a easier time killing people than a lower level would, I've only done 1 Warzone on my sentinel at about level 20ish and a lot more on my Vanguard who is only level 23 and my experience is that because I'm a ranged class and a tank, I can do much better as a Vanguard than I did with my Sentinel at a low level ,even still however, when I fight a high level it isn't much fun to just die to CC.
So while I haven't admittedly done much in ToR yet these are some of the problems that I've encountered with the game. There is much more things better with the game than there are bad things, however the bad things do mar what would be a great MMO experience for me.
One last thing I'll say about ToR is that I think it is still designed for a very specific audience. If you don't enjoy either Star Wars or games with heavy emphasis on interaction and story, then ToR probably isn't the game for you. It does have the standard MMO components of go out to a area, gather quests, then go complete them, but honestly those almost feel like they hurt the experience more than helping it. It's not a bad thing of course because it allows for a extended multiplayer experience beyond simply character conversations, however at the same time it is somewhat of a real disappointment to be having this interesting conversation with a character, and then the next person you talk to basically just says kill 30 so so things, and collect so so things while you're at it. Nevertheless however, ToR is a excellent game, that I'll be writing more in depth about as I play it more.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Status Update Dec.17,2011
I'm currently trying to figure out the best method to recording videos and editing them for the best viewer experience. Currently I am debating doing whole recordings and then cutting out high lights, or setting a record time to record nonstop and then post the entire thing, unedited. Right now, I'm leaning towards doing the first one, but I might end up doing both depending on the circumstances. Possibly even thinking of some other way to present videos that I haven't thought of even. As of right now though, it's still up in air, but I'm making footage at least.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Chat Interview - Adam Cascio on First Days of The Old Republic on Live
I was able to get Adam to participate in the first interview I through together mainly to see how interesting it would be, and to also try interviewing someone. So far I'm fairly happy with the results as a lot of information was given as well as getting a few things out of him that I didn't know yet either, plus it's all from him personally, so seeing another view point is good too.
A few things I know I could change however is having a more structured list of questions to start out with, as I started the idea off pretty much as soon as I got it, I wasn't prepared with such a list. I do think I handled myself in a fairly timely manner on getting questions out fast to keep the interview flowing however. Lastly on the same note as timely manner, I believe I should keep on changing the subject to cover a more wide variety of things or at least choose a subject to start off with that isn't as vague as simply "First days in The Old Republic on live". Doing so will allow me to get more information out as well as keep the interview being a interview rather than simply a conversation that follows a thread to another and to another and so on.
Here is the interview however, and I while I don't have too many plans for it in the immediate future, I think I'll definitely figure out some way to implement them easier.
[18:07] Alyssa R.: How long have you been playing in Star Wars : The Old Republic?
[18:07] Adam: Since Tuesday at 6:15 am.
[18:07] Adam: But I played in Beta a few weeks too.
[18:08] Alyssa R.: And generally speaking, is there any MMO or similar game to The Old Republic that you would compare the experience to?
[18:09] Adam: Not really. SWG a little since it's Star Wars as well. But SWG was a sand box MMO, this one is a theme park MMO like WoW. But it plays and feels much differently than WoW.
[18:10] Alyssa R.: I personally am not sure what you mean by, theme park MMORPG, but I have somewhat of an idea of what you mean by sandbox, however what do those terms mean to you?
[18:12] Adam: Theme Park means you have a certain set of attractions to do or see and you're restricted.Like you can't build player cities, you can't craft gear with your own stats, and stuff like that. Theme Park is like WoW where you are continuously told what to do and where to go.
[18:13] Adam: SWG was also all open world PvP, where as in a theme park MMO you have set battlegrounds to go to.
[18:14] Alyssa R.: So in your sense, theme park would be linear and sandbox would be more free form exploring based such as single player games like the Grand Theft Auto series?
[18:14] Adam: Right.
[18:14] Alyssa R.: I see, onto questions about the game experience directly.
[18:15] Alyssa R.: Starting off, what is your current level, class, and faction in the game?
[18:15] Adam: Level 27 Jedi Guardian, Republic.
[18:16] Alyssa R.: I see, I probably would play a Guardian. Although honestly Sentinel looked the most preferable at the start to me at a glance.
[18:16] Alyssa R.: Did anything affect your choice to pick a Guardian?
