swtor.com taking testing (beta) applicants

[Leonaerd]

here's hoping they open the floodgates soon

[masteen]

You sonova bitch. Got me all sexcited; now I'm gonna have to go rape a cat or something.

[Dregor Thule]

They've been taking beta apps for like 3/4 of a year now!

[Boogahz]

seems to have been longer than that

[Aslanna]

What's a swtor?

[Winnow]

This seems like the best example of that 4 man team play will be like in SWTOR:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0imBz6y38

Watch in 720p of course if possible. (amazes me how many people still watch videos at 360 resolution) First 5 mins kinda slow then jumps into the flashpoint part.

Not too impressed with the avatars and cut scenes but the game play looks like it might be fun. Healer class looks not as boring as most games.

[Dregor Thule]

Yeah, I was really discouraged when they started to release screenshots and videos of the game, but it's taken some pretty big steps towards looking better. Still kinda blah about the player graphics, maybe they'll look better when actually playing em. My friends and I already got our guild registered and name reserved, so that's kinda cool that they're letting people do that.

[Fairweather Pure]

It looks like WoW with Star Wars models. It even plays the same. Tank, Healer, 2 DPS, CC the adds, watch your aggro, action bars with cooldowns, kiting, ect. It doesn't look bad at all. It just doesn't seem to be breaking down any barriers in the MMORPG genre. I'm curious to see more info on classes and such though. I'll keep an eye on the game.

[Hesten]

Ill try it...cant be worse than the last Star Wars game, i bought it because a friend played it....spend 2 days, then deleted the junk.

[Winnow]

Some of my friends have been invited into this beta. The invites appear to be totally random. Someone got in that applied 2 days ago while others (me) aren't in and applied Jan/2010.

You may as well apply because you have just as good a shot as anyone else.

I'm going to see if touching the side of my head and attempting to send a mental message to invite me works.

[Canelek]

I'm going to see if touching the side of my head and attempting to send a mental message to invite me works.

It could've been some scabs too, ya know....

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

BountyHunter / Agent has the best Crowdcontrol yes? EQ ENchanter-esque?

[masteen]

Nope, CC master is the Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor. I think every class has a little CC, but those two are the most powerful.

Every class has a mirror on the opposite faction.

BH/Trooper
Agent/Smuggler
Sith Warrior/Jedi Knight
Inquisitor/Consular

[Winnow]

Found these patch notes for anyone bored and wanting to know how things are progressing with SW-TOR

[Show]

SWTOR - June Patch Notes


Highlights

The User Interface has been reskinned, updated, and improved!
Act 3 is now available for play.
The new Nar Shaddaa Warzone has been added! In this Warzone, face off against the opposing team for Galactic glory in a deadly sport. Players on each team struggle to claim the ball from the center of the arena and must work together to run and pass the ball to the opposing team’s scoring zone. Dodge dangerous traps and be on your guard - this is a full-contact sport!
Speeders have been more fully implemented! New speeders are available, as well as a speeder selection tab. Players can train Speeder Piloting (Rank 1) at level 25.
All classes and their abilities have been adjusted and rebalanced.
Crew Skills have been overhauled and improved significantly.
Players can now form multi-party (raid) groups to take on tough challenges (like the World Bosses)!
Items, item mods, and loot tables have been updated and improved across the game.
Overall game performance has been improved!

Known Issues

The Sprint ability does not function correctly.
Resolution preferences do not always function properly.
Selecting a reply during a conversation using subtitles can cause subtitles to disappear.
Some conversations that should start automatically do not and require interaction with the mission NPC.
Water volumes are not fully implemented.
Some Cantinas are not properly marked as Rested Experience zones.
Cloth physics are not fully optimized.
Abandon, Share, and Track buttons can disappear from the Mission Log. This can be resolved by un- and re-tracking the mission.
Mission completion windows can stack (press the N key to accept each mission if this occurs).
"Return to ship" mission steps do not have map notes.
Ambient speakers' lines are sometimes cut off prematurely.
Players must now turn on the ability to participate in Multiplayer Conversations by opening the Main Menu, selecting Preferences, and changing the conversation mode to Multiplayer under Social.

Updates

Character Creation has been updated!
Faction and class movies now play as part of the character creation process.
Experience gains have been increased throughout the game.
Act 2 content has been polished, updated, and improved!
The difficulty of many areas across the game has been adjusted to present an appropriate challenge.
Players who die can now choose to revive where they died. After being revived, characters are granted 20 seconds of stealth. This ability is on a cooldown.
The Galaxy Map now displays recommended character levels for each planet.
Light side and dark side tiers now grant character titles.
Optimizations have been implemented to improve framerate.
Codex entries have been added through the end of Hoth.
Rested Experience is now functioning and is generated by logging off or spending time in Cantinas, which are marked on the map.
Guild Leaders can now abdicate leadership and promote another guild member to Guild Leader.
Players may now post 50 concurrent sales on the Galactic Trade Network (GTN).
The GTN can now be searched by seller name.
Searching the GTN by Quality now displays results of the selected Quality level or higher.
The mail system now automatically deletes mail from the GTN when the purchased item is removed.
The mail system now delays the payment of items sold on the GTN by one hour from time of purchase.
Skill trees and abilities for all classes have been updated and adjusted significantly.
Visual and sound effects for many high level abilities have been improved.
Ability and Skill mechanics and interactions have been improved across all classes.
Combat animations have been optimized and improved.
Additional restoration abilities are now usable in combat and reset the cooldown on some key class abilities.
Area of Effect abilities have been adjusted to be more useful.
Level differences now affect hit and miss rates and aggro radius.
Social points and dark side/light side scales have been rebalanced.
Companion pathfinding has been improved significantly.
Companion Missions have been improved.
The Affection System has been adjusted and improved.
Droid Companions now have their own equipment slots. Droid armor can accept the same item mods as humanoid armor.
Many new Companion gifts have been added.
The cost of Companion kits has been reduced.
Players may now summon Companion Characters in a full group if they are not currently in close proximity to other group members.
Players can now view other players' Crew Skills by targeting the other player, right-clicking their portrait, and selecting "View Schematics."
Material and quantity requirements for all schematics have been adjusted.
All crafted items have been re-itemized.
Increased the number of items that can be reverse engineered.
Increased crafting critical chances and research chances (from reverse engineering) for all skills.
Increased the chance to obtain rare crafting resources from Gathering and Mission Skills.
Crafting materials purchased from vendors have been reduced in cost.
Increased random bonus stats allocated to reverse-engineered crafting items.
Increased the sale value of crafted items.
The maximum stack size for crafting materials has increased from 20 to 100.

Skill trees and abilities for all classes have been updated and adjusted significantly.
Visual and sound effects for many high level abilities have been improved.
Ability and Skill mechanics and interactions have been improved across all classes.
Combat animations have been optimized and improved.
Additional restoration abilities are now usable in combat and reset the cooldown on some key class abilities.
Area of Effect abilities have been adjusted to be more useful.
Level differences now affect hit and miss rates and aggro radius.
Social points and dark side/light side scales have been rebalanced.
Companion pathfinding has been improved significantly.
Companion Missions have been improved.
The Affection System has been adjusted and improved.
Droid Companions now have their own equipment slots. Droid armor can accept the same item mods as humanoid armor.
Many new Companion gifts have been added.
The cost of Companion kits has been reduced.
Players may now summon Companion Characters in a full group if they are not currently in close proximity to other group members.
Players can now view other players' Crew Skills by targeting the other player, right-clicking their portrait, and selecting "View Schematics."
Material and quantity requirements for all schematics have been adjusted.
All crafted items have been re-itemized.
Increased the number of items that can be reverse engineered.
Increased crafting critical chances and research chances (from reverse engineering) for all skills.
Increased the chance to obtain rare crafting resources from Gathering and Mission Skills.
Crafting materials purchased from vendors have been reduced in cost.
Increased random bonus stats allocated to reverse-engineered crafting items.
Increased the sale value of crafted items.
The maximum stack size for crafting materials has increased from 20 to 100.

Mission Skills

Possible rewards from missions are now visible when selecting a mission.
Removed all Cheap quality loot from mission rewards.

Diplomacy

Recalibrated light and dark side balance and rewards.
Diplomacy missions can now yield light armor materials and Companion gifts.
Light armor materials and Companion gifts are now separate potential mission rewards. The player can select which kind of mission to undertake.

Investigation

Investigation can now yield Prototype schematics for all Crafting Skills.
Investigation missions can now yield medium armor materials and Companion gifts.
Medium armor materials, schematics, and Companion gifts are now separate potential mission rewards. The player can select which kind of mission to undertake.

Treasure Hunting

Treasure Hunting can now yield gemstones, lockboxes, Companion gifts, and gift fragments.
Gift fragments can be acquired by sending Companions on missions that potentially yield Companion gifts, and can be of Premium, Prototype, or Artifact quality. Fragments can be turned in to the Curator on Nar Shaddaa for an equivalent quality Companion gift.
Gemstones, lockboxes, and Companion gifts are now separate potential mission rewards. The player can select which kind of mission to undertake.

Underworld Trading

Underworld Trading can now yield heavy armor materials, spices, and companion gifts.
Heavy armor materials, spices, and Companion gifts are now separate potential mission rewards. The player can select which kind of mission to undertake.

Gathering Skills

Gathering nodes have been redistributed and are now better suited to each planet.
Gathering nodes now spawn in random locations.
Gathering nodes on planets are now more appropriate for schematics of corresponding levels.
All Gathering animations now display the Bioanalysis scan animation.
Gathering yields have had their vendor value reduced.

Bioanalysis

Added Biochem resource missions.
Added missions that can yield implant processors and medical supplies.

Archaeology

Added more variations of color crystals.
"Cultural artifact" and "historical record" nodes have been replaced by "archaeological find" nodes.
Added missions that can yield raw synthetic materials.
Clear crystals, color crystals, and artifact fragments are now separate potential mission rewards. The player can select which kind of mission to undertake.

Scavenging

Added missions that can yield vendor crafting materials (fluxes, etc).
Metals and synthetics are now separate potential mission rewards. The player can select which kind of mission to undertake.

Slicing

Removed all Cheap quality loot from Slicing rewards.

[Update]

Armormech

Tech wrists and boots have been moved to Cybertech


Armstech

Color cartridge craftable items have been added.

Artifice

Minerals are no longer a schematic requirement and have been replaced by artifact fragments from Archaeology.
Force wrists and boots are now craftable with Artifice.


Cybertech

Added grenade and droid armor craftable items.
Tech wrists and boots are now craftable.


Biochem

Added craftable Med Units, which function as ranged Medpac heals.

Synthweaving

No longer uses Scavenging for resources, now uses Archaeology materials.
Force wrists and boots have been moved to Artifice.


Flashpoints

The leader of a group will automatically become the owner of a Flashpoint phase. If the leader changes, the new leader will become the owner of the phase.
The current owner of a Flashpoint phase is now indicated clearly at the top of the screen.


Itemization

Increased chances for enemies to drop items useful to a character's class.
Items now drop more consistently for a wide variety of Advanced Classes and roles.
Loot tables for a wide variety of enemies have been adjusted.
The mission reward system on Coruscant, Dromund Kaas, and Taris has been significantly reworked to offer more useful items to players of varying specs and their Companions.
New items have been created for Origin Worlds (Korriban, Hutta, Ord Mantell, and Tython).
Artifact and Legendary quality items have been adjusted.
Improved the density and distribution of random loot drops.
Added more types of random items, and improved stat assignment on random items.
Stat distribution across all items has been significantly changed.
A wide range of new high quality drops have been added to the game!
Reduced the drop rate for Premium and Prototype quality items.


Items

General

Mission reward wearables no longer have level restrictions.
Shields, foci, vibroknives, and scatterguns now drop.
Players may now toggle the appearance of helmets by opening the Main Menu, selecting Preferences, and selecting the “head slot” checkbox under Social.
Weapon colors now display appropriately in cinematics.
Added mission items, which grant the player a single use of a mission to send a Companion on.
Random Prototype quality vibroblades and electrostaves can now be found.
Players can now find lockboxes as random drops.

Item Mods

Item mod stats have been adjusted, and new stat distributions and combinations have been added.
Item mods that are dropped are now closer to the character's level.
All crafted mods have been updated.
More Premium item mods now drop.
Many now-obsolete item mods have been removed from the game.
Players will now find items with less modification slots early in the game. Later in the game, players will find items with more modification slots.
The levels at which items appear with item mods pre-slotted has been adjusted.
"Generic" modification slots have been removed. Items now have pre-set configurations of slots.
Added base mods, such as power crystals for lightsabers, which can upgrade the base properties of an item (damage, armor value, etc).
Red color crystals are now restricted to Dark Side 1.
Blue and green color crystals are now restricted to Light Side 1.
Added items with bonus modification slots.



PvP - Warzones

General

The "Queue for Warzones" button is now located on the bottom right of the mini-map.
Players are now automatically added to a raid group with their teammates when a Warzone begins.
Valor rank, PvP tokens, players queued as a group, and other information now appears on the Warzone queue window.
PvP bolstering in Warzones has been adjusted.
Same-faction matchmaking has been enabled for the Nar Shaddaa Warzone.
The damage power-up has had its buff reduced from 50% to 20%.
The Resolve bar on the UI wraps around the target’s portrait. This bar builds as the character is affected by crowd control effects. When the bar is white, the character is immune to crowd control for a limited time.
The Guard ability has new visual effects for guarded characters and the characters guarding them.
Players who accomplish feats of heroic PvP now have their names announced within Warzones.

Alderaan Civil War

The map now properly displays which faction controls a gun turret.
Center-screen announcements have been added.
Objectives appear on the Scorecard UI in the same compass direction as seen on the mini-map.


Voidstar

Messages now appear in the center of the screen to direct players through the Warzone.
Objectives appear on the Scorecard UI in the same compass direction as seen on the mini-map.
Objectives on the Hangar and Bridge must now be claimed and defended for 20 seconds before they are captured.
Art for platforms and Objectives has been updated.
The layout of this Warzone has been altered.
Timers for Objective capture have been added.
Characters no longer spawn in inappropriate locations.


Missions and NPCs

Missions General

Heroic Missions are now referred to as "Group Missions."
Group Missions now indicate the number of players recommended to complete the mission.
Group Missions have been added to Act 2.
Group Missions have been rebalanced, and many new Group Missions are now available!

NPC General

Enemy pathfinding has been significantly improved!
NPC cover usage has been improved.
Strong enemies have had their health reduced and damage output increased.
Droids of varying types are now properly susceptible to ability effects.
More powerful humanoid enemies now have more visible portraits.
Lower quantities of enemies now appear in mission phases and Flashpoints.
Enemies can be defeated more quickly overall.
Strong and tougher enemies now have access to more abilities, and will do more damage with those abilities.
Enemy healers are now more balanced.
New World Bosses have been added!
Existing World Bosses have been rebalanced and can now drop novelty items.
Boss enemies now have a chance to drop a Prototype item mod instead of a Premium item.
Strong, Elite, and Boss enemies now interact in more interesting ways with players in cover.


Space Combat

General

Space Combat Missions now reward Fleet Commendations that can be used to purchase Starship upgrades.

Bug Fixes

Invisible ships no longer fire at the player's ship.

User Interface

The UI has been updated, overhauled, and reskinned!
Bonus Objectives can now be displayed in the Mission Tracker even if they are not linked to another mission.
Mission failure is now properly announced via the UI.
The display of mission steps in the Mission Log has been improved.
A notification now appears when attempting to summon a Companion Character in a full group.
Customizable keybindings have now been implemented and can be altered in the Options Menu.
Strong enemies now feature a silver star on their portrait. Elites are indicated by a gold star, and Group Boss level enemies are now identified with a gold star with a red center.

[Winnow]

Here's 30 or so minutes of game play from the beta (watch in 720p)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... t_bRIOAeUE

It will probably be taken down soon.

Seems ok. Polished. Avatars are last gen looking but the world itself looks nice. Kinda WoWish (meaning on the shittier side for graphics) but much more pleasing to look at than WoW. All NPCs appear to have voice as has been emphasized previously.

[Winnow]

My seekrit contact tells me that the SWTOR beta servers will be taken down on 7/20 for two weeks to prepare a sizable patch/upgrade for the next beta phase. Character wipes. Should be lots of new beta invites when the servers come back up the 1st week of August.

[Fairweather Pure]

Hey Winnow, did you play WoW long enough to be able to tell if the gameplay in this Star Wars MMO is "samey" by comparison? I posted my thoughts earlier on my concerns that it looks like pretty much the same classes and mechanics as every other MMO, I'm just curious exactly how similar it will feel compared to them.

The graphics are more "WoWish" than not. I think Guild Wars 2 has some truly next gen MMO style graphics. Any interest in playing that one for us too?

[Winnow]

The graphics are more "WoWish" than not. I think Guild Wars 2 has some truly next gen MMO style graphics. Any interest in playing that one for us too?

SWTOR's avatar graphics are crap. The environments are nice but the avatars look like they are 5 years old. I think the story will be good enough to have some fun for a few months or more in SWTOR but Guild Wars 2 is the "next gen" MMO on the horizon with the entire package.

Here's a leak site for games in beta. Tons of SWTOR info there:

http://betacake.blogspot.com/

Videos get posted but taken down pretty quick. Lots of screens and stats though.

[Leonaerd]

Sooo you didn't play WoW long enough to be able to compare the gameplay?

I suspect the gameplay is WoW esque.





I don't want delayed gratification in the form of loot.
I want character driven communities, like what Star Wars Galaxies had.

Or, alternatively, hardcore difficult / demanding games, like old school EQ.



Any other worthy style of MMO is unknown to me. =(

[masteen]

I don't want delayed gratification in the form of loot.
I want character driven communities, like what Star Wars Galaxies had.
Or, alternatively, hardcore difficult / demanding games, like old school EQ.
Any other worthy style of MMO is unknown to me. =(

You might as well exit from the MMO space now and forever, because ain't nobody with the money to do it gonna make a quality niche product like that. McMMOs for the foreseeable future.

[Fairweather Pure]

The longer other MMO companies wait, the more polished WoW continues to get. The list of good things about WoW, even if you don't like the game, is too extensive to list. I guess my favorite thing is the fact that I'm literally doing 20 things at once almost all the time. Collecting non combat pets, mounts, optimizing gear for 4 separate specs for both PvP and PvE, working on factions, doing personal and guild achievements, unlocking any number of things, breaking records on Heroic runs, ect, ect, ect. On top of all the regular stuff, you have holidays and special things like the Molten Front and other major patch events worked into the mix. Lately I've been doing PvP so much that PvE might as well not even exist. Hell, I don't even do Arenas or Raid and I play WoW at least 10-12 hours a week. To top it all off, everything is integrated so well that you cannot help but tip your hat to Blizzard.

Any game coming out has to be pretty damn polished in order to get me to switch. Well, that or nail a theme so well that I take notice. I hope the Star Wars game does this, but I'm just so sick of everything Star Wars right now that it is hard for me to get excited by it. The gameplay videos are not helping at all. I'm still holding out for the 40k MMO!

[miir]

what other MMOs have you played in the past 5 years, besides WOW?

[Leonaerd]

I don't want delayed gratification in the form of loot.
I want character driven communities, like what Star Wars Galaxies had.
Or, alternatively, hardcore difficult / demanding games, like old school EQ.
Any other worthy style of MMO is unknown to me. =(

You might as well exit from the MMO space now and forever, because ain't nobody with the money to do it gonna make a quality niche product like that. McMMOs for the foreseeable future.

I have been away from MMOs (WoW) for... three years or so... and for the reasons I listed above.

McMMOs indeed.

[Winnow]

I'm not counting on this game to be the next big thing. If I get into beta and it's fun, I think I can get a few months of entertainment out of it.

Most people know I value graphics and this game is mixed with the environments looking nice while the avatars are crappy. I'm big on visual customization. A game can keep me interested for a month or two on story alone if it's any fun at all to play. SWTOR looks like they put great emphasis on the individual class stories. If the individual class stories really do feel different, it could make for quite a few hours of fun even if my avatar looks like it's from EQII with not much different in appearance between same class avatars.

Whether this is similar to WoW or not, Bioware deserves a chance to impress me.

As for other games. I'll give Tera a chance due to the graphics. I'll give Secret World a chance because it appears different and also looks like the developers put thought into the lore of the game.

The only future MMO I've been constantly impressed with the amount of thought and effort put into all aspects of the game is Guild Wars 2. I'll be very disappointed if that turns out not capturing my interest.

[Winnow]

This may be inaccurate info...but $220.00 for SWTOR Collector's Edition?

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/7 ... fbfantrack

Crazy talk.

[Fairweather Pure]

I wonder if they'll offer a lifetime subscription up front like Star Trek did? It was a one time offer at launch.