**OFFICIAL** Star Wars: The Old Republic Thread

[Dulanic]

I've played MMO's since UO and currently play WoW and I just don't see the sluggishness. Maybe I am missing something. Warhammer and rift felt sluggish...

 

[Wordplay]

I've played MMO's since UO and currently play WoW and I just don't see the sluggishness. Maybe I am missing something. Warhammer and rift felt sluggish...

I only felt the sluggishness when I went from a week of DCUO to TOR last beta weekend. Since I haven't played DC for two weeks I'm not noticing anything.

A have a few gripes with this game which mostly have to do with some of the story lines. I think they mishandled Revan's demise, Sith Inquisitor story, and a few other things. Like how Bioware has handled the dark side in general.

DarkJediShrike

Bioware has never fully understood the nature of the dark side. It's not all about eating babies. In fact, it's not really ever about eating babies. If Vader or Palpatine or Dooku were one-dimensional characters like that, who took every opportunity to be as bad as possible, not only would they be unspeakably boring, they'd never have had a hand in ruling the galaxy.

 

[badb0y]

Why does this game have graphics from 2002?

Are they planning to update it on release? Right now it looks like crap.

 

[SunnyD]

Why does this game have graphics from 2002?

Are they planning to update it on release? Right now it looks like crap.

It worked for Blizzard...

Seriously though - this is the designated graphical style of the game. If the textures and such are of that much importance to you, you should be playing whatever incarnation of Crysis you choose and ignore the gameplay and/or storytelling of whatever title you choose. Or better yet, just go walk around an art gallery for a while.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

I'm seeing information on a private forum somewhere that suggests at least some people believe there will be at least one free for all pvp server in TOR (meaning pvp anyone, even your own team). Can anyone confirm, or knows more details?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

It worked for Blizzard...

Seriously though - this is the designated graphical style of the game. If the textures and such are of that much importance to you, you should be playing whatever incarnation of Crysis you choose and ignore the gameplay and/or storytelling of whatever title you choose. Or better yet, just go walk around an art gallery for a while.

This.

To be honest, the graphics are better than I was expecting. Bioware is using the WoW approach in order to ensure that it works well on a wide variety of systems. It runs very well on my brother's system (E7200, 4 GB of RAM, 8800 GT) and I'd imagine that it will play well on what are listed as the min specs (Athlon 64 x2 4000+, GF 7800) and you might even get away with a 6800 series card on it.

 

[Wuzup101]

This.

To be honest, the graphics are better than I was expecting. Bioware is using the WoW approach in order to ensure that it works well on a wide variety of systems. It runs very well on my brother's system (E7200, 4 GB of RAM, 8800 GT) and I'd imagine that it will play well on what are listed as the min specs (Athlon 64 x2 4000+, GF 7800) and you might even get away with a 6800 series card on it.

WoW's graphics a launch didn't have as much of a dated feel as SW:TOR does right now. Sure, perhaps NOW they do, but WoW was released in 2004 not 2011. It has been quite some time since I played WoW, but my younger brother still does. I was just over at the house for turkey day and he said the same thing. Clunky UI/controls + dated graphics (he's been in the beta for SW:TOR for a while). In all honesty, I could easily put up with the dated graphics. I do understand that for an MMO you have to appeal to the largest possible market as a business model (I have a 6800 series card sitting under my bed that is dying for some play time... not that I have a motherboard to use it with). What I can't put up with is the meeh feel to the UI/controls. It really just does not seem that fluid to me (the last MMO I played was RIFT and I haven't played that in months... but it definitely seemed more fluid than SW).

On a high note, SW did not seem to be nearly as inefficient as Rift did. I experienced very little lag and my CPU wasn't pegged at 100% when there were a ton of other players around (something RIFT couldn't seem to avoid... and it's not exactly a slow processor). The spells and abilities that my character had seemed to be pretty cool / well thought out. I actually liked the sith inquisitor story line... but then again I'm not a huge SW fan to begin with so I have no arguments with the game vs movie "lore."

