The Old Republic for Dummies

[DarthParametric]

Yes, I hope they introduce animal mounts as well. That was one of the reasons I started playing SWG as a CH.

[Mav]

Yes, I hope they introduce animal mounts as well. That was one of the reasons I started playing SWG as a CH.

Like some of the quick travel mounts on some worlds?

[DarthParametric]

Yeah I took a few rides on the flying dolphins in my second beta weekend back in October. I doubt you'd ever get something like that as a player mount, but presumably things like Dewbacks have to be in the frame for inclusion. They said a few months back they would consider it post-launch.

[Tommycat]

Yeah I took a few rides on the flying dolphins in my second beta weekend back in October. I doubt you'd ever get something like that as a player mount, but presumably things like Dewbacks have to be in the frame for inclusion. They said a few months back they would consider it post-launch.

 

If they did add those as mounts, the skill to learn to ride it is probably a million credits.

[Zakhodit]

Dewbacks and Banthas would be pretty cool...

 

Can I get a Rancor?

[DarthParametric]

It's possible we may eventually see something like rancor holos as ship decorations (along the lines of what SWG had) or maybe even tiny ones as non-combat pets (like WoW and SWG or the mouse droid of the TOR CE). There's no way you'd ever see a mount version and sadly I see no possibility of a CH-type class ever being offered.

[Zakhodit]

Oh I wouldn't discount anything just yet. The game is brand new. There may not be many drastic changes early but in five years who knows.

[DarthParametric]

I think ruling out rancor player mounts is fairly safe, regardless of how radical future changes may be.

[Mav]

So I have a question, let's say I have a Bounty Hunter, his name is Bob, he is only level 5, let us then say that I no longer want to be Bob the Bounty Hunter, I want to be Bob the Trooper. If I delete Bob the Bounty Hunter does that free up the name and let me create Bob the Trooper? I am assuming this answer is yes, so I have a follow up question, does anyone happen to know if there is some lag time for this to take effect or is it instantaneous? This is something I meant to test in the beta and forgot because I was too busy flamethrowering people in the face.

[Lynk Former]

I actually did do what you're describing in your post... I created an Imperial Agent with a particular name but then decided that the name would suit my Jedi Consular a lot better. So I deleted the Imperial Agent and then started the Jedi Consular... only problem is that I don't know how much lag time there is for sure because I was working on the site design at the time and I created the Consular after deleting the Agent around 40 minutes later.

 

I'm assuming it's almost instantaneous though.

[Mav]

Yeah Jeff was saying it was pretty much instantaneous in WoW so that's how I assume it would be for TOR, nice to know somebody remembered to check though XD.

[.:Lord Revan:.]

I have a cousin who is playing this when it comes out will i see him in the game and hopefully kill him?

[Lynk Former]

I have a cousin who is playing this when it comes out will i see him in the game and hopefully kill him?

If you're playing on the same PvP (Player vs Player) server, are on the same planet and in the same instance and on opposite sides (he's Empire, you're Republic) then sure... you can kill him.

 

Otherwise, bad luck.

[Mav]

Of if he is the same faction or you're on a PvE server, you must challenge him to a Duel and he must accept, then you can "kill" him.

[logan23]

Duels do not kill the other player. The duel stops when one of the player's hp drops to a certain level.

 

But you could fight him at tattonie's something den ... Ugh I forget the name

[Player0]

I don't know about TOR specifically, but wanted to give a heads up regarding some potentially exploitive dueling.

 

The exploit comes from the fact that in some MMO's there are areas that allow PvP content between the factions, but you have to specifically flag yourself for PvP before the other team can attack you. Even while flagged, you can't attack anyone else unless they too flag themselves.

 

You can flag yourself for PvP usually through a slash command (like /pvp) or by trying to attack someone of the opposite faction who is flagged.

 

In WoW - something I confirmed myself on a rather humorous occassion - it was possible to start a duel with the opposing faction after flagging yourself for PvP. After the duel started, you could immidiately concede the duel using the slash command /concede. Once conceded, the duel is no longer taking place, but because you flagged yourself for PvP you're still a legitimate target to your opponent.

 

The opponent, potentially unaware that you conceded the duel, begins to attack you, thus flagging themself for PvP. The group you're riding across the desert with on your way to a raid - some what oblivious to what's going on - suddenly sees you being attacked by a PvP flagged person of the opposite faction. All 20 of them hop off their horses and proceed to chase the poor sod across the desert and end his life.

 

It's fun really, unless you're the guy who was tricked into flagging themself for PvP. And that's the moral of the story - don't get duped into a fight were you can potentially be killed, even if the premise is simply a "duel." There's lots of ways to grief people in duels.

 

In TOR, knocking people off a cliff seems like an obvious way of griefing in a duel. Your attacks may not be able to kill someone in a duel, but a long enough drop will because the damage is environmental. It's also possible that during a duel you pull aggro (aggression, or the attention of an enemy) from a nearby mob (movable object, an old MMO term to refer to PvE enemies or potential enemies) who finishes you off.

 

Take care when considering a duel!

 

I also wanted to mention regarding looting:

 

General rules vary on the do's and don'ts of looting. Different parties will do things differently, even guilds will do things differently. And there's generally different rules based on the quality of the gear you're liable to find.

 

In general, in pubs, I have a few rules I follow that I expect others to follow:

 

1) If you roll need, it's because you plan to equip the item immidiately, or you plan to equip the item as soon as you are high enough level to do so. If you don't plan on putting the item on, don't plan to roll need. I want to see that item bound to you.

 

In other words, if a really nice item drops that you *could* use, but you would probably sell, then roll greed. Need is for people who actually need to use the item - not just those who could use it. Greed is for everyone else.

