On a serious note, the crafting system on TOR is by far one of the best, if not THE Best, I have ever seen in any MMO, its truly unique and awesome the way they did it.
Actually, the guild crafters I know think the SEToR crafting system is inferior to what was done both for EQII and in SWG. It basically comes across as a vendor system (much like STO and WoW); and you can't really craft that mch that you'd want to use leveling up. YMMV.
Actually, the guild crafters I know think the SEToR crafting system is inferior to what was done both for EQII and in SWG. It basically comes across as a vendor system (much like STO and WoW); and you can't really craft that mch that you'd want to use leveling up. YMMV.
However, I believe that its single-player roots prevent it from reaching the best multiplayer aspirations. Conversely, it'll never be as good a singleplayer game due to its MMO branding.
SWTOR is a jack-of-all-trades, a great game, and finely crafted--especially for a launch-date MMO. This game really does feel like a solid 1-2 expansions along-in-the-dev-cycle MMO.
I must admit that TOR has more than peaked my interest and I have been considering picking it up; however, I learned that they are not offering a Lifetime membership so Im not sure it will be worth it for me.
I guess I could always wait it out to see what the future holds for TOR but Ive never been one that likes the month to month or blocks of months subscription options.
I must admit that TOR has more than peaked my interest and I have been considering picking it up; however, I learned that they are not offering a Lifetime membership so Im not sure it will be worth it for me.
I guess I could always wait it out to see what the future holds for TOR but Ive never been one that likes the month to month or blocks of months subscription options.
I think the mistake people make is thinking about MMOs as permanent fixtures - and that's probably why they get so upset by them. They're really not permanent in any manner. It's not a car payment. You can buy the game, play your free month, throw 1 more month of paid subscription into it and you're out roughly $65.00 - about the same amount as a console game that you'd play for a couple of months. Then you can just come and go as you please.
The beauty of month-to-month is that you don't have to keep subscribing. You can drop out of 2-3 month pop back in for a month, and only have to pay when you feel like playing. You never have to feel like it's necessary that they keep providing constant updates just because you paid all up-front. With month-to-month when you've done it all you can leave. With an LTS all you can do is rage against the machine.
On a serious note, the crafting system on TOR is by far one of the best, if not THE Best, I have ever seen in any MMO, its truly unique and awesome the way they did it.
The crafting system is generic. The fact they added pets that can retrieve items doesn't make it innovative.
EQ2 had more gameplay-like crafting.
SWG had truly customizable crafting.
Sub or FTP entirely depends on the economy. All the smaller companies aren't going FTP because they want to. They're doing it because the industry is in decline due to the international economy. WoW reported in their November update they have now lost 2 million subscribers (from 12 mil to 10.3 in the report) in less then 2 years. The economy is affecting everyone in the industry. In 6 months when the SWTOR novelty wears off the direction they'll go will entirely depend on the direction the economy goes. It was the Bioware execs who stated SWTOR had to maintain 1 million subscribers to make profit. Whether or not they do will depend on how much expendable cash people have in the future.
I have. And I'm focusing a lot on crafting, and the truth is that I virtually never use any of the stuff I'm crafting; commendations are easy to come by, and I get that gear quickly. By the time I can make anything of any worth, I've already equipped better. It looks like the best stuff for crafting isn't even remotely useful (at least within armstech) until endgame at about 400 skill.
Thankfully, there are people out there who still buy the stuff I make, and I have to admit I find the reverse-engineering thing interesting. I'd hardly call this crafting system anything amounting to "good," let alone the best I've seen in an MMO. I agree with a previous poster, it's generic. (Disclaimer: it's allowed to be generic.)
I crafted in beta. The one thing that was nice is you could double your crafting speed by using both companions to make stuff, but in general, it IS a WoW style crafting system (advance by making stuff, buy more recpies, find nodes or send you companions out on resource gathering missions that arre essentially "Pay currency for crafting mats with a timer thrown in.) I got a Jedi Setinel to 28 and a Jedi Consular to 25 in my time in beta (Isubmitted a lot of bug reports, and honestly took my time and didn't try to power level and got casught by a few character server wipes too.)
Who Says Star Wars: The Old Republic Will Inevitably Go Free-to-Play?
