Where Should Loot Come From in SWTOR?

I was browsing around the forums today and I happened upon an interesting thread where players discussed where the best loot should come from in SWTOR. In this SWTOR guide post, I wanted to bring thread to the attention of would-be Star Wars: The Old Republic players so that you have a chance to have your say and participate in the poll (link to poll and thread in question can be found at the end of this SWTOR guide post).

WoW has set up a system where the only way to get the best gear in-game is to participate in raids. For better or worse, this system has not been nearly as popular as anticipated, yet they still keep turning out raids with the best gear.

Many players (myself included) are sick of this approach. It is no so much that I dislike raiding, but rather that I do not like to have to base my schedule around raiding. Squaring away 3-5 hours on several weeknights a week so that me and my guild-mates can all play at the exact same time is just no longer relevant to my interests.

Even in small raider sizes (8-10 players), you still have to schedule ahead of time as even getting 8 people’s real-life schedules to line up requires scheduled days when you might just rather not log on.

If a friend gets tickets to a football game and invites me on a day’s notice, I don’t want to have to feel bad about missing my commitment to my raiding buddies who have already set aside time and are counting on me being there. I also do not want to miss out on the football game though!

Personally, I would like to see balanced loot offered (balanced being the same quality – no differences in item level) across various game aspects (crafting, solo, PvP, PvE – both raids and small-group) at the release of SWTOR.

I think we would find that a very, very small minority of players would participate in raids (if raiding guilds would even exist) if loot was not superior in raids. However, I do not see this as a bad thing. Why should players be forced into doing raids if they have no interest in them and would rather do solo or small-group content?

Furthermore, I see raiding as a dated mechanic, at least as it existed in WoW. There is nothing wrong with teaming up with a bunch of players to down a big boss, but there is something strange about teaming up with the same 10, 25, or 40 people day in and day out for hours on end and progressing through a dungeon. Most players do not find this fun.

There is two reasons raiding still exists: 1) there is a very vocal, hardcore raiding community which floods the official forums with posts about how raiding is important and how games will fail without raiding, and 2) because most game developers come from a hardcore raiding background, and want to implement the types of features they themselves enjoy.

I think the poll’s results are very telling: currently the vast majority of people browsing the official forums for a game that has not even had a release date set (i.e. the most hardcore fans of the game) do not wish for raids to offer the best loot.

This sample size is highly in favor of raiders as well, given that most casual players who never raid also never venture upon the official forums for a game that has not been released, nor do they actually register for an account to vote in polls and make posts.

The thread itself is an example of just how vocal the hardcore raiding community can be: only a minority of people voted for “raiding” yet the majority of posts are about how raiding should be superior. As a developer, one cannot forget that the most vocal players are also the most serious ones; the casual players who make up the bulk of a game’s population (and income base) will vote in polls but will rarely speak up for themselves. I hope the end-game developers take note.

Agree with this SWTOR guide post? Disagree? Vote for the poll and post in this forum thread on the official site!

SWTOR Advanced Classes

In a recent post on the official SWTOR site, the developer’s have given us new insight into how the SWTOR advanced class selection progress works. In this SWTOR guide, I will be summarizing the past as well as discussing the implications of these proposed mechanics. Note: this of course is all subject to change as the game is still quite far away from release.

What Advanced Classes Are

There are four starting classes for each faction, and each starting class has two “advanced classes”, each of which has different roles. For example, the Jedi Knight can become a Sentinel (DPS-oriented) or a Guardian (Tank-oriented, but with a DPS side-spec). Advanced classes will share 1 talent tree as well.

Selecting an Advanced Class

The interesting thing about advanced classes is that they are not really that “advanced” as the post announced players will be able to select these at level 10 or above in the capital city for their respective factions. In other words, head to Coruscant on your Jedi Knight at level 10 and you can become a Sentinel.

Roles of Advanced Classes

Note that this is all still very-much in beta and may change significantly by release; I will update this SWTOR guide accordingly with any changes.

The most interesting thing about advanced classes is the proposed roles for each class. For example, the Sith Inquisitor can specialize into a class which heals and does damage or into one which actually tanks and does damage. They are seeming to take the approach that Rift has used in allowing each class to fill multiple roles.

However, in Rift, there are entire talent trees to those specific roles (i.e. the Bard in the Rogue tree) whereas in SWTOR there currently are only 2 trees per advanced class (1 advanced-specific tree + 1 shared tree). Essentially for the Inquisitor this means that the DPS tree is likely to be shared, whereas the healing and tanking trees are specific specializations (note: SWTOR guide opinions are all conjecture0.