[18:18] Adam: Sentinel is fun, but it is pure DPS. You don't really have flexibility like you do as a Guardian who can tank or DPS at end game. But Sentinel is the strongest pure DPS class. But I picked Guardian so I would have flexibility at end game and because I like using one saber over two.
[18:19] Alyssa R.: Good enough reasons as any. As guardian is also basically amongst the community known as the iconic Jedi class, how well do you think it lives up to fulfilling the Jedi legacy that people look to Stars Wars for?
[18:19] Adam: But there are a ton of guardians on my server, so it would probably be good to pick a sentinel.
[18:21] Adam: So far it lives up to it a great deal, you can feel pretty heroic jumping in and getting the attention of the enemies around you. Or force pushing away enemies that are attacking a friend. Force push seems to knock back the enemy 15-20m, so its pretty impressive. And your saber animation can block in any direction and deflect blaster bolts so it looks pretty fluid and neat.
[18:21] Alyssa R.: Based off your knowledge of the game currently, do you know if the Sentinel is able to do these as well or is it specific to the Guardian?
[18:23] Adam: I don't think Sentinel can force push, at least not as early on as the Guardian. I'm pretty sure the Sentinel gets a sabre throw early on, my Guardian doesn't have it yet. The Sentinel focuses on switching sabre styles and using Damage Over Time abilities to do damage over force powers.
[18:23] Alyssa R.: Would that mean the Guardian is more focused on burst and direct damage than the Sentinel is?
[18:25] Adam: I would say that yes, but the sentinel has 3 trees for damage so some may be more bursty over others.
[18:25] Alyssa R.: That may be true of course. Lastly on the topic of classes what role are you currently playing and specialized in as your Guardian?
[18:26] Adam: I am leveling up in the defense tree as a tank.
[18:27] Alyssa R.: How vastly different would you say your play style would have to be if you were leveling up in the DPS tree instead? Outside of the standard group mechanics that of course come with being a DPS or tank, primarily would you be using different abilities often other than what you're currently doing?
[18:29] Adam: Not too much different, in the pure DPS tree you would do more damage as a Guardian but even the tanks in this game do a fair amount of damage. You just have a good bit more survivability. You can also "guard" players in PvP to take damage off them, as well as using taunt in PvP to minimize damage to other players.
[18:30] Alyssa R.: Very interesting, also one more question on the topic of classes before we move on and it just came to me.
[18:30] Adam: Yes?
[18:30] Alyssa R.: What are you looking forward to seeing more of as a Jedi Guardian game play wise? more damaging skills? utility skills? that sort of thing.
[18:31] Alyssa R.: As you level up that is.
[18:31] Adam: Uhhh hmm... I guess seeing what kind of new force powers I get and how well I can horde off enemies and protect people. I'm more interested in the story though I guess.
[18:33] Alyssa R.: As am I. Moving onto that aspect in fact, thus far how interesting has the story been? And how well does it mix in with the game still being a MMORPG rather than just simply a single player RPG.
[18:34] Adam: The Jedi Knight story line is pretty excellent. Your story does change if you make dark side or light side choices as I have experienced both paths up to level 30. And it mixes into MMO by if you are in a group other players can interact in conversations and affect the out come of quests and those decisions stay with you. So it adds a bit of realistic randomness that you would get from traveling in a group of different personalities and motives.
[18:36] Alyssa R.: As I personally have talked to you about this aspect numerous times I apologize for doing it again, however do you see people being in a group together while questing being undesirable for some unless the group happens to be a couple of friends? as opposed to random people.
[18:37] Adam: Yes, if you are playing a mix of both light and dark choices then people who only play for Dark Side or for just Light Side points would probably mess up the RP choices you want to make. It's happened to me once in Live.
[18:38] Alyssa R.: Would you be able to retell that experience without giving too much of the story element away?
[18:41] Adam: You get information about someone allying themselves with criminals temporarily to do something good. The light side option is to turn this person in, the dark side option is to let the person go. I wanted to let her go because while what she did was wrong, her motivations were pure and she said she would make up for her mistake. but my team mate won the roll and turned her in
[18:41] Adam: Its a side quest and not a main story quest, but still affects things
[18:42] Alyssa R.: You later on had the choice that your team mate come back to you in someway?
[18:42] Adam: Not yet, sometimes things don't happen til much later. I only got an in game mail updating me on the situation so far.
[18:43] Alyssa R.: And that email definitely did say that the person involved was turned in?