With the assumption that BioWare's new subscription-based massively multiplayer online Star Wars role-playing game will one day succumb to the dark side of free-to-play running rampant, commenter Odin believes The Old Republic could flourish under the archaic monthly model in today's Speak Up on Kotaku.
I honestly don't know where people have inherited this bizarre notion that free-to-play is somehow an inherently more profitable model for MMO's to follow and so it's somehow "inevitable" that The Old Republic is either going to follow suit or die out. Free-to-play CAN be more profitable, but a subscription model can also be more profitable and there are plenty of examples of both models producing successful and profitable MMO's as well as unsuccessful and unprofitable ones.
A lot of the games I see rolled out as shining examples of the glorious model that is free-to-play are games that never achieved any significant popularity (Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, DC Universe Online, etc) during their time as subscription based MMO's. Or more precisely they were mostly flops that just couldn't compete with the other sub based MMO's out there (most prominently World of Warcraft, but also including games like EVE and Final Fantasy XI). Naturally they're going to flourish better under a F2P model if they couldn't succeed under a subscription model.
They forgot to include the now Semi-Defunct STO that barely lasted 2yrs into its existence before succumbing to the F2P Darkside.
Whats saving this Starship is its diehard fanbase, unfortunately; even that could not save STO from going from subscription to F2P. The question is: Will STO remain in the arms of PWE a year and 1/2 from now. That is if the game does not take off in F2P mode. Meaning a diminishing or lack of new players. I have a horrible feeling that it will just be a novelty game for F2Players, poke their heads in, buy an item or so, get bored and move on to greener pasture
The only time I logged into STO since I got TOR was when the TOR server went down for routine maintenance. And presto when it came back up half the game wasn't broken (unlike every time STO gets patched lol)
They forgot to include the now Semi-Defunct STO that barely lasted 2yrs into its existence before succumbing to the F2P Darkside.
Whats saving this Starship is its diehard fanbase, unfortunately; even that could not save STO from going from subscription to F2P. The question is: Will STO remain in the arms of PWE a year and 1/2 from now. That is if the game does not take off in F2P mode. Meaning a diminishing or lack of new players. I have a horrible feeling that it will just be a novelty game for F2Players, poke their heads in, buy an item or so, get bored and move on to greener pasture
The reason MMOs are going F2P is because for ANY MMO sans WoW (and sorry until SWToR boast 10.2 million subs it's not on the 'wildly successful MMO list - it may get tjhat level of success or it may not); DDO, amd LoTRO PROVED F2P is MORE PROFITABLE for the developers and investors hands down. For YEARS western MMO developers thought the model would never be accepted here; and if DDO hadn't done well enoough that Turbine wanted to try it with LoTRO - and then LoTRO had not seen a similar result; I doubt any other western MMO developers would have given it a try.
Now that more have, they're all seeing the same thing - overall it brings in more cash; and that's the bottom line for ALL these games.
The fact that WoW recently UPPED its free trial to Level 20, and also EXPANDED the features and things available to its free trial users shows that even Blizzard noticed the trend;, but still with 10 million+ paying subs around the world; they don't see the need to switch as they're still bringoing in more money then some small countries.
The 'die hard' fanbase isn't the only thing keeping STO going - it WAS profitable prior to F2P or Atari wouldn't have been able to sell the company (and property) to PWE for 50 just under 50 million U.S. and PWE wouldn'tr be dumping more development ,money into it and staffing up Cryptic to continue running and developing it.
If you use WoW as the poster game for "A sucessful MMO." - then realize EVERY Western developed MMO before and since has been a dismal failure - and even IF SWtoR does manage to retain 1 to 2 million suubs - that game would STILL be considered a 'failure' if WoW maintains 10+ million subs in the same timeftrame.
...If you use WoW as the poster game for "A sucessful MMO." - then realize EVERY Western developed MMO before and since has been a dismal failure - and even IF SWtoR does manage to retain 1 to 2 million suubs - that game would STILL be considered a 'failure' if WoW maintains 10+ million subs in the same timeftrame.
