Lit TOR: The Least Possible Commitment

Now that the kerfuffle has died down, FTP has died...up, and I have a nice, fast PC to run it on, I am entertaining the possibility of playing TOR.

Sure, maybe I'll become enraptured and want to play it through a dozen times, but assuming I can only gin up the interest to play through the story once: what character path would you guys recommend to get the "best" version of the story? Do the important points come across no matter what? Are certain classes just plain more interesting than the others, from a storytelling perspective?

 

Depends on what you mean as best.

Arguably the most "important" story would be the Jedi Knight; that's the one where you, for all intents and purposes, kill the Emperor. That said, it's not as interesting as some of the other classes I've played, in part because it seems to deliberately be a series of homages to the films (one plotpoint involves you destroying super weapons). Beyond that, it's pretty much whatever class you feel sounds the most interesting. I haven't played all the classes- I've only actually beaten one class- but the Agent is very interesting and quite unlike anything else in Star Wars (save perhaps Agent of the Empire, though much more serious). Definitely will be the one you want to go for if you don't have any particular archetype you want to play out. Want a more lighthearted, funny story? Go for smuggler. If you like Jedi lore, it sounds like consular might be the way to go.

The Sith Warrior story is arguably close to the Jedi Knight in terms of "importance", and I've heard it's one of the more popular storylines.

 

See, now that actually sounds awesome.

But do you at least experience the major story arc as the "lesser" classes? Do smugglers, agents, etc actually have a role in the defeat of the Emperor, or is it just like "oh hey, Steve, did you hear the Sith Emperor is dead?"

Come to think of it, if you play a Sith Warrior, does your character "lose" at the end? I don't remember hearing about an alternative "evil" ending to the game.

 

The Jedi Knight and possibly the Sith Warrior story are both important in terms of "overall" plot development since eventually the Jedi Knight takes on the Sith Emperor and the Sith Warrior storyline somewhat deals with the aftermath of that.

I'd recommend the Smuggler for being the funniest of all the Republic storylines. The Consular deals with a good deal of Jedi lore and history of the various planets in TOR, and I think is the only Republic class to actually talk to the Supreme Chancellor several times.

The Agent storyline is pretty interesting, at least by Chapter 2. Chapter 1 is ok, but chapter 2 is really interesting and I've heard good things about the conclusion. The Trooper storyline is ok, with a few homages as well. Not sure about the Bounty Hunter or Inquisitor plots yet, haven't gotten that far with them and trying to avoid spoilers.

There's not really a "best" version of the overall story, not that there is much of one. As mentioned JK and SW deal with the Sith Emperor plot, the Consular also deals with some of the major elements that were hinted at in pre-release material, Trooper, not so much, just fight and stop the Empire, Smuggler even less related to the overall war, but a lot more funny than everything else. Never much cared for the JK storyline, a few annoying companions and no healing until Chapter 2 doesn't help either, although you encounter a few interesting characters along the way. Playing as a secret lightsided Sith Warrior can be interesting, but a lot of the game falls into the "your decisions don't matter that, that much except for which post-mission email you get".

The overall story is that when the game starts, the Republic and Sith Empire are in a cold war, things heat up and erupt into open war, and the player character helps their side one way or another by the end of Chapter Three. There's a few things about Darth Malgus, the Dread Guard as a third faction, but some of it is Imp faction only (I'm paranoid so it seems Bioware sometimes favor the Sith Empire in some things) or restricted to group content (usually requiring four or more players) to view and complete. Or you can just find it on Youtube, that works too.

I think Smuggler and Consular are my favorite, although I can somewhat see why Agent is so popular, although on other forums Consular seems to get a lot of complaints, but then I'm an EU fan so I like the history (and seeing Jedi act as diplomats). And the JK story is perhaps too full of homages and vague on certain points that annoy me. I'd go into more detail, but not sure how much spoilers you want.

One more point- free to play is free, of course, but it comes with a lot of restrictions on certain features, although it depends on whether you care about those features, ranging from earning less experience, less space to store stuff, some stuff costs extra, but it depends on your preference. If you're in it for the story alone, and have time and patience for at least playthrough, the Knight takes on the Sith Emperor eventually, but its not really that interesting to me (and some of the JK's companions annoy me).

 

The Secret World dropping their subscription fee (but not going to f2p) pretty much sealed the deal - sorry, TOR.

 

At this time none of the storyline of TOR is entirely concluded. The Emperor does not die permanently at the end of any storyline, so what ultimately is going to happen will have to wait on future expansions. While all class stories reference each other at least vaguely, there are greater connections between others, particularly the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior, as they deal with the same events.

The principle cross-class storylines of TOR are the faction-based quests on each planet and the interlinked storyline of the Flashpoints. The latter involves a number of recurring characters on both sides: Grand Moff Kilran, Revan, Meetra Surik, HK-47, and most significantly Darth Malgus. The end-game operations also have a stoyline, revolving around the Dread Masters (who initially appear during the Imperial Belsavis quest line), that is not yet concluded.

CooperTFN, if you want to maximize story content versus time, the trick is to find a group of friends who all choose different classes and play together. While each character must choose class quest conversation paths on their own, group members can observe and participate in all class quests, so you can see everything in one go. Additionally, grouping up speeds up the game, since a multi-person group tears right through all normal single player challenges.

