The Old Republic for Dummies

[mimartin]

But from what I've experienced, people doing that don't get many group invites.

 

I had groups do that to me while I was playing solo, not just once, but many times. I would just as soon cut off my arm as do that. If someone else does the work, they should get the reward.

[Jae Onasi]

So ......no "humiliating" other players or NPCs after you kill them?

(if you get what I'm getting at, ho-hum)

 

I guess I'll have to see on my own what kind of random jackass stunts I can try to pull off.

 

 

I'm not interested in being the guildmate of someone who griefs others, ruins their gameplay experience, or exploits the game. We're better than that.

[DarthParametric]

The worst offenders (in terms of quest objectives) for this IMO are the AA guns and rebel supplies (ammo stores, fuel dumps, etc) on Balmorra (Empire version). They take ages to respawn and you will absolutely be ninja'd for these without fail during peak server times.

[mimartin]

I've found the practice sporadic on the republic side. Some do it but it isn’t that prevalent. On the empire side, it seems to be worse to me. Just on Dromund Kaas and already I’ve been snaked at least ten times for plant scans for bioanalysis. I’ve seen them standing there just out of range of the creature; I wait to see if they are going to attack. No movement, so I go to kill the creature. As soon as I attack they run up and scan the plant. I even had one try to scan the creature that I had just killed. Thankfully I don’t think the game allows that. I’m pretty sure they are doing this on purpose as they usually do not have a companion at the time. Most likely the companion is off doing Biochem leaving them to collect.

 

I’m wondering if it is the mind set on the Empire side. I don’t get nearly the amount of buffs that I received on the Republic side. Have yet to be healed on the empire side (not that this character has really needed it like my Republic character did). What I have seen is people seem more willing to step into a fight on a Empire side of things. If I am fighting an Elite or a Champion someone almost always lends a hand (something that annoys me even more than them snaking my nodes). That didn't happen very often on the Republic side except for when I was getting my butt handed to me.

[Darth Avlectus]

I'm not interested in being the guildmate of someone who griefs others, ruins their gameplay experience, or exploits the game. We're better than that.

 

By jackass I mean in a way that makes *everybody* laugh--not just myself.

[Lynk Former]

By jackass I mean in a way that makes *everybody* laugh--not just myself.

You're assuming that there's no victim when there is... somewhere, someone is having their experience ruined because of you if you decide to act that way.

[Darth Avlectus]

You're assuming that there's no victim when there is... somewhere, someone is having their experience ruined because of you if you decide to act that way.

 

Interesting. I'd have thought you of all people would've had the least of issue with this. Aside obvious differences between subscription paid MMO versus free online forum, I see nothing fundamentally different about jackassery in a game and the good-natured tripping up of others for lulz at their expense. So with all due respect, where is it that you draw the line?

 

Edit: Also, I am on my own hit-list for when I'm dicking off. I would have thought self deprecation shows less hubris and malice? Certainly it seems to prevent others building resentment towards you for it.

 

Certainly worked for Nobunaga on XBL playing GTA4, and it worked for me on L4D... People would laugh so hard they couldn't play straight. Sometimes even get friend requests despite us being among the biggest jackasses.

[Miltiades]

What I have seen is people seem more willing to step into a fight on a Empire side of things. If I am fighting an Elite or a Champion someone almost always lends a hand (something that annoys me even more than them snaking my nodes).

Wouldn't know why that would annoy you, to be honest. I tend to stay out of a fight unless players are in trouble, but when I do help, people usually stand around and wait for me to tackle the same boss I helped them with and then help me out. People randomly helping me defeat an elite or champion is rather nice for me. I much less want them to interfere when I'm tackling multiple enemies, as they tend to get the experience for one of them at least.

 

On a different note: There seems to be some problem with companion conversations. At least I have noticed that sometimes my companion has this icon saying (s)he wants to talk in private, but when in the cantina or the ship, no conversation can be initiated. Anyone encountered something similar?

[Jae Onasi]

Interesting. I'd have thought you of all people would've had the least of issue with this. Aside obvious differences between subscription paid MMO versus free online forum, I see nothing fundamentally different about jackassery in a game and the good-natured tripping up of others for lulz at their expense. So with all due respect, where is it that you draw the line?