Two things WOW have going for it:
A) Popularity in regards to both the genre and lore
Time which = to Longevity
There is no doubt in my mind that ST:TOR will retain 2 million subs and gain even more, for the mere fact that if we match it to WOW:
A) Star Wars Popularity is huge and it has it in spades - and Yes I even dare say it is perhaps more popular than Star Trek itself. - (NOTE: for the record, I love Star Trek more than Star Wars)
TOR just launched, as long as they don't TRIBBLE up the formula like Sony did to Star Wars Galaxy (But then again we're talking about SONY here) - I can guarantee ST:TOR will have longevity - I'm sure Bioware is a creative enough company that care about the quality of their product and the quality of the service - Unlike, um hum... Cryptic.
As far as STO being profitable: Atari probably knew it was eventually going to take a dive, or else they wouldn't have sold the rights. Its mainly called business maneuvering. PWE just got its hands on STO and would be wise for them to pump money into a newly bought investment. However; that being said, they are going to expect an even bigger return in terms of profits. Thats the crux of the matter.
For if PWE is expecting even a greater amount of profit through the F2P model, then its a good chance they will be disappointed after 2yrs into it or less. I do mean a good chance, because if STO is not able to draw in the F2Players and maintain them, then I can see a foreseeable problem.
If you use WoW as the poster game for "A sucessful MMO." - then realize EVERY Western developed MMO before and since has been a dismal failure - and even IF SWtoR does manage to retain 1 to 2 million suubs - that game would STILL be considered a 'failure' if WoW maintains 10+ million subs in the same timeftrame.
Nah. WoW is the poster game for a successful MMO. If others would beat it, they would probably get their own posters.
Just because [insert recent top model name] the poster of a beautiful woman doesn't mean that woman not quite as good looking are ugly beasts. Nor does not having as much money as Warren Buffet makes Karl Albrecht (ALDI Group) a poor beggar.
As far as STO being profitable: Atari probably knew it was eventually going to take a dive, or else they wouldn't have sold the rights. Its mainly called business maneuvering. PWE just got its hands on STO and would be wise for them to pump money into a newly bought investment. However; that being said, they are going to expect an even bigger return in terms of profits. Thats the crux of the matter.
Atari, as a corporation, was in deep financial trouble. The fact that they had to borrow $40 million to buy and fund Cryptic did not help that matter at all.They were fighting off lawsuits, debt, and a terrible economy; all of which led them to selling the only asset they had of any value in the hopes of saving their company. They didn't sell Cryptic because they knew it was going to be a failure. They sold it because it was the only thing they had that anyone wanted to buy.
For if PWE is expecting even a greater amount of profit through the F2P model, then its a good chance they will be disappointed after 2yrs into it or less. I do mean a good chance, because if STO is not able to draw in the F2Players and maintain them, then I can see a foreseeable problem.
PWE is a FTP expert. In a very short number of years they've made a lot of money even in a down world economy; enough money to actually start buying back their stock offerings. They're not a rinky-dink company even if you're not familiar with them. You might not like the fact that your game is going FTP but that does not mean that F2P will not bring more players into the game. The Asian market is huge - and also accounts for 2/3s of WoW's income. At the end of the day more people means more money and more money means more advancements and content.
They forgot to include the now Semi-Defunct STO that barely lasted 2yrs into its existence before succumbing to the F2P Darkside.
Whats saving this Starship is its diehard fanbase, unfortunately; even that could not save STO from going from subscription to F2P. The question is: Will STO remain in the arms of PWE a year and 1/2 from now. That is if the game does not take off in F2P mode. Meaning a diminishing or lack of new players. I have a horrible feeling that it will just be a novelty game for F2Players, poke their heads in, buy an item or so, get bored and move on to greener pasture
I've said it before and I'll say it again - if a game is worth paying a monthly sub for, people will happily pay it. 10 million people can't all be wrong. A lot of countries have a lesser population than the World of Warcraft lol
Do you know why I rate that game so highly? Because they hired a large team of professional historians to write the lore for it, based on real-world mythologies and legends. Quality writing for the win.
The Metacrtic Site User scores are interesting (and I tend to lend more weight to Metacritic user scores as the main metacritic sciores are doone by magazine reviers; and the bigger the company footprint in gaming circles the better that score REGARDLESS of what the actual players are saying.)
