RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

TheLastCandle · **03-12-2014, 05:26 PM**

The quest grind in SWTOR is exactly the same as it is in World of Warcraft or any similar MMO made in the last decade, with the addition of fully-voiced dialogue. After a while, the novelty wears off and non-story quests become even more of a chore because of the extra time taken up by the dialogue trees. I can read much faster than the NPCs speak, so if it wasn't related to the story, I found myself skipping through these non-essential voice-overs at a pretty fair clip. On some of the more quest-heavy planets (I'm looking at YOU, Taris) I wondered just how much longer the planet was going to drag on. This was compounded by the fact that most quests give a pithy amount of experience, meaning you pretty much have to do most if not all of the quests if you want to be at an appreciable level for the next planet.

SWTOR does some things right, though. Battle animations, for the most part, are done extremely well. I loved seeing my friend's Jedi expertly parry a blaster bolt behind his back, or perform a flourish when finishing an enemy with a lightsaber strike. My smuggler rolling behind a rise for cover before returning blaster fire made PVE pretty satisfying, from a cinematic point of view. The recent Galactic Starfighter added open-ended PvP dogfights, which is something that should've been in the game from the get-go, and is hopefully a step towards some free-roaming travel by flight. Some of the class stories (Smuggler, Imperial Agent, and what I played of Bounty Hunter) are pretty exceptional and are where SWTOR really shines as a game that otherwise lacks truly unique features outside of the focus on story.

Going back to the topic of RP, here's a bit of irony for you. In my experience, SWTOR's stories were actually somewhat detrimental to the community in that far, FAR too many players were roleplaying as if the events of their given class's story happened to their characters IC.

Anyway, it's great that you're having fun in SWTOR. Enjoy the story, and be sure to tell groups beforehand that you want to see the conversation parts in flashpoints if you're doing them for the first time. A lot of players in the party finder are going to be bugging you left and right to "spacebar through" everything.

I'll be interested to hear how you feel about SWTOR after playing it for a month or two.

Ignacius · **03-12-2014, 05:44 PM**

(03-12-2014, 05:26 PM)TheLastCandle Wrote: The quest grind in SWTOR is exactly the same as it is in World of Warcraft or any similar MMO made in the last decade, with the addition of fully-voiced dialogue. After a while, the novelty wears off and non-story quests become even more of a chore because of the extra time taken up by the dialogue trees. I can read much faster than the NPCs speak, so if it wasn't related to the story, I found myself skipping through these non-essential voice-overs at a pretty fair clip. On some of the more quest-heavy planets (I'm looking at YOU, Taris) I wondered just how much longer the planet was going to drag on. This was compounded by the fact that most quests give a pithy amount of experience, meaning you pretty much have to do most if not all of the quests if you want to be at an appreciable level for the next planet.

SWTOR does some things right, though. Â Battle animations, for the most part, are done extremely well. I loved seeing my friend's Jedi expertly parry a blaster bolt behind his back, or perform a flourish when finishing an enemy with a lightsaber strike. My smuggler rolling behind a rise for cover before returning blaster fire made PVE pretty satisfying, from a cinematic point of view. The recent Galactic Starfighter added open-ended PvP dogfights, which is something that should've been in the game from the get-go, and is hopefully a step towards some free-roaming travel by flight. Some of the class stories (Smuggler, Imperial Agent, and what I played of Bounty Hunter) are pretty exceptional and are where SWTOR really shines as a game that otherwise lacks truly unique features outside of the focus on story.

Going back to the topic of RP, here's a bit of irony for you. In my experience, the stories were actually somewhat detrimental to the community in that far, FAR too many players were roleplaying as if the events of their given class's story happened to their characters IC.

Anyway, it's great that you're having fun. Enjoy the story, and be sure to tell groups beforehand that you want to see the conversation parts in flashpoints if you're doing them for the first time. A lot of players in the party finder are going to be bugging you left and right to "spacebar through" everything.

I'll be interested to hear how you feel about the game after playing it for a month or two.

To be fair, I do somewhat enjoy the story in FFXIV, it just is the kind of thing that seems to be happening to "another player". Â It certainly isn't happening to Orleans Ignacius, the Scions wouldn't touch him with a hundred foot pole and he doesn't seem like the kind of person who has supernatural empathy with other people. Â That's sort of my problem with stories in RPGs I RP in. Â No matter how good they are, they probably aren't about "my" character.

