Nub stuffzFollow

So I did break down, download the free version and what not this weekend.

Played around a bit. Got a jedi consular and smuggler through the starting areas, and spent some time on the other republic classes. Overall it was enjoyable, the couple of people I happened to meet and group with were generally on the quiet side, but overall pleasant. People had been saying good things about the single-player stuff, and it largely seemed to deliver, at least to the point to keep me curious about stuff. Thinking is now, I'm going to play through a bit more on the free trial at the moment. Once I get my classes up to 15-ish (where I'm capped for the moment) I'll probably sub for a couple of months (thinking 60-day game card) to give it a try.

Anywho, I do have some questions though, and with you people being experts on the game and what not, I figured I'd plop them down here...

1) Do areas continue to have some unique story lines for the different classes? (You know how like the smuggler and trooper stories have differences in the starting area?) or does that disappear?

2) Are there more HERIOC 2+ areas in later zones? I really liked those a lot. They were a nice way to meet people if you grouped for them, but not so difficult you couldn't do them if there wasn't anyone else around. Thought it was a nice touch, as I've kind of missed having stuff like that around.

3) Most importantly, when do I get my purple lightsaber?

1) Well ain't that just awesome. I was hoping for as much. That'll be nice for the re-play when I'm leveling multiple classes through the same area.

2) Ahh ok, that's cool. The Smuggler area I did with 2 others, and the Jedi area I had waited a bit and did solo. Well, not really intentionally, but I just didn't try the area until I had my pet companion (I'm so going to have to call him a pet anyway). If it's something that you can either do as a group now, or come back and solo in a few levels that will fit nicely with my expectations.

3) Bummer they seem pretty tricky to obtain. Oh well, heaven forbid I have a long term goal or something.

Well sweet then. I suppose my only real gripe at this point is how similar all the races look then. Hello Human, Miraluka, Cyborg...

Edited, Aug 6th 2012 11:59am by someproteinguy

They've received some flak for that, but I believe they're planning to add more races to the game. They're starting out with another human-ish race, the Cathar, because it wouldn't be a proper MMO without something for the furries.

If they add more species, it will likely be species capable of speaking Basic (English). The problem with adding alien species is that some of them can't speak Basic due to their physiology (like Wookiees and Jawa), but every playable character has a lot of spoken lines throughout the game's story. Not to mention, if you play enough missions, you'll realize that a lot of the aliens tend to say the same things, despite the translations being different. They're using a lot of recycled alien language in the game, but that probably wouldn't go over well with the community if they did it with a playable character.

Right now, they've got one voice for every gender of every class. If they added species that can't speak Basic, they'd have to create new voice overs for every class combination and every mission in the game, or recycle the alien language and risk an uproar from the community. Takes time and money, and ToR isn't exactly a cash cow. Of course, they could always add alien species that do speak Basic, but some of the races have certain vocal distinctions that would require new voice acting regardless. Like the Gungans or the ugly sumbitches with the masks (you run across one when/if you deliver a message from Padawan Fia on Tython).

Then comes all the clipping issues, with some races having long ears, fur, tails and all that crap, they'd have to over most items and fit them to the new model. Since they still haven't solved the issue with lekku sticking through hoods (which is why Twi'lek don't wear hoods in the game), or implemented a hood down/up toggle yet (in development), having to fit an entire game's wardrobe to, say, Jawa models... oh man.

Also, some of the classes wouldn't mesh very well with certain species, like a Wookiee Sith Inquisitor, or a Jawa Jedi Knight. *shudder*

Maybe if they had financial backing and enough time, but I doubt EA is interested in tossing more money at this game right now, considering its F2P future.

Edited, Aug 7th 2012 7:48pm by Mazra