5+ years in development and 150 - 350 million spent in development (depending on who's reports you read) for a 6.2/6.1 User score. Methinks SWToR may not be the new MMO juggernaut in a few months unless EA/BioWare really manage to do something that really hooks users; and going by the forums - the dissatisfaction is about as bad as any other MMO out there.
It'll be interesting to see where subscription retention numbers for SWToR are afyter the first 6 months or so. They could pull a WoW and turn things around, or it could end up being SWG Version 2.0. Time will tell.
The Metacrtic Site User scores are interesting (and I tend to lend more weight to Metacritic user scores as the main metacritic sciores are doone by magazine reviers; and the bigger the company footprint in gaming circles the better that score REGARDLESS of what the actual players are saying.)
5+ years in development and 150 - 350 million spent in development (depending on who's reports you read) for a 6.2/6.1 User score. Methinks SWToR may not be the new MMO juggernaut in a few months unless EA/BioWare really manage to do something that really hooks users; and going by the forums - the dissatisfaction is about as bad as any other MMO out there.
It'll be interesting to see where subscription retention numbers for SWToR are afyter the first 6 months or so. They could pull a WoW and turn things around, or it could end up being SWG Version 2.0. Time will tell.
That Metacritic link was very intesting.
I have never really given "The Critics" much of any respect, mostly due to the either "thumbs up, thumbs down" responses without giving any real detail about their responses, and the Metacritic "Critic Reviews" are further proof of this.
When the Critic Reviews and the User Reviews show big differance then you know there is something wrong or untrue. When the Reviews are showing smiliar evaluations, then at least they show they were at least playing the same game.
Example: SW:TOR Critis score TOR as a 8.9 of 10 (i say it that way for the pairity in numbers from 89 of 100) while the User score is 6.2. A 2.7 scoring differrence, so something doesn't quite jive.
STO Critics score STO 6.6 while the User score 6.0. A .6 difference, so the reviews mostly jive.
Reverse engineering adds a layer to crafting that I hadn't expected: the ability to get new recipes from the junk you grind through--and to reclaim crafting mats to make others.
They are both beautiful games, and at this point I love them equally.
That said, Cryptic is my all time hero for their great character creator and the naming system they have. It is so nice to be able to name your character without worrying if someone you probably will never meet in the game beat you to it or not. I am also a big fan of the 1 server to rule them all, but I do appreciate the scale of TOR.
They are both beautiful games, and at this point I love them equally.
That said, Cryptic is my all time hero for their great character creator and the naming system they have. It is so nice to be able to name your character without worrying if someone you probably will never meet in the game beat you to it or not. I am also a big fan of the 1 server to rule them all, but I do appreciate the scale of TOR.
Got to go... Locutus has some more Jedi to kill.
I agree. Neither game directly competes with one another, when you consider how their features are different.
I just wish pvp was balanced in TOR. Other than that and boring railshooter, TOR is my new favorite MMO...STO would have been my favorite still if I wasn't stabbed in the back and kicked in the teeth so many times. :rolleyes:
I just wish pvp was balanced in TOR. Other than that and boring railshooter, TOR is my new favorite MMO...STO would have been my favorite still if I wasn't stabbed in the back and kicked in the teeth so many times. :rolleyes:
Agreed. I just dumped 200k on crafting. It's great fun. I think I've reverse engineered fifty improved recipes.
PvP in SWTOR lacks diminished returns on CC. I have two player CC (one short, another AoE and long--both fragile) but only one counter. In PvP matches, CC is all over the place. It's awful.
SWTOR also lacks brackets for PvP. I just encountered a level 50 in Champion PvP gear. My 39 Operative stood no chance, despite him playing a smuggler as well.
Agreed. I just dumped 200k on crafting. It's great fun. I think I've reverse engineered fifty improved recipes.
PvP in SWTOR lacks diminished returns on CC. I have two player CC (one short, another AoE and long--both fragile) but only one counter. In PvP matches, CC is all over the place. It's awful.
SWTOR also lacks brackets for PvP. I just encountered a level 50 in Champion PvP gear. My 39 Operative stood no chance, despite him playing a smuggler as well.
On Canderous Ordo about 80% of the imperial pvp community (well at least the "normals" ) are level 50 or near it. Republic has only a few 50's.
So the great realisation set in... and SWTOR just turend out like many people said it would be to turn out... wow in SW skin...