 

Yes, but if you simply want to tear through the content, you can do so faster in a dedicated group - in terms of overall game-hours anyway, obviously it may be more difficult to arrange. All other things being equal a two-person group defeats all enemies in half the time (or sometimes less since having a dedicated healer or tank can allow for more efficient combat strategy) as a solo player. It also levels faster by taking on heroics at their designed pace (soloing them is time consuming at best), which is particularly relevant for FTP players.

Further, experiencing a class storyling vicariously through you buddy's character prevents you from having to level that class yourself. Since FTP players only get 2 character slots that matters a lot.

 

Jello is correct - even if I had people IRL to play with, co-op is not my thing. If the game were drastically harder to get through without team-ups, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

I've got a Level 26 Inquisitor and it's keeping me interested, although it's essentially all about hunting down Sith artefacts and scheming between you and your master, so it's clearly most appealing if you're into Sith lore and the order's internal power games.

I've not grouped a single time yet, but have still completed a flashpoint and all the Heroic 2+ missions (I've got a few 4+ that I'll go back to when I'm a couple more levels higher). I'm levelling as a healer though, so that might have an impact on how easy I'm finding it to keep my companion alive.

Obviously, it's harder solo, but I kinda enjoy that... I used to raid in WoW, and honestly, there's a reason I never got intersted in raiding: I just sat there spamming Frost Bolt. But I enjoy having to run around and kite my enemies and even sacrifice myself to take down one mob and come back again for the next. It feels more like a hard boss fight in a normal RPG rather than just playing my Phone A Friend card for EZMode.

A common complaint I've read though is that F2P apparently feels more like a glorified demo and that it's still really geared toward people signing up for the second half of the game, but I've got a subscription so can't comment on that from first hand experience.

 

You lost me on that last part - are you saying F2P doesn't even give you the whole story? Or by "second half" do you mean all the bonus RPG stuff?

 

FTP gives you the whole story (with significant limitations on what you can wear, how many characters you can have, and a whole host of other minor inconveniences), but not the continuation. The upcoming expansion, and presumably all future expansions, require payment to play.

 

But, just think, we could call you Co-operTFN! It would be so much fun!

 

Only if you're in my party, Uli. I need a cabin boy.

 

I've got three characters: JK, BH, And trooper.

So far, I've enjoyed the trooper the most (IRL, Im a soldier, so read into that what you will). The JK has some really good moments, and so far the BH story is OK (lvl 26 right now)

I generally don't PvP or do any of the co-op stuff either, but I have had some good experiences with that stuff. It has always been impromtu groupings like "hey, I'm here and you're here, lets kill this dude"

Also, if you're not an MMO player DO NOT choose jedi sentinel/sith marauder. I can attest that the skill level required for these classes are much higher than the other classes I've chosen to play. You basically have to have your timing perfect to avoid dying horribly on bosses, you don't get a healing companion until late in the game, and you have no skills for incombat healing.

 

The main complaint I've seen people talking about in General Chat is the drop in experience gain after a certain level. I'm unsure how it works, but from the sound of it, it seemed like after Level 20 or something, F2P takes way more grinding to level up, or something? Whereas, in contrast, people were saying that subscribers are often over-levelled because they gain XP so much easier. (Certainly, I've had zero problems and haven't had to grind once, but then I'm doing every single quest.)

Which has had a few people talking about how they felt F2P was basically just the equivalent of the first 20 free levels in WoW, due to how hard the F2P restrictions make continuing further.

Though, like I say, I've got a subscription, so I can't confirm this from personal experience, and there were an equally high number of people in General Chat replying with, words to the effect of, "If you don't like it, pay for it, that's the whole point of F2P being limited" so its kinda ambiguous. Admittedly, though, I'm somewhat inclined to conclude that the people whining probably used to have a subscription, and so are now just bitchy that F2P isn't offering them everything they once had.

 

As long as I can beat the game with 20 levels, that's fine with me. I'm here for the story, not to make myself Superman.

Hearing these responses, I'm leaning toward either consular or agent. The dialogue tree stuff in the KOTORs wasn't super compelling to me, but I do like to hear all the backstory stuff and deal with politics. Whereas agent sounds like just enough action to propel me through it if I get bored.

 

F2P players get 75% of the experience subscribers do, I believe.

The story runs to level 50.

 

Well now I'm lost again.

Are we talking about levels in the "chapter" sense or the "power" sense?

 

Power, your character goes from Level 1 to 50 whilst the character story has 3 Chapters to it for each class, split up into a series of missions. Chapters 1 goes all the way to level 30ish (its long), Chapter 2 40ish, Chapter 3 is mid 40 to 50.

PS: Bounty Hunter storyline starts of great and properly has the most entertaining companions, but sort of drops the ball about halfway through.

 

Supposedly F2P can access all story line content up to level 50. I haven't confirmed that, since I"m a subscriber (not for much longer)

 

F2P can get to the end of the storyline, yeah.

It just may take longer because of the slower experience gain forcing you to do some extra grinding to keep your level high enough for the quests.

Of course, you can always buy the XP Gain Bonus items from the Cartel Coin (read: $$$) Market, but I've no idea what those cost in real monetary terms as I haven't needed them.

A good trick to remember for dialogue options if if you press Escape before the conversation ends you come out of it and so can restart it again.

I've done that a few times when the brief dialogue wheel summary didn't pan out the way I wanted it, e.g. on the occasions when "Not interested" actually translated to "I'M BORED OF THIS SO DIE ALREADY!"