[18:43] Alyssa R.: well not email, in game mail rather.
[18:45] Adam: Yes. It did, it didn't register my dark side decision.
[18:47] Alyssa R.: That seems like a very interesting way that SWToR did things, it'll definitely deter some people away from grouping, but only time will tell. Moving on however, speaking about decisions, how logical are the dark side and light side choices in the game? Just from your example and my limited experience in the Beta myself, it seems like the game walks either a very obvious good and evil path but then when it gets to a grey decision, it's almost like someone at Bioware couldn't figure out which to put onto light or dark, so they just flipped a coin to sort it out.
[18:47] Alyssa R.: What do you think?
[18:51] Adam: The dark side and light side choices seem to go with "whats better for you" or "whats better for the people" or "whats better for the republic" or "whats the most sadistic". I think they are pretty spot on on whats dark or light. Just because something is dark sided doesn't mean it isn't the right thing to do.
[18:52] Alyssa R.: So if someone wanted to play a good character, they should do what they think is right rather than simply following light sided decisions?
[18:53] Adam: Right, that's what I've been doing.
[18:53] Alyssa R.: and how are your light sided and dark sided totals looking?
[19:01] Adam: I have 2200 light side and like 200 dark side I think
[19:02] Alyssa R.: Well it still registers light side being as the primary good side then I suppose. Also I think that'll do it for the interview. We'll talk more about the world and more standard MMO things that the game has later. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?
[19:07] Adam: No, I think that about covers it.
[19:07] Alyssa R.: Alright then. Thank you for your time, and I hope to see you in game soon.
A few things I know I could change however is having a more structured list of questions to start out with, as I started the idea off pretty much as soon as I got it, I wasn't prepared with such a list. I do think I handled myself in a fairly timely manner on getting questions out fast to keep the interview flowing however. Lastly on the same note as timely manner, I believe I should keep on changing the subject to cover a more wide variety of things or at least choose a subject to start off with that isn't as vague as simply "First days in The Old Republic on live". Doing so will allow me to get more information out as well as keep the interview being a interview rather than simply a conversation that follows a thread to another and to another and so on.
Here is the interview however, and I while I don't have too many plans for it in the immediate future, I think I'll definitely figure out some way to implement them easier.
[18:07] Alyssa R.: How long have you been playing in Star Wars : The Old Republic?
[18:07] Adam: Since Tuesday at 6:15 am.
[18:07] Adam: But I played in Beta a few weeks too.
[18:08] Alyssa R.: And generally speaking, is there any MMO or similar game to The Old Republic that you would compare the experience to?
[18:09] Adam: Not really. SWG a little since it's Star Wars as well. But SWG was a sand box MMO, this one is a theme park MMO like WoW. But it plays and feels much differently than WoW.
[18:10] Alyssa R.: I personally am not sure what you mean by, theme park MMORPG, but I have somewhat of an idea of what you mean by sandbox, however what do those terms mean to you?
[18:12] Adam: Theme Park means you have a certain set of attractions to do or see and you're restricted.Like you can't build player cities, you can't craft gear with your own stats, and stuff like that. Theme Park is like WoW where you are continuously told what to do and where to go.
[18:13] Adam: SWG was also all open world PvP, where as in a theme park MMO you have set battlegrounds to go to.
[18:14] Alyssa R.: So in your sense, theme park would be linear and sandbox would be more free form exploring based such as single player games like the Grand Theft Auto series?
[18:14] Adam: Right.
[18:14] Alyssa R.: I see, onto questions about the game experience directly.
[18:15] Alyssa R.: Starting off, what is your current level, class, and faction in the game?
[18:15] Adam: Level 27 Jedi Guardian, Republic.
[18:16] Alyssa R.: I see, I probably would play a Guardian. Although honestly Sentinel looked the most preferable at the start to me at a glance.
[18:16] Alyssa R.: Did anything affect your choice to pick a Guardian?
[18:18] Adam: Sentinel is fun, but it is pure DPS. You don't really have flexibility like you do as a Guardian who can tank or DPS at end game. But Sentinel is the strongest pure DPS class. But I picked Guardian so I would have flexibility at end game and because I like using one saber over two.
[18:19] Alyssa R.: Good enough reasons as any. As guardian is also basically amongst the community known as the iconic Jedi class, how well do you think it lives up to fulfilling the Jedi legacy that people look to Stars Wars for?
