What. A. Let-down.

 

Completely disillusioned with this game after trudging through the mindless kill-fest that is Hammer Station.

 

Esseles was exciting! Full voice-overs (as per usual), a driving story, and your decisions actually matter. Don't like that Twi'lek diplomat? Betray her! Willing to sacrifice the few for the many? Kill those poor engineers!

 

That instance was intense and fun because you really felt like you had an impact on the story. You felt a real sense of accomplishment after it was over.

 

Then, you go work on your class levels some more, finish up on Coruscant (in my case), and head back to the Republic Fleet because you know the last Flashpoint happened around the end of your class quests on a planet. You're excited and ready for what's next.

 

Oh, hey, what's this random droid wan- OH CRAP IT'S SATELE! AWESOME! Oh no, she needs my help! You can count on me, Master!

 

You gather up a few friends, head to the entrance, and dive headfirst into your second Flashpoint.

 

...okay, that intro cinematic was pretty useless. Let's get start- WOAH! Enemy droids right off the bat! Alright, let's clear these up and get to our first objective... oh. No cutscene. No conversation. Well, that's cool, I'm sure there will be something later...

 

Nope. Nothing. Just a few bosses, some trash droids, and then you just walk out of the instance. Mission accomplished?

 

I really had high hopes for this game, I really did, but I've never felt more betrayed by a game like this. Bioware set up all these cool, driving class quests and an awesome first Flashpoint to reel us in before they pull the ol' switcheroo and we end up playing yet another WoW clone.

 

I've played enough MMOs to know how it goes from here. The neat gimmick of lightsabers and the novelty of full voice-overs will wear off quickly than you'd like. Hell, on Coruscant I wore my spacebar out. Soon, it will just be the same old grind, but this time there's virtually nothing to do outside of following your class quests. PvP? What a joke. Exploration? Yeah, datacrons are neat, but... meh.

 

TL;DR This game had great potential, but Bioware decided to take the low road and trick us all with fantastic intro quests and a driving story before petering out around the time of your second flashpoint.

 

To anyone who absolutely can't live without playing an MMO, I hope you enjoy yourselves. I realize what I've said might just apply to myself and my friends because that's just, like, our opinion, man.

 

May the Force be with you all.

Did my first Hammer Station with a pick-up last night. I'm a level 19 sage healer.. .and... lol!!! There were definitely enough surprises (particularly at the last boss) to keep ME entertained.

 

If the rest of the bosses are much-more exciting I don't know if I can keep doing pick-up groups!

 

Had a good time though. Only two wipes.

I'll admit, it was refreshing to have bosses that actually had interesting mechanics that you had to handle (I tank, so it can get boring quickly if bosses are easy).

 

However, it was inescusably devoid of story. Lack of story is the whole reason I quit WoW.

What. A. Let-down.

 

Completely disillusioned with this game after trudging through the mindless kill-fest that is Hammer Station.

 

Esseles was exciting! Full voice-overs (as per usual), a driving story, and your decisions actually matter. Don't like that Twi'lek diplomat? Betray her! Willing to sacrifice the few for the many? Kill those poor engineers!

 

That instance was intense and fun because you really felt like you had an impact on the story. You felt a real sense of accomplishment after it was over.

 

Then, you go work on your class levels some more, finish up on Coruscant (in my case), and head back to the Republic Fleet because you know the last Flashpoint happened around the end of your class quests on a planet. You're excited and ready for what's next.

 

Oh, hey, what's this random droid wan- OH CRAP IT'S SATELE! AWESOME! Oh no, she needs my help! You can count on me, Master!

 

You gather up a few friends, head to the entrance, and dive headfirst into your second Flashpoint.

 

...okay, that intro cinematic was pretty useless. Let's get start- WOAH! Enemy droids right off the bat! Alright, let's clear these up and get to our first objective... oh. No cutscene. No conversation. Well, that's cool, I'm sure there will be something later...

 

Nope. Nothing. Just a few bosses, some trash droids, and then you just walk out of the instance. Mission accomplished?

