Posted by Lethality | 6 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: What’s Your /Played Time?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

MMOs always get a bad rap from non-players as incredible time-sinks. If you’re an MMO player of course, you know this to be true :) When I go back and look at my played time in World of Warcraft, I’m always shocked. If only I had used that time by donating it to charity, I could have single-handedly built a house for Habitat for Humanity, instead of volunteering 1 day a year!

BioWare claims that there are about 200 hours of gameplay per class in Star Wars: The Old Republic. While there may be a defined amount of “content”, the reality is the game is perpetual and there are (and should be) always things for your character to do. Even if you’re rolling and playing multiple characters, you’re still spending what is likely an obtuse amount of time in the game.

On the other hand, TOR might be a little different. When you look at BioWare’s goals of storytelling and drawing new fans to the genre, perhaps the amount of time players are putting into the game is markedly less overall.

In any case, with the game being just over a month old, I thought it would be interesting to see what the played time is on your main character? If you’re unaware of how to check this, you can simply type /played into the console/chat line in-game.

Let us know, and don’t forget to stop back and criticize everyone who plays too much, or not enough! :)

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Posted by Lethality | 21 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Did Or Will You Renew Your TOR Subcsription?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

In case you hadn’t noticed, Star Wars: The Old Republic has been out for 30 days now. After waiting 38 months for it, time has lost all meaning of course, but this might be the most significant 30 days for the game so far. For players who subscribed the very first day, December 20th, this marks the day that their 30 days of included game time comes to an end. It’s time for that first round of players to decide if they’re going to continue their subscription.

There has been a lot going the last few days, both positive and negative that might influence such a decision. First was the first content update, Rise of the Rakghouls, which amazingly released less than a month after the game came out. I’d say this aggressive schedule has to make players happy with hope for a similar cadence in the future. Unfortunately, the patch brought with it a black eye in the Ilum world PvP zone that made that aspect of the game unplayable for some.

BioWare has rolled out a new incentive for “Founders” which awards some in-game perks for paid subscriptions. The idea is great but the timing ended up being terrible, as many players seem to suspect this was just a cookie for any problems they’re having, and to hook them to renew their subscription. In another bit of a snafu, Massively is reporting that the cancellation option for TOR is currently unavailable for some players, further fueling conspiracy theories.

Anyway, I’d just like to keep today’s BM&C simple: did / will you renew your subscription? Let us know!

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Posted by Lethality | 22 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Are You Doing The Heroic Missions?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

It’s hard work coming up with something interesting about Star Wars: The Old Republic to discuss every single day here in Blue Milk & Cereal. Sometimes I have to just sit here and stare at my monitor until the pixels start to form a message, encrypted in Aurebesh of course, to guide me in the right direction! Luckily, I didn’t have to do that today. Instead, AAJ reader and frequent commenter @ScytheNoire dropped an idea for us, and I think it’s a good one… so here we go!

During the leveling process in Star Wars: The Old Republic, each planet will present you with a smattering of what BioWare calls Heroic missions. These missions take place in what are known as, surprisingly, Heroic areas. Sometimes these are in a phased area, but sometimes they are large sections of the open world map. In any case, this is content where you face Elite enemies, and you need more than just yourself to complete.

There are different flavors of Heroics, labeled as [HEROIC 2+] and [HEROIC 4]. The naming convention is as you might expect – it provides guidance for the number of players BioWare is recommending to take on the content at even level. These are also completely optional – they aren’t a part of your class story, so they aren’t required to progress. But they do provide the opportunity to get some nice gear and good experience. And, in case you weren’t aware, they are repeatable!

There have been some complaints that it’s hard to find a group to do these, and pure soloists charge that they should be able to do all of the content alone and with just their companion. But from my perspective, I think they’re a great idea as it encourages social gameplay along the leveling path and, hopefully, teaches players group dynamics and class synergies as well.

So today’s question is simply – do you do the Heroic missions? Let us know why or why not!

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Posted by ReDDoT | 11 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Are All Crew Skills Created Equal?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

The Crew Skills system is intended to bring “a variety of  benefits and rewards”  to players of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Without a doubt, that’s exactly what they do. But then we need to ask the inevitable question: are all of those benefits and rewards equally spread across all of the Crew Skills, or are some more beneficial than others? Does a player truly have the freedom to choose the Crew Skills combination he or she wants, or are some so good that they feel almost mandatory if a player wishes to have end-game success or an easier time leveling?

It seems as though this is something BioWare is currently wrestling with, as we see some major changes coming to Biochem and Cybertech in the upcoming content patch Rise of the Rakghouls. These particular Crew Skills had attributes that were beginning to be deemed mandatory for a successful Operation run, and BioWare wanted to nip that perception in the bud right away. There are also some great, detailed suggestions on the forums on how to make skills like Armstech and Synthweaving more appealing to people.

