I'm pretty sure at this point we are all aware of this game. Its been the largest source of MMO hype since Warhammer Online came out a few years ago. Last weekend was their final beta weekend, and the final game is slated to be released on Dec 20. With SWTOR racking up pre-orders at an alarming rate will STO be able to stay afloat? Or will it make like a straw hut in a tsunami?
Wait.. When did they start making a new Star Wars game?? Why have I never heard of this???
I would say if people want Space combat they will come here or eve online depending on there taste. For story line and content I would have to say SWTOR.
For myself tho after playing STO since Open Beta / Head start I have been REALLY REALLY board in STO, so I am really looking forward to a game that actually has something for me to do. Granted SWTOR's space combat is just a Rail Shooter but after trying it in the Beta I can live with that.
The other good thing is the life I can see the game having, You can make up to 8 character and be Sith or Jedi and each class has its own story and its all voice acted.
I will be here for F2P to get a space fix now and then would love to see a game with SWTOR ground combat and STO space combat that would be really good until then ill pay to play SWTOR and F2P on STO.
Add me to the list of people who really enjoyed playing a bit of SWTOR. I'll be hopping in as soon as I can -- hopefully on the 15th. That's not to say I don't like STO anymore. I have a lifetime sub here and I'm certainly planning on playing both.
What really draws me in is the story. I love good storyline -- it's what catches my interest, makes me want to play more, and just generally lends enjoyment to what would otherwise be, inevitably IMO, a series of repetitive tasks. All of these games will be that, at the core. That's the nature of a computer game. Computers run static programs. Those programs may be huge and complex, but they're still static algorithms, no matter what.
Anyway, I won't deny that SWTOR has it's weaknesses. Namely the customization (not enough, compared to a Cryptic game) and the space combat. But what I like about the story is far greater than any worries I have over the space game. Maybe they'll redo it with a more robust system later, maybe they won't. Either way, I'm having fun and that's all that matters to me. I always have STO here for some real space combat when I want it.
Right now, STO is just not doing it for me. They've shown that they CAN do good story with missions like 'City at the Edge of Never' and the FE series, IMO. But when all's said and done, the bottom line is that they -haven't- done any of those good story missions for almost a full year now. Yes, I know there were all sorts of extenuating circumstances, but when it comes right down to it -- where do I want to spend my time, the place with lots of fun plot to dive into, or the one with a handful of stories I've already played over and over -- it's not that hard a choice really.
I am not really sure what to expect for the future in STO, at this point. Right now, just in terms of business sense, I'm not a huge fan of the EA megacorp, but I have a bit more faith in the EA/BioWare team than I do in PWE/Cryptic. That's not to say that I don't still have hopes for STO. I very much do hope that it bounces back with a ton of new, high-quality content -- a regular sequence of FEs, new end-game content, all that. If and when that happens, I'll most certainly be back to enjoy it. But until then, I'll be hanging out in the Old Republic.
I'm burned out on STO right now....was planning on taking a break anyway....but still...scrounging up the money for another game, when most of my paycheck I get from the part time job at my mother-in-law's restaurant goes to catching up on my bills since I got laid off almost 2 years ago...is a low priority.
i got to test SWTOR for the last 2 weekends beta tests and i will say that i enjoyed them both although i didnt get the chance to pvp but from what i had time to do i had loads of fun with my story of my BH and SI. And in my opinion as a CE purchaser i feel i had made a very good buy and proud of my decision as also with my lifetime sub with STO which i also still plan on playing as welll. My only complaint for tor is the character creation process, there can be lot more done there. And what i enjoyed was the compainion crafting system, it reminded me a little bit like the duty officer system sort of. But overall very happy with what i am and will be playing. Live long and prosper and may the force be with you all.
Testing SW:TOR over the Thanksgiving Weekend was a great experience. Game was very clean, hardly any bugs that I noticed beyond what they had in the known issues list. Story was very enjoyable and some times shockingly awesome and brutal. (Hi Dark side sith!)
I look foward to playing the heck out of the game for my free month I'll get with my Pre-order of the game. And if I get lucky to be able to subscribe for longer, I'll play it since I'm paying for it. Other wise I'll still have my F2P games (DDO, Champions Online, DCUO) And my Life time sub here on STO that goes F2P in a Month and change.. So SWTOR is an awesome experience one that I'm sure they will grow on. Let's just hope Bioware grows it in the right way.
