10 Things you should know before playing SWTOR

[Arlan]

From TORWARS.com

 

10 Things You Should Know Before You Play Star Wars: The Old Republic (or: Don’t be a scruffy looking Nerf Herder!)

 

Star Wars: The Old Republic is nearly here. It’s actually hard to believe I’m saying those words after years of waiting and scouring the internet for any tidbit about the game I could find. Finally, here we all are just a few days away from the long anticipated launch of the game millions of Star Wars fans all over the world have been clamoring for.

 

 

 

Listen up newbie, you've got a lot to learn!

 

 

How about some information that will help you as you start your journey in The Old Republic? For MMO vets some of this information will seem obvious, but I’ve chosen these topics based on my time in the Beta and what sorts of questions I was frequently asked while making my way in the universe.

 

Watch the Movies

1) Don’t skip the cutscenes. There are any number of reasons for this but the most basic one is that your character’s storyline is good. Really good. The immersion level in this game is fantastic and the best I’ve seen in an MMO. Some of the character stories are immediately very compelling. Others will take a bit of time to develop but at some point you will suddenly realize that you are very involved in your character’s story and the overall theme of SWTOR. If you start skipping cutscenes you’ll find yourself making decisions and not really knowing the story behind the decisions you are asked to make. On more than one occasion I found the quest NPC’s making such a convincing argument for their case that by the end of the quest I had completely changed my mind about what choice I was going to make. Lastly, an important thing to note is to not skip the firstcutscene. If you do it’s possible to find yourself just picking up the bonus quests while avoiding your main storyline quests.

 

Don’t Get Ahead of Yourself

2) For your first time through the game, don’t leave your Origin World before level 10. The temptation to travel the galaxy is a strong one but there’s a lot of work to be done on your starter planet before you hop on the shuttle to the Fleet station and points beyond. In addition to learning the basic gameplay mechanics of SWTOR there’s fun stuff to do like burning down Separatists or oppressing those pesky Republic citizens. (The local flora and fauna may be in need of some oppressing as well). Your quest line will have you venturing off-world sooner than you think. During the Beta I also noticed that if you left your Origin World before you were prompted to it seemed to interrupt the natural flow of the quests. The unintended consequence of this was that you may not have gotten the prompting for your Advanced Classes and Crew Skills at the Fleet that you would have gotten had you waited until level 10. [Editor's Note: Leaving OW's before your main quest prompts you to may no longer be allowed.]

 

Party Up

3) Being social isn’t a punishment, it’s good for you. BioWare has worked really hard on the social elements of SWTOR and it shows. Not only is the loot better on those Heroic quests but you can earn social points for grouping and doing things with other people. These social points can be redeemed later for special rewards. While I’m on the subject of grouping let’s talk about looting for a moment. When the phat lewtz drop you’ll be prompted with a “Need or Greed” pop-up. This is pretty standard fare for MMOs these days and MMO vets will know how this works. Most good loot is Bind on Pickup (also referred to as BOP). BOP means that once you take possession of an item it is “Bound” to that character alone. Bound items cannot be traded, even to another toon on your account. They can only be sold at the vendor, so take a second and think about whether you really need that frammistatic discombobulator before making your choice. Although it’s not explicitly stated anywhere you can also “Pass” on loot items by clicking the X to close the loot box.

 

The world is your oyster!

Explore

4) Travel the worlds you visit. You’ll meet interesting people and see fascinating things. This is a big, beautiful game. The worlds are huge. There is a lot to see and explore. I’m not going to tell you what to do or where to go because I want to keep this as spoiler free as possible. It is worth your time and effort to look around at the environment and do some investigating. I do want to mention Datacrons though. You’ll want to find as many as possible because not only do they add to your Codex (a sort of journal of your travels) but they give permanent stat boosts. Some Datacrons will be laid right at your feet while others will take some significant exploring to find. Yet others will be easy to spot but challenging to find a path to. All planets have Datacrons, I’ll leave it to you to figure out how many and where. Good luck!