This actually wouldn't be bad if they wouldn't have copied vanilla wow... thats 6 years to late....
And there are even come fundamental flaws with this game:
The 0.5 second lag that is caused by the engine (Everything you do, cast, mount etc. has a 0.5 delay and is related to the game engine). It makes the game fell ultra clunky... especial in PvP.. and ppl complained about STOs ground combat... this is like Pre crossfire STO ground combat with sticky sauce everywhere.
The enforcement of the ToS... srsly Bioware really ****s this up hard... People get banned for whispering to there friends the F-word (regardless of the context), they ban people for playing the market (aka buy low, sell high) and what not... hell they even ban you for playing there game... if you go to illum and you are not level 40+ you get banned if you participate in any content there.... wth isn't it then locked if they don'T want low level players there?
So the great realisation set in... and SWTOR just turend out like many people said it would be to turn out... wow in SW skin...
This actually wouldn't be bad if they wouldn't have copied vanilla wow... thats 6 years to late....
And there are even come fundamental flaws with this game:
The 0.5 second lag that is caused by the engine (Everything you do, cast, mount etc. has a 0.5 delay and is related to the game engine). It makes the game fell ultra clunky... especial in PvP.. and ppl complained about STOs ground combat... this is like Pre crossfire STO ground combat with sticky sauce everywhere.
The enforcement of the ToS... srsly Bioware really ****s this up hard... People get banned for whispering to there friends the F-word (regardless of the context), they ban people for playing the market (aka buy low, sell high) and what not... hell they even ban you for playing there game... if you go to illum and you are not level 40+ you get banned if you participate in any content there.... wth isn't it then locked if they don'T want low level players there?
Some of what you're saying is true but some of it is patently false.
Illum had a massive exploit that allows people to ferry low level players to capture points allowing for quick turn overs and loot (as well as powerleveling and gear for low level, opposing faction alt). I believe Bioware hotfixed it--but those Illum bases stem from that.
That said, the 0.5 delay is in addition to the animation issues where an animation is longer than the ability cast time, meaning you can use another ability but it won't go off during this window. It's a huge error and possible on every class (especially bad on healers).
Comments
Actually, the guild crafters I know think the SEToR crafting system is inferior to what was done both for EQII and in SWG. It basically comes across as a vendor system (much like STO and WoW); and you can't really craft that mch that you'd want to use leveling up. YMMV.
So you never actually crafted yourself?
The sad part is you're right.
Worry, I won't.
However, I believe that its single-player roots prevent it from reaching the best multiplayer aspirations. Conversely, it'll never be as good a singleplayer game due to its MMO branding.
SWTOR is a jack-of-all-trades, a great game, and finely crafted--especially for a launch-date MMO. This game really does feel like a solid 1-2 expansions along-in-the-dev-cycle MMO.
I guess I could always wait it out to see what the future holds for TOR but Ive never been one that likes the month to month or blocks of months subscription options.
I think the mistake people make is thinking about MMOs as permanent fixtures - and that's probably why they get so upset by them. They're really not permanent in any manner. It's not a car payment. You can buy the game, play your free month, throw 1 more month of paid subscription into it and you're out roughly $65.00 - about the same amount as a console game that you'd play for a couple of months. Then you can just come and go as you please.
The beauty of month-to-month is that you don't have to keep subscribing. You can drop out of 2-3 month pop back in for a month, and only have to pay when you feel like playing. You never have to feel like it's necessary that they keep providing constant updates just because you paid all up-front. With month-to-month when you've done it all you can leave. With an LTS all you can do is rage against the machine.
The crafting system is generic. The fact they added pets that can retrieve items doesn't make it innovative.
EQ2 had more gameplay-like crafting.
SWG had truly customizable crafting.
SWTOR is WOW crafting with DOFF-like additions.
http://kotaku.com/5870070/who-says-star-wars-the-old-republic-will-inevitably-go-free+to+play
I have. And I'm focusing a lot on crafting, and the truth is that I virtually never use any of the stuff I'm crafting; commendations are easy to come by, and I get that gear quickly. By the time I can make anything of any worth, I've already equipped better. It looks like the best stuff for crafting isn't even remotely useful (at least within armstech) until endgame at about 400 skill.