Even with TOR's lack of space content, I would be really happy with the game in it's final form if I had a better character designer. STO's character designer let's you get your characters almost exactly as you want them to loo. TOR's character designer as it is now is very ... General, in it's application. Oh well, still not a bad game.
TOR's space combat is very much a lighter version of freelancer type point and shoot but on rails, it's a nice diversion from the ground based stuff but not as engaging as STO's. I was hoping for something more sto like in space rather than a 5min on rails minigame.
Ground combat varies from class to class. I got bored pretty quickly of BH and trooper as it's just stand and shoot where the smuggler and agent have a movement mechanic, dirty kick needs to be in more games. And as melee combat goes I thought the lightsabring was done pretty well though my preference was flinging lightning bolts from range.
Will likely be playing both. While TOR is kind of wow with lightsabres The story's seem pretty well written and do differ for the classes which will aid the altoholics.
Testing SW:TOR over the Thanksgiving Weekend was a great experience. Game was very clean, hardly any bugs that I noticed beyond what they had in the known issues list. Story was very enjoyable and some times shockingly awesome and brutal. (Hi Dark side sith!)
You were lucky then. After 3 hours, I ran into a bug with the UI while just moving things in my inventory. I could still move around and rotate the camera, but I couldn't click any buttons. I had to Alt-F4 to get out of it. When I tried to log back in, the character was too borked to load. So that was the end of the testing for me.
I wasn't alone -- others had characters they couldn't log into also. I think basic character management is *main* point in an MMO. I'm worried....
Yeah it's character designer is one thing i hope they elaborate on. In some places they offer ample options but in other places (some very illogical IMO) they don't.
like the tattooes for the zabrak, there's only ten and this is one of the primary features that differentiates one zabrak from another, at the risk of letting anyone know i've played it, 'star wars: clone wars adventures' has more tattoo options than that.
and with some of the other species they mix markings with sometimes VERY horrid and trailer trash whorish makeup, so you might get some good species markings but they're only available with the really bad makeup, those two things should have been seperated completely as two different categories.
though with what we got i did atleast manage to make my characters look different from each other, its good to see the whole face structure change with the body types so i was able to make a cute innocent looking jedi, a mean looking bounty hunter, a suave looking smuggler and a deceptively smexy looking sith assassin.
The rest is amazing, i love the group conversation dynamic, even while solo it really draws your actual character into the story versus the standard MMOG textbox. I even enjoy the space combat for what it is.
Aside from that though, i bought my lifetime sub to STO specifically because of TOR, i KNEW i'd want to play both but didn't want to be subbing to two MMOGs at once.
i had one repeatable crash (end of first flashpoint, and i wasn't the only one)
a pixel error (there is a bright orange fixed pixel on the screen that never goes away, once you've seen it you can't look away anymore)
and 2 quests that were just broken and could not be finished.
the graphics...
lets just say the graphics will not make me want to buy this game... and STO just looks better.
i did not like that in the whole time i played i did not find a single Helmet (i was on the 2nd planet already and a lvl 15 Bounty Hunter... in 2 days... but no Helmet anywhere, not on me, not on any other Players... that sux, i want my Helmet.... it's raining... my hair gets wet...)
the armor that i had made me look like a clown most of the time...
and every other Bounty Hunter had more or less the same armor pieces that if found myself...
the good about it is the *open world* you constantly run into other players, see them do their thing, sometimes you team up for a quest or two and move on (just because you see that other guy is doing the same thing as you), and i was playing a "Flashpoint" (which is something like a STF maybe?) on level 10 already together with other players... -> feels much more like an MMO
that was a bit more fun than STO's singleplayer missions all the time...
but in the end i would not want to trade.
give me some proper open world planets and a bunch of good voice overs for STO and i'm happy with STO as it is... just... add more content ASAP plz.
but
quest bugs (show stoppers)
no anti aliasing option
at the end of beta does not say quality product to me, but rather rushed development...
this all feels very familiar,
where have i seen this pattern before?
oh right... every other MMO i ever played.
first sell the most expensive Pre Order Retail Box you can justify with an unfinished and unpolished Product, then suck out the Subscription market for one or two years and when the Retail Box is cheaper then the subscription change to F2P.