[18:19] Adam: But there are a ton of guardians on my server, so it would probably be good to pick a sentinel.
[18:21] Adam: So far it lives up to it a great deal, you can feel pretty heroic jumping in and getting the attention of the enemies around you. Or force pushing away enemies that are attacking a friend. Force push seems to knock back the enemy 15-20m, so its pretty impressive. And your saber animation can block in any direction and deflect blaster bolts so it looks pretty fluid and neat.
[18:21] Alyssa R.: Based off your knowledge of the game currently, do you know if the Sentinel is able to do these as well or is it specific to the Guardian?
[18:23] Adam: I don't think Sentinel can force push, at least not as early on as the Guardian. I'm pretty sure the Sentinel gets a sabre throw early on, my Guardian doesn't have it yet. The Sentinel focuses on switching sabre styles and using Damage Over Time abilities to do damage over force powers.
[18:23] Alyssa R.: Would that mean the Guardian is more focused on burst and direct damage than the Sentinel is?
[18:25] Adam: I would say that yes, but the sentinel has 3 trees for damage so some may be more bursty over others.
[18:25] Alyssa R.: That may be true of course. Lastly on the topic of classes what role are you currently playing and specialized in as your Guardian?
[18:26] Adam: I am leveling up in the defense tree as a tank.
[18:27] Alyssa R.: How vastly different would you say your play style would have to be if you were leveling up in the DPS tree instead? Outside of the standard group mechanics that of course come with being a DPS or tank, primarily would you be using different abilities often other than what you're currently doing?
[18:29] Adam: Not too much different, in the pure DPS tree you would do more damage as a Guardian but even the tanks in this game do a fair amount of damage. You just have a good bit more survivability. You can also "guard" players in PvP to take damage off them, as well as using taunt in PvP to minimize damage to other players.
[18:30] Alyssa R.: Very interesting, also one more question on the topic of classes before we move on and it just came to me.
[18:30] Adam: Yes?
[18:30] Alyssa R.: What are you looking forward to seeing more of as a Jedi Guardian game play wise? more damaging skills? utility skills? that sort of thing.
[18:31] Alyssa R.: As you level up that is.
[18:31] Adam: Uhhh hmm... I guess seeing what kind of new force powers I get and how well I can horde off enemies and protect people. I'm more interested in the story though I guess.
[18:33] Alyssa R.: As am I. Moving onto that aspect in fact, thus far how interesting has the story been? And how well does it mix in with the game still being a MMORPG rather than just simply a single player RPG.
[18:34] Adam: The Jedi Knight story line is pretty excellent. Your story does change if you make dark side or light side choices as I have experienced both paths up to level 30. And it mixes into MMO by if you are in a group other players can interact in conversations and affect the out come of quests and those decisions stay with you. So it adds a bit of realistic randomness that you would get from traveling in a group of different personalities and motives.
[18:36] Alyssa R.: As I personally have talked to you about this aspect numerous times I apologize for doing it again, however do you see people being in a group together while questing being undesirable for some unless the group happens to be a couple of friends? as opposed to random people.
[18:37] Adam: Yes, if you are playing a mix of both light and dark choices then people who only play for Dark Side or for just Light Side points would probably mess up the RP choices you want to make. It's happened to me once in Live.
[18:38] Alyssa R.: Would you be able to retell that experience without giving too much of the story element away?
[18:41] Adam: You get information about someone allying themselves with criminals temporarily to do something good. The light side option is to turn this person in, the dark side option is to let the person go. I wanted to let her go because while what she did was wrong, her motivations were pure and she said she would make up for her mistake. but my team mate won the roll and turned her in
[18:41] Adam: Its a side quest and not a main story quest, but still affects things
[18:42] Alyssa R.: You later on had the choice that your team mate come back to you in someway?
[18:42] Adam: Not yet, sometimes things don't happen til much later. I only got an in game mail updating me on the situation so far.
[18:43] Alyssa R.: And that email definitely did say that the person involved was turned in?
[18:43] Alyssa R.: well not email, in game mail rather.
[18:45] Adam: Yes. It did, it didn't register my dark side decision.
[18:47] Alyssa R.: That seems like a very interesting way that SWToR did things, it'll definitely deter some people away from grouping, but only time will tell. Moving on however, speaking about decisions, how logical are the dark side and light side choices in the game? Just from your example and my limited experience in the Beta myself, it seems like the game walks either a very obvious good and evil path but then when it gets to a grey decision, it's almost like someone at Bioware couldn't figure out which to put onto light or dark, so they just flipped a coin to sort it out.
