As I have shown in a previous article – Is “She” really a “She”? Female Gamers and Gender Bending in MMORPGs – 60 percent of MMO players have role-played. But, even among those who haven’t, I think most can say that they have happened upon that one gear set that really struck them as “perfect” for their character. Either it was perfectly menacing, evil, just, good, sweet, innocent or any one of a million different adjectives, but whatever it was that made it that way, it was perfect for their character.
According to Best Buy’s Gamer Magazine, “A Flashpoint mission will be available at level 10, 16, and then every four levels up to level 48, with two Flashpoints awarded at level 50.”
Is that too many? Too few? Just right? Are they too close together? Too far apart? Remember, once players reach Level 50, they can go back to each Flashpoint and do a Level 50 version of that Flashpoint according to the most recent information from BioWare. Let us know what you think.
The PDF of the swtor Article from Best Buy’s Gamer Magazine is located here.
Hey wait this is a Thursday you say? We don’t get news about SWTOR unless it’s Friday!
Even though we still got great news from Bioware today, via the official forums and Alyson Bridge we got the news that Phase 3 for guilds would be started with the first step of “Deployment”. There are guidelines and things that have changed in this latest installment so be sure to read it and discuss it here on the Official forums.
Here is what was said, better get your house in order guilds the clock is ticking….
This will be my second time at getting this post out. The first I went too much into how other games have handled macros in the past.
But after 3000+ words it was plain to see that other games can not and do not make a case for or against TOR having macros.
I’ve played many mmo’s in the past that have had no macros what so ever, then games like Ultima online and SWG which had vast amounts just so you could play the game. Without them your existence within the realm would result in constant pain and anger.
Yet the games that had macros needed them and without some sort of macro system the game was unplayable. Take Ultima Online. The lack of a skill-bar you have to make a macro for every spell, heal and simple things like mining.
Yet that game could see you complete a wealth of tasks that would run for hours just by the click of a button.
With my limited time with TOR, its clear that how other games handled macros has little to no relevance on how macros would be beneficial to the game.
So just looking at TOR what stands out first is the lack of an auto-attack and lets not forget that 1.5 seconds global cool down (GDC). Now you may think that 1.5 seconds ain’t too long, but let me tell you I can bash a skill an average of 3-4 times before the next skill shoots off.
This was at low levels with around 7 skills on my bar.
As far as mmo’s go time-sinks come in many forms. Raids, crafting, PvP and among the most popular. While these can be very entertaining and fun to boot, all they do is to serve one purpose and that is to keep the player playing.
This article will be complied from my knowledge of past mmo’s, and what information we have about how TOR will approach this.
Tonight via the @SWTOR account on twitter I was made aware that Bioware is advertising a sneak peek at the Friday update, a Developer Dispatch having to do with companions.
It is a great one in my opinion, over seven minutes of some of the developers talking about companions and the mechanics revolving around them. Such people as James Ohlen, Daniel Erickson, Georg Zhoeller, and more make this one of my favorite dev dispatches to date.
It is an interview done by Gamespot, very well done and full of information indeed. It talks about customization options, companions with levels and the ability to level them, and many more goodies. If you haven’t seen it yet I highly recommend going to see it or you could just wait till tomorrow……..
Today via a tweet on twitter from @Rockjaw (Stephen Reid) we were pointed to a official statement on the dev tracker regarding the inclusion of same gender romance arcs with your companions. The statement reads as follows,
Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.
Before I get into this anyone who whines about the CE being too expensive and are from the US “SCREW YOU ALL”.
*Rant Set To Maximum*
You already have one, if not the lowest priced CE additions on earth how dare you. You only pay $150, I’m paying £129, which is around $200. And then I’m a lot better off than those poor Australians who have great trouble just getting the game and after import tax and such are looking at over $300. So, stop it, right now.
Oh sweet summer, how I missed thee. And with the incessant humming of every AC unit in the neighborhood, I am reminded that we are one more season closer to a SWTOR launch. Well that, and that I’ll be paying through the nose on my next electricity bill… But as always, I digress.
Our very own MrWarlock penned a delightful piece highlighting the 10 updates he anticipated the most, and one of these got me thinking, specifically his thoughts on micro-transactions – what sorts of plans do you imagine BioWare might have cooked up for SWTOR in the MT (micro-transaction) department? Well, let’s take a look at what else has been done.
This is not just an opinion but a known fact, the best loot in-game should come from large group content END.
I could leave the statement like that and move on. But this is not my way, I will list pros and cons from both sides of the fence and push my hopes forward in the what I see as a better way forward for MMO’s on the whole.
What we know now, and I will stress to leave out as much WOW references as possible. for in my eye’s WOW broke the loot-tread-mill system to no end.
“Clears throat”
So what tends to happen in MMO’s atm is that the highest loot possible comes from end-game large raids.
You and your fellow gamers will run the same instance time and time again. With a small chance to drop your class specific items and you then you have a chance to roll on that very item. These are the best items you can find in-game and the only way to acquire them, is in those larger raid groups.