Thats why its called a Beta.
Anti Aliasing has probably been disabled on purpose, possibly because it gave some problems with some drivers? You could enable Anti Aliasing manually if you know how to do that. (google is your friend
Texture quality was low but it was also pretty clear that the textures have been either downsampled or in any case lowered on purpose. As far as I know they decreased the texture quality to minimize the amount of Data needed to be downloaded. If you've played more games in the past and fiddled around with the graphics settings for a bit you would surely have recognized this.
Ive acknowledged the pixel in the screen myself, a time or two. tbh I thought it was a dead pixel but it was at all not annoying or frustrating.
I havent had a single crash or disconnect at the time I played myself, and I had really good PvE experience so far in the game. Some armors looked silly and some looked pretty cool. The Character customization was a little simplistic but the overall look of my female toons look way better then in STO imo. Cute and smooth
The only thing I will regret is the space part of this game, and I would most likely always prefer STO space above TOR space. Summary;
- TOR blows STO away with ground
- STO blows TOR away with space.
All in all I think this game is already much more polished and u might not believe it but I have rarely seen any bug in the game in the time Ive played, I cannot say the same for STO unfortunately.
I'm sure TOR will be polished alot more in the upcoming months after the game has been released.
Took a trip through last weekend's beta as well - it pretty much served as a "trial" for me as I was still on the fence on whether or not to invest in the game. Turns out that my initial criticisms were confirmed, but that its good sides still outweigh the bad ones, at least for me. In short, it was an enjoyable experience.
It's not a "real" MMO, though. More like KotOR 3 with optional co-op and social stuff. The storytelling is compelling and made me want to see how the various class plots end. After this, however, I don't see much to do. Unlike most other MMOs, TOR has very little endgame potential. In short, it's like a singleplayer game you pay a monthly fee for. Not that this has to be bad; it's a fee that I am willing to expend. I simply have my doubts that TOR will keep the majority of its players for more than, say, 6 months. At least from what I've seen so far.
And yes, its "space combat" is a railshooter afterthought. Completely dismissable. I did not truly expect anything else, though. TOR is not SWG.
Texture quality was low but it was also pretty clear that the textures have been either downsampled or in any case lowered on purpose.
Client-side resource conservation, I think. I did notice that my character's face looked a lot less crisp when I zoomed in during normale gameplay - but at the login screen and during dialogue events, it's like a different world.
I wonder if there will be an option to disable the "downgrading" later on.
You barely see the Trooper's scar; it is much more visible in the high-quality textures that are used in character creation, login screen and ingame-dialogues / events. The Sith Warrior's facial tattoo is quite "washed-out" and blurred in the game, too.
Having played the SWTOR beta last weekend, i've got to say it's not as good as I thought it would be. I pre-ordered the silly edition (CE) but soon cancelled that after I played the game. I'm glad I got the chance to "test".
I'm still going to play the game, but i'll be sticking with STO and probably play STO more than SWTOR (Not just because i'm a lifetimer).
There's a few bugs where you get stuck in the terrain, graphical glitches and NPC's still stand when dead. The character customisation is a joke for a new MMO. Zones to me just feel cramped, rushed and too small. The map and NPC's are confusing...... not saying any more
I watched a gameplay video over at MMORPG.com about TOR earlier. Have to say it looks rather bland considering all the hype it's gotten.
I thought it was a little bland game-play wise and character detail wise, but there is no denying the voice acting is top notch and the 2 classes I tried had a coherent, well thought out story behind them. Like any other game/product, it hits some things and misses others.
I'm pretty sure at this point we are all aware of this game. Its been the largest source of MMO hype since Warhammer Online came out a few years ago. Last weekend was their final beta weekend, and the final game is slated to be released on Dec 20. With SWTOR racking up pre-orders at an alarming rate will STO be able to stay afloat? Or will it make like a straw hut in a tsunami?
