Continuing from yesterday, the next few posts of my SWTOR impressions at launch in late 2011.
Dec 30 2011 9:35 pm – Next stop: Level 30
I just started the bonus missions on Tatooine and I’m nearing Level 30. I’ve put some more time into Crew Skills and got to 200 Synthweaving already and can finally craft my own gear again.
Yay:
- Queues have vanished it seems
- It’s really fun
- TOR feels like WoW in regard to character handling and characters aren’t sliding through the world or moving in wooden postures. I felt at home immediately unlike LotRO and RoM, which both feel a little clunky to me
Nay:
- My hardware really seems a bit on the low end, I get single-digit fps or stutters a bit too frequently for my liking
- Every time I select my realm (only one I have characters on), I get asked if I really, really want to play on a PvP server…
- As the chat is on the upper side of the screen, I usually click on the chat every few hours and can’t target mobs until I notice
- You can’t preview ranged weapons
So yes, when the stuff people are bickering about only minor details (see above), it seems the game is well-done.
Yeah, the bonus missions. I’m not so sure those were a great idea. Finish a planet (most of them span a level range of 4-5 levels) and then go back once you’re actually done. Why weren’t those incorporated directly? Did they retrofit them? I don’t know, doesn’t really matter – quests are quests 🙂 Also more whining about hardware and first world problems…
Jan 8 2012 11:38 am – The long stretch
I’m Level 42 now (at 5d 12h /played) and hit Belsavis yesterday. Only missing one companion now. I’ve tried most of the new ones for a while, but still sticking to my original one – we’re quite the team.
Nay:
- Loading screen times are really annoying
- Some quest yesterday sent me on this journey: Hoth – Hoth Orbital Station – Ship – some space station – Ship – Tython Orbital Station – Tython – Tython Orbital Station – Ship – Hoth Orbital Station – Hoth – Hoth Orbital Station – Ship… that’s just not fun! (And I left out all the airlocks in between) – plus loading screens every time
- I want to be 50!
- Expertise starts to show on 50s in PvP and I get crushed a little quick. I understand that 10-50 in one Warzone might have problems, but for the first two weeks I had no problem.
Yay:
- The planets are really different, the quests are moderately different,
- Still having a good time leveling
- I’m playing a pure healer spec with a tank companion and have no problems in world PvP
- World PvP is actually fun. Only been camped once. My own take is more like crushing the enemy on sight and moving on. If he catches me and gets revenge, fine. I’ve not yet camped anyone or even killed them twice in a row.
Apparently I was leveling in a healing spec. Maybe changing them wasn’t so easy at launch? I guess so, as I was playing solo and not grouping much, why would I do that otherwise? This useless running around still annoys me. MMOs where you can hand in remotely or at least collect a few quests, then hand them in together are better.
Jan 13 2012 12:00 am – Stalling
Sadly I didn’t have as much time to play this week as I had planned, so it might be close to get to 50 over the weekend.
I’m about to start the Voss Bonus Series at 47.5 and I’m really looking forward to Corellia.
I especially found my latest companion quests nice. Those brought me from 46 halfway to 47, just talking to the guys on the ship and learning about some stories.
I still like talking to my companions, and surely they thought about the XP rewards for that, but in retrospect.. why would you give tons of XP just for being on your ship from time to time (you need to be there every few levels to get to a new planet anyway) and listening to some dialog with a few non-meaningful choices? I guess I was immersed a bit more back then and liked the reward of taking the time to talk to all of my companions and indeed listen to them instead of space-baring through the dialogs. What I found *really* interesting when I played a Jedi Shadow a month or so ago.. it’s the same base class (Jedi Consular) as the Sage I leveled in late 2011 and I still could remember the gist of most companion stories and a lot of details. That was over six and a half years ago! So I guess they did something right.
So much for part 2 of 3 in this series, I still seemed to be quite excited and not plagued by horrible bugs, just a few annoyances.