 

Edit: Also, I am on my own hit-list for when I'm dicking off. I would have thought self deprecation shows less hubris and malice? Certainly it seems to prevent others building resentment towards you for it.

 

Certainly worked for Nobunaga on XBL playing GTA4, and it worked for me on L4D... People would laugh so hard they couldn't play straight. Sometimes even get friend requests despite us being among the biggest jackasses.

 

Well, depends on what you're meaning now, doesn't it? There's a vast difference between teasing among guildmates and keeping it 'in the family', being just crazy silly (which can be indeed hilarious) and doing something that fubars the game for random strangers (the last I wouldn't want done to me, so I won't do it to others). I think some of us are twitching about the last because we don't know what exactly your definition is.

 

On a different note: There seems to be some problem with companion conversations. At least I have noticed that sometimes my companion has this icon saying (s)he wants to talk in private, but when in the cantina or the ship, no conversation can be initiated. Anyone encountered something similar?

Yep, I've gotten that bug, too. I'm not sure why, either, but it is rather annoying. Not enough to make me gripe too much, just enough to make me go "well, that's kinda annoying..." when it happens.

[DarthParametric]

The easiest way to tell if they want to talk is just to right click on them. If they want to talk to you they will give you a line of dialogue that indicates as much, usually something along the lines of "Let's talk when we get back to the ship" or "I'd like to talk to you in private". The latter type will trigger a conversation in cantinas as well as the ship. For BHs, Mako's ship one is a little indistinct, something along the lines of "It's not safe here, we'll talk later".

[mimartin]

Wouldn't know why that would annoy you, to be honest.

When I'm playing solo, I like to play solo. I just like to gauge where I am from certain fights. It really isn't that big a deal, but I like the idea of knowing I'm able to tackle fights on my own. I know it is weird, but I even have been sending my companion off on crew stills before some fights. I’m just amazed at the difference between the Scoundrel and the Operative. I really wished now I would have gone with the Lethality tree instead of the Concealment tree.

 

I’ll also admit that I sometimes watch others fight Champions and Elites and I have stepped in to help, but only when they are on the verge of death and at least with my Scoundrel only with healing. While my Operative does have some healing skills, so far, she is a better killer than healer. I have jumped in helping a Sith take on a Champion. First I tried healing, when I figured out I couldn’t keep that up fast enough, I attacked.

 

Another thing funny was tonight what I wrote about the Empire not buffing became moot. I've been buffed by all the other classes, a couple more than once.

On a different note: There seems to be some problem with companion conversations. At least I have noticed that sometimes my companion has this icon saying (s)he wants to talk in private, but when in the cantina or the ship, no conversation can be initiated. Anyone encountered something similar?

Had that constantly happen with my Wookiee, I just figured the Wookiee was a attention grabbing lair.

[Lynk Former]

@ GTA: Very different kind of social crowd in an MMO. Also, what Jae said... it's funny with your friends and folks who know you, but random strangers aren't going to appreciate very much at all and someone's probably even going to report you for harassment over it.

 

After all people are just trying to play the game and don't really want some ******* they don't know suddenly start tripping them up while they're in the middle of a mission. Sure, they'd probably find it funny if they knew you and liked you, but you can't assume everyone is just going to be like "lulz" and think you're some kind of lovable jester.

[Miltiades]

I may have found the problem, although there's not way to be completely sure one way or another: I have been giving my companions a lot of gifts lately. Usually I give an average of two to four gifts at a given time. I have noticed that giving one gift makes the icon that shows a companion wants to talk appear while the gift following that makes it disappear. So the last time I gave gifts to Gault, I immediately stopped when he wanted to talk and he talked! There's a chance this is a coincidence, but you may want to keep an eye out anyway.

[DarthParametric]

No, it has nothing to do with gifts. The icon comes and goes even if you stand there doing nothing. It's just borked. Like I said, just right click on them and they'll tell you if they want to talk or not.

 

By the way, a good portion of the conversations are gated by story progression, so even though in theory you should open up a new convo every 1,000 pts or so of affection, they won't actually trigger until you reach the appropriate point in your class quest. So you could grind a companion up to 10,000 affection at level 1, but you wouldn't get all the convos until their pre-allotted times (although you would get several back-to-back at various points).