It will be interesting to see if the developers can manage to balance these multiple roles without “gimping” the classes. For example, in WoW a “hybrid” role (i.e. Druid Feral tank) is never as good as a “real” tank (i.e. Warrior). They were made comparable eventually but that is only after many, many patches, and still most would prefer the “real” thing.

The problem with hybrids sharing the same tree is that the hybrid talents compete with the real talents. Players who wanted to be a caster DPS as a Sith Inquisitor are suspicious that healing or tanking talents might be filling the slot of useful DPS talents or other talents which offer a more varied playstyle.

SWTOR Guide’s Interpretation

My interpretation of this announcement of allowing nearly every class to heal or tank is based off of feedback that there were not enough healers or tanks available. I think this is more a flaw of the “trinity” system overall than it is of game design.

The trinity system for those who do now know is the system involving healers, damage-dealers, and tanks as the 3 primary classes. One group specializes in taking damage, one in dealing damage, and one in healing up those that take damage.

The problem with this system is that most players prefer to deal damage, and only true group-oriented players prefer tanking or healing. As a former raid and guild leader I can attest that healing in particular does not resonate with most of the playerbase. Healers tend to burn-out over the long haul or quit when their real-life friends do, unlike damage dealers who will often play alone.

Enter SWTOR’s flashpoint system (will make an SWTOR guide on flashpoints soon). Flashpoints only involve 4 total players. Personally, I like small groups after raiding for so long in other games so this does not bother me. The problem is under the trinity system it means that half of all players need to be healers or tanks, as you need 1 tank, 1 healer, and 2 dps to complete a tough flashpoint.

This is a “sticky situation” as DPS is far more popular than tanks or healers. As a “fix”, the developers let all classes fill one of those two roles.

This helps, but how much better would the game be if all classes were a true hybrid and no one had to be a full-time healer or tank? The popularity of classes like the Bard and Chloromancer in Rift (both are healing classes which do good healing via dealing damage) is a testament that many players are eager for such a system.

I would even take it a step further to suggest that flashpoints would be much more epic if everyone could go in with “guns blazing” to DPS and use spot heals as necessary.

After all, try to imagine the movies with someone standing in the back, with the explanation that they were using the force (or med packs) to shoot off healing powers to patch up Han, Luke, and Obi-Wan during their fights. The idea seems ludicrous!

It is the opinion of this SWTOR guide that standing in the back, dodging an occasional debuff and clicking on health bars will never be epic (or using hot keys) nor will it make the character feel like a hero. Giving multiple classes access to healing and tanking is just placing a band-aid over the obvious: the rapidly expanding MMORPG community craves new mechanics which include saying goodbye to the old trinity system. It is time someone breaks the mold.

Companions in SWTOR

There has been a lot of talk about the companion system in SWTOR. If you have not heard of it, players will get “companions”, or friendly NPCs that participate in a variety of functions, which will be covered next in this SWTOR guide.

Your crew members which we wrote about before are sort of interchangeable with your companions. The difference is that your companion actually comes with you on the battle field. As far as we know, your crew members and your companions are the same thing. You can have many crew members but only 1 companion can fight with you at a time.

Players will have access to dozens of different companions, with each class apparently having its own unique set of classes. Companions will also help advance the storyline. If you did not know already, there will be over 200 hours of storyline-oriented game play per class (much like a traditional BioWare game) and as a result this affords each character a chance to work in a variety of characters.

The role of companions of that in the player’s story is quite interesting. Essentially, a companion is a character that can be influenced by the character. You are not stuck on the same “ride” as everyone else and you can make your companions into friends or enemies based on the decisions that you make. Companions will also try to influence your decisions and control you. You can choose to side with them or against them.

I find that the “no going back” storyline will provide an incredible value for SWTOR. Players may even level the same class a second time just to see the story from a different perspective and choose different options for each interaction in the game.

In the end, you will want to befriend your companions if that option does exist. While I do not have specifics yet for this SWTOR guide, we do know that as companions advance and get better, there will be quests and companion-related missions that you can undertake for nice rewards. Keep an eye on this SWTOR guide for more information as it is available.