That was already answered long before TOR's beta. Cryptic will do fine, so long as they increasingly shift the economy over to depend on Dilithium and/or the C-Store. Fanboys and players with heaps of disposable income will keep them afloat (see this thread for evidence).
But will STO still be relevant in a few months? Is it today?
i had one repeatable crash (end of first flashpoint, and i wasn't the only one)
a pixel error (there is a bright orange fixed pixel on the screen that never goes away, once you've seen it you can't look away anymore)
and 2 quests that were just broken and could not be finished.
the graphics...
lets just say the graphics will not make me want to buy this game... and STO just looks better.
i did not like that in the whole time i played i did not find a single Helmet (i was on the 2nd planet already and a lvl 15 Bounty Hunter... in 2 days... but no Helmet anywhere, not on me, not on any other Players... that sux, i want my Helmet.... it's raining... my hair gets wet...)
the armor that i had made me look like a clown most of the time...
and every other Bounty Hunter had more or less the same armor pieces that if found myself...
the good about it is the *open world* you constantly run into other players, see them do their thing, sometimes you team up for a quest or two and move on (just because you see that other guy is doing the same thing as you), and i was playing a "Flashpoint" (which is something like a STF maybe?) on level 10 already together with other players... -> feels much more like an MMO
that was a bit more fun than STO's singleplayer missions all the time...
but in the end i would not want to trade.
give me some proper open world planets and a bunch of good voice overs for STO and i'm happy with STO as it is... just... add more content ASAP plz.
but
quest bugs (show stoppers)
no anti aliasing option
at the end of beta does not say quality product to me, but rather rushed development...
this all feels very familiar,
where have i seen this pattern before?
oh right... every other MMO i ever played.
first sell the most expensive Pre Order Retail Box you can justify with an unfinished and unpolished Product, then suck out the Subscription market for one or two years and when the Retail Box is cheaper then the subscription change to F2P.
Some of your points are valid, if that's what you believe, but you did NOT play the release build, that came out last nite, and the final beta test is underway in about 30 mins(Weekend beta), normal beta tester will continue to provide feedback until next week.
Quick question, did anyone try out a ranged sort of tank or DPS build? I would think ranged characters have a slight advantage in combat as opposed to saber/Force wielders. I was curious since I was planning on a trooper with my first character.
Well, that's the problem. I've PLAYED World of Warcraft. I don't need to play it a second time. And I think that many of those folks who think they'll be leaving World of Warcraft for NEW AND EXCITING ADVENTURES in the OLD REPUBLIC are sadly mistaken. They'll find that it feels just like WoW. In the first several hours of the game, I had already done 10+ "Go here, kill these, come back" missions.
Been in the full 24/7 TOR beta since October (I got a taste earlier then that for about 4 houirs before my account was accepted a few months prior too) - but the comment above pretty much nails how I feel about SWToR.
And I was going to give it a shot soon after launch as the mmember of my Guild that I've been in across many games going all the way back to EQ was planning a mass exedous from WoW; BUT with EA/BioWare's contant forcing of automatic password resets of accounts - AND the fact that their password reset system DOESN'T WORK for a good portion of people (we never get the automated e-mail the system is supposed to send - even though we all know our accounts are validaded and working in the EA/BioWare system as the e-mails telling us we have to change the password and will be lock out until we do so arrive on time without fail.
^^^
This more than anything else is probably going tomake me take a pass on SWToR for a while post release (and we'll see how long my Guild stays active there too - as they did the same with "Age of Conan" when it kaunched - but were out of that game in less then 3 months.)
If you do enjoy WoW style MMO gameplay mechanics; or just LOVE Star Wars, you'll probably like SWToR. It's solid and polished in that regard. But IMO the factt that the user UI is 100% locked down (can't move or resize any UI windows (well you can expand the chat window; but if you bring up other windows chat gets covered as it was designed to BE the size they set it at); and the fact that ALL the 'bonus mission stages' are:
Stage 1: Kill X more MOBs of <Mob Type>
Stage 2: Kill X EVEN more MOBs of <Mob Type>
Stage 3: Kill Zone Area Boss MOB - get item
Final Stage: Drop <Item> on Zone Area dropbox and get extra EXP.
For nearly every mission is even more repetative and grating to me then some of the ginds here or in WoW. And treally detracts as you have to spawn camp to get the bonus.
