Star wars: The old republic

[eldargal]

Really? I found the opposite, Chapter 2 was very exciting and the planets quite lovely. I have to admit Corellia was probably my favourite but it is chapter 3 or end game rather than the middle. I have to admit I did start skipping bonus series, but that was because generally I didn't need anymore commendations and I was too enthused in the story to stick around doing other things. I do think the Empire stories are perhaps a little more interesting, lots of opportunities for evil whereas even dark side charactes Republic side just seemed to be b*tches rather than evil.

[Voss]

Really? I found the opposite, Chapter 2 was very exciting and the planets quite lovely. I have to admit Corellia was probably my favourite but it is chapter 3 or end game rather than the middle. I have to admit I did start skipping bonus series, but that was because generally I didn't need anymore commendations and I was too enthused in the story to stick around doing other things. I do think the Empire stories are perhaps a little more interesting, lots of opportunities for evil whereas even dark side charactes Republic side just seemed to be b*tches rather than evil.

I only did Chapter 2+ as a Sith Warrior. I found it dull. The 'dark side' choices became purely mechanical things to keep my DS scale at rank 5. It didn't matter what the choices _were_, just that I gamed the points. It didn't matter anyway, since it was clear by Queesh that the dark/light choice (when it was a meaningfull choice at all) meant that I was killing scientists rather than stealing crates, but I was still doing the same bloody thing (mostly killing the mooks that were between me and the crates or scientists. Usually though, being mouthy, being polite (as that seemed to be the main difference between the later game dark/light choices) or being indifferent made no difference at all- they still assigned the fetch/kill quest, and off I went.

Mostly, though, I found that the planets and quests pretty much degraded in quality from Alderaan on (except for Queesh, which was unilaterally worse than anything except Ilum). Everything from the point that I wrapped up the class quest for chapter 1 (and frankly skipped the rest of Alderaan because it was boring me with something about insects and pretenders to a throne I didn't care about) was a meaningless blur of kill/fetch madness that just. wouldn't. stop.

The class quests were simply too small a percentage of the content as well, and leveling alts would be an insane chore of repeating ~80% of the content. I was going to go to 50 on the Republic side as well (because that was actually different content), but I honestly couldn't muster the enthusiasm to do so.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the game for 2 solid months, where I played a ridiculous amount, but once I hit Alderaan, I would switch characters. And after the higher level experience with the warrior, I had no desire at all to go past chapter 1 with anything. And I was enjoying the lower level content anyway, to the point that it took me two months to stop switching characters and simply go for the level cap with the warrior.

But main problems with post chapter 1 content can be summed up:

1- it was dull. Pure fetch/kill quests. To the point that I have very little memory of anything else. There were a couple of semi-interesting quests that I vaguely remember, but the execution of those few were less interesting than the execution of similar things in Chapter 1.

2- storyline became a lot looser, to the point that it often made little sense to me. (well, except for the Completely Obvious Tropes, which I don't want to spoil for anyone, but if you've read any superhero comics ever, you know _exactly_ whats going to happen with rival apprentice and your master, to the point that I rolled my eyes and predicted it when Mr Rival-from-Nowhere first appeared). Chapter 2 for the sith warrior is literally 'Go kill some dudes'. The ones are Taris will spout some meaningless crap about your inability to stop their Master Plan, and you are completely unable to get them to shut up and realize that you don't care about any of that, and you're literally only there to murder them in the face. Whatever Mcguffin they are on about is completely irrelevant to the rest of the planet, and has zero effect once you've killed them, and never gets referenced again.

3- Pointless Ability Proliferation. I had 3 hotbars filled with crap that I barely used. Several of which were nearly identical to stuff I already had. Don't give me a more limited version of backfist (hard hit on stunned enemy), by giving me spin kick (hard hit on immobilized enemy). Just let me do the cooler animation _more often_. Same with the multiple defensive abilities. And the slightly different attacks. 36 not-quite-distinct abilities is bad design, full stop.

4. Combat got really, really boring. To the point that I was watching videos while pressing keys because I had picked up the global cooldown in muscle memory. I only really glanced over at the game to make sure Sudden Inexplicable Respawns hadn't swamped me. And to make sure I hadn't autorun into an impassable rock.

5. Bugs. Quests are increasingly bugged as it goes along, follow-up emails increasingly got the details of what I did wrong (Thanks for saving my sister! ... Uh, no. I choked her to death while she was begging for mercy. But, uh, thanks for the bonus credits, I guess). Even dialogue does this. The jedi on the prison planets mentions that he was a former padawan of the Jedi Master from Chapter 1, and mentions in passing that he wasn't too happy about me killing the guy. Which, frankly, I didn't do, because that would've have been letting the jerk off easy. My victory was far more complete. And then, of course, there are the quests that were still simply bugged, 2 months after release. Whoops. Late game, low priority.