Right now, there are nearly a dozen announced companions but this is mentioned that it will be just a partial list. Some companions will drift in and out of the game as the story progresses (as you may have to fight some of them) whereas others will remain part of your team at end-game. I would not worry too much about who is the “best” companion at 50, as you will be able to have a large crew and can select the best and most appropriate companion for the mission.

What Server Should I Pick in SWTOR?

When the long-awaited SWTOR finally comes out, players will have to carefully select their server type. Fortunately, in this SWTOR guide I will be showing you which server to pick. There are two things to think about when considering a realm: the server type and the server population.

Server Types in SWTOR

There are three different types of servers announced so far for SWTOR: PvP Servers, PvE Servers, and RP Servers.

Players who pick PvP servers will be able to participate in open PvP against the other faction (i.e. attack and defeat them) all over the world. This has both pros and cons.

For some, the pros of a PvP server are is that it can just be plain fun (when you are winning). On the other hand, they can also be just plain annoying (when you are losing). Players who are rolling with a group of friends will find better success on PvP servers, as it is much easier to be the strong than it is to be the weak on a PvP server.

In the end, there is not much difference between PvE and PvP servers since warzones and designated PvP areas will come to rule most of gameplay. Let’s face it: in any game with instanced PvP, PvP in the open world (provided by PvP servers) is virtually non-existent.

Lack of world PvP is not such a bad thing, as while a few rare games (DAoC) had good world PvP, most games had almost no world PvP and it was really tough to actually find players to battle against (i.e. WoW before battlegrounds). It is the recommendation of this SWTOR guide that play whatever server where your friends or guild is going to play as it will not make much difference.

Server Population

I think the most overlooked aspect when selecting a server is the population, which will be the next focus of this SWTOR guide. There are two different types of players out there and depending on which type you are depends on what server to select.

Whenever the game comes out, there will be servers available for play, and you will see that some worlds have low population, some have a medium population, some have a high population, and some are “full” (at least this is how the vast majority of MMOs label their servers).

If you did not know, by the way, population refers to how many players are on a server relative to its capacity. Most MMORPGs are designed to be played on full servers.

There are pros and cons of both low and high population servers. On low population servers, there is less lag, the server crashes less frequently, solo objectives are easier to complete (less competition), and most importantly there are never queues to log in to low-population realms.

The downside is that it is much harder to get groups! It can be tough to put together a pick-up group for any sort of raid objective, there will be less raiding and end-game players on the server (i.e. less opportunities to participate in combat) and things like “PvP zones” can all but dry up at off-peak hours on low population servers in other games. This rarely happens at release, however, and it takes a few people to get bored of the game before these effects are really palpable.

High population servers offer more opportunities to participate in group objectives and end-game. They do however come with headaches: more competition (harder to level up), lag, and queues.

The real advantage of a high-population server is options at end-game and server sustainability. In other words, many servers may start off with a healthy, medium population, but over time they will inevitably atrophy as players quit the game. The percentage of players logged into an MMORPG dwindles over time, so the server may be “full” to new accounts, but may not actually be full of players!

Essentially, if you are going to stick with SWTOR for the long haul, it is the recommendation of this SWTOR guide that you try to land on a high population server come release. These will offer you the most fun at end-game once the queues die down. This can even be the case with casual players, as there are more opportunities to find pick-up groups.

If you just want to play by yourself, see the storyline, level a lot of alts, and (or) play with a small group of friends, then a low-medium population server is for you.

SWTOR NPCs

In this SWTOR guide, I will be going over the six announced NPCs and attempt to sift through the lore and hopefully divine a few details about SWTOR gameplay.

If you did not already know, SWTOR is very story-centric. BioWare, the developer of SWTOR, is well-known for creating games with epic storylines and have basically said their unique selling point for SWTOR is that it will have the best story out of any MMORPG out there.

A quick SWTOR guide on NPCs: Centric to any storyline in a video game are non-playable characters or NPCs for short. This term is used to describe computer controlled characters which are essential to driving in-game events.

Given the prominent role of NPCs in video games, this SWTOR guide will focus on the 6 announced NPCs and how they are likely to influence the story. Of course, this is all just guess-work and things are certainly subject to change.

Supreme Chancellor Janarus – This is the only announced NPC that really comes in as being one of the major players in the entire galaxy. Janarus is the head of the Galactic Republic and billed as “The Leader of The Free Galaxy”, undoubtedly a play on how the president of the USA is often referred to as “The Leader of the Free World”. I think it is safe to say that Janarus will be key to all Republic storylines, particularly anything that has to do with Coruscant.