 

I really had high hopes for this game, I really did, but I've never felt more betrayed by a game like this. Bioware set up all these cool, driving class quests and an awesome first Flashpoint to reel us in before they pull the ol' switcheroo and we end up playing yet another WoW clone.

 

I've played enough MMOs to know how it goes from here. The neat gimmick of lightsabers and the novelty of full voice-overs will wear off quickly than you'd like. Hell, on Coruscant I wore my spacebar out. Soon, it will just be the same old grind, but this time there's virtually nothing to do outside of following your class quests. PvP? What a joke. Exploration? Yeah, datacrons are neat, but... meh.

 

TL;DR This game had great potential, but Bioware decided to take the low road and trick us all with fantastic intro quests and a driving story before petering out around the time of your second flashpoint.

 

To anyone who absolutely can't live without playing an MMO, I hope you enjoy yourselves. I realize what I've said might just apply to myself and my friends because that's just, like, our opinion, man.

 

May the Force be with you all.

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

You're going to be sorely disappointed for some time then. The next two flashpoints have little conversation options aside from your obligatory kill mooks/let mook live, and the end conversation with you faction leader dude.

 

Not sure how you're supposed to get your social points up when you net 10 over an entire instance, when in Essels/black talon you get like 150 a run.

Ewoking about WoW lol.

 

Seriously the Flashpoints in TOR are much more creative and innovative than WoW's dungeons will ever be.

 

As a Tank in WoW every dungeon to Cata was Tank and spank (didnt play too much into Cata).

 

At least in TOR the bosses have mechanics that make things more challenging Hammer Station, Athiss, and onward get more and more exciting. (Black Talon is tank and spank).

 

Hell Athiss has trash mobs that if you get 2 at once your in for a rough time (obviously depending on levels)

Unfortunately it gets worst...

 

Athiss is even more mindless and boring, there is not a single dialogue choice or voice over inside the instance. Mandalorian Wars is the same, except you do get 1 option.

 

These instances feel so out of place and they contradict everything BW told us Flashpoints would be. From what I've heard it does pick up again but these still undermine the experience tremendously, especially since they are all back to back to back.

 

I understand that some folks thought Black Talon/Essles was too heavy on the story telling, I might agree, but theres gotta be a middle ground where you aren't sacrificing the key thing that sets this game apart from everything else on the market.

Ewoking about WoW lol.

 

Seriously the Flashpoints in TOR are much more creative and innovative than WoW's dungeons will ever be.

 

As a Tank in WoW every dungeon to Cata was Tank and spank (didnt play too much into Cata).

 

At least in TOR the bosses have mechanics that make things more challenging Hammer Station, Athiss, and onward get more and more exciting. (Black Talon is tank and spank).

 

Hell Athiss has trash mobs that if you get 2 at once your in for a rough time (obviously depending on levels)

 

Someone's got blinders on. There have been no mechanics in any of the boss fights thus far (up to Manda wars) that haven't been present in numerous MMOs.

I have to say that after the excellent start with the Esseles and Black Talon flashpoints I have been quite disappointed with Hammer Station and Athiss, too.

 

After the story-driven, extremely atmospheric 1st instances Hammer Station and Athiss just felt rather boring. At the end of both I could only think "Wait, that's it?"

 

I'm really enjoying SW:ToR so far but have to admit that I'm a bit underwhelmed by the drop in quality of the flashpoints. I hope they pick up with more story elements soon.

I just did Hammer Station last night as well. I was so excited to run through it due to how much fun Esseles was. But, Hammer station was a let down in comparison. I kind of shrugged it off as a Flashpoint I'll not do again, but now people are saying some of the others are just as bad. That's unfortunate, because Esseles really got me looking forward to giong through all the Flashpoints (numerous times!). Hammer Station kind of killed that excitement :\

 

Hopefully they add more FUN Flashpoints in the future, or modify the existing ones. I really think the choices that you make in them are what make them FUN. Especially when you're doing it with a group of people. It's fun to see your team interact with each other during the cutscenes/choices.