[18:47] Alyssa R.: What do you think?
[18:51] Adam: The dark side and light side choices seem to go with "whats better for you" or "whats better for the people" or "whats better for the republic" or "whats the most sadistic". I think they are pretty spot on on whats dark or light. Just because something is dark sided doesn't mean it isn't the right thing to do.
[18:52] Alyssa R.: So if someone wanted to play a good character, they should do what they think is right rather than simply following light sided decisions?
[18:53] Adam: Right, that's what I've been doing.
[18:53] Alyssa R.: and how are your light sided and dark sided totals looking?
[19:01] Adam: I have 2200 light side and like 200 dark side I think
[19:02] Alyssa R.: Well it still registers light side being as the primary good side then I suppose. Also I think that'll do it for the interview. We'll talk more about the world and more standard MMO things that the game has later. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?
[19:07] Adam: No, I think that about covers it.
[19:07] Alyssa R.: Alright then. Thank you for your time, and I hope to see you in game soon.
Future Plans for the Blog
I know it's been quite a few months now since I've started the blog on September and I haven't done a lot with it, but the truth is I just can't figure out what would be at the same time, the most fun for me, as well as the most interesting for viewers. Doing basically "whatever" seemed like a good idea at the time for awhile, but it just didn't produce many results for a number of reasons. Be it my own laziness or the fact that I really had nothing interesting to write about, whatever the case is or was, it prevented me from getting as much done as I'd like. So, to that end, I will be doing some experimenting especially now that I have more options at my disposal to produce more interesting content. One of the ideas I had was to do a format similar to how the Totally Rad Show does it's production with presenting a segment everyday of the week which allows for things to be more spread out, at the same time though however, they have a structured system of progression through the week as well as permanent segments that are usually always included in their show such as a game review on tuesday, and movie review on thursday and so on.
As I don't really have a wide enough variety of interests to cover an entire week with something new, I don't know if that will be more of a deterrent to that sort of plan or not. However at the very least I will be trying to do more organized content instead of randomly putting down my thoughts on random things, however at the same time, I still will be having a somewhat large degree of me writing about my opinions on a topic that I think is interesting. For now though, to start off with a bang on doing new ideas as they come to me, I will start working on something for today that I will release later on. With that said, look forward to new changes to the blog, and hopefully a brighter future for it as well.
As I don't really have a wide enough variety of interests to cover an entire week with something new, I don't know if that will be more of a deterrent to that sort of plan or not. However at the very least I will be trying to do more organized content instead of randomly putting down my thoughts on random things, however at the same time, I still will be having a somewhat large degree of me writing about my opinions on a topic that I think is interesting. For now though, to start off with a bang on doing new ideas as they come to me, I will start working on something for today that I will release later on. With that said, look forward to new changes to the blog, and hopefully a brighter future for it as well.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Another Return Post
As you may have noticed there is a considerable gap between the dates of my last post and this one, that is unfortunately because I haven't really had much to write about due to the things that I was mainly doing. That being World of Warcraft, Employment, and Shopping. Well actually now that I think about it, all of those would make for good short topics so I'll see what I can do.
Shopping - As many people know there's definitely a area for gaming entertainment now days with how easy many video streaming services have made it for people to just download a program and fire away, however that still does have a technology limitation and I haven't been able to do it. I went shopping originally for a computer that would allow me to play Star Wars : The Old Republic well, as due to me finding out a different way, my current computer didn't cut it. However at the same time with a new computer doesn't just come a new game, it comes pretty much a whole new experience, and as a side benefit I am now able to produce more interesting forms of content as well as probably playing The Old Republic, which I haven't tested well, but I'll be doing that soon enough.
