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Yarrr! Beta
- Thread starter Witch
- Start date
I was on iron citadel (the only pvp server at the time) when I tested. The weekend testers don't have access to the same servers that the full time testers have had this whole time. I think this is the first time that the full time testers can roll a toon on the free weekend servers tho, if they wish.
It matters little since us weekend testers will be gone by Sunday at midnight anyway. For a mechanics standpoint it is pretty nice, great to see they made the same mistake with "spell ranks" like WoW did. Hopefully they won't take nearly as long to see and fix that in the future.
Only real gripe I have is the whole conversation nonsense. It's been toted and lauded that everything you do in the game will affect how NPCs treat you, and yet I don't have that feeling after six hours of being a complete bitch to everyone (even my supposed superiors) I shit-talk everyone and it doesn't seem like their responses reflect what you are suspecting they will be. Kind of silly they also outright tell you which side some of your decisions will lead (to Light/Dark). If is this as much of a "choose your own adventure" as you fanboys have been toting all this time then wouldn't it stand to reason you won't need such an indicator and you know which way you're going?
Only real gripe I have is the whole conversation nonsense. It's been toted and lauded that everything you do in the game will affect how NPCs treat you, and yet I don't have that feeling after six hours of being a complete bitch to everyone (even my supposed superiors) I shit-talk everyone and it doesn't seem like their responses reflect what you are suspecting they will be. Kind of silly they also outright tell you which side some of your decisions will lead (to Light/Dark). If is this as much of a "choose your own adventure" as you fanboys have been toting all this time then wouldn't it stand to reason you won't need such an indicator and you know which way you're going?
Well, the problem with the LS/DS options, is that they are requirements for things like gear. It's kind of important to know which dialogue will develop your character down that path.
You could argue from a role play point of view that your character would typically chose the same style in all conversations, making the indicator moot... But there's other things you have to take into consideration. Your companions for one. You build up affection from your companions based off your dialogue choices as well. So if you're trying to be evil, but the companion you have to quest with is good, then you don't have to shoot yourself in the foot. You just choose a response based on what you want to develop. If you know the conversation won't lead to a LS/DS shift, then you are free to chose something outside your overall goal without being punished. From an entertainment standpoint, maybe you just want to choose something because it's funny.
Dialogue choices can sometimes shape how a FP plays out.
I'm not really sure what else you were expecting from the dialogue. They play out like every other BioWare game.
You could argue from a role play point of view that your character would typically chose the same style in all conversations, making the indicator moot... But there's other things you have to take into consideration. Your companions for one. You build up affection from your companions based off your dialogue choices as well. So if you're trying to be evil, but the companion you have to quest with is good, then you don't have to shoot yourself in the foot. You just choose a response based on what you want to develop. If you know the conversation won't lead to a LS/DS shift, then you are free to chose something outside your overall goal without being punished. From an entertainment standpoint, maybe you just want to choose something because it's funny.
Dialogue choices can sometimes shape how a FP plays out.
I'm not really sure what else you were expecting from the dialogue. They play out like every other BioWare game.
The only other bioware game I have played was KotOR, and that was alright. Interesting really but I doubt such storytelling translates to MMOs well. As for your first point...
So rather than choosing conversation options I personally want to do and be rewarded with gear later I have to plan out what gear I want and hit the right responses in order to get specific gear I want in the future? That doesn't sound very... role-play-ey to me. Even then some of the choices are too cut and dry. I wanted to be Dark and yet I felt the decision I wanted to make was ultimately Light. Well that could be a test for the whole "You can't go back and change decisions" coil since I plan to dump the quest and engage the NPC again. Fairly certain he'll just give me the same one over again though, but gotta try.
As for companions... Really? I need to care about these hunter super-pets? I willingly send them to die so I can get a quest done, they are there to help me and that's it. I don't give a crap what their feelings are. And now for two preemptive counterpoints.
But if they don't like you they'll fuck you over!
Doubtful, because if it came to it a companion turned on you and fucked you over that simply isn't fun and won't encourage people to play. Ergo it most likely won't happen, I suspect they will simply leave you and you lose access to them and any gear they had.
But if they die you lose them forever right?
Again, doubtful. If you didn't have some way of reviving your companions and each death was permanent it would be frustrating and irritating. And again, discourage players from investing anything into them or even discourage them from playing the game. And Bioware wouldn't want that, so there's a good chance even if I send them in to die I can revive them later and they'll like me less. And I doubt they will abandon you at some critical junction that would hurt your gameplay experience.
And once again, lots of you (and other fanboys) long lauded the whole concept all you do affects out your player is treated by NPCs. For a solid six hours on Korriban my inquisitor has been a rude, irritating bitch to everyone (even her superiors) and sans times I have to begrudgingly accept something for a quest because let's be honest who won't take a quest just because you don't agree with the NPC?
