Star Wars The Old Republic

[Zippo]

I suppose the *real* difference between SWTOR companions and DDO Hirelings is companions are good for at level normal content, Hirelings are literally useless for any normal at level content (unless maybe as a rezzer, healer or sp battery).

If Hirelings were beefier, the AI tendancies would be much more forgivable. I still think it would be really cool if Hirelings were changed to "perma-pet" like status and you could gear them out.

Well they did implement that in partial anyways with the Artificer and his iron defender.

[Zippo]

you have to remember that the ddo game was in dev for several years as well so I still think its at least 4-6 years difference between the two

I have to and it sadens me that I think its severly disapointing and it might have made a good kotor III I wont play it as a mmo but I am hoping that the pathfinder mmo might be good in a few years even though I dont really care for the pnp game

Yes I understand that, DDO was delivered in 06. Development and everything else started on SWTOR in 07(maybe even late 06) IIRC which brings us back to about 2-3 years.

[Absolute-Omniscience]

Yes I understand that, DDO was delivered in 06. Development and everything else started on SWTOR in 07(maybe even late 06) IIRC which brings us back to about 2-3 years.

The graphics of a game is usually not really finished until a year before release. Before that developers tend to use crude models and basic textures. That way you can ensure that you have up to date graphics when it is release. So that leaves SWOTOR at 2010ish and DDO at around 05. Bringing it to 5 years.

[vilhazarog]

At least three or four of my guildies have been playing in the Beta's and love SWTOR.
*snip*
5. No GRINDING! I know this may seem hard to believe, but not once did I feel like I was grinding mobs. Every mission you go on has a real purpose with different objectives and is completely cut-scened and voice-acted. Yes, even the random mission out in the middle of nowhere that takes 5 minutes to complete is fully voice acted and cut-scened. If you really enjoy the combat in certain zones (which can be very fun) there is usually an optional "bonus" mission to kill X of those guys, but you don't have to do them at all to level smoothly.
*snip*

I'm skeptical about this claim... So is there no rare loot? Also, what is there to do when you hit cap? Just PvP?

[Chaos000]

The crafting system is a bit of a grind along with flashpoints (instanced dungeon), but only if you're willing to repeat it for gear that you'll outlevel just by re-running the instance.

I think the nice thing about crafting is that you can assign your companion to do it during downtime when you're waiting for a group to form or when a buddy has to leave the computer to go for a quick afk.

[Zippo]

The graphics of a game is usually not really finished until a year before release. Before that developers tend to use crude models and basic textures. That way you can ensure that you have up to date graphics when it is release. So that leaves SWOTOR at 2010ish and DDO at around 05. Bringing it to 5 years.

The engine it is based off of is decided at the beginning of the process, so it is actually an engine that is about 5 ears old. Which is only a few year off from DDO. And still leaves it right a out where I said it was.

[Cinderbeard]

I'm skeptical about this claim... So is there no rare loot? Also, what is there to do when you hit cap? Just PvP?

Ofc there is rare loot. Rare - Epic - Artefact even

At cap you can run the raid (a second is in devellopment i believe) or run the flashpoints at hard mode, boosting em to lvl 50 (kinda like our epics).
Or Pvp, 3 warzones and a huge open PvP planet.

End game probably needs to be fleshed out more, but that's to be expected from a new game.
Bioware is already busy creating expansions.

[Absolute-Omniscience]

The engine it is based off of is decided at the beginning of the process, so it is actually an engine that is about 5 ears old. Which is only a few year off from DDO. And still leaves it right a out where I said it was.

Just because its engine was created back then doesn't mean they finalized the graphics then. Look at the source engine as a good example, it was designed back in 2001 or 2002, and yet they still update it and it still looks more than up to date in games.

[Uska]

The engine it is based off of is decided at the beginning of the process, so it is actually an engine that is about 5 ears old. Which is only a few year off from DDO. And still leaves it right a out where I said it was.

umm ddo was in develpment for several years I think you just want to argue I still say min 4 years and most likely closer to 5 or 6 ddo engine which as you say is from the begining is at least 8-10 years old now since we are about to hit 6 years live

[Zippo]

Just because its engine was created back then doesn't mean they finalized the graphics then. Look at the source engine as a good example, it was designed back in 2001 or 2002, and yet they still update it and it still looks more than up to date in games.

I understand that, but those engines can only do but so much. The graphics design is still limited by what the engine will allow. So your suppositions that designs were "finalized" just recently still means absolutely nothing when the engine will only allow but so much.

[Zippo]

umm ddo was in develpment for several years I think you just want to argue I still say min 4 years and most likely closer to 5 or 6 ddo engine which as you say is from the begining is at least 8-10 years old now since we are about to hit 6 years live

DDO went into development two years prior to release in 06 which puts it at 04. Being that SWTOR went into development in 06/07 that would be 2 to 3 years as I have been saying from the get go. They are working with a graphics engine that is only a few years newer then DDO's.

[Eladiun]

Ofc there is rare loot. Rare - Epic - Artefact even

Yes, in addition to drops there is a token based system for Raid type look which is very nice and takes the random bs out of the equation.

As for end game. there is talk that with this last refresh they will be adding an instacap server for end game testing.

[vilhazarog]

Yes, in addition to drops there is a token based system for Raid type look which is very nice and takes the random bs out of the equation.

As for end game. there is talk that with this last refresh they will be adding an instacap server for end game testing.

Not sure I understand here, is there rare loot or not? If you can get what you want in a few runs, then it isn't rare, everyone will have it. If it takes 20 runs to get what you want, it ain't rare. If it takes 1000 runs to get what you want, it is rare... plus, it is grindy.

[Symar-FangofLloth]

Not sure I understand here, is there rare loot or not? If you can get what you want in a few runs, then it isn't rare, everyone will have it. If it takes 20 runs to get what you want, it ain't rare. If it takes 1000 runs to get what you want, it is rare... plus, it is grindy.

If its anything like DCUO, raids drop rare loot PLUS tokens. The rare loot is minutely better, but enough runs will get you the raid gear from the token turn ins.
Never got past level 10 in TOR though, didn't have the time.

[Musouka]

Yes I understand that, DDO was delivered in 06. Development and everything else started on SWTOR in 07(maybe even late 06) IIRC which brings us back to about 2-3 years.

It actually started development the year WoW launched.

Also Token based raid loot topic: You get commendations, however the commendation vendor (You use these to trade commendations in for gear/mods) sells loot that is less powerful than the actual drops. They are good items, but the actual drops in the quest/raid are actually more powerful.

I enjoyed playing this game during the last beta weekend. I find it to be more of a game that my wife and I could just play through together.

I made it to level 25, which is a good level for healers, as a Jedi Consular Sage that specialized in the Seer(healing) tree. PvP was awesome as the healer. It was tough for 2 or less other players to kill me, but when they had 4+ on me, they'd get me.

Can't wait for December 15th. I'll definitely be supporting this game with 15$ per month, instead of a laggy/buggy DDO that constantly releases incomplete updates (ie missing items, missing drops, bugged items).

[Zippo]

It actually started development the year WoW launched.

Which was released in 04 as I have said.

[Failedlegend]

Does it REALLY matter WHEN the graphics were made the point is theres nothing spectecular about them just like the rest of the game...its not Bad its just not good and has NO buisness using the KOTOR name

[Absolute-Omniscience]

I understand that, but those engines can only do but so much. The graphics design is still limited by what the engine will allow. So your suppositions that designs were "finalized" just recently still means absolutely nothing when the engine will only allow but so much.

Point is, a well designed engine will not meet that limit in a mere 3-4 years. The Source engine holds high standards even compared to today's games (Dark Messiah is a good example, still has one of the best textures seen in games).
It doesn't matter when it started, what matters is that it's 6 years later and the graphics are not spectacular. If I start developing a game today that has high-end graphics, but I don't release it till 2100, I won't be able to use that as an excuse.

Either way, graphics doesn't really matter, as long as the gameplay is good.

[Uska]

Point is, a well designed engine will not meet that limit in a mere 3-4 years. The Source engine holds high standards even compared to today's games (Dark Messiah is a good example, still has one of the best textures seen in games).
It doesn't matter when it started, what matters is that it's 6 years later and the graphics are not spectacular. If I start developing a game today that has high-end graphics, but I don't release it till 2100, I won't be able to use that as an excuse.

Either way, graphics doesn't really matter, as long as the gameplay is good.

which for me was horribly lacking in SWTOR makes me sad

[Raiderone]

Well I'll be playing SWTOR, i preordered last night.

Both my accounts on DDO are FTP, so no big deal. I'll play DDO once in awhile. Maybe when they come out with Druids!