Thankfully, there are people out there who still buy the stuff I make, and I have to admit I find the reverse-engineering thing interesting. I'd hardly call this crafting system anything amounting to "good," let alone the best I've seen in an MMO. I agree with a previous poster, it's generic. (Disclaimer: it's allowed to be generic.)
I crafted in beta. The one thing that was nice is you could double your crafting speed by using both companions to make stuff, but in general, it IS a WoW style crafting system (advance by making stuff, buy more recpies, find nodes or send you companions out on resource gathering missions that arre essentially "Pay currency for crafting mats with a timer thrown in.) I got a Jedi Setinel to 28 and a Jedi Consular to 25 in my time in beta (Isubmitted a lot of bug reports, and honestly took my time and didn't try to power level and got casught by a few character server wipes too.)
They forgot to include the now Semi-Defunct STO that barely lasted 2yrs into its existence before succumbing to the F2P Darkside.
Whats saving this Starship is its diehard fanbase, unfortunately; even that could not save STO from going from subscription to F2P. The question is: Will STO remain in the arms of PWE a year and 1/2 from now. That is if the game does not take off in F2P mode. Meaning a diminishing or lack of new players. I have a horrible feeling that it will just be a novelty game for F2Players, poke their heads in, buy an item or so, get bored and move on to greener pasture
The reason MMOs are going F2P is because for ANY MMO sans WoW (and sorry until SWToR boast 10.2 million subs it's not on the 'wildly successful MMO list - it may get tjhat level of success or it may not); DDO, amd LoTRO PROVED F2P is MORE PROFITABLE for the developers and investors hands down. For YEARS western MMO developers thought the model would never be accepted here; and if DDO hadn't done well enoough that Turbine wanted to try it with LoTRO - and then LoTRO had not seen a similar result; I doubt any other western MMO developers would have given it a try.
Now that more have, they're all seeing the same thing - overall it brings in more cash; and that's the bottom line for ALL these games.
The fact that WoW recently UPPED its free trial to Level 20, and also EXPANDED the features and things available to its free trial users shows that even Blizzard noticed the trend;, but still with 10 million+ paying subs around the world; they don't see the need to switch as they're still bringoing in more money then some small countries.
The 'die hard' fanbase isn't the only thing keeping STO going - it WAS profitable prior to F2P or Atari wouldn't have been able to sell the company (and property) to PWE for 50 just under 50 million U.S. and PWE wouldn'tr be dumping more development ,money into it and staffing up Cryptic to continue running and developing it.
If you use WoW as the poster game for "A sucessful MMO." - then realize EVERY Western developed MMO before and since has been a dismal failure - and even IF SWtoR does manage to retain 1 to 2 million suubs - that game would STILL be considered a 'failure' if WoW maintains 10+ million subs in the same timeftrame.
Two things WOW have going for it:
A) Popularity in regards to both the genre and lore
There is no doubt in my mind that ST:TOR will retain 2 million subs and gain even more, for the mere fact that if we match it to WOW:
A) Star Wars Popularity is huge and it has it in spades - and Yes I even dare say it is perhaps more popular than Star Trek itself. - (NOTE: for the record, I love Star Trek more than Star Wars)
As far as STO being profitable: Atari probably knew it was eventually going to take a dive, or else they wouldn't have sold the rights. Its mainly called business maneuvering. PWE just got its hands on STO and would be wise for them to pump money into a newly bought investment. However; that being said, they are going to expect an even bigger return in terms of profits. Thats the crux of the matter.
For if PWE is expecting even a greater amount of profit through the F2P model, then its a good chance they will be disappointed after 2yrs into it or less. I do mean a good chance, because if STO is not able to draw in the F2Players and maintain them, then I can see a foreseeable problem.
Just because [insert recent top model name] the poster of a beautiful woman doesn't mean that woman not quite as good looking are ugly beasts. Nor does not having as much money as Warren Buffet makes Karl Albrecht (ALDI Group) a poor beggar.