And while the voivce over is very well done - except for character storylines there's A LOT of crossover; so when you get to making an alt; you'll be hearing a lot of it again, and while you can spacebar through it, you still need to make a choice that can sometimes affect your character; thus unless you remeber it word for word, you'll need to hear it again, etc
SWToR's 'rivitng and dynamic' (as they call it) space combat system is a pitiful joke - period. And it's the players who started the rumor that they'll 'fix it' as there's been no concrete SWToR Dev comment to that effect; and given BioWare's been working on SWToR since 2006; if they wanted a "3D flight sim" space combat system - they would have made one (one thing BioWare was given was A LOT of funding and time.)
Will it gain and retain WoW level subscription numbers? maybe.
But if it doesn't do this pretty much right out of the gate; I wouldn't expect a lot of patience or support from EA. They have a habit of killing underperforming projects pretty quickly. Now that doesn't mean they'll shut SWToR down per se; but it may notget a lot of post launch expansion if it underperforms after the first 6 mobths or so.
So, yes, SWToR is IMO good, but not great - and the STO graphics engine overall is still nicer both on ground and in space (better shadows and overall lighting effects (IMO).
Comments
Wait.. When did they start making a new Star Wars game?? Why have I never heard of this???
Oh, man....awkward.
They asked us not to tell you. Sorry.
We kind of felt we had to go along to get a beta key.
We feel terrible about it.
For myself tho after playing STO since Open Beta / Head start I have been REALLY REALLY board in STO, so I am really looking forward to a game that actually has something for me to do. Granted SWTOR's space combat is just a Rail Shooter but after trying it in the Beta I can live with that.
The other good thing is the life I can see the game having, You can make up to 8 character and be Sith or Jedi and each class has its own story and its all voice acted.
I will be here for F2P to get a space fix now and then would love to see a game with SWTOR ground combat and STO space combat that would be really good until then ill pay to play SWTOR and F2P on STO.
What really draws me in is the story. I love good storyline -- it's what catches my interest, makes me want to play more, and just generally lends enjoyment to what would otherwise be, inevitably IMO, a series of repetitive tasks. All of these games will be that, at the core. That's the nature of a computer game. Computers run static programs. Those programs may be huge and complex, but they're still static algorithms, no matter what.
Anyway, I won't deny that SWTOR has it's weaknesses. Namely the customization (not enough, compared to a Cryptic game) and the space combat. But what I like about the story is far greater than any worries I have over the space game. Maybe they'll redo it with a more robust system later, maybe they won't. Either way, I'm having fun and that's all that matters to me. I always have STO here for some real space combat when I want it.
Right now, STO is just not doing it for me. They've shown that they CAN do good story with missions like 'City at the Edge of Never' and the FE series, IMO. But when all's said and done, the bottom line is that they -haven't- done any of those good story missions for almost a full year now. Yes, I know there were all sorts of extenuating circumstances, but when it comes right down to it -- where do I want to spend my time, the place with lots of fun plot to dive into, or the one with a handful of stories I've already played over and over -- it's not that hard a choice really.
I am not really sure what to expect for the future in STO, at this point. Right now, just in terms of business sense, I'm not a huge fan of the EA megacorp, but I have a bit more faith in the EA/BioWare team than I do in PWE/Cryptic. That's not to say that I don't still have hopes for STO. I very much do hope that it bounces back with a ton of new, high-quality content -- a regular sequence of FEs, new end-game content, all that. If and when that happens, I'll most certainly be back to enjoy it. But until then, I'll be hanging out in the Old Republic.
I look foward to playing the heck out of the game for my free month I'll get with my Pre-order of the game. And if I get lucky to be able to subscribe for longer, I'll play it since I'm paying for it. Other wise I'll still have my F2P games (DDO, Champions Online, DCUO) And my Life time sub here on STO that goes F2P in a Month and change.. So SWTOR is an awesome experience one that I'm sure they will grow on. Let's just hope Bioware grows it in the right way.
I found out about Star Wars The Old Republic in 2008.
Right. He was being sarcastic.