 

Preferential Treatment

5) There are some useful options in your preferences that aren’t checked by default and checking them will make your life easier. I’ll just hit on a couple of them here. The first is Area Looting (aka AoE Looting). When you check this the loot from several defeated mobs in your immediate area is combined at the mob you are looting. You’ll also see a checkbox for Auto Looting. Checking this means as soon as you loot, the items are placed into your inventory without you needing to inspect them. These two checkboxes are not enabled by default and checking them will save you a lot of time in-game. You can inspect items later at a vendor when you’re selling junk loot and unwanted items or at a location that’s a little safer. If you’re auto looting you’ll want to keep an eye on your inventory as it can fill up fast. In a pinch you can destroy items by simply dragging them out of your inventory and onto the ground. Lastly, once you get your first companion, you can send them to sell all of your grey items at the vendor for you while you continue questing.

 

Free XP

6) There’s gold in them thar hills! Well OK, not really gold but how about some significant free experience points? You gain experience for lots of activities in SWTOR, exploration is one of them. Sometimes the rewards are pretty nice and don’t require too much effort on your part. For instance, when you get to the Fleet station, go visit all the Crew Skills trainers. You’ll get a nice XP bonus and a new Codex entry just for talking to each one. In addition to learning about the Crew Skills and how they integrate with each other, by visiting all of the trainers you’ll probably get enough XP to gain most, if not all, of a level.

 

Say hello to my little friends!

Phased

7) Can’t find your friends even though you’re in the same location? SWTOR makes use of phasing, also known as instancing, in order to help manage the large player population during heavy traffic times. What this means is that you can be on the same server as your friends and in the same location but unable to see them. This is because they are in a different instance than you. You can travel to the same instance as your friends by opening the map and selecting the the instance they are in. This information is displayed in the lower right corner of the map and will be shown as a drop down menu like “Dromund Kaas 1, Dromund Kaas 2″ and so on.

 

Train Up

8 ) Go see your trainer as soon as you can every time you level. I know, this seems really obvious to veteran gamers but I have noticed that SWTOR is drawing in significant numbers of people who have not played an MMO before. Every time your character gains a level, your stats increase. This means you become stronger, a better shot or melee fighter and are able to absorb more damage. It also means you can level up skills you already have or train new skills and abilities. While your base stat increases are automatic, your skills have to be purchased at the trainer. For instance the Republic Trooper gets Sticky Grenade early on but this skill also levels and can be trained to do more damage as you level up. Also make sure your increased skill is added to your quick slot bar as during the Beta these didn’t always transfer to the bar automatically and had to be manually dragged into the slot to replace the lower skill. [Editor's Note: This was fixed in the most recent Beta build. Skill ranks now auto-update on your hotbar.] While I’m on the subject of toolbars, I’ll just mention that those are fully customizable (meaning you can drag any skill into any slot) and you can enable extra bars in the game preferences.

 

Bind

9) Make sure you click on every bind point you encounter. Bind points typically look like a computer terminal you can interact with. When you first get to a new planet you’ll usually see one of these nearby but the rest will be hidden & you’ll have to do some exploring to find them. Cantinas also usually have a bind point inside. You have to click on bind points to gain access to them. When you first encounter one it’ll have an icon floating over it. Once you have accessed a bind point you can open your map and check the bind points button and all of the bind points you have accessed will be shown on the map. There is a Quick Travel ability in your skill set. You can use this to travel instantly to any of the bind points you have unlocked. This is really handy for meeting up with friends when you’re far apart. There is now also the ability to call a shuttle instantly to take you to the Fleet station. Both of these abilities are on a 30 minute timer so they can only be used periodically.

 

What a piece of junk!

Follow Your Story

10) Things like companions, lightsabers and starships are tied to your character’s main quest line. They don’t come at a specific level but at a specific point in your character’s story. This means it’s possible that they’ll come to you at a range of levels. For example, your starship will become available to you at a specific point in your character’s story. For me, playing a Bounty Hunter, I received my ship at level 17 but for one of my guild mates, who is a very skilled player, he received his ship around level 13 or 14.

 

Finally, I have one last bit of advice. You’ve waited a long time for this, make the most of it. The first time you play, when you’re ready to hit the play button and you’ve got your chair adjusted just right & your frosty beverage within easy reach, turn down the lights and crank up the volume, because you are about to embark on your own grand adventure a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away – starring you!