Ewoking about WoW lol.

 

Seriously the Flashpoints in TOR are much more creative and innovative than WoW's dungeons will ever be.

 

As a Tank in WoW every dungeon to Cata was Tank and spank (didnt play too much into Cata).

 

At least in TOR the bosses have mechanics that make things more challenging Hammer Station, Athiss, and onward get more and more exciting. (Black Talon is tank and spank).

 

Hell Athiss has trash mobs that if you get 2 at once your in for a rough time (obviously depending on levels)

 

As much as I despise the direction WOW has gone, I don't think that is a fair statement. Boss mechanics is one thing Blizzard does better than anyone else and, so far, TOR doesn't hold up in that space. From what I've seen from the first 4 instances and in the videos of Eternity Vault/Hutt Palace, boss mechanics are all fairly basic.

Once you start running Hard Mode instances you would get very sick of the dialogue every time you re-run them. Remember Arthas' dialogue you had to wait to finish in Heroic CoS?

 

That said every flashpoint is awesome.

I guess I am a bit confused. Do you guys really want ALL of the Flashpoints to have an obligatory "Do we kill the character?" buried somewhere in each Flashpoint.

 

I ran Hammer station last night as well. I enjoyed it. It never crossed my mind that there was less dialog. In fact, I'm glad there are some Flashpoints with less dialog for those groups to run that want to avoid heavy dialog Flashpoints. I hope there is an even balance of those with heavy dialogs versus those with light dialog.

 

Afterall, if they made every single Flashpoint have drastic moral decisions, it would not take long for that mechanic to become boring and worn out. Variety is the spice of life.

Once you start running Hard Mode instances you would get very sick of the dialogue every time you re-run them. Remember Arthas' dialogue you had to wait to finish in Heroic CoS?

 

That said every flashpoint is awesome.

 

Perhaps, but Arthas' dialog wasn't interactive and did not award social points.

 

Not saying that the same dialog will be fun forever, but it will lengthen the time until it becomes sheer boredom.

I agree!, I did love the different options in both the Esselles (sp?)and Black Talon, my buddies and I had such a good time with the dialogue. We were cracking up in Eselles(Sp? again) laughing at the whiny scared fat guy, and then when we went downstairs to fight the first boss and saw the fish guy and we all yelled It's a TRAP! Was probably one of my favorite moments in gaming.

 

However I like the FP Athiss's Giant Doggysaurus and The Prophet, were really hard and I admit to feeling nervous when I first saw Doggysaurus, something I haven't felt for years since my first ZF run when you are standing at the top of the stairs. I just feel they need a little human interaction!

Once you start running Hard Mode instances you would get very sick of the dialogue every time you re-run them. Remember Arthas' dialogue you had to wait to finish in Heroic CoS?

 

That said every flashpoint is awesome.

 

And just like Heroic CoS you can skip the dialog entirely by having everyone hammer space if it bothers you that much. I've had groups of black talon say that they are skipping all chatting and that you'll be kicked if you don't. Essels becomes a short run that still gets you a ton of social points so you can get the social gear as opposed to the next three that nets you 10-15 a run for the same length of time.

I guess I am a bit confused. Do you guys really want ALL of the Flashpoints to have an obligatory "Do we kill the character?" buried somewhere in each Flashpoint.

 

I ran Hammer station last night as well. I enjoyed it. It never crossed my mind that there was less dialog. In fact, I'm glad there are some Flashpoints with less dialog for those groups to run that want to avoid heavy dialog Flashpoints. I hope there is an even balance of those with heavy dialogs versus those with light dialog.

 

Afterall, if they made every single Flashpoint have drastic moral decisions, it would not take long for that mechanic to become boring and worn out. Variety is the spice of life.

