One last stress test....

I hope you all enjoyed your beta! I just got an e-mail for an "upcoming beta event", dont know if they are calling back all of Squadron 367, but it looks to be like a huge test coming. Hopefully all of us will be in at the same time.

gestergren wrote:I hope you all enjoyed your beta! I just got an e-mail for an "upcoming beta event", dont know if they are calling back all of Squadron 367, but it looks to be like a huge test coming. Hopefully all of us will be in at the same time.

Hold me, Ges. I may pass out from pure awesome.

Oooo can I join in?

This was posted to the Developer Tracker today;

"Hi all,

Just a reminder that if you were a registered member of our website on or before November 11th, 2011, you will be invited to the future weekend test. Regardless of whether you received an email last week or not, please do not take beta keys off of any external websites if you are already a registered member of our site. Let's leave them for the more needy, please. "

And now we have a confirmed date, taken from SWToR.com Developer Tracker;

General Discussion -> Next Beta Testing Weekend - FAQ

Updated the FAQ with this question and answer:

When will the Beta Testing Weekend start?

We are targeting November 25-28 for our upcoming Beta Testing Weekend. Exact timing on when you will be invited will be specified in your invite email.

While I'm glad the test is going on during my Thanksgiving Break, I will have to be sneaky about playing because I have family coming in. xD

Even though those of us who played in the last one get to keep our characters, I am willing to re-roll (was planning on anyhow) to play on a server with the whole guild.

I wonder if the chars made during beta get to keep them for the real game.

No, Crusader that wont happen. I have beta'd a quite a few games ovber the years, and never do they let you keep your characters. We still have Early access though. They are going to start letting pre-orders in on the 15th December. Depending on when you redeeemed your code thats up to 5 days of early playtime.

They are starting to allow d/l for this weekend's testing... so, check your e-mails, and the testing section of swtor.com.

gestergren wrote:They are starting to allow d/l for this weekend's testing... so, check your e-mails, and the testing section of swtor.com.

Get the f@#! out of my brain. I literally just started downloading mine.

[Moderator edit: In the future please censor foul language]

LOL, Rae... Great minds think alike. Anyway, I am thinking whoever gets in first posts the server here, so we can all roll on the same one.

I too am doing da downloading

gestergren wrote:LOL, Rae... Great minds think alike. Anyway, I am thinking whoever gets in first posts the server here, so we can all roll on the same one.

Or, you know. More than just Crusader and I CAN GET ON SKYPE AND DO IT SINCE THAT SEEMS TO BE EASIER.

>.>

<.<

<3

Just got an e-mail stating my beta starts Friday at 10 am. Anybody else know when they start yet?

Same but I wont play until later *Sad Face*

On the last day of this stress test, I decided to give the other side a try. Rolled a Jedi Knight and took him to the Guardian AC. Thought the story was well done, and leveling seemed easier then any of the Sith classes (one death during levels 1-12). It was really fun playing a path that suited me... I was the only Jedi I saw with the title of "The Viscious" go figure. LOL

Evil Jedi go!

But srsly. BETA was awesome! 0 crash to desktops, 0 server disconnects. Only gripes are... heroic quest areas get really difficult, sound randomly dies for my skills, and some major issues with the UI (Some reason, it randomly decides that I can only click 7, when I try to click anything else on my screen it acts like I'm click 7. To fix it, I reload my UI via CTRL+U, but then when I do that my map dies, and no longer displays any quest markers or anything.)

One huge thing I did not like was the re spawn rate I could spend 5 minutes clearing out a area and half way walking out of it they spawn on top of me.

I decided to roll Jedi this time around as well. I LOVED my Consular. So much fun, so much story. I even turned my friend onto the game during Beta. He was having his doubts, but now he loves it.

SO looking forward to release. We're so close! I have just enough time to finish out my semester and then disappear from the world for a few weeks. Lol.

I imagine after they go through feedback from this weekend, they will be doing quite abit of tweeking.