 

2) If you just plan to sell the item, or trade it, you're welcome to roll greed. And that goes for anything, including rare bind on equip items that will fetch a pretty penny when auctioned.

 

3) Don't loot until the fighting is over - FOR EVERYONE! I've been a pretty good healer in past MMO's and one thing I CANNOT stand is people who start looting before mobs are dead. I've had really bad experiences with it.

 

In fact, in one particular case, our group pulled a mini-boss with 2 other elite mobs. I was the healer in the back trying to stay out of the action. Our tank didn't realize that the elite mobs weren't aggroed to him and continued to focus the miniboss with the rest of the team.

 

"No problem," I said, and used a skill to decrease some of my aggro getting the mobs off me and back onto the tank. Shortly after, the miniboss went down and the group proceeded to loot. Unbenounced to them (because no one was paying attention to the party tab) both of the other mobs had reaggroed to me when my spell wore off.

 

Despite my best yelling in a chat box, no one noticed I was dying until I had died. After being revived, I promptly left that group to fend for themselves.

 

Moral of the story: the items aren't going anywhere, there's plenty of time to pick them up and most quest items will spawn duplicates for everyone. Your main healer, on the other hand, is there to survive the challenge just like you, and if you leave them (or anyone else) out to dry, you can rest assured that they WON'T be there for long.

[Mav]

So the Crew Skill missions that you can learn from "schematics" are those missions one shot per schematic or are they redo-able once you learn the schematic?

[DarthParametric]

Missions you get as loot are one-shot. I've gotten a bunch I can't use with Slicing, which I've thrown up on the GTN. With only a 2 day max sale period though, I don't know if they'll move. I have no idea of value, so I just went with the recommended price. I did get one that I could use though. It was about a level 120 or so mission and cost about 2,000 credits to do I think. Fortunately it was successful and I got my money back with a little extra, and a schematic for something I can't remember that I threw up on the GTN. When I played the beta I got a couple of loot missions and my success with them was a bit hit and miss, so I was wary of this one. Maybe they've tweaked the probabilities or something.

[Lynk Former]

So now I've got a question... I know that there's a Companion Customization Vendor in the Cantina near the Space Port on Taris, but it only sells customizations for a few characters, none of which are the ones for the Trooper.

 

I was wondering if anyone knew the location of the Character Customization Vendor that sold customizations for Elara Dorne, the Troopers companion.

[DarthParametric]

Maybe they haven't added them all yet. They said during beta they would add them eventually, but I'm not sure if they ever said they'd be in by launch.

[Miltiades]

Anyone have anything to say or any tips to share concerning the spawning of enemies? My only experience with MMO's is the not-really-an-MMO Guild Wars, which never had any problems with spawning because they worked with instances, so you guys are probably used to this, but I get quite annoyed with it sometimes. Today my Bounty Hunter experienced his first death during a Heroic Quest because enemies respawned right in front of me while I was taking care of an already respawned group of enemies. I was hoping to avoid dying for as long as possible (what if there's some perk or title to gain from surviving - like Guild Wars had).

[DarthParametric]

You will die a lot. That's part and parcel of an MMO. The penalty is very mild in TOR though - from what I can tell it is just extra equipment wear rather than an XP hit.

 

As far as spawns go, always move away from a mob's spawn point as soon as you have dealt with them, lest you experience exactly what you did. There was some discussion of respawn rates in another thread. They are a bit variable, depending on the level and the planet/area. The more populated areas are likely going to have very short timers for the trash mobs, so it may pay to stop and ascertain what that rate is for a given area before wading in.

[mimartin]

Alright, I have the dying part down. I’m getting really good at it.

 

Playing as Smuggler/ Scoundrel (healer)

 

Up to level 16 or 17 now, got my ship headed to Nar Shaddaa. Noticed all the enemy here are level 20 to 21. Did I make a mistake, should I have gone to Taris first? Or is that just par for the course and enemies usually will be a few levels higher than you?

 

Also is it alright that I practice my healing skills on other players? It isn’t bad etiquette or anything?

[Mav]

Yeah you're supposed to go to Taris before Nar Shaddaa mims. On the galaxy map in your ship, each planet should also have a level range displayed. Also if I was another random player I certainly wouldn't mind randomly being healed.

[DarthParametric]

Always do whatever side-quests you can find on a planet before leaving for the next one. Most planets should have a "bonus series" that unlock after you have completed the planet's main side-quest chain (and probably your class story chain too), although in some cases these are not intended to be undertaken until later (an example for Empire players being Nar Shaddaa, whose bonus series quests are aimed at level 31 - i.e. post Alderaan, 2 planets later).

 

Your main story quest is typically a level or two above the side-quests you'll be doing at the time, so be cautious about rushing straight into that. Best to run through some side-quests first and continue to intersperse side-quests with story quests as you move around the planet to keep yourself at or above the level progression curve.

 

Common courtesy suggests you should apply your class-specific buff to every friendly player you see. Hopefully they will reciprocate, meaning if you buff players from the other 3 classes (on post-starter planets) you should end up with all 4 buffs applied to you (strength, endurance, willpower, critical % I believe). If you have heals, it's always good to heal other players nearby, especially if they are in trouble. Be aware that healing/buffing someone who is in combat will flag you as hostile to whatever they are fighting. At the very least this will put you in a combat stance for the duration of that player's fight, killing any non-combat abilities like Sprint.

 

Generally it is best not to directly interfere in someone else's combat (i.e. engage their enemies), unless they are fighting an elite or something and getting their ass handed to them or if they specifically ask for help. If you see someone waiting around for one of the elites that form the final part of most bonus quest lines to spawn and you are after the same mob, invite that person to group with you (or accept their invite if they offer). That way you'll help each other out and both get the quest item to finish the quest chain.