World of Warcraft - Alice and I have had a few ups and downs with World of Warcraft in the short time that we came back to it. The general game experience was very fun, however at the same time it was very easy, and the community still hasn't improved much at all. I would in fact say that the community degraded further, but in any case going back to something that we have a considerable amount of experience with, I've been playing since release, and Alice during the end of the initial release as the game was moving onto The Burning Crusade, was exceptionally fun. We estimated about 6 months of being away from World of Warcraft, and pretty much everything about the game felt new again but at the same time old, another plus to that was that we were playing new classes that we both had experience in from being former mains or alts but not much real long lasting experience that we could depend on. So while we both knew what the classes were capable of, we were free to explore and enjoy all of the changes to the classes that happened while we were gone. Another plus to that end was that we were playing on the Horde side whereas we were formerly Alliance on our previous server. While we both have Horde experience in previous expansions, it was our first time seriously playing as a member of Horde after The Shattering. Basically that meant we had completely new quests to play through up until the Outlands, which was fun for us, but we both don't like the Outlands after the Burning Crusade was over, as it just wasn't really fun to blaze through, but it was fun to level normally in; that therein lies the problem, pretty much everyone in the entire world will want to blaze through content they've already done in a game, and we're no exception.
While questing was fun, that wasn't the only thing that we participated in during our return; the others mainly being Instances and Battlegrounds (BGs), those two kind of led to a problem for me. Starting with BGs as that is the lesser culprit between the those two; basically I had no problems with BGs as they were largely the same as I remembered them even at low levels, at the same time however there was basically a deal breaking problem that we quickly found out, and that was Heirlooms. Most BGs consisted of both sides having an excessive amount of heirloom equipped players making them harder to kill than they should have been, but honestly I didn't have much of a problem with that, I did have a problem with it at the same time though because the people who really went all out on gearing themselves out with heirlooms have the fact to show off that they're basically not only invincible but also can do an abnormally high amount of damage. Basically in short it depends on how geared out a player wanted themselves to be, and in most cases as with everything in multiplayer RPGs, the answer is as much as possible. Even so with that said, there still wasn't that much of a threat from the majority of heirloomed players, I would say in most 10 versus 10 BGs, you'll see maybe 1 or 2 really geared out people, and 5-9 or even more, people with just one or two pieces of heirloom equipment. In short, heirlooms broke any sort of chance for people to go into BGs without heirlooms and have an enjoyable experience, because no matter how you are, if someone can one or two shot you, you will end up short.
Dungeons are a whole different story, I generally liked and hated the dungeons at the same time as we did. Starting off with the likes, I loved the dungeons put simply when everything goes off without a hitch; I've always loved clearing dungeons as fast as possible regardless of how difficult it is, and being able to practice my group skill as a Protection Warrior. Obtaining upgrades is also another bonus of course with participating in Dungeons, and more often than not, when a Plate item dropped, as I was the only Plate wearer, I got it; things weren't as easy for Alice most of the time, but we still managed to get a majority of the drops that we wanted to get. Finally the fact that all dungeons at least pre-Burning Crusade received a make over to allow them to be shorter and more linear if they were not, really made it feel like a completely new experience, for example I've done Maraudon plenty of times and have gotten lost in it just as many, but with the aid of the Looking for Group and new Dungeon Systems, you start off at one of the entrances like you always have when doing Maraudon, however Blizzard has moved a few bosses around to make for a more suitable length between trash monsters and bosses. They've also done that for another reason, because they've effectively divided Maraudon into 3 parts, while it has always been that way due to the player base creating it as so, Blizzarrd has aided by making a sort of an invisible wall, not a literal one though, but in the sense that there is a boss that is very hard to miss and when you kill him, you receive the "end of dungeon" reward that you receive for clearing a dungeon out normally. That essentially meas there's no reason to continue forward unless your group wanted to do it, and it shortens the length of a "full" run by two thirds. Blizzard has also added more or new quest dialog to the dungeon quests as well as making them nearly impossible to miss, being that a majority of quest givers will be right at the start of the instance, inside of the instance, I personally like reading quests, so that was another plus for me. After saying all of that, you might think how could I dislike anything about it? well that'll be because of the other group members that we were forced to go with.
I am not someone who would say that all random group members are immediately bad, however at the same time, I am someone who would want to not group with them so I wouldn't have to deal with that possibility, because more than not, it ends up being true. In honesty however I would say bad groups only consisted of 10% of all of the dungeons Alice and I did while we were playing World of Warcraft. 10% however when speaking of things that could possibly ruin a 20 minute to an hour or more long experience, is still a very high number, and while I might be overstating it, regardless of how high the actual percentage is, it was a problem that was hard to remedy. Even with the voting system in place, people tend to not want to kick other people unless they have a reason to directly dislike them, even if the offender is being trouble for another person in the group, and that makes getting rid of poisonous players hard. So, basically when we had a problem with a group member, we just ended up leaving the instance, because I didn't want to deal with hitting my head against a wall in a pointless argument against them. Even so, the aftereffects of having to deal with such a player is the opposite of what I consider fun in every way, and while I thought about listing off a few of the actions the players that I dislike did, I think this part of the post is already negative enough, so if anyone wants to know, message me and I'll talk about it.