Ground combat varies from class to class. I got bored pretty quickly of BH and trooper as it's just stand and shoot where the smuggler and agent have a movement mechanic, dirty kick needs to be in more games. And as melee combat goes I thought the lightsabring was done pretty well though my preference was flinging lightning bolts from range.
Will likely be playing both. While TOR is kind of wow with lightsabres The story's seem pretty well written and do differ for the classes which will aid the altoholics.
Short version STO for space and TOR for ground.
You were lucky then. After 3 hours, I ran into a bug with the UI while just moving things in my inventory. I could still move around and rotate the camera, but I couldn't click any buttons. I had to Alt-F4 to get out of it. When I tried to log back in, the character was too borked to load. So that was the end of the testing for me.
I wasn't alone -- others had characters they couldn't log into also. I think basic character management is *main* point in an MMO. I'm worried....
like the tattooes for the zabrak, there's only ten and this is one of the primary features that differentiates one zabrak from another, at the risk of letting anyone know i've played it, 'star wars: clone wars adventures' has more tattoo options than that.
and with some of the other species they mix markings with sometimes VERY horrid and trailer trash whorish makeup, so you might get some good species markings but they're only available with the really bad makeup, those two things should have been seperated completely as two different categories.
though with what we got i did atleast manage to make my characters look different from each other, its good to see the whole face structure change with the body types so i was able to make a cute innocent looking jedi, a mean looking bounty hunter, a suave looking smuggler and a deceptively smexy looking sith assassin.
The rest is amazing, i love the group conversation dynamic, even while solo it really draws your actual character into the story versus the standard MMOG textbox. I even enjoy the space combat for what it is.
Aside from that though, i bought my lifetime sub to STO specifically because of TOR, i KNEW i'd want to play both but didn't want to be subbing to two MMOGs at once.
Thats why its called a Beta.
Anti Aliasing has probably been disabled on purpose, possibly because it gave some problems with some drivers? You could enable Anti Aliasing manually if you know how to do that. (google is your friend
Texture quality was low but it was also pretty clear that the textures have been either downsampled or in any case lowered on purpose. As far as I know they decreased the texture quality to minimize the amount of Data needed to be downloaded. If you've played more games in the past and fiddled around with the graphics settings for a bit you would surely have recognized this.
Ive acknowledged the pixel in the screen myself, a time or two. tbh I thought it was a dead pixel but it was at all not annoying or frustrating.
I havent had a single crash or disconnect at the time I played myself, and I had really good PvE experience so far in the game. Some armors looked silly and some looked pretty cool. The Character customization was a little simplistic but the overall look of my female toons look way better then in STO imo. Cute and smooth
The only thing I will regret is the space part of this game, and I would most likely always prefer STO space above TOR space. Summary;
- TOR blows STO away with ground
- STO blows TOR away with space.
All in all I think this game is already much more polished and u might not believe it but I have rarely seen any bug in the game in the time Ive played, I cannot say the same for STO unfortunately.
I'm sure TOR will be polished alot more in the upcoming months after the game has been released.
It's not a "real" MMO, though. More like KotOR 3 with optional co-op and social stuff. The storytelling is compelling and made me want to see how the various class plots end. After this, however, I don't see much to do. Unlike most other MMOs, TOR has very little endgame potential. In short, it's like a singleplayer game you pay a monthly fee for. Not that this has to be bad; it's a fee that I am willing to expend. I simply have my doubts that TOR will keep the majority of its players for more than, say, 6 months. At least from what I've seen so far.
And yes, its "space combat" is a railshooter afterthought. Completely dismissable. I did not truly expect anything else, though. TOR is not SWG.
Client-side resource conservation, I think. I did notice that my character's face looked a lot less crisp when I zoomed in during normale gameplay - but at the login screen and during dialogue events, it's like a different world.
I wonder if there will be an option to disable the "downgrading" later on.
For comparison:
my Sith Warrior in the login screen <-> my Trooper in the game
You barely see the Trooper's scar; it is much more visible in the high-quality textures that are used in character creation, login screen and ingame-dialogues / events. The Sith Warrior's facial tattoo is quite "washed-out" and blurred in the game, too.
The upside with the "space combat" is that the XP is at least good....I find it rather simplistic and easy to do....