PWE is a FTP expert. In a very short number of years they've made a lot of money even in a down world economy; enough money to actually start buying back their stock offerings. They're not a rinky-dink company even if you're not familiar with them. You might not like the fact that your game is going FTP but that does not mean that F2P will not bring more players into the game. The Asian market is huge - and also accounts for 2/3s of WoW's income. At the end of the day more people means more money and more money means more advancements and content.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - if a game is worth paying a monthly sub for, people will happily pay it. 10 million people can't all be wrong. A lot of countries have a lesser population than the World of Warcraft lol
Do you know why I rate that game so highly? Because they hired a large team of professional historians to write the lore for it, based on real-world mythologies and legends. Quality writing for the win.
STO Metacritic User Score: 6.0 (link)
SWToR Metacritic User Score: 6.2 [Although it's listed as 6.1 farther down on the Current PC Games List when soprted by user score] (link)
5+ years in development and 150 - 350 million spent in development (depending on who's reports you read) for a 6.2/6.1 User score. Methinks SWToR may not be the new MMO juggernaut in a few months unless EA/BioWare really manage to do something that really hooks users; and going by the forums - the dissatisfaction is about as bad as any other MMO out there.
It'll be interesting to see where subscription retention numbers for SWToR are afyter the first 6 months or so. They could pull a WoW and turn things around, or it could end up being SWG Version 2.0. Time will tell.
That Metacritic link was very intesting.
I have never really given "The Critics" much of any respect, mostly due to the either "thumbs up, thumbs down" responses without giving any real detail about their responses, and the Metacritic "Critic Reviews" are further proof of this.
When the Critic Reviews and the User Reviews show big differance then you know there is something wrong or untrue. When the Reviews are showing smiliar evaluations, then at least they show they were at least playing the same game.
Example: SW:TOR Critis score TOR as a 8.9 of 10 (i say it that way for the pairity in numbers from 89 of 100) while the User score is 6.2. A 2.7 scoring differrence, so something doesn't quite jive.
STO Critics score STO 6.6 while the User score 6.0. A .6 difference, so the reviews mostly jive.
Reverse engineering adds a layer to crafting that I hadn't expected: the ability to get new recipes from the junk you grind through--and to reclaim crafting mats to make others.
TOR gets ground combat and full voice over.
They are both beautiful games, and at this point I love them equally.
That said, Cryptic is my all time hero for their great character creator and the naming system they have. It is so nice to be able to name your character without worrying if someone you probably will never meet in the game beat you to it or not. I am also a big fan of the 1 server to rule them all, but I do appreciate the scale of TOR.
Got to go... Locutus has some more Jedi to kill.
I agree. Neither game directly competes with one another, when you consider how their features are different.
Agreed. I just dumped 200k on crafting. It's great fun. I think I've reverse engineered fifty improved recipes.
PvP in SWTOR lacks diminished returns on CC. I have two player CC (one short, another AoE and long--both fragile) but only one counter. In PvP matches, CC is all over the place. It's awful.
SWTOR also lacks brackets for PvP. I just encountered a level 50 in Champion PvP gear. My 39 Operative stood no chance, despite him playing a smuggler as well.
On Canderous Ordo about 80% of the imperial pvp community (well at least the "normals" ) are level 50 or near it. Republic has only a few 50's.
This actually wouldn't be bad if they wouldn't have copied vanilla wow... thats 6 years to late....
And there are even come fundamental flaws with this game:
The 0.5 second lag that is caused by the engine (Everything you do, cast, mount etc. has a 0.5 delay and is related to the game engine). It makes the game fell ultra clunky... especial in PvP.. and ppl complained about STOs ground combat... this is like Pre crossfire STO ground combat with sticky sauce everywhere.
The enforcement of the ToS... srsly Bioware really ****s this up hard... People get banned for whispering to there friends the F-word (regardless of the context), they ban people for playing the market (aka buy low, sell high) and what not... hell they even ban you for playing there game... if you go to illum and you are not level 40+ you get banned if you participate in any content there.... wth isn't it then locked if they don'T want low level players there?
Illum had a massive exploit that allows people to ferry low level players to capture points allowing for quick turn overs and loot (as well as powerleveling and gear for low level, opposing faction alt). I believe Bioware hotfixed it--but those Illum bases stem from that.
That said, the 0.5 delay is in addition to the animation issues where an animation is longer than the ability cast time, meaning you can use another ability but it won't go off during this window. It's a huge error and possible on every class (especially bad on healers).