SWTOR

A Long time Ago…in a Galaxy Far Far Away…There was an MMO

 

And By A long time ago I mean up to the release of SWTOR 4.0. I don’t know what to call it anymore…Single Player Online Role Play Game? SPORPG?

The Old Republic was my first MMO. When I first joined the game, I had no idea what words like Tank, DPS or healer would mean before then. In fact, the server I initially joined was Begeren Colony; an RP (Role Playing) server because I had no idea what the words RP, PVE or PVP meant. (My favorite content is PVE – More specifically Operations or Raids)

Even as I died over and over due to standing in red circles, or the fact I kept stacking strength on a Sorcerer, I loved the game. Then I reached level 50 (back then the max level). And I was introduced to Endgame Content. And boy, did I love it!

Note: At some point I deleted that sorcerer. He was just too embarrassing. My first toon to make it to last level was a Guardian Tank. And yes, by then I did know what the word Tank meant.

I joined a guild, and made friends who started teaching me the different roles and how to best play it. I started looking for guides and strategies. Watching videos on how to do those ops and how to gear up and play my class. My favorite role today is Tanking. Four years later, the best compliment my friends gave me was that “I’m an ok tank sometimes.” You should meet my friends…we don’t compliment each other. Ever.

Today, I consider myself a veteran of this Game. I have cleared almost every operation Boss on all modes (SM, HM and NIM).

And then Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion was released.

 

And Bioware said: “There shall be no more raids…”

 

I’m not going to whine about the lacks of new Operations in almost 2 years. I’m not going to whine about the fact that two years ago Bioware promised they wouldn’t go one year let alone two, without releasing Operations…ok, maybe I will a little.

So, let’s forget about the lack of new content and instead, let’s start with the worst idea that Bioware has ever had. Story Mode ops mechanics. Or better yet the lack of mechanics. At all.

I haven’t done Story Mode Ops in over a year. A few weeks ago I tried to run new players of my guild through Explosive Conflicts SM to prepare them for HM progression in that ops. It would be an understatement to say I was shocked when we ran it. There was no mechanic. There was no need to do tank swaps. At no point healers were stressed and standing in red circles didn’t matter. In fact, I don’t think you could fail that ops even if half the group typed /stuck in the middle of the fight. (Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if Story Mode allowed you to survive a /stuck – that’s me being sarcastic)

With the new expansion and the option to create an instant level 60 character, the game has gotten a lot of new players. Players who like me, when I started playing, have no idea how the rotations, gear and mechanics work. Players who then join HM operations and cause wipes over and over again because of their lack of knowledge. Because where I lacked knowledge of my own class I at least had 50 levels to get used to it. New players barely get 5….

Story Mode Mechanics weren’t there to make it more difficult. They were there to prepare players for Hard Mode Mechanics. Just like Hard Mode mechanics prepare players for NIM operations. My guild ran Story Mode operations over and over again, before we started doing Hard Mode. Just like we ran hundreds of HM operations before we started doing NIM.

I mean…that’s why you call it progression right? You progress through the increased difficulty?

But there is no progression anymore. New players go into Hard Mode operations without knowing what to expect, thinking that gear doesn’t matter, that mechanics don’t matter, that rotations don’t matter…boy are they wrong.

 

We have altered the Looting Gear…Pray that we don’t alter it any further:

 

When I first started raiding, it became a hobby of mine to inspect random player’s gear as I went by them. I did this to compare myself to them. If I saw a player with full NIM gear equipped I knew with absolute certainty that was a good player.

Sadly, with the Highlight Operation of the week that is not longer true. Players who only do the easiest Ops (Namely Eternity Vault and Kragga’s Palace) can be almost full 224. And yet they will cause wipes after wipes when go into Operations like Terror From Beyond or Scum and Villainy, not to mention Dread Fortress, Dread Palace, Revengers or Temple of Sacrifice.

And I’m only talking about HM operations. What would happen if we bring those players to NIM? On second thought I don’t want to know.

And the cause for that is the looting system. Let’s be honest, if a player can get the same gear from operations like Kragga’s Palace (where every boss is a tank and spank mechanic), then why would they bother trying to learn the mechanics for Dread Palace which requires a lot of raid awareness, when they get the same stuff from easy fights? You can actually see that when you queue for a random Flashpoint. If by any chance you get Lost Island, you can rest assured at least 1 or 2 of the 4 players will drop as soon as they finish loading (if they even bother to load).

So why include then EV and KP on the Rotation of the Highlight if they didn’t alter the mechanics? Can you imagine Bonetrasher with a cross mechanic like Underlurker? Or Soa with a Force Leach mechanic like Dread Guard? Or Garj with debuff Mechanic like Melphar? Then EV and KP dropping 224 gear wouldn’t be so bad.