Note: please don't let my personal opinion cause anyone to NOT try the beta / retail game. I feel that they have done enough "right" to at least give it a shot. This isn't a B title by any means, I just don't feel that it lived up to the "hype" that I had in my head for it!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

WoW's graphics a launch didn't have as much of a dated feel as SW:TOR does right now. Sure, perhaps NOW they do, but WoW was released in 2004 not 2011.

WoW's graphics were dated back then even compared to other MMOs. It was utterly and completely outclassed by SWG and EQ2 at the time in terms of graphics.

Now, with that being said, I have to modify what I said in my earlier post. On Hutta, the graphics exceeded my expectations. I'm in Kass City now and they really do look very dated and are somewhat disappointing.

It has been quite some time since I played WoW, but my younger brother still does. I was just over at the house for turkey day and he said the same thing. Clunky UI/controls + dated graphics (he's been in the beta for SW:TOR for a while). In all honesty, I could easily put up with the dated graphics. I do understand that for an MMO you have to appeal to the largest possible market as a business model (I have a 6800 series card sitting under my bed that is dying for some play time... not that I have a motherboard to use it with). What I can't put up with is the meeh feel to the UI/controls. It really just does not seem that fluid to me (the last MMO I played was RIFT and I haven't played that in months... but it definitely seemed more fluid than SW).

On a high note, SW did not seem to be nearly as inefficient as Rift did. I experienced very little lag and my CPU wasn't pegged at 100% when there were a ton of other players around (something RIFT couldn't seem to avoid... and it's not exactly a slow processor). The spells and abilities that my character had seemed to be pretty cool / well thought out. I actually liked the sith inquisitor story line... but then again I'm not a huge SW fan to begin with so I have no arguments with the game vs movie "lore."

Note: please don't let my personal opinion cause anyone to NOT try the beta / retail game. I feel that they have done enough "right" to at least give it a shot. This isn't a B title by any means, I just don't feel that it lived up to the "hype" that I had in my head for it!

I am still torn on whether or not I will play. I still think SWG was a better game for me so I have hope for the emulator once SOE kills SWG next month. Nevertheless, my brothers and friends are playing so I may cave and play.

 

[zinfamous]

If you care about graphics and MMO, then wait for GW2.

I will probably play TOR at some point, probably when there is a nice sale, and maybe for a month or so because I will only care about the story, I think. Hopefully, it isn't completely wrecked.

If GW2 is anything like the first, expect a shitty and useless story--but great eye candy.

 

[badb0y]

It worked for Blizzard...

Seriously though - this is the designated graphical style of the game. If the textures and such are of that much importance to you, you should be playing whatever incarnation of Crysis you choose and ignore the gameplay and/or storytelling of whatever title you choose. Or better yet, just go walk around an art gallery for a while.

I played WoW for 4 years....from 2004 to 2008 so I know that companies want to have the broadest audience for their products so they dumb down the graphics and even then I think WoW has better graphics then this game lol.

 

[paperfist]

The graphics look fine, I think it's the style that makes them look dated. WoW's are bright and colorful, ToR is dark and gloomy.

 

[velillen]

i think the on planet graphics look just fine. For a game that has to cater to everyone it looks decent ot me (even for a beta). I will say though the only thing that has made me go wow thats horrid graphics wise is the galaxy map in your ship. Wow that is ugly and annoying.

 

[cecco]

I have to agree that graphics are fine. One also needs to keep in mind they designed with an art style in mind instead of a realistic look. I will concede that something that WoW still excels at is the animation. Character motions are well done and look natural. I imagine that is a result of using a low polygon count.

 

[Wuzup101]

I do agree with the above. I really think it's the art style that (for better or worse) makes the graphics look more dated than they might actually be (they still are dated).

