I just ran through Korriban with a toon that had never been there to check, and the only quests that come up are 2 heroic quests.

That's the point I was making. I think the Korriban Heroics are still able to be done by anyone but the Hutta, Ord Mantel and Tython Heroic's are only able to be accomplished by the classes that originate on those planets. Prior to 1.2 the Heroics on all planets were open to all. This is contrary to WoW in that any class can do any quest in any starting zone with the exception of the three new races. In SWTOR there are not actionable quests on starter planets ( the little triangle is not lit up above a quest givers head nor is it even visible ) if you are not of the class that originates on that starter planet. And again you can not get to another starting planet unless you are level 7 because that is the minimum level requirement to leave a starting planet to help curtain against the "illum node camping" (although why they think that 7 is a burden to get to I don't know that is about hour and a half tops and you can still hitch a ride on anothers ship if you can leave the starter planet). Claims that you can complete ALL quests (except class quests) on starter zones if you do not originate there are false. I don't know how I can be more clear and why people are fighting against the facts.

I just had a Smuggler on Tython. I ran some thing. Not sure what was actually suppose to be available to me or not.

Point is...its the STARTER planet. Its to get you into the game. After that its all just funneling whether its WoW or TOR. So what that TOR lets you choose two different zones. YOU have to go somewhere specific next. Its all the same thing.

I just had a Smuggler on Tython. I ran some thing. Not sure what was actually suppose to be available to me or not.

 

Point is...its the STARTER planet. Its to get you into the game. After that its all just funneling whether its WoW or TOR. So what that TOR lets you choose two different zones. YOU have to go somewhere specific next. Its all the same thing.

No no ... you are conflating issues to prove your point. I am arguing solely from the "options in leveling perspective" not viablility nor efficency nor purpse. Just the fact that there ARE more alternatives to leveling and choices of where to level in WoW than there are in SWTOR. That is fact and can only change if EAware makes it so. Currently it is not. Now is there an "optimum path" in WoW that makes more sense? Depending on your faction needs yes there is one path and only one path that one must take to achieve a faction grind on their way up (specifically unlocking Home City of Faction "faction" (i.e. SW or Org)). One can choose or not choose to do this. In SWTOR you only have one path along which you must undertake pretty much every quest ( with the exception of personal story ) to progress to level cap. No choices. Nada. Nil. Zip. Non!

About the smuggler comment. Please recreate and Screen shot your quest log. I don't believe you. I haven't beable to make it happen. And I have A LOT of toons.

anyone else remember when they announced this game was gonna be like no other MMO out there?

 

Just saying

Well in some ways it is.

Its a hybrid mmo and actually can be played as a story driven RPG like KOTOR or mass effect. The reason its not a full purist mmo is the reason i play this and have given up playing WoW.

That's the point I was making. I think the Korriban Heroics are still able to be done by anyone but the Hutta, Ord Mantel and Tython Heroic's are only able to be accomplished by the classes that originate on those planets. Prior to 1.2 the Heroics on all planets were open to all. This is contrary to WoW in that any class can do any quest in any starting zone with the exception of the three new races. In SWTOR there are not actionable quests on starter planets ( the little triangle is not lit up above a quest givers head nor is it even visible ) if you are not of the class that originates on that starter planet. And again you can not get to another starting planet unless you are level 7 because that is the minimum level requirement to leave a starting planet to help curtain against the "illum node camping" (although why they think that 7 is a burden to get to I don't know that is about hour and a half tops and you can still hitch a ride on anothers ship if you can leave the starter planet). Claims that you can complete ALL quests (except class quests) on starter zones if you do not originate there are false. I don't know how I can be more clear and why people are fighting against the facts.

Yeah I was pretty sure I'd tried before and you couldn't, but I wasn't sure so I checked.

That's because they open up as class storylines progress. If you are helping a homeworld player, non-class side quests that open up for them can be shared. Dropped everything and solo'd every nook & cranny on Korriban in under 30 minutes just to prove someone in a forum wrong? Wow.

I was queuing for warzones and it was either there or the fleet, no hassel.

But I'd tried it ages ago and couldn't, but didn't know if they'd changed it, I know you could (and can) pick up the odd herioc on the wrong planet.