That said, I really enjoy FFXIV gameplay as well as setting. Â Particularly when I finally get to throw Life Surge into a True Thrust. Â There just isn't any other game I've felt as awesome in throwing in your average JRPG glowy weapon attack. Â They at least made the animations feel like they had some bollocks about them.

Also... I think I'm now spoiled. Â It's actually fun to craft stuff in FFXIV and to try to maximize your quality before your durability runs out. Â Crafting systems in other games just aren't as awesome.

Also, FATE quests are the best thing ever. Â I've never been so happy to have to dismount and be interrupted on my long ride to wherever.

FFXIV has a lot going for it.

TheLastCandle · **03-12-2014, 05:46 PM**

I probably should have clarified that everything in my post was about Star Wars: The Old Republic. xD

Magellan · **03-12-2014, 06:29 PM**

I think the entire point of this thread, and to reference Candle and Igna's last post is: the perfect mmo doesn't exist :c one person's trash is another persons treasure. I actually strongly disliked ffxiv's crafting system. My favorite so far has been gw2. That neat, compact, ACCOUNT WIDE storage system was drool-worthy o:

I guess the best we can hope for these days is an mmo that holds our attention 6 months or so. It just stinks having to leave friends and awesomme communities behind

TheLastCandle · **03-12-2014, 06:38 PM**

I think the only MMO I've actually purchased and haven't spent at least 6 months on was Neverwinter. Long-time fan of Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter Nights, so I was one of those people who actually spent money on the mid-tier starter pack. Never been more disappointed in an MMO.

Ignacius · **03-12-2014, 08:48 PM**

(03-12-2014, 06:38 PM)TheLastCandle Wrote: I think the only MMO I've actually purchased and haven't spent at least 6 months on was Neverwinter. Long-time fan of Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter Nights, so I was one of those people who actually spent money on the mid-tier starter pack. Never been more disappointed in an MMO.

Oh, oh was THAT the biggest disappointment you've ever had. Â At least YOU didn't always love Conan. Â YOU may not have watched the original movie at least twice a year. Â I bet YOU haven't read all the copies of the original Conan work done by Howard!

Okay, I should probably not be yelling at YOU so much in caps, it wasn't your fault that the Conan MMO fell flat on its face out of the gate.

But my God, the failure. Â The only RP server was FFA PVP. Â I would turn into a demon, then my hair would be gone because of a graphical glitch. Â You had no idea if you were in range as an assassin to stab someone, so you got as close as you could and prayed the hit engine worked. Â Chat tools were a joke. Â The story felt like they'd tried to make World of Conan. Â Combat was sloppy. Â Some renderings were gorgeous, others half-finished. Â Never have I thought a game was rushed too fast through production.

There's only one good point about Age of Conan, it didn't fill me with the kind of pure, unadulterated rage that the Shadowrun game did in 2007. Â There are no words that I can type here that would express my love of Shadowrun. Â The 2007 game completely ruined my hopes for a good Shadowrun video game. Â I heard the one they released last year was decent, but will it wash the stench of that 2007 game from my memories? Â I'm not sure.

Val · **03-12-2014, 09:04 PM**

The only thing really holding my interest so far in XIV is the RP. I, like many others, am pretty bored with end game content at the moment and I just wish there was more in the game to actually DO.

I've tried TESO, and it does little more than make me just want to play Skyrim =|

If I try anything at all, it'll be WildStar. Honestly, I feel I'm beginning to fall out of the desire to actually play MMOs. EverQuest Next looks pretty good, though.

TheLastCandle · **03-12-2014, 09:41 PM**

(03-12-2014, 08:48 PM)Ignacius Wrote:
(03-12-2014, 06:38 PM)TheLastCandle Wrote: I think the only MMO I've actually purchased and haven't spent at least 6 months on was Neverwinter. Long-time fan of Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter Nights, so I was one of those people who actually spent money on the mid-tier starter pack. Never been more disappointed in an MMO.

Oh, oh was THAT the biggest disappointment you've ever had. Â At least YOU didn't always love Conan. Â YOU may not have watched the original movie at least twice a year. Â I bet YOU haven't read all the copies of the original Conan work done by Howard!

Okay, I should probably not be yelling at YOU so much in caps, it wasn't your fault that the Conan MMO fell flat on its face out of the gate.