 

[Ross Ridge]

I'm kind suprised by the people who say they're going to cancel their pre-orders over there beta experience. Graphics, UI, and gameplay are all about what I expected them to be. I'm not sure why you'd expect anything different. Are the FMV teaser trailers fooling people into thinking that the actual in-game graphics would look that good?

Anyways, I've run into the apparently common problem of not being able to play my existing character from the last beta weekend I was invited to. I'm not all that interested in running up another character up to level 10, I'm more iterested in seeing the game past then.

 

[RedArmy]

I can just tell that every time I move/jump/strafe or do anything really that there's an ever so slight delay on it. I'm not a fan of the UI either for a few reasons that are more personal preference than anything. I have the graphics turned up all the way and I really did expect better for a game coming out at the end of 2011, regardless of how wide an audience they're trying to appealing to. It just doesn't do it for me personally. I really wanted to like it but I'll probably just wait for GW2 and if that doesn't impress either, I'll be waiting for MoP I suppose >_>

 

[Cheesetogo]

I played WoW for 4 years....from 2004 to 2008 so I know that companies want to have the broadest audience for their products so they dumb down the graphics and even then I think WoW has better graphics then this game lol.

Wow has better TEXTURES (on WOTLK and Cata content anyways). However, SWTOR's graphics are superior in pretty much every other way. The character models don't even begin to compare IMO.

Textures can be upgraded, as we've seen with WoW. I would expect to see higher quality textures for SWTOR in the future.

 

[ockky]

I'm kind suprised by the people who say they're going to cancel their pre-orders over there beta experience. Graphics, UI, and gameplay are all about what I expected them to be. I'm not sure why you'd expect anything different. Are the FMV teaser trailers fooling people into thinking that the actual in-game graphics would look that good?

i completely agree with this.

I can just tell that every time I move/jump/strafe or do anything really that there's an ever so slight delay on it.

yesterday when the servers opened, at the start area, my fps were horrendous. i was really skeptical (since i've got quite the beefy rig) that i was going to enjoy the game. that said, today, the game is smooth as butter and am constantly sitting at 60fps (i use vsync). i experience zero delay/lag as you describe above. just saying this as you may want to try again?

 

[paperfist]

So is there and anandtech clan?

 

[Merad]

Don't think so. I've just been playing wherever the queue is shortest right now.

 

[s44]

Yeah, I'm thinking we should start an AT-on-TOR thread alongside this general one. Maybe for launch.

 

[Merad]

Has anyone heard if they're going to have any RP servers? If so I'll probably end up on a PVE-RP server.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I signed up on SWTOR.com, and then I couldn't login. It turned out that if you use the maximum possible password length on their site when you sign up, you cannot login. I had to reset my password several times, and only was finally able to login to their site once I used a shorter (more insecure) password.

I got a beta code from http://massively.enjin.com/torgiveaway , and when I try to enter it, it first says that I'm registering for :

By redeeming this code, you are now registered for the following: 
STAR WARS: The Old Republic BETA Test (Event 1)
STAR WARS: The Old Republic BETA Test (Event 1) .

But when I click "Continue", I get:

Message not found

Clicking "Continue" from that screen, just takes me back to the previous screen.

So is it too late to redeem a beta-test code for this weekend?

 

[paperfist]

I'm not 100% sure if you can at this point, but the way it worked last week is when you enter in the beta code nothing really happens other then the first screen you got. A week later they send you and email telling you that you are in beta and to respond to the link to accept. After that they send you a confirmation email that you confirmed you want to test. And finally you get an email with client download instructions. So it's a process that takes a week.

The other side of the coin is it's a 16+ GB download so I think you'd miss the beta for today. I think this is the final one as I didn't see any posts indicating they are extending it another week.

 

[KeithTalent]

I would guess you are too late, considering how they were scheduling all of the invitations.

Did you put in your security questions on your account? You can't really do much until you put those questions in place.

KT