It seems like a clear design choice though if you can share them, but not pick them up directly.

(come to think of it I'm sure I tried to share one of the heroics on Korriban with a friend and couldn't, although that was not long after release, the one you can pick up is a terminal quest, not an NPC quest giver)

That is fact and can only change if EAware makes it so.

yeah "EAware" [look how cool I can be with internet slang] should just get rid of the story so you can have diffrent leveling paths because that is whats is most important. and they should get rid of the planets and fleet and just make it one big continent with a capital city so it feels like its not instanced. and then they should add flying mounts so you dont have to follow the paths to get places...

Darrowshire. The original Darrowshire was compelling and well written. Cranius even wrote an

to it.

 

I have to disagree with you on MoP. There is a story there. You see much of it unfold when you hit the dailes.

It comes down to whether the story grips or excites in any sort of way for you, personally I just didnt care one bit about pandaria when I tried it out. Now I admit I didnt play it thro to the end of lvl 90, but on first impressions it was a really slow starter and didnt impress one bit on the zone or the quests.

Now compare that to my characters first 15 lvls on playing my agent it was no contest.

It all depends what you want in the game. WoW was good fun when I was max level and I was doing my raids twice a week, but in the end I had to do more and more stuff I didnt enjoy(badge grinding, rep grinding, daily quests, cooking etc) just to play for a few hours of enjoyment.

Now my personal life has changed and Im not able to spend the amount of time playing as I used too, so I want something a bit more casual thats actually fun to play whilst leveling, and this just isnt going to be WoW.

yeah "EAware" [look how cool I can be with internet slang] should just get rid of the story so you can have diffrent leveling paths because that is whats is most important. and they should get rid of the planets and fleet and just make it one big contenent so it feels like its not instanced. and then they should add flying mounts so you dont have to follow the paths to get places...

You are "reading into what I wrote" and projecting what you wish it to say. I never said that "Story" was a problem. I just stated examples of how there are more options in WoW and that makes it painfully obvious to the linear nature of SWTOR. Again YOU are projecting your feelings. I hear that way is the path to the dark side.

If EAware wants to add more stories they will. In fact, I do remember that they thought of it for sometime in the future. Right now there is only one path. That is a fact. And No matter how much of a fan boy retort you offer can change that. There is one path. Fact. Could it it be changed? Sure, If EAware wishes to do so. Let's hope they do so the game has more "replay" value. After you have been through the stories of some planets 10-15 times I don't care how much of a fan boy you are you will be space barring if not mumbling all the dialogue in your sleep.

No no ... you are conflating issues to prove your point. I am arguing solely from the "options in leveling perspective" not viablility nor efficency nor purpse. Just the fact that there ARE more alternatives to leveling and choices of where to level in WoW than there are in SWTOR. That is fact and can only change if EAware makes it so. Currently it is not. Now is there an "optimum path" in WoW that makes more sense? Depending on your faction needs yes there is one path and only one path that one must take to achieve a faction grind on their way up (specifically unlocking Home City of Faction "faction" (i.e. SW or Org)). One can choose or not choose to do this. In SWTOR you only have one path along which you must undertake pretty much every quest ( with the exception of personal story ) to progress to level cap. No choices. Nada. Nil. Zip. Non!

 

About the smuggler comment. Please recreate and Screen shot your quest log. I don't believe you. I haven't beable to make it happen. And I have A LOT of toons.

The alternatives only really held true in the old zones when you were pre level 50. In the expansions you almost had to progress thro the zones in the same order.

Even when you had alternative leveling zones, the chances are you would level in your races area as it was quite an effort to head over the water and then spend along time running on foot to get to the alternative zone.

The alternatives only really held true in the old zones when you were pre level 50. In the expansions you almost had to progress thro the zones in the same order.

 

Even when you had alternative leveling zones, the chances are you would level in your races area as it was quite an effort to head over the water and then spend along time running on foot to get to the alternative zone.

Yes but leveling your night elf could give you a very different experience than leveling your human. You would see different cities, different forests, different enemies, different everything.