But my God, the failure. Â The only RP server was FFA PVP. Â I would turn into a demon, then my hair would be gone because of a graphical glitch. Â You had no idea if you were in range as an assassin to stab someone, so you got as close as you could and prayed the hit engine worked. Â Chat tools were a joke. Â The story felt like they'd tried to make World of Conan. Â Combat was sloppy. Â Some renderings were gorgeous, others half-finished. Â Never have I thought a game was rushed too fast through production.

There's only one good point about Age of Conan, it didn't fill me with the kind of pure, unadulterated rage that the Shadowrun game did in 2007. Â There are no words that I can type here that would express my love of Shadowrun. Â The 2007 game completely ruined my hopes for a good Shadowrun video game. Â I heard the one they released last year was decent, but will it wash the stench of that 2007 game from my memories? Â I'm not sure.

Ugh, don't remind me. I expected to (FINALLY!) find the first game since WeaponLord that properly captured the barbarian stories of my youth. Conan (the movie, the comics, the books), the Beastmaster, Barbarian Queen, Fire & Ice, Barbarians - and a pleasantly mature RP community with awesome PvP to boot.

What I found was a broken, boring mess of a game, and an "RP" community that mostly consisted of manchildren overly excited for digital boobs in game.

Koninbeor · **03-13-2014, 10:41 AM**

(03-12-2014, 06:38 PM)TheLastCandle Wrote: I think the only MMO I've actually purchased and haven't spent at least 6 months on was Neverwinter. Long-time fan of Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter Nights, so I was one of those people who actually spent money on the mid-tier starter pack. Never been more disappointed in an MMO.

I didn't have high hopes for Age of Conan like some of the others as it was during a time when the sole focus of MMOs was to attempt to dethrone WoW. I did have very high hopes for Neverwinter Online. I was going to purchase one of the founder packs until I got a chance to play a closed beta. I hated the game so much in more ways than I can list that I just wrote it off entirely.

I have ESO preordered for the PS4 but I'm hearing very mixed reviews on that. Luckily, it doesn't come out until July so I'll have time to cancel if the PC version is a flop.

TheLastCandle · **03-18-2014, 12:43 AM**

So, I uh.. *presses fingertips together awkwardly* ..playing Hearthstone made me all nostalgic, so I've reactivated my WoW account and dusted off my Dwarf Warrior. Currently gearing him up, but here he is: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/mo...orr/simple

So if, by some chance, anybody still plays on Moon Guard, I have characters on both sides who'd love to RP sometime. (The other being a Blood Elf Paladin/Blood Knight.) http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/mo...hor/simple

UltraFennec · **03-18-2014, 01:37 AM**

As much as I adored being a badass werewolf (why more games don't have that option I'll never know), I just can't bring myself to go back to World of Warcraft.Â

Even as much as I loved Guild Wars 2 (CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR. And Norns, I suppose. They were neat too), even it didn't hold my attention for that long thanks to the 'do EVERYTHING in this zone before moving to the next' gameplay mentality.

I'm not mainly an MMO player, so it needs to do something special, typically, to keep me hooked. Pantheon looks interesting because of its 'return to MMO roots' gameplay promises, and while I personally enjoyed Champions Online more than City of Heroes, I gotta say CoT sounds fun as heck.

Other than that though, FF14, like 11 before it, seems destined to be the second MMO that actually keeps my attention longer than an initial period of trial and error. Something about the way Square does it just...works for me.

ArmachiA · **03-20-2014, 06:16 PM**

On FFXIV: I still like the game, a lot. I am pretty patient with MMO's if they have one thing happening: Putting out content on a regular basis. When you start a brand new MMO (Which honestly I think most MMO players should NOT DO because they don't have the patience for the next part) you're putting in a Time/money investment on the Devs putting in content. Content isn't going to BE THERE the first year. It's just not. No MMO will ever have enough content to keep players happy right at release. They just won't. Patches later on will show what they plan to do and what their design theory is and that's important - but even THOSE patches will still lack some content because they will be playing catch up with their player base till probably the first expansion.

You play an MMO at the beginning, you are saying "I expect you to put in more content later and am paying the money to trust you will." and a lot of people just don't have the patience to wait.