Diab Duin is an unusual choice for featuring as he is the Senator from a small planet with very rich resources. It is likely that this planet, Aeten II, will be a major quest / story hub and that for Galactic Republic players he will be the major NPC at that camp. Otherwise, there is no real reason for BioWare to feature him as one of their primary NPCs. Perhaps during the struggles over Aeten II he becomes elevated to a more powerful position?

Jewl’a Nightbringer might be the one NPC where players do not interact with directly but instead is one of the first major “bosses” of the game. Jewl’a is the galaxy’s most notorious and feared bounty hunter. Whether or not players do missions for her or instead are tasked to defeat her is unknown. Personally, I suspect the latter, especially for members of the Galactic Republic.

Mako is another announced neutral NPC based on Nar Shaddaa. She also seems to be a much smaller player in the galaxy, much like Diab Duin. It is possible that players will join up with this NPC and do missions side-by-side. It would make sense that a relatively minor NPC would be introduced on the official site if she was an NPC that players were able to team up with.

Darth Jadus is an Empire NPC who is likely to be the most powerful and definitely the most enigmatic Sith Lord on the Dark Council. His purposes remain unknown, but what is known is that he does not trust other Sith and he is heavily involved in Imperial intelligence. It would not surprise me if his long term goal is to take over Empire in the absence of the current emperor.

Keeper is the keeper of intelligence in the Empire. Like any good empire, the Sith Empire is heavily invested in espionage and intelligence, making Keeper one of the most powerful men in the Empire. He is likely to be a major player in all character’s storylines but also will likely play a major role in the Imperial Agent’s storyline.

SWTOR Guide to NPCs Conclusion

That wraps up thiS SWTOR guide post on NPCs. Just remember that these NPCs will only be a small part of the SWTOR universe and are what are known as recurrent NPCs, or NPCs you interact with over the course of the game. There will be hundreds if not thousands of NPCs with which players only interact with 1 or a handful of times as well as more recurrent NPCs in SWTOR.

SWTOR Guide – PvP Preview

In this SWTOR guide post, I will be giving would-be players a preview of how PvP will work in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Warzones

Warzones have been the feature that developers have talked about the most so far in regards to SWTOR PvP. Warzones are, at a very basic level, PvP mini-games which have certain objectives.

So far the only announced warzone is Alderaan. This warzone features an 8v8 (subject to change – this was stated in an interview and may not reflect actual gameplay) battle where players will compete for control of the planetary defense system. The goal of the match is to take control of the major missile turret on the planet and use it to shoot down the enemy’s starship. We will post an SWTOR guide on this warzone in particular once the game is released.

Instanced PvP

Warzones, as advertised, will be instanced PvP battlegrounds sealed off from the rest of the world/server.

The major plus of this approach is that players can “queue up” for a warzone anywhere in the world, which makes PvP accessible. The major downside is that at least in other MMOs, these games feel fake, contrived, and uninspired. The developers (BioWare) have stated that they will do everything they can to reduce the “gamey-ness” of warzones.

In other words, it feels kind of silly when you are playing other games which use this system (i.e. WoW) and you know for sure you are playing a “mini-game”. When you cap a flag in Arathi Basin, you get points every few seconds and the first one to reach a certain score wins. This is clearly a mini-game and not a PvP experience.

Alderaan is supposed to counter this by being more of an area factions are battling over rather than a mini-game. Players will hack into computers and take control of various objectives around the map in order to get access to the missile turret. Whichever faction gets access to the missile turret can then use it against the enemy’s ship. The game ends when one faction’s ship is shot down.

In theory, this sounds great, but we will have to wait for actual release to be see how well they are able to accomplish their goals.

SWTOR PvP Rewards

Players will earn “tokens” and experience points from PvP, which will not only help them level up but also they can use their tokens in exchange for rewards.

As a result, players will be able to progress in end-game via earning tokens from PvP and redeeming them for equipment. Hopefully this gear will be truly on-par with PvE gear, but only time will tell for sure whether or not this is the case. MMOs in the past typically reserve the best gear for raiders and I hope this is not the case with SWTOR.

SWTOR PvP Preview Conclusion

More on SWTOR PvP will be added to this SWTOR guide over time. What we know now is that warzones (instanced PvP-based games) will be at the core of PvP and that players will be able to earn PvP gear from PvP. Check this SWTOR guide regularly for more updates!