 

Honestly I Could see that becoming a problem however it could be solved in one of three ways:

 

Suck it up, if you are in a pug there is usually someone who hasn't done it before so just be patient try different dialogue options and enjoy the alignment and social points. Most Likely option

 

If you are in a premade that is just farming, They could add a button that disables convos and just randomized the choices, (Would be quite interesting to see) Best option imo

 

Or have a way to just select all your choices before hand (as you already know what the convo is and what you want to say, and just have it autopilot your rolls.) Least Likely option

The way I see it, flashpoints are about loot. The story gets you in well enough to know why you're fighting through; and honestly, I find Black Talon pretty tedious any more, having seen all the dialogue options. Flashpoints are optional content (barely), and you can't expect that every one of them is going to have a totally engrossing story.

I skip a lot of conversations unless it's a hot girl, insane person, or interesting droid talking.

 

I just want my light-side points and purples.

I don't get it, you have the option to skip story in any flashpoint. Where's my option to add story to all these boring as hell flashpoints? It doesn't exist, that's kind of mean, make sure no one can enjoy a story because after the 10th time it got a tad dull, makes perfect sense.

 

Honestly if you're actually running a flashpoint so often the story gets tedious, perhaps run it with a pre-made who will skip, or go do something else to level up. Given the leveling speed does level 15 loot really matter? Oh no you spent the 3 hours leveling 15-20 in greens vs purples, oh the horror.

 

Flashpoints where sold as story areas, not useless grind dungeons, I actually kind of figured heroics would be that. I guess they figured they'd just bait and switch with the flashpoints since it gets so much better press coverage showing off taral V and esseles rather than telling the truth and showing off hammer station, athiss, raiders, etc which are in fact the majority of the flashpoints.

Dont judge all the games later content on Hammer and Athis. They were added really late in the beta. There are still some good ones!

There are 3 major flashpoint chains. There's Essless/BT, Foundry/Maelstrom, and False emperor. These are the full length, story mode flashpoints. Some people don't care too much for these kinds of flashpoints. So they made the ones that are lighter on the story like hammer station, athiss, etc etc.

When I first ran Hammer, I also noticed it had no story cutscenes but I wasn't bothered by it. I thought it was a fun flashpoint and quick enough to not be a burden. We got some good loot and we were all happy.

 

OP is being a drama queen.

Have to first say that its not about that they don't have "dramatic" choices and what not, but that they have nothing at all just mindless killing which was pretty much promised there would not be, they even explicitly said there would be NO grinding and its all very story driven especily the class quests and flashpoints, not to mention he was right that they hooked many in with showing some of the best parts and telling about the best ones.

-->So I totaly agree that Hammer and the few others need to be fixed, and include somethings, a couple decent scenes of whats really going on, who the bosses are, maybe a couple times to coment on something or do/cause something, and maybe just like little events and or "random encounters" (which would be totaly awesome and make running them 10xs like some I guess like to do even more awesome) etc..

 

I do think the OP(original poster) kind of became a drama queen in his first post no offence dude.. but relax... as there are some that have story and the fact a fair amount of the game still has story in it and does not need to rely entirely on flashpoints to give you them obviously and this game will polish like crazy for long time and add more change a bit etc...

 

As to those say QQ with , "I get tired of the story and want to run it 100xs" well thats good for you, please go back to Everquest/WoW/DnD/etc....... and do dungeons or something... because there is really no need to do them 100xs or even 10xs sorry to tell you and because they require least a small group I am sure there will almost always be a little difference in the diaoulge and choices made which is quite entertaining.

There are 3 major flashpoint chains. There's Essless/BT, Foundry/Maelstrom, and False emperor. These are the full length, story mode flashpoints. Some people don't care too much for these kinds of flashpoints. So they made the ones that are lighter on the story like hammer station, athiss, etc etc.

 

Yea I think people don't realize that the 3 production quality flashpoints have been in the game/beta for a loooong time. All these new ones were thrown in within the last 2 months.

I'll admit, it was refreshing to have bosses that actually had interesting mechanics that you had to handle (I tank, so it can get boring quickly if bosses are easy).

 

However, it was inescusably devoid of story. Lack of story is the whole reason I quit WoW.

 

 

Pretty much got to agree with this. Hammer Station was a huge letdown after The Esseles. Unfortunately, the next 2 instances have almost no conversation to them, either.