Star Wars: The Old Republic (RPGFan Guild Edition)

[Parn]

Their servers are swamped.  Game runs better than it did last build.  Running it in 2560x1440 with 8x MSAA and maintain high frame rates.

[ZeronHitaro]

So far I'm pretty convinced not to buy this game.

Even with a huge number of servers everything was full, took three attempts across the entirety of Friday to even get past the loading screen and once in the lag was so horrific even the basic texture loading couldn't process at a decent clip (with the game clipping so bad it's untestable). They've been running Beta for this long and are this close to launch and yet they can't provide adequate server power for a Closed Beta? This game is totally screwed come launch day. I might take a glance at it in February but until then no way; unless by some miracle when I attempt it today everything runs quasi-smoothly. Worst US Closed Beta experience, ever.

Which is a shame as the opening cinematic got me totally pumped for it too, but it was the only thing that ran.

[Parn]

I'd like to take this time to note that Imperial Agent is awesome.  I won't get in too deep, but it's interesting to see how Imperial Intelligence regards the Sith as a bunch of petulant, self-centered man-children that they have to clean up after and how the Imperial military basically has to do all the legwork to hold the Empire together since the Sith are too busy having temper tantrums to run it properly.

[ZeronHitaro]

Ugh, it's still unplayable. I tried different servers, including the only "Heavy" one I could find over in France. Lag's so bad you can't even walk out of the starter room. I don't see how they're going to bug test when people can't even play it.

[Parn]

You're certainly having a very different experience than I.  I've played on three different servers, and my latency stays under 80ms on each of them.  My framerate is also fantastic.

What are your computer's specs?  Who is your ISP?

[Parn]

I went ahead and made a smuggler on Cell of Imu, one of the PvE servers located in France.  All the servers are at full capacity, but I wanted to see if I could duplicate what you're experiencing.  I just did a bit of combat and running around, and I'm just not seeing what you're describing.  My latency was 200-300ms which is kinda meh, but that's due to the data having to travel across the Atlantic Ocean from where I am.  Even with that mediocre latency, the game is still very much playable.

So... I dunno man.

[ZeronHitaro]

Weird. I don't think it's the local net since I can play anything from Civ V to DCUni. without any lag issues. No idea on the ISP but the comp uses 4 GB DDR3 mem, 500 GB HD, and an AMD Turion II X2 processor P540.

I've run WoW on this thing during city blitzes without trouble with the in game graphics looking better (not counting the cinematics) than SW's currently does. I'm not the only one as I saw some mentions in the chat box about the lag as well so... very weird.

[Parn]

What video card are you using?  Also, do you have the latest video drivers?

On another note, I've kinda stopped doing any real playing.  I want to play a lot more, but I know it's futile to do so since it all gets erased on Monday and I've tried my hand at every class.  I'm definitely digging Sith Warrior the most with Imperial Agent as a very close second.  I'm spending more time messing with video settings than anything else.

[Uru]

Yeah man, something seems "off" in your setup, i had to wait 5 minutes to get into a server and the game is running as smooth as can be.

[ZeronHitaro]

Must've been the card or something. I just tried nerfing every possible graphics setting and that solved the problem. *sigh* Now I remember why I hate PC games. XP Haven't even had this computer a year and its' already outdated.

[Tenchi-no-Ryu]

Have you rebooted your PC since patching the client? I was having major lag, texture streaming issues I never had in the previous test. I checked drivers, DX version, defrag etc. Somehow somewhere the client had a memory leak the size of the Valdez oil spill that was corrected with a reboot. Runs like silk now, much better shadows and lighting. Animations still kind of suck though.

I'm really glad to hear about the Agent, cause that was my first choice for the Empire.

[Sagacious-T]

I'm dead broke and can't afford SW:TOR

Anyone want to hire me? I can write somewhat well. Will accept payments in video game form.

[Parn]

Quick update: if you intend on playing with fellow RPGFan members, I still encourage you to join either Tenchi's guild for Republic or my guild for Empire.  Again, the reason you want to sign up now rather than later is that the game automates putting you in the guild in the game and putting you on the correct server at the game's launch.  We'll publish what server we end up playing on of course, but if you don't sign up for the guilds now, when you finally do play the game, you'll have to find someone who's online to add you into the guild for each character you make.  Signing up for the guilds just streamlines the process ahead of time and saves you from waiting to find out what server we're on for launch.  The deadline for pre-launch guild sign-ups is apparently December 2nd.

REUNION (The Galactic Republic)
Tea Earl Grey Hot (The Sith Empire)

[Yoda]

I'd like to take this time to note that Imperial Agent is awesome.  I won't get in too deep, but it's interesting to see how Imperial Intelligence regards the Sith as a bunch of petulant, self-centered man-children that they have to clean up after and how the Imperial military basically has to do all the legwork to hold the Empire together since the Sith are too busy having temper tantrums to run it properly.

Man that is awesome. I wonder if Lucas realizes the fiction people create around his movies is much more interesting than what he comes up with.

[Parn]

He probably does, if KOTOR was any indication.  LucasArts approaching Bioware to do a proper Star Wars MMO seemed like a no brainer and I'm glad it's less than a month from officially being here.

At any rate, I played Trooper to level 16.  It's about the level range where sexy time begins with equipment:



Note that that's crafted armor, and the stats on it are way better than the stuff earned from quests.  It's nice that if you like a certain look for gear, that you can upgrade the hell out of it to make it stay relevant to your current level.