I played with Satis and Shiny for a while yesterday, making a new character (Republic Trooper) so we could do the same newbie zone quests together. I have to say thoughn, I didn't enjoy the Trooper as much as the Sith Warrior. Standing still and doing pewpewpew isn't as amusing as making huge force jumps and slashing the shit out of things. I realize that the Trooper will open up more as he levels (and gets bigger guns), though. And while playing my Sith Warrior character I noticed that my sidekick NPC/slave Vette - a smuggler, I think - actually did pretty major damage as a ranged character, so I'm not dissing them at all.

So I understand where peltz is coming from. The Sith warrior storyline was a lot more fun too, with ancient sith temples, backstabbings, Master-Apprentice relationship etc.

In terms of gameplay, yesterday gave me a chance to see how the group dialogue thing works, and I must say it's a lot of fun. I think the choices made by the person who wins the rolls in terms of reward, light/dark sider points etc are all still individual, though, regardless of who's speaking for the party. At least I noticed Satis and Shiny gaining light side points when I spoke and gained Dark side points, etc. Recurring theme: me asking for money and extorting people, Satis and Shiny being more of a chaotic good variety. I actually was merciful to some of those wounded seperatist soldiers, but of course no one saw that (it was a personal zone). I told them to give me cash if they wanted to live, and all they had was their grandfather's necklace and wedding ring, so I was like...I'm not THAT much of a monster.

Speaking of the personal zones, if we'd all been playing different classe you guys could have accompanied me in them and vice versa right? Since only one republc trooper is allowed per zone etc.

I don't think I'll be buying this. For one, it's too expensive (monthly fees etc), but also because I'd only have Satis and SHiny on there which would be pretty bad for my social life, spending late hours on week days etc. There'll always be the pressure to play because of the fee, too. So I'll wait for GW2, where there's no such time constraints.

To answer your one question, yes, you can go into someone individual zone to help them. We can even go into each others' zones if we select something in some menu. Or something. I forget the specifics.

Too bad you're not biting, but I'm not especially surprised. Maybe some time in the future.

The trooper story is not bad actually. At least the part I saw. A bit much stereotyping but it was fine.

My commando (trooper healer) is level 28 right now, so a good deal into the first quest, but not done. Each class has 2 story quests, btw...the first ends around like level 35 or 40, the second at 50. I've completed the smuggler and jedi knight quest arcs. Assuming the game doesn't shutter in a year (unlikely), I expect they'll be adding additional story arcs in the future. I certainly hope so.

Shiny and I have been doing raiding with our guild for the last few weeks, so our smuggler characters are pretty seriously outfitted now. Good stuff. But there's still a ton of content we need to do. Thankfully our guild has a goodly number of people that are willing to come out and play with you,

You forgot to add "unlike you so-called friends!"

What are smugglers btw, DPS characters primarily? And I didn't even realize troopers had a healer subclass or at least skill orientation!

I can only recommend the Sith Warrior arc btw...from the little I played (up to level 13), it was even way better than the trooper one which seems to be a fan favorite around here. Although I'll take Satis' word for it that it gets a great apotheosis at the end of the 'intro' planet. And maybe it's just that I like dealing with evil psychopaths and cutting a bloody swath through everything I meet. Even as a trooper I had a hard time behaving.

I admit, the story arcs are interesting, the more since they are so different per class. The voice acting and group dialogues are ace too, and help to make the game feel like a huge singleplayer rpg (with mmorpg combat), but with your friends. I just don't know if I want to sink the time and money in to it, seeing as I'm so prone to wasting time already. Maybe if it goes f2p in a month or so. I hope not for your sake...but I wouldn't mind!

Smugglers can choose between gunslinger and scoundrel at level 10ish... scoundrel is a healer class, gunslinger a dps. You've seen the skill trees... in reality gunslinger can be 3 types of dps and scoundrel can be healer or two different dps. Shiny has a sith warrior player... her and her brother are both sith warriors and I'm a healer. But unfortunately he doesn't play much, so those chars are still quite low level.

lol, awesome. I'll be skipping that particular game.

So you guys still totally involved in TOR then? Did you 'finish' the game with many characters yet, and if so which one was your favorite storyline? I want a status report!

Yes, we're still playing.

At this point (and I don't think this has changed since last report), I've completed the Republic side using a Jedi Knight Sentinel (dps) and a Smuggler Gunslinger (also dps). We've done a number of raids and flashpoints with our guildies.

I'm currently working on a Republic Trooper Commando (level ~44 healer) by myself and a Republic Jedi Sage (level ~32 healer) with Shiny.

I haven't played much on the Imperial side. That'll come with time. Once my two characters I'm working on get to 50 and I get a little burned out doing daily quests for gear, I'll probably level up an imperial character or three. I'm really interested in seeing those stories.

Well, I'm still enjoying playing, but the player population is very visibly depleting. There definitely needs to be a server merge in the near future, or the remaining people will quit just because it's getting so empty. It's a shame... I'm still really enjoying playing my characters and still have virtually all of the imperial side left to explore.

I suspect either server merges of F2P is in the game's future at some point... or a total shutdown. F2P would actually be pretty cool... it always ends with a massive boost to player pop.

Well and little kids running around in the game being trolls..... that is the down fall of ftp

true... it'd be cool if a game instituted a rating system... like you play with someone and then can rate how fun they are to play with. Kinda like reviews on Amazon or something, but for people.

Lol. That sounds both very appropriate for MMORPG's with F2P players, and like my personal definition of hell haha.

On a more serious note: I think this may quickly devolve into "serious 1337 must-have-these-skills-to-be-my-tank" players downvoting fun players based on their narrow views of 'how the game should be played'. It's a common problem in games like League of Legends where a similar system exists. Player A is 'serious', player B tries to play a good game but gets annoyed when player A starts barking commands and calling the other players noobs and losers. So player B goes "whatever" and starts throwing the game as a big fuck you to player A, who clearly is the asshole of the two. Game is over, and both player A and B downvite each other. So...not much changes.

That's why Facebook doesn't have dislike button. People would just retaliate to a dislike and not bother with the real emotion.