This weekend was one of fear for me. Though the previews and the hype of those who've played have all laid endless accolades upon TOR, some part of my scarred psyche ached the days away in a perpetual worry about it being WoW with lightsabers.
I rolled a Jedi Consular, mostly because I thought in story and in action it would be the furthest thing from a Bounty Hunter. As Rae pointed out, the tale is epic, enthralling, simply amazing (and I only got to level 10-11; off Typhon!). Beyond an actual voice acted adventure, I found the pacing of combat faster as well as more dynamic (force blasting a group of enemies, fighting groups and not individuals, etc.)
Highlights:
A GM telling me I deserve an award for how many times I my character was stuck in a spot that disallowed me to get out (I'm an explorer some of the time). That same GM lol'ing later because of the number of bugs I found for the same exploratory tendencies.
Spending only 10 seconds outside a heroic area looking for a group.
The boss battle against that rock-rancor thing in the (don't want to ruin it for anyone) was tough, but in a beatable way.
Most importantly the feeling. So many were the 'nubs' that things were reset to basics, which favours a problem solving mindset as well as a certain level of player forgiveness. When we (two other jedi's knights and myself) ran about that heroic cave area, they obviously didn't have the vaguest concept of tanking or focus killing, instead Force leaping recklessly into concentrations of robots while swinging their training saber. It made the encounters as well as a relatively strait forward dungeon crawl button-mashing excitement. (Note: They didn't want to kill that boss at the end of the heroic area... It's a boss, and it's sitting there... seriously, do we need a reason to smash it apart? Lousy goody-goody Jedi...)
People were kinder, they asked for and offered assistance with full blown sentences, and when a person would challenge me it was on morale grounds regarding quest choices 'Why did you do that to those guys?!' (My Consular wasn't very conscionable.. at all. I wondered at times about how stupid my master must be to not notice the obvious grip of the Dark Side upon her (female avatar).)

@gjknutsen When we enter TOR as a guild the heroic areas will be much tamer, since we'll have each other to call upon for help. I really enjoy extra challenge of any sort, so expect me to volunteer for things you or any guildie are having trouble with.
@Crusader I cannot be sure, as I never witnessed them, but I imagine the respawn times for worlds beyond the starter variants will be slower. Opposite to what you experienced I found that sometimes I'd walk into a flesh raider camp or whatever and it would be devoid of life, save for a dozen Jedi-something's prancing about. After the starting worlds I imagine/hope that populations of pc's won't be so dense.

I can't bloody wait!

Agreed. I ws discussing the game with a buddy of mine and we are both totally enthralled. I, too, was afraid that it would be another WoW remake (*COUGHRIFTCOUGH*) but I am so surprised at how amazing it is. It's like a role-players nirvana. So much content, and unlike WoW, whereas only the quest text you that you were heroic, in TOR I actually feel heroic. The graphics are amazing. The dialogue is amazing. I am still in love with my SI, but I cannot wait to roll all the other classes as well. I'm not normally a melee person, but in TOR it's not so bad that I can't get into it.

So excited. Bottom line.

I rolled an SI on the first day, and went Assassin with him. I really loved it, and got quite attached to Legion. Great story line and I hated to stop playing it, but I had other classes to play with. Damn you Bioware! You are giving my poor little man brain to many decisions to make!

When i played my IA I was so impressed that I was sucked into the game because of that alone. Sure I am having issues with the cover mechanic, but that is something that can be fixed with time. As an IA, it feels less awkward to choose light side options than I expected it to be But hey, who would want to do that =). Did a decent amount of exploring the other worlds, and I have to say, the zones do feel large. I was really worried it was going to constantly feel like single player game in the zone layout. Rolled a Trooper and JC as well which were both amazing! Can not wait for this game!

@ Kurnoth I rolled a Smuggler up until around level 8, and I really enjoyed the cover mechanic. I noticed that most people share your sentiments about it not being the best (usually the word 'clunky' is ascribed to it).
From my perspective, compared to the Gears of War series the cover system in TOR is nowhere near as fleshed out and dynamic, but as you indicated "..in time.." TOR's version could be. I found that analyzing a battlefield before engagement allowed me to take on two, three and even once 3 groups plus one 'strong' enemy by (ab)using the ridiculous speed one acquires while diving into highlighted cover. For me, it was an adrenal rush.

What did you find that needed improvement?