In this game, leveling your smuggler, trooper, jedi, twi'lek, or Pub side sith consular gives you the exact same experience. Exactly the same. Every time. The only difference are your story quests, and those are what? Maybe 10% of the quests, if that?

The alternatives only really held true in the old zones when you were pre level 50. In the expansions you almost had to progress thro the zones in the same order.

 

Even when you had alternative leveling zones, the chances are you would level in your races area as it was quite an effort to head over the water and then spend along time running on foot to get to the alternative zone.

I stated as much in this thread. Up until you finish the revamped Vanilla content you have multiple concentric circles along multiple paths. One you hit BC you basiclaly have two options. When you hit Cata you have two options up to level 82 (hyjal and vash but it's best to do hyjal since it gates firelands). From 82 to 85 in cata there is one path. In MoP there is one path. But, you can skip around along the path so from one point of view it's not entirely linear. Also it depends on if you are soloing or grouping. If you are grouping in WoW you can skip whole areas in every expansion since you can take down tougher "open world" content (and get more exp leveling faster). You don't really have this option per ce in SWTOR. You "can" skip but you only have one path to choose from AND if you do out level there is next to no reason to go back ... in WoW you may have to go back for some faction grind ( the "other experience bar" ).

As far as level of effort Pre-Cata to go to another races leveling area. That was only a problem when you had to corps hop across the wetlands. You no longer have to do so. There is even a portal from Exodar to Darnasus. So Dranei wanting to level up in the human starting area, hops in a portal to darnasus and takes a boat to SW. If he wanted to level up in the dwarf area he hops the tram to IF. Only the new races (goblin, Worgen, and Pandarian) are limited to their own starting experiences because they are gated from the rest of the world until they leave their starting zone.

Why are all the planets so linear?

Because that's better game design.

Duh.

Because that's better game design.

 

Duh.

Sarcasim? *Dr. Sheldon Cooper voice*

Sarcasm?

Not really. I play TOR for the story and characters. TOR rewards exploration more than other MMOs as it is already.

If I just wanted to bop around and explore, well, there's Skyrim and a bunch of other games that I don't play but I'm sure others might namedrop if you ask for a good game where you get to explore stuff. For me, just Skyrim tends to satisfy my lust for complex exploration (especially with DLC and the new Steam workshop allowing player-made content to be added, for free! <3 Valve is the best).

You are "reading into what I wrote" and projecting what you wish it to say. I never said that "Story" was a problem. I just stated examples of how there are more options in WoW and that makes it painfully obvious to the linear nature of SWTOR. Again YOU are projecting your feelings. I hear that way is the path to the dark side.

 

If EAware wants to add more stories they will. In fact, I do remember that they thought of it for sometime in the future. Right now there is only one path. That is a fact. And No matter how much of a fan boy retort you offer can change that. There is one path. Fact. Could it it be changed? Sure, If EAware wishes to do so. Let's hope they do so the game has more "replay" value. After you have been through the stories of some planets 10-15 times I don't care how much of a fan boy you are you will be space barring if not mumbling all the dialogue in your sleep.

you dont have to say it, the reason leveling is so linear in swtor is the story. thats why I am taking that position. if there was multiple levling choices there would be no coherent story line. I fully get why people want to level in diffrent zones, especially with swtor encouraging alts but this game is diffrent then those games. you cant go toyour capital planet before you finish you orgin world and you cant do the quest line for the dark temple / jedi temple before you deal with the revanites / justicars. [or whatever the class stories are there I think those are the planet quests] that is how swtor works

it gets incredibly annoying people constanly complaing about the obvious " swtors to linear" "wow has more leveling options" really with all the problems this game has you want to champion a intentinal design choice due to the nature of story telling and a design choice everyone knew about before launch... really. you haters just need to except swtor for what it is. I mean bashing swtor is so 2012

I was queuing for warzones and it was either there or the fleet, no hassel.

 

But I'd tried it ages ago and couldn't, but didn't know if they'd changed it, I know you could (and can) pick up the odd herioc on the wrong planet.

 

 

 

It seems like a clear design choice though if you can share them, but not pick them up directly.