With all of that said, even if a 10% is a lot for negative players, 90% is still much greater, and generally I enjoyed tanking and burning through the dungeons of World of Warcraft. Oh, one thing that I've neglected to mention because it doesn't fit in either category of like or dislike, is that the dungeons basically are excessively easy. In terms of getting as much XP as fast as possible it's a godsend, however in terms of actually improving people's skills, it really doesn't help at all when you probably could clear the dungeon in a timely manner with all damage dealers using auto attacks, and the healer using a renew or some sort of healing over time spell. Also while that example might be overkill, it isn't too far off from the current difficulty level of dungeons, although that may be because I was playing a warrior tank, and with multiple enemies hitting me, and thus increasing my attack power, I'm able to contribute a very high amount of damage to all normal "trash" pulls. Thus getting through the instance very quickly, but I can't imagine it's too different for the other types of tanks since everyone has their own form of powerful area of effect spells, just for the occasion of being able to hold threat on multiple enemies during a pull.
Last but not least there's the topic of me being employed, but as of right now it's not much to talk about, and I can't figure out what to write, but I will be posting somethings up about that later on.
Anyways, this is my returning post as well as the start of new things that I'll be trying to do for the blog, I still haven't registered a domain name which I should get on soon, but due to the circumstances I now find myself in, I'll be able to provide more interesting things to not only read, but watch soon as well.
Shopping - As many people know there's definitely a area for gaming entertainment now days with how easy many video streaming services have made it for people to just download a program and fire away, however that still does have a technology limitation and I haven't been able to do it. I went shopping originally for a computer that would allow me to play Star Wars : The Old Republic well, as due to me finding out a different way, my current computer didn't cut it. However at the same time with a new computer doesn't just come a new game, it comes pretty much a whole new experience, and as a side benefit I am now able to produce more interesting forms of content as well as probably playing The Old Republic, which I haven't tested well, but I'll be doing that soon enough.
World of Warcraft - Alice and I have had a few ups and downs with World of Warcraft in the short time that we came back to it. The general game experience was very fun, however at the same time it was very easy, and the community still hasn't improved much at all. I would in fact say that the community degraded further, but in any case going back to something that we have a considerable amount of experience with, I've been playing since release, and Alice during the end of the initial release as the game was moving onto The Burning Crusade, was exceptionally fun. We estimated about 6 months of being away from World of Warcraft, and pretty much everything about the game felt new again but at the same time old, another plus to that was that we were playing new classes that we both had experience in from being former mains or alts but not much real long lasting experience that we could depend on. So while we both knew what the classes were capable of, we were free to explore and enjoy all of the changes to the classes that happened while we were gone. Another plus to that end was that we were playing on the Horde side whereas we were formerly Alliance on our previous server. While we both have Horde experience in previous expansions, it was our first time seriously playing as a member of Horde after The Shattering. Basically that meant we had completely new quests to play through up until the Outlands, which was fun for us, but we both don't like the Outlands after the Burning Crusade was over, as it just wasn't really fun to blaze through, but it was fun to level normally in; that therein lies the problem, pretty much everyone in the entire world will want to blaze through content they've already done in a game, and we're no exception.
While questing was fun, that wasn't the only thing that we participated in during our return; the others mainly being Instances and Battlegrounds (BGs), those two kind of led to a problem for me. Starting with BGs as that is the lesser culprit between the those two; basically I had no problems with BGs as they were largely the same as I remembered them even at low levels, at the same time however there was basically a deal breaking problem that we quickly found out, and that was Heirlooms. Most BGs consisted of both sides having an excessive amount of heirloom equipped players making them harder to kill than they should have been, but honestly I didn't have much of a problem with that, I did have a problem with it at the same time though because the people who really went all out on gearing themselves out with heirlooms have the fact to show off that they're basically not only invincible but also can do an abnormally high amount of damage. Basically in short it depends on how geared out a player wanted themselves to be, and in most cases as with everything in multiplayer RPGs, the answer is as much as possible. Even so with that said, there still wasn't that much of a threat from the majority of heirloomed players, I would say in most 10 versus 10 BGs, you'll see maybe 1 or 2 really geared out people, and 5-9 or even more, people with just one or two pieces of heirloom equipment. In short, heirlooms broke any sort of chance for people to go into BGs without heirlooms and have an enjoyable experience, because no matter how you are, if someone can one or two shot you, you will end up short.