I'm still going to play the game, but i'll be sticking with STO and probably play STO more than SWTOR (Not just because i'm a lifetimer).
There's a few bugs where you get stuck in the terrain, graphical glitches and NPC's still stand when dead. The character customisation is a joke for a new MMO. Zones to me just feel cramped, rushed and too small. The map and NPC's are confusing...... not saying any more
I thought it was a little bland game-play wise and character detail wise, but there is no denying the voice acting is top notch and the 2 classes I tried had a coherent, well thought out story behind them. Like any other game/product, it hits some things and misses others.
I haven't played STO in a few months, and have been really hyped about SWTOR being released.
I hope that both continue for many years to come, as I will be able to alternate between the both of them.
"Live long, and prosper on the Dark Side of the Force....."
That was already answered long before TOR's beta. Cryptic will do fine, so long as they increasingly shift the economy over to depend on Dilithium and/or the C-Store. Fanboys and players with heaps of disposable income will keep them afloat (see this thread for evidence).
But will STO still be relevant in a few months? Is it today?
Some of your points are valid, if that's what you believe, but you did NOT play the release build, that came out last nite, and the final beta test is underway in about 30 mins(Weekend beta), normal beta tester will continue to provide feedback until next week.
its not an easy thing to live with, let me tell you.
I'll be careful
The nice thing is I'll beable to play both STO and SW:TOR.
Been in the full 24/7 TOR beta since October (I got a taste earlier then that for about 4 houirs before my account was accepted a few months prior too) - but the comment above pretty much nails how I feel about SWToR.
And I was going to give it a shot soon after launch as the mmember of my Guild that I've been in across many games going all the way back to EQ was planning a mass exedous from WoW; BUT with EA/BioWare's contant forcing of automatic password resets of accounts - AND the fact that their password reset system DOESN'T WORK for a good portion of people (we never get the automated e-mail the system is supposed to send - even though we all know our accounts are validaded and working in the EA/BioWare system as the e-mails telling us we have to change the password and will be lock out until we do so arrive on time without fail.
^^^
This more than anything else is probably going tomake me take a pass on SWToR for a while post release (and we'll see how long my Guild stays active there too - as they did the same with "Age of Conan" when it kaunched - but were out of that game in less then 3 months.)
If you do enjoy WoW style MMO gameplay mechanics; or just LOVE Star Wars, you'll probably like SWToR. It's solid and polished in that regard. But IMO the factt that the user UI is 100% locked down (can't move or resize any UI windows (well you can expand the chat window; but if you bring up other windows chat gets covered as it was designed to BE the size they set it at); and the fact that ALL the 'bonus mission stages' are:
Stage 1: Kill X more MOBs of <Mob Type>
Stage 2: Kill X EVEN more MOBs of <Mob Type>
Stage 3: Kill Zone Area Boss MOB - get item
Final Stage: Drop <Item> on Zone Area dropbox and get extra EXP.
For nearly every mission is even more repetative and grating to me then some of the ginds here or in WoW. And treally detracts as you have to spawn camp to get the bonus.
And while the voivce over is very well done - except for character storylines there's A LOT of crossover; so when you get to making an alt; you'll be hearing a lot of it again, and while you can spacebar through it, you still need to make a choice that can sometimes affect your character; thus unless you remeber it word for word, you'll need to hear it again, etc
SWToR's 'rivitng and dynamic' (as they call it) space combat system is a pitiful joke - period. And it's the players who started the rumor that they'll 'fix it' as there's been no concrete SWToR Dev comment to that effect; and given BioWare's been working on SWToR since 2006; if they wanted a "3D flight sim" space combat system - they would have made one (one thing BioWare was given was A LOT of funding and time.)
Will it gain and retain WoW level subscription numbers? maybe.
But if it doesn't do this pretty much right out of the gate; I wouldn't expect a lot of patience or support from EA. They have a habit of killing underperforming projects pretty quickly. Now that doesn't mean they'll shut SWToR down per se; but it may notget a lot of post launch expansion if it underperforms after the first 6 mobths or so.
So, yes, SWToR is IMO good, but not great - and the STO graphics engine overall is still nicer both on ground and in space (better shadows and overall lighting effects (IMO).