Being a 400 Synthweaver myself, I personally do not feel the same level of benefit and reward as a 400 Biochem player that had the chance to level with a constant buff to their stats and has access to self-made Medpacs. Yes, Synthweavers make armor that should provide similar statistical benefits, right? My opinion is the gear players can produce during leveling is extremely limited and are often bested by orange gear with upgraded mods accessible to everyone.

It’s hard enough to balance combat, but then when you through the relative benefit of a crafting skill in, it becomes even more challenging. What do you think? What did you pick? Are you satisfied with your Crew Skills choices? Do you feel like all the crafting skills are equally rewarding? Let us know below!

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Posted by Lethality | 24 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Would You Like Atmospheric Flight In TOR?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Over the last week or so, I’ve found it interesting to revisit some of the original Blue Milk & Cereal questions which were asked well before Star Wars: The Old Republic was released. It’s interesting to see if players’ votes have changed now that they have had time in the game (so far, they haven’t). We recently re-did the dual-spec thing, and yesterday was advanced class swapping. Today, I thought we’t tackle atmospheric flight.

For me, there is nothing more important in an MMORPG than freedom. And nothing gives you that freedom like pulling a mythical winged lion out of your backpack and heading into the skies. Being able to fly from one end of a continent to another, albeit a 20+ minute ride, really gives a sense of place, especially after you see the beautify scenery pass below. Indeed, videos like this aren’t  possible without the ability to traverse the atmosphere. (Editor’s Note: If you’ve never played World of Warcraft, you should give those videos a look.)

Flying mounts also allow for some interesting content design. Look at Nagrand or Deepholm in World of Warcraft. Tell me you wouldn’t like to bop around Coruscant or Nar Shadaa in your very own speeder and explore the heights of some of those skyscrapers!

But there is a dark side to all of this freedom (sorry for the pun!) With human nature being what it is, and gamers being what they are, atmospheric flight is also a way to bypass some content. No longer did you have to trudge through armies of mobs on foot and “play the game” to get to your quest objective. You simply flew above the area, plop down when you find it, and go on about your business. No fuss, no muss. I never did this – it cheapened the whole game. I had a rule for myself that I had to explore an entire zone on foot before I was use my flying mount, and even then, always did quests as intended. Then, there’s the argument that it killed world PvP. I dunno.

Anyway, I’d like nothing more than to see free-roaming atmospheric flight in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Exploring planets like Tatooine from the sky would give a whole new perspective. When we spoke to Daniel Erickson at E3, he mentioned that the worlds weren’t designed with atmospheric flight in mind, so our hopes might be thin. Then again, the original World of Warcraft wasn’t designed that way either.

Where do you, fine reader, stand on this topic? Would you like to see free-roaming atmospheric flight in Star Wars: The Old Republic? Vote and discuss!

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Posted by Lethality | 50 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Should You Be Allowed To Switch Your Advanced Class?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

I’m almost afraid to do this one.

Hot on the heels of our dual-spec discussion last week, we have an equally, if not more controversial topic up for internet fisticuffs: the ability to switch Advanced Classes. Now that the game has been out nearly a month, players have a much better perspective on how the game plays, how the classes are designed and itemized, and how the content wraps around all of that. I thought it would be a good time to take the temperature of the community on this topic again. Let’s see if I’m crazy.

Some of the fuel for the controversy is that the design decision itself has never been set in stone, at least in public. When I talked to James Ohlen back at PAX East, he explained that they have the tech to allow switching, and painted the picture for any one of 3 scenarios at launch: no switching at all, prohibitively expensive to switch, or easy to switch often. As we know now, they decided to ship the game without this ability. However, that has not stopped the discussion surrounding the topic.

To be honest, I think BioWare ignited the controversy themselves with their naming of the systems. I’m surprised BioWare didn’t call the classes “Stories” instead. I mean, this completely meshes with their modus operandi as a storytelling studio and would more accurately reflect what you’re actually choosing at the time of character creation. If classes were labeled stories, and Advanced Classes were labeled classes, I think this whole kerfuffle wouldn’t even exist.

My take on it? No. Players should not be allowed to switch Advanced Classes. Here’s why.

In traditional class-based systems, classes are defined by a set of conditions and constraints assigned to a given character. These classes are then differentiated by the ability to:

• Wield different weapons
• Wear different armor
• Use different abilities
• Perform different roles

All of these attributes are found in the Advanced Class system of Star Wars: The Old Republic. It really is that simple. The Advanced Classes ARE the classes in TOR. Once players understand and accept that fact, everything makes sense.

By certainly my opinion can’t be the only one out there (much less the right one!) I’d like to hear where the AAJ Army stands on this issue at this stage of the game. Vote below, but more importantly post your thoughts and discuss others! Remember to keep it civil, this isn’t Huttball. :)

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