Anyway, I found the Empire stories kind of offensive (not in a morally offensive way, but in a 'are you serious?' way). The 'evil' was the juvenile, melodramatic kind of evil that you find in SW fanfics, and constantly raised the question of 'how does this society even function'. Every so often it would raise the 'genocide of non-humans' flag (from the hints in original movies) as well, at that didn't even make sense, since it was explicitly a multi-species empire.

[New Cult King]

Just got my ship for my Sith Assassin. I am so stoked

[eldargal]

Eh, well I'll just say I completely disagree on msot points, Voss. I mean some of what yo usay is true but it generally part of the MMO genre so it is to be expected. Personally I found the story behind the quests and having a fully voiced character made up for the usual 'kill these' quests and whatnot.

I've not advanced too far as a Sith Warrior but I didn't find the evilness in the Inquisitor path that stereotypical, at least, there were often two dark side choices giving a great spectrum of nastiness. Thr whole DArk Side/Light Side thing is for RPers mostly anyway, it is entirely optional so when it comes down to it it can't matter that much or everyone would be whining about being forced to engage in filthy, filthy RP.

[paspinall]

Every so often it would raise the 'genocide of non-humans' flag (from the hints in original movies) as well, at that didn't even make sense, since it was explicitly a multi-species empire.

Bar the fact that the Imperial citizens are either: Human, Sith (racially i mean), or Extremely force talented individuals that they force in to Sith training

[Voss]

I've not advanced too far as a Sith Warrior but I didn't find the evilness in the Inquisitor path that stereotypical, at least, there were often two dark side choices giving a great spectrum of nastiness. Thr whole DArk Side/Light Side thing is for RPers mostly anyway, it is entirely optional so when it comes down to it it can't matter that much or everyone would be whining about being forced to engage in filthy, filthy RP.

Hmmm. I can't say anything is particularly RP oriented at all. DS/LS seems to be a matter of equipping gear more than anything else. I suppose you could say wanting certain outfits are RP oriented (for a particularly low value of RP), but really its a matter of 'you can't equip good relics' (which don't show up visually) if you don't go deep in the LS/DS tiers.

Can't say I noticed a spectrum of choice, anyway, given the hard limit of 3 dialogue options.

Bar the fact that the Imperial citizens are either: Human, Sith (racially i mean), or Extremely force talented individuals that they force in to Sith training

And Duros, Twileks, plus obviously Darth Mauls and Rattachachas (or whatever they are), who are found in variable numbers, both as players (except Duros PCs, obviously) and NPCs, even in the military and intelligence branches. Admittedly, it isn't the overwhelming sense you're supposed to get in the republic, but there isn't real sense that this comes from anywhere but being vaguely hinted at and fanwanked from the original trilogy. It doesn't have anything to support it in the long, long before where TOR is set. Even still, whenever one of the almost inevitably military characters starts going on about racial purity, I always picture a Sith race Sith lord standing behind him with a expression. Followed quickly by death.

[New Cult King]

There's an element of the racial purity thing in the Sith Inquisitor/Warrior starter area, which is especially interesting if you are PLAYING a Sith. No real changes to gameplay, but the discussion of what constitutes pure etc. does occur.

[eldargal]

The LS/DS gear is fairly rubbishy though, the Social gear is much more interesting. Going all DS or LS or staying neutral makes virtually no difference to what you can equip in my experience.

Hmmm. I can't say anything is particularly RP oriented at all. DS/LS seems to be a matter of equipping gear more than anything else. I suppose you could say wanting certain outfits are RP oriented (for a particularly low value of RP), but really its a matter of 'you can't equip good relics' (which don't show up visually) if you don't go deep in the LS/DS tiers.

Can't say I noticed a spectrum of choice, anyway, given the hard limit of 3 dialogue options.


And Duros, Twileks, plus obviously Darth Mauls and Rattachachas (or whatever they are), who are found in variable numbers, both as players (except Duros PCs, obviously) and NPCs, even in the military and intelligence branches. Admittedly, it isn't the overwhelming sense you're supposed to get in the republic, but there isn't real sense that this comes from anywhere but being vaguely hinted at and fanwanked from the original trilogy. It doesn't have anything to support it in the long, long before where TOR is set. Even still, whenever one of the almost inevitably military characters starts going on about racial purity, I always picture a Sith race Sith lord standing behind him with a expression. Followed quickly by death.