 

 

(come to think of it I'm sure I tried to share one of the heroics on Korriban with a friend and couldn't, although that was not long after release, the one you can pick up is a terminal quest, not an NPC quest giver)

I agree completely with your design choices assessment. Design choices abound though one size will never fit all. Just not possible. So the game lives or dies on its merits; and for being just short of a year old its merits are many.

Bioware chose 8 separate and concurrent class stories over mutltiple open quest zones for starting players. That's not a "feature" nor a limitation of the game - it is a design choice as you accurately pointed out, and one that is radically different from other MMOs. Whether that is good or bad is up to each individual, and no singular opinion has the final say. Though some futily try to make theirs so.

you dont have to say it, the reason leveling is so linear in swtor is the story. thats why I am taking that position. if there was multiple levling choices there would be no coherent story line. I fully get why people want to level in diffrent zones, especially with swtor encouraging alts but this game is diffrent then those games. you cant go toyour capital planet before you finish you orgin world and you cant do the quest line for the dark temple / jedi temple before you deal with the revanites / justicars. that is how swtor works

 

it gets incredibly annoying people constanly complaing about the obvious " swtors to linear" "wow has more leveling options" really with all the problems this game has you want to champion a intentinal design choice due to the nature of story telling and a design choice everyone knew about before launch... really. you haters just need to except swtor for what it is. I mean bashing swtor is so 2012

They could have ( and may still in the future ) make it so that there could be "multiple planet stories" in the same level range. You could still follow the "personal story" set out as is. You could just have a choice to level on other planets. I know the only reason you are on a certain planet in the first place is the over all story but, that doesn't have to be the reason for going to planets. There could be "side" bonus missions akin to the bonus series on some planets that are "optional" leveling paths. I am sure there are other ways to do this. Story doesn't have to be a crutch to limit replayability.

Meh I am this forums Jolee Bindo neither a Fan Boi nor a Hater do I be:

"Being a Hater doesn't lead to the dark side. Now being a Fan Boi can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled... but a Fan Boi is not the same thing as a Hater. Controlling your passions while being a Hater... that's what they should teach you to beware. But being a Hater itself will save you... not condemn you."

Like Jolee Bindo I provide commentary for my own enjoyment.

Meh I am this forums Jolee Bindo neither a Fan Boi nor a Hater do I be:

I guess EAware is their official name now

...hater

They could have ( and may still in the future ) make it so that there could be "multiple planet stories" in the same level range. You could still follow the "personal story" set out as is. You could just have a choice to level on other planets. I know the only reason you are on a certain planet in the first place is the over all story but, that doesn't have to be the reason for going to planets. There could be "side" bonus missions akin to the bonus series on some planets that are "optional" leveling paths. I am sure there are other ways to do this. Story doesn't have to be a crutch to limit replayability.

Yes but leveling your night elf could give you a very different experience than leveling your human. You would see different cities, different forests, different enemies, different everything.

 

In this game, leveling your smuggler, trooper, jedi, twi'lek, or Pub side sith consular gives you the exact same experience. Exactly the same. Every time. The only difference are your story quests, and those are what? Maybe 10% of the quests, if that?

You dont have to do all the quests in every zone. For me so far im level 38 on Quesh and I have only done the class story quests and the big chain quest on each of the last few planets ive been on, otherwise I would of over-leveled for my class quest. The other parts of XP comes from flashpoints and warzones.

So for me so far its been a very story driven game...

 

I guess EAware is their official name now

 

 

 

 

 

...hater

With "the doctors" gone and being an aquisition of EA ....sure .. think of it as gamings "Brangelina".

... Fan boi.

I disagree. WoW, Rift, STO, CO, Aion, are not like that at all. LOTRO isnt either for that matter. Again, name another MMO that is linear and anti-explore as this one. Im sure there are some, maybe one's I havent played.

Have you actually played WoW? It's easily 10x more linear than this.

... Fan boi.

LOL! OK I will give you the brangelina = EAware

and of course [but a bioware fan boy not a swtor fan boy, just dont tell the austin studio]

Have you actually played WoW? It's easily 10x more linear than this.

*shake head*

*face palm*

I don't have the words. You didn't read the pages of discourse proving the contrary.