Dungeons are a whole different story, I generally liked and hated the dungeons at the same time as we did. Starting off with the likes, I loved the dungeons put simply when everything goes off without a hitch; I've always loved clearing dungeons as fast as possible regardless of how difficult it is, and being able to practice my group skill as a Protection Warrior. Obtaining upgrades is also another bonus of course with participating in Dungeons, and more often than not, when a Plate item dropped, as I was the only Plate wearer, I got it; things weren't as easy for Alice most of the time, but we still managed to get a majority of the drops that we wanted to get. Finally the fact that all dungeons at least pre-Burning Crusade received a make over to allow them to be shorter and more linear if they were not, really made it feel like a completely new experience, for example I've done Maraudon plenty of times and have gotten lost in it just as many, but with the aid of the Looking for Group and new Dungeon Systems, you start off at one of the entrances like you always have when doing Maraudon, however Blizzard has moved a few bosses around to make for a more suitable length between trash monsters and bosses. They've also done that for another reason, because they've effectively divided Maraudon into 3 parts, while it has always been that way due to the player base creating it as so, Blizzarrd has aided by making a sort of an invisible wall, not a literal one though, but in the sense that there is a boss that is very hard to miss and when you kill him, you receive the "end of dungeon" reward that you receive for clearing a dungeon out normally. That essentially meas there's no reason to continue forward unless your group wanted to do it, and it shortens the length of a "full" run by two thirds. Blizzard has also added more or new quest dialog to the dungeon quests as well as making them nearly impossible to miss, being that a majority of quest givers will be right at the start of the instance, inside of the instance, I personally like reading quests, so that was another plus for me. After saying all of that, you might think how could I dislike anything about it? well that'll be because of the other group members that we were forced to go with.
I am not someone who would say that all random group members are immediately bad, however at the same time, I am someone who would want to not group with them so I wouldn't have to deal with that possibility, because more than not, it ends up being true. In honesty however I would say bad groups only consisted of 10% of all of the dungeons Alice and I did while we were playing World of Warcraft. 10% however when speaking of things that could possibly ruin a 20 minute to an hour or more long experience, is still a very high number, and while I might be overstating it, regardless of how high the actual percentage is, it was a problem that was hard to remedy. Even with the voting system in place, people tend to not want to kick other people unless they have a reason to directly dislike them, even if the offender is being trouble for another person in the group, and that makes getting rid of poisonous players hard. So, basically when we had a problem with a group member, we just ended up leaving the instance, because I didn't want to deal with hitting my head against a wall in a pointless argument against them. Even so, the aftereffects of having to deal with such a player is the opposite of what I consider fun in every way, and while I thought about listing off a few of the actions the players that I dislike did, I think this part of the post is already negative enough, so if anyone wants to know, message me and I'll talk about it.
With all of that said, even if a 10% is a lot for negative players, 90% is still much greater, and generally I enjoyed tanking and burning through the dungeons of World of Warcraft. Oh, one thing that I've neglected to mention because it doesn't fit in either category of like or dislike, is that the dungeons basically are excessively easy. In terms of getting as much XP as fast as possible it's a godsend, however in terms of actually improving people's skills, it really doesn't help at all when you probably could clear the dungeon in a timely manner with all damage dealers using auto attacks, and the healer using a renew or some sort of healing over time spell. Also while that example might be overkill, it isn't too far off from the current difficulty level of dungeons, although that may be because I was playing a warrior tank, and with multiple enemies hitting me, and thus increasing my attack power, I'm able to contribute a very high amount of damage to all normal "trash" pulls. Thus getting through the instance very quickly, but I can't imagine it's too different for the other types of tanks since everyone has their own form of powerful area of effect spells, just for the occasion of being able to hold threat on multiple enemies during a pull.
Last but not least there's the topic of me being employed, but as of right now it's not much to talk about, and I can't figure out what to write, but I will be posting somethings up about that later on.
Anyways, this is my returning post as well as the start of new things that I'll be trying to do for the blog, I still haven't registered a domain name which I should get on soon, but due to the circumstances I now find myself in, I'll be able to provide more interesting things to not only read, but watch soon as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)