A lot of MMO's I've played failed to deliver (Aion, no content patches in 6 months, TERA - same, TOR - small content patches, one dungeon per 3 month patch after a promise of one PLANET every three months, TSW too small and real content patches) but I love how the Devs are doing it in FFXIV. It makes me want to invest my time. 2.2 was a major content patch, 2.3 is also a major one, plus they do patches in between that are large and fix things as well. They are coming out when they said (Every three months), keeping the playerbase relatively informed (Not as well as WoW, but better than most Devs), Yoshi-P has a real passion for the game that is refreshing and seems to really understand the MMO community.

It really makes me want to stick around because I feel it's a worthwhile investment of my time. I know content is coming - something I can't guarantee from a lot of games on the market right now (Save WoW, but I'm so tired of WoW).

That being said, the only one that maayyybbe catching my eye is Wildstar, and that's ONLY because it's Science Fiction (My prefered Genre). I hate the art style, but I'll give it a whirl.

I'm forever waiting for World of Darkness (Which was how I got into Roleplaying at the tender age of 17) -- but I'm starting to believe it's nothing more than a pipedream of CCP.

I actually really like Age of Canon pre-20 when it launched. THe solo instances and the story were really fun... after 20 there was nothing and I felt tricked Sad

synaesthetic · **03-21-2014, 04:24 AM**

Squee's big problem with content is... well... Crystal Tower.

Why?

Because it's faceroll easy.

LotA/CT is so incredibly herpderp loltastic that it basically rendered 2.1 a non-patch. We got a laughably easy dungeon that you have to deal with psychotic trolls just to run, even if you queue with a full group--because apparently Squee's toasters are totally incapable of forming groups larger than 8 players--and even then it takes a grand total of maybe an hour to complete.

An hour. To complete the entire dungeon, even if your party is full of trolls, naked idiots with snowman heads and completely brainless fools. So that means that any patch where content is added to Crystal Tower--which means every other patch, by the way--is effectively Not a Thing. The onlyÂ reason why people are still running CT even now is the loot lockout mechanic--Square knew they had to add that or the dungeon's utilization would drop to basically 0% within a month.

CT is a problem. On the surface it's a neat design philosophy, with different stages and challenges to clear before moving onto the next part. But it's way, way, way, way too easy. The difficulty gap between CT and Coil is like the goddamned Grand Canyon--and I'm talking about Turn 1 and 2. The difference between Acheron and Twintania is so hilariously huge that it's like you're playing two totally different games. Hell, the final bosses of Copperbell and Haukke HM are tougher than Acheron!

Crystal Tower is wasted effort. If they want to make each content patch more meaningful, LotA and CT need their difficulty massively boosted. These dungeons should be between level 50 4-player dungeons and Coil in difficulty. Right now they're easier than anything but WP, CM and Prae.

I'd say the boss difficulty for CT needs to be at least that of the hardmode primals (minus Titan HM's lag-death that causes the fight to be much more difficult than intended) and Ultima HM. If pickup groups can clear Coil, they can handle a tougher (and ultimately more enjoyable) CT.

Oh and remove that stupid loot system, too. It's beyond inane. Have each boss drop gear tokens... kill bone dragon, get a glove or belt token, trade it for gloves or a belt at some NPC in Mor Dhona.

Ignacius · **03-21-2014, 08:15 AM**

(03-18-2014, 12:43 AM)TheLastCandle Wrote: So, I uh.. *presses fingertips together awkwardly* ..playing Hearthstone made me all nostalgic, so I've reactivated my WoW account and dusted off my Dwarf Warrior. Currently gearing him up, but here he is: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/mo...orr/simple

So if, by some chance, anybody still plays on Moon Guard, I have characters on both sides who'd love to RP sometime. (The other being a Blood Elf Paladin/Blood Knight.) http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/mo...hor/simple

RealID is [email protected] (just make sure you tell me in your RID message to me who you are and send me a message here that you're doing it, so I know it's you). Â I have a set of 11 across Moon Guard Alliance side. Â I've just gotten my new beast of a computer up and running, I just need to install Windows, update everything, and I'll be back to my WoW, FFXIV, and D3.

My WoW time might be limited until the release of Warlords, though. Â I really, really like FFXIV and I might be playing a lot of that first now that I have a machine that can muscle through the higher-end graphics.

Lost River · **03-21-2014, 01:19 PM**

For me, my second MMO other than FFXIV will be...

WILDSTAR!

I'm playing the beta; so much I actually bought the whole special edition! I'll be making a first impressions blog here soon on both sides. Hope you enjoy reading it! I'll post pretty pictures too!

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RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes