SWTOR Free to Play Preview

[SWINE FLU]

If you didn't know already, SWTOR is becoming F2P (Free to play) this Autumn. I recommend that anyone who was put off by the subscription fee should play the game when it becomes F2P. The F2P features are being tested on now, so it shouldn't be too long until it's officially released.

Take a look at this for an overview of the differences between a Subscriber and a Free Player:

[CommanderOtto]

I love this game. But as I said in another post, I was dissapointed that some features from star wars galaxies were not added to this game.

Major points in favor of this game:
*better graphics than star wars galaxies... obviously this is a new game.
*VERY good story line for every career
*good balance between dark and good side
*warzones
*character creation is awesome
*worlds are ok...

Major dissapointments (which are few mind you):
*very few mount options and absolutely no customizations
*worlds/planets in swg were way bigger
*no player owned houses
* and the most important of all: No space combat like star wars galaxies. In the old game you could have your own ship and you started a different career as a pilot for the empire or the rebs (tie fart... fighter and the x-wing). With time you could get your own tie fighter uniform, go up the ranks and get better ships. You could decorate the inside of your ships and you could buy very big ones if you wanted too. Another good aspect of the old game in this area was the ability to invite players to your ship and they could help you in missions by manning turrets of your ship. The space combat in star wars the old republic looks more like an arcade game compared to star wars galaxies. Finally, in the last days of the game you could fly your ship in the atmosphere of the planet (actually fly over cities and land)

Not that I think swg is better than swtor. However, I wish space combat in swtor would be like that... only thing it needs to be perfect!!

[ATCStewart]

You're definitely right about one thing, the space combat in SWTOR leaves much to be desired. As far as mounts go, the variety will increase with time and may be made customizable. However, one item you can buy with cartel coins will be a Sith throne for your ship. I'm not saying this is a good/bad idea, but if you are desperate for customizing your ship, you will be able to.

[[m'kay]]

SWG had a much, much cooler way of going about it though. If I remember right, you could put pretty much any item on your ship/house. If you had a blaster rifle you used for a ton of levels that you wanted to throw up on a wall, you could do it easily, even changing the angle of the rifle. That went for everything from pistols to gigantic trophies with the mounted heads of some of the biggest enemies of the game. Paying actual money for a crap throne that nobody else can even see is pretty terrible compared to that. SWG did a lot of things wrong later in it's life, but the feeling of actually being in a world populated by other players rather than NPCs is pretty absent from TOR. Also, the space content in SWG was pretty much amazing because it wasn't just combat. When I played, I was able to help some guildmates mine by taking a spot in one of the mining turrets on the gigantic barge they had, in the ship they had customized, and it was intense. Well, as intense as mining can be at least.

Space stuff in SWG was just great all around, actually. Hell, there was a huge Star Destroyer that the rebels and the imperials fought over a lot of the time, and the thing was actually to scale. You had huge ships like that, you had more medium sized (but still pretty big) ships for players to use, and of course you had the little interceptors to use. And the best part was, you could actually act as an honest to god crew member even if there wasn't room for you in a turret - when the ship gets damaged, players running around inside can go sprinting over to the various systems, trying to repair it. The overall effect was, you could have people who weren't too into space still participating with turrets and repairs and having a pretty good time, and since the flying and shooting was entirely skill based you would have ace pilots going up against eachother in PvP, and god that game was so good why did they [m'kay] it up hnnnnnnnngh

Basically, after like 30 hours of playing TOR, I really just wish they had given SWG over to a competent team instead of cancelling it. I really think there was room for both TOR and SWG to co-exist if SWG hadn't become such a goddamn flop. Hell, if pre-CU SWG still existed, it would be even better because it was entirely different from the themepark route TOR went down. It had skills that you would train into, a lot like a more primitive version of Darkfall. Becoming a jedi was ridiculously hard too, which again would have separated it greatly from TOR. Just a shame SOE decided competing with WoW was better than sticking with their reasonably successful game.


edit: jesus that was a lot of words about a game I played for a year

[Mandalore]

Pre-NGE/Pre-CU SWG was so markedly superior to SW:TOR that comparing the two is retarded. God I loved that entire skill system.

[CommanderOtto]

wow I wish I had time to play it a little more. I only played it for about 14 days in a trial and I was so sad they had to cancel it. There was so much to do so many quests and levels I needed to do. I remember I dreamed with one of those white "space yatches" that went around the space station. That game was so cool when it came to space and there was a lot to do besides just killing enemies like in swtor.

wow I didn't know you could also hang your blaster in your house. It's a shame I didn't even have a house at the time. I once went inside a random house and I was so surprised because there was a stormtrooper guard inside and he had posters and objects from the movies hanging in his walls. It was great indeed. If i'm correct, players could also use their houses as player owned stores right?

and wow, it is also a shame I was never able to play more and meet the emperor or darth vader. I was told the rebs could also meet luke skywalker in advanced quests.

lol there was such a huge variety of mounts. Some people owned republic drop ships, pod racers, AT-ST's, and I once saw a screenshot of one of those senate saucers with lots of people inside as passengers! Below some examples but there are thousands of speeders to choose:







(lol this is a "light bending speeder")
(jet pack)
(hover chair)













(only watch first minutes of the video. Doesn't this remind you of a map in a certain game that starts with B and ends with 2?)


(going to the star destroyer)

(go to the last minutes of the video, near minute 54 or 56 to see his new ship tour. You will notice, ships were basically space houses)

(near the end of the video you can see his space yatch)

[Darth Crater]

wow I don't understand why I can't upload these youtube links here!!

In the tag, remove the "&feature=" and everything afterward.

[CommanderOtto]

wow I don't understand why I can't upload these youtube links here!!

In the tag, remove the "&feature=" and everything afterward.

thanks crater!! it worked!


Someone's house in minute 41 of the video.

[SWINE FLU]

just killing enemies like in swtor.

You do lots more than that in SWTOR. PvP Warzones, PvE Flashpoints, PvE Operations, a great crafting system, space combat (not great, but it's there), get to know and romance companions, enjoy social gatherings on your server and so on.


And that is the biggest amount of pictures and videos I've ever seen in a post, well done Otto!

[BurzaP]

I'm going to download it and play if will have enough time :) I'm very glad that every plot is free to play and finish as it seems to be the most important in SWTOR.