[mimartin]

Okay going for the stupidest question ever...When someone says the are doing dailies and then role-playing their character, what does that mean? I really thought role-playing was just playing the character in normal quest. Not making the choices based on my opinion, but based on what I think the character would do. Like if I was an imperial, I wouldn't let Republic force sensitives live, but my character is lightside, so she would. So what is role-playing at level 50 after someone finished the dailies? No, it wasn't anyone in the either guild that told me that.

[DarthParametric]

You probably need to ask the person directly, as there is a lot of ground covered by what people consider RPing. At this point in TOR, I would suggest the likelihood that it involves a group of like-minded individuals standing around using ye olde fashioned text descriptions of what their character is doing in some given scenario that has been agreed upon, perhaps with the odd emote thrown in where appropriate. And maybe some duels or, if it is cross-factional, even some actual PVP as well. These would be your "hardcore" RP types. What they are interested in doesn't necessarily constitute what most people would consider actually playing the game.

 

In fact, given the way you phrased it as two distinct activities, I suspect that is exactly the scenario. They are grinding some dailies for credits/commendations as quickly as possible, then getting back to what they see as the core part of the game for them, interacting with others in an RP fashion. If that is the case, it's interesting they are doing so on a PVE server rather than an RP server. One would suspect it was because that was where their guild was pre-allocated to and/or where their friends ended up.

 

What you describe is a perfectly valid form of RPing of course. I guess that would be your "mainstream" RPing. The problem with it that the hardcore types have is that it is completely constrained by the story Bioware has put in place, with their proclivity for non-choices. If you want true freedom, you have to break out of those shackles. Imagine what they are doing as a traditional pen & paper RPG session but done via text chat.

[mimartin]

Thanks, I have a feeling you are correct. Nothing wrong with that, but just not my thing, so I will not be visiting them in the cantina.

 

I can pull of being female in game where someone else writes the lines, while I really think I would have a problem RPGing a female if I were writing the lines.

[Rogue Nine]

"You must complete missions before you can do that" is the single most infuriating phrase in the English language.

[mimartin]

"You must complete missions before you can do that" is the single most infuriating phrase in the English language.

 

yep, now clean up your quest log and keep going.

[DarthParametric]

When does it say that?

[mimartin]

If your quest log get to full, too many heroics, flashpoints or space missions in your to do list can really mess you up. Gets get so bad that you can't even talk to companions. Now I just delete the heroics and space missions, not like I can't get them back again. I don't have that problem when I play in groups, because we do the Heroics and Flashpoints.

 

Been there done that.

[DarthParametric]

Hrmm they must have changed the message. I seem to recall in beta it saying something specific about the quest log being full. Although I only ever saw it the one time, as I pretty much always do quests as I get them rather than stockpiling them.

[mimartin]

It would have been nice had they left it alone. Quest log is full is so much easier to figure out what you are doing wrong. With my smuggler it didn't catch up with me until the end of Hoth, but after that the Heroics and Flashpoints added up. I didn't figure out what was wrong until I got to the next planet, so I had to go back to Hoth to get the missions I missed.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Now I just delete the heroics and space missions, not like I can't get them back again.

 

Same here.. considering you can't do space missions unless you're on your ship (and that's where you pick up the quests).. I never keep the missions in my quest log after departing.

 

Heroics I will keep until I leave the planet in case a pug group opens up in general chat and it's something I could run.

 

Flashpoints are a different story. Still not sure what's safe to delete since I can barely remember when / where I picked them up in the first place

[adamqd]

You probably need to ask the person directly, as there is a lot of ground covered by what people consider RPing. At this point in TOR, I would suggest the likelihood that it involves a group of like-minded individuals standing around using ye olde fashioned text descriptions of what their character is doing in some given scenario that has been agreed upon, perhaps with the odd emote thrown in where appropriate. And maybe some duels or, if it is cross-factional, even some actual PVP as well. These would be your "hardcore" RP types. What they are interested in doesn't necessarily constitute what most people would consider actually playing the game.

 

 

 

yep, I RP, and the game story is just a leveling process, I dont actually figure my own story into the Bioware story, so I mainly stay in Character outside of questing and PVP... well, I did anyway hehe.