So rather than choosing conversation options I personally want to do and be rewarded with gear later I have to plan out what gear I want and hit the right responses in order to get specific gear I want in the future? That doesn't sound very... role-play-ey to me. Even then some of the choices are too cut and dry. I wanted to be Dark and yet I felt the decision I wanted to make was ultimately Light. Well that could be a test for the whole "You can't go back and change decisions" coil since I plan to dump the quest and engage the NPC again. Fairly certain he'll just give me the same one over again though, but gotta try.
As for companions... Really? I need to care about these hunter super-pets? I willingly send them to die so I can get a quest done, they are there to help me and that's it. I don't give a crap what their feelings are. And now for two preemptive counterpoints.
But if they don't like you they'll fuck you over!
Doubtful, because if it came to it a companion turned on you and fucked you over that simply isn't fun and won't encourage people to play. Ergo it most likely won't happen, I suspect they will simply leave you and you lose access to them and any gear they had.
But if they die you lose them forever right?
Again, doubtful. If you didn't have some way of reviving your companions and each death was permanent it would be frustrating and irritating. And again, discourage players from investing anything into them or even discourage them from playing the game. And Bioware wouldn't want that, so there's a good chance even if I send them in to die I can revive them later and they'll like me less. And I doubt they will abandon you at some critical junction that would hurt your gameplay experience.
And once again, lots of you (and other fanboys) long lauded the whole concept all you do affects out your player is treated by NPCs. For a solid six hours on Korriban my inquisitor has been a rude, irritating bitch to everyone (even her superiors) and sans times I have to begrudgingly accept something for a quest because let's be honest who won't take a quest just because you don't agree with the NPC?
So rather than choosing conversation options I personally want to do and be rewarded with gear later I have to plan out what gear I want and hit the right responses in order to get specific gear I want in the future? That doesn't sound very... role-play-ey to me. Even then some of the choices are too cut and dry. I wanted to be Dark and yet I felt the decision I wanted to make was ultimately Light.
This was my criticism to BW during the feedback phase as well. I found myself playing what the game had me play to be successful, rather than play the role I had set out to play from the beginning. I'd be questing out on Drumand Kaas, and every time I talked with quest givers I'd be getting negative affection notifications from my companion. I didn't even mind losing affection because I didn't really care about him, but the message the game was projecting to me was "YOU CHOSE WRONG". It felt like their mechanic for that needed some work.
The truth is, none of it really matters. The LS/DS gear has the same stats, so you're really just being rewarded with a cosmetic look. You can always farm up more LS/DS points if you wanted to shift to the other side. Companions (at the moment) also don't matter too much. Whether they like you or not, they still fight all the same. I speculate you will be able to do unique quests for them for specific gear sets or something once their affection level gets high enough - much like KOTOR or ME. And they too can have affection farmed up.
The funny thing is, you actually could kill a companion. A lot of beta testers took that option just to see what would happen - but then were upset that they had lost their companion for good. So the devs took that out of the game.
As for your view of how NPC's treat you: I will say, that NPCs DO treat you differently based on your race/class. Walking around as a sith inq; you'll be treated with respect (for the most part) from officers in the Empire. Bounty hunters are likely the most dramatic flip side to that. Also keep in mind korriban is the Brill of TOR. It's the tutorial zone for lowbies, and just about every NPC there treats you like a piece of shit slave regardless of what you say to them. Play through the game with different classes and different good/bad tendencies and you'll notice the difference in NPC interaction.
As for your view of how NPC's treat you: I will say, that NPCs DO treat you differently based on your race/class. Walking around as a sith inq; you'll be treated with respect (for the most part) from officers in the Empire. Bounty hunters are likely the most dramatic flip side to that. Also keep in mind korriban is the Brill of TOR. It's the tutorial zone for lowbies, and just about every NPC there treats you like a piece of shit slave regardless of what you say to them. Play through the game with different classes and different good/bad tendencies and you'll notice the difference in NPC interaction.
I meant in terms of reactions. I know I treated Zash like absolute shit rather than kissing up to her since I was going to be her apprentice and the gist of her responses were, *laughs* "Oh I like you, you're so evil... Hey can I keep this one?!? This one's a keeper!" I even threatened her with the companion (which he loved me for) and even then she didn't get defensive or angry with me.
I meant in terms of reactions. I know I treated Zash like absolute shit rather than kissing up to her since I was going to be her apprentice and the gist of her responses were, *laughs* "Oh I like you, you're so evil... Hey can I keep this one?!? This one's a keeper!" I even threatened her with the companion (which he loved me for) and even then she didn't get defensive or angry with me.
She has her reasons. Story-wise. You'd see it around lev30-32 or so
Wish you got a more compatible companion to start as an inquisitor. I get the feeling while the warriors are the brutes the inquisitors are the crafty ones. Rather than being openly hostile all the time (which Khen likes) you'd rather pretend to be passive and then stab them in the back later. But Khen seems to not like those kinds of reactions, very troubling though I did see people at my level or lower (7 - 8) as inquisitors who had different companions. Not sure where they got them but the beta is done for me. Oh well, not sure if I'll play this or not. It is entertaining but WoW had me for the better part of six years so I'm leery of entering another MMO, especially one whose designs intentionally emulate WoW.