But, perhaps, worse of all, was the fact that NIM Operations no longer dropped the highest rate gear. Instead they dropped the same as HM. According to Bioware, this was done to avoid some players to gear up faster than others.

And yet when we 8 man EV HM set to 16 man, to get twice as much loot that’s exactly what we did. To raiders who had cleared all those operations before, the new system didn’t affect us. At all. In fact, it just made it easier to gear up. The only thing it did was allow players who are not ready to do NIM operations have access to NIM rate gear.

After weeks and months of the raiding community screaming at the developers for 224 loots in NIM operations, Bioware finally announced they would change the chance drop of 224 gear to 100% in NIM Bosses.

As a Tank I was ecstatic. My gear consist of 224 Armoring and Enhancements with 220 B-mods, otherwise my HP gets below 70k. With the B-mods I make it to almost to 80k without sacrificing too much defense. I thought I was going to be getting 224 B-mods for more defense and endurance. Or 224 mk-2 implants and earpiece. Boy, was I disappointed.

Nope. No 224 B-mods for me. According to Bioware, I was lucky I got 224 tokens drop.

But what can you expect from the people who took Endurance out of the Tank Relics? Because it makes perfect sense to give mastery to Tanks and endurance to DPS… As Lightning McQueen said in Cars: "Yes, thank you! Or should I say No, thank you, because in Opposite World, maybe that really means thank you."

 

Credit where is due….

 

Perhaps one of the few good things of Knights of the Fallen Empire was the leveling system. With the new changes players can actually enjoy the story missions and level as they do them, instead of being forced to do all the other planetary missions which made the story telling far too boring.

Not much, but now I have actually bothered to level a DPS toon…I know…me dpsing… *shivers*

And what about the companion? No longer needed to gear up and changing what role it does? OMG! I think I was in love with them…in fact now, I would rather bring a companion to an Operation than pug a random player from fleet. Too bad they cannot be summoned inside operations instances….

 

“…You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it…”

 

Have you played Mass Effect 3? When I first started playing it, I was awed. The graphics were great. The cinematics were great. The story? I think the story was the best one of all 3. The constant threat of doom on Earth, the way the story flowed together, even completing every single side quest made sense because it was adding strength to the war effort. The DLC were incredible good (I always wait for the game to release all DLC before I buy them and play them, which means I usually play them a year and half after the initial release)…and then came that horrible moment of betrayal. Where everything that I had done up to the ending felt like a waste of time.

Just like Knights of the Fallen…

I have only played the first 8 chapters of Knight of the Fallen Empire with one of my characters. And like to chapter 3 or 4 of with another two. And quite frankly, I don't see the point of doing it again with my other 17 characters.

The new story it's good. And it flows really well with all the previous expansion the game released...if you are playing a force user class, that is. After years of playing a game that was very set in playing 8 different stories (4 for Republic and 4 for Empire), Knights of the Fallen first disappointed me (at least story wise – Endgame wise I already talked about) with the fact that it was the same story line over and over again for all classes, except for a few minor changes in the dialogues. Which doesn’t really fit well with non-force classes.

While all the Cinematics were extremely good, I play SWTOR, because it's an MMO. Because I want to play with my friends. I find it ironic that a RPG game like Dragon Age Inquisition felt more like a single player MMO (i.e. go get 10 sack of meats, mark 5 locations, kill 10 enemies, etc) where Knights of the Fallen Empire feels more like a RPG. Most of the story occurs in instances so that I never get to see another player. While nothing stops me from inviting a friend, there is no real reason for me to do so. Most enemies and bosses die before I get to do a full rotation on them. Most of the time, I pull all the enemies in an instance, lose Line of Sight of them and then I AOE them down…it’s faster that way.

I feel like Knights of the Fallen Empire would be more rewarding if each chapter was instead a flashpoint you could only do once. Just think about it for a minute. You would need a balanced group composed of a tank, 2 dps and 1 healer. The conversations would be roll based, just like any other flashpoint and the bosses would require more mechanics like an actual flashpoint. Now that, I would really enjoy, especially if there was a Hard Mode option.

Obviously the story plot would need to be different, more group based but it would be an MMO story. Not an RPG story. Is that too much to ask? I mean, as a subscriber I am paying for an MMORPG game right? No? Yes? Maybe?

Seriously, if I wanted to play a RPG game I would go play KOTOR. It's far better than SWTOR in everything but graphics (and that's only because it's an old game). KotFE it's everything that went wrong with Mass Effect 3: A constant 3 way options, where they'll throw away everything your character stood for up to that point. Honestly there is no longer dark/light choices that really matter. Or there aren’t any class related choices that are of consequence. You are a Jedi? Good I'm Emperor Valkorion and when you killed me I possessed you. You are a Sith? Good I'm Emperor Valkorion and when you killed me I possessed you. You are a trooper? Good I'm Emperor Valkorion and when you killed me I possessed you. You are a Bounty Hunter? Good I'm Emperor Valkorion and when you killed me i possessed you. You are a Smuggler? Good I'm Emperor Valkorion and when you killed me I possessed you. You are an Imperial Agent? Good I'm Emperor Valkorion and when you killed me I possessed you.

Seriously, nothing changes other than the mention of your class or the title at the end of the story line. It’s like the promotion to Dragon Age Inquisition…”You have the option to choose over 7 origins story…” and other than 15 lines of dialogue, you don’t get to witness any origin really.

Maybe choices will have more impact later on. If they do, please let me know…I know that I’m not planning to play KOTFE any time soon.

The only redeeming qualities I have found, come from the new companions. They are endearing and dynamics, and their bickering at each other as you force former enemies to become allies make for some good cinematics. And have I mentioned that you no longer need to gear them up?

 

“It’s not the End of the MMO…but you can see it from here”

 

I didn’t expect this review to be so big. It kind of grew on its own as I started writing. Knights of the Fallen is a huge disappointment for me. My opinion, of course, as I’m sure people out there enjoy playing each chapters and they are entitled to their opinion as well. Although why would they pay a subscription to an MMO to play an RPG game it’s beyond me…

It’s hard to leave a game when you have invested so much in it. I have tried to leave for another MMO, like WoW, Destiny, ESO, Neverwinter, and yet I always come back to SWTOR. For many reasons:

It’s Star Wars. I mean, let’s be honest, who hasn’t dreamed of wielding a light saber? I have several Toons doing NIM operations and going to another MMO would mean starting from 0. But every month Bioware gives me less and less reason to log in to the game at all (other than raiding with my friends).

This Game won’t die in a few months, mostly because the Story based actually brings new player, paying for the subscription which means EA and Bioware make more money which means more releases of chapters. But in reality, SWTOR it’s a dying MMO. More and More Veteran Guilds and Players drop every day as there is no release of new content for PVErs and PVPers.

Oh look, another person who has arbitrarily decided to define what MMO means...

 

Also in the wrong forum, this belongs in general discussion, you'll find plenty of sympathizers over there.

Well I'll bite:rak_03:

 

What is quite staggering is the shortsighted memory of the overly eager critical doomsayers or in some cases those who carry the burden of the unwillingness to actually research the topic. Star Wars The Old Republic was never intended to be just another mmo, so when some people criticised this game to be a clone of WoW, and then realize that it isn't, they just couldn't stop demanding that it should be a WoW game with Star Wars skins!!

 

Take a peek here and let's revisit the

and then the . (Yes the orange text is links)

 

Now If you only managed to look thru the first 2 minutes of the first link, you actually get the essence of what Swtor originally was all about; Story, and to get a full immersive and cinematic experience fully voiced story. That is what this game was all about from day one. IF you should criticise BW is for not getting that message across.

 

From the get go the description for this game should be; " If you want to get to cap level the fastest way possible - this game is NOT for you! If you don't like slow progression with with a fully immersive story for eight different classes - this game is NOT for you." Because this is a;

Single Player Online Role Play Game? SPORPG?

 

This game has, for a very long time, been Hijacked by the locus swarm of thrill seeking, hype doped, "I can't read and understand the product label", spacebar skipping MMO players, causing this game not only to lose it's bering but it's soul.

 

And yes Knights of the Fallen Empire in general but especially swtor is just a shadow of the game it once set out to be, what it should be or even could be. BUT not for any of the reasons you line up . . .

Edited May 24, 2016 by t-darko

Credit where is due….

I feel like Knights of the Fallen Empire would be more rewarding if each chapter was instead a flashpoint you could only do once. Just think about it for a minute. You would need a balanced group composed of a tank, 2 dps and 1 healer. The conversations would be roll based, just like any other flashpoint and the bosses would require more mechanics like an actual flashpoint.

 

Hell no! This is my story I want the be the one who speaks 100% of the dialogue I choose not what someone else chooses. I never do any of the story based tacticals because of this its ALWAYS solo mode for exactly that reason.

This is my first MMO too and i tried couple others but they are far behind imo both graphics/gameplay wise, like you i had no idea wth was a tank a healer is rather obvious hehe fun times... Still first time someone asked what my dps was and i had no idea what that was oh the memories... Yes you guessed it sentinel HAHAHA!!

KOTFE stinks because its a single story that makes absolutely no sense if you are not a force user. In addition, the emperor/Valkorian story is poorly woven together and has a ton of plot holes.

 

However, I will tolerate it if it gives them capital to invest in the end game. A new operation series would be nice. 2 more operations to progress through with new level pve gear. Hopefully tied around the end of the KOTFE story. That would be a welcome ending to this chapter.