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[Column] Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Top 21 Locations in SWTOR
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Not every article has to be an in-depth discussion of gameplay, offering commentary on press releases, or speculating what big reveal BioWare might choose to unleash at Star Wars Celebration next month. While we're waiting on Community Manager Eric Musco to make good on the statement that they were going to make up canceling the Boston Cantina Tour stop with a livestream and announcements, I'm going to celebrate the artistry that is creating cool iconic places and lush scenery in Star Wars: the Old Republic.
Read more of Jean Prior's Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Top 21 Locations.
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Comments
1. I'd like flying mounts introduced at lvl 65 i.e. next expansion to see all these locations. From above.
2. I hate Alderaan.
3. Tattooine is woefully underused and without day/night cycle and the twin sunset, incomplete.
Which is, ironically the most boring place in the game :-/
Taris....worst place ever.
Actually, any (including Taris) would be great location if only they were large and more fleshed out. There small areas within each of these areas where I have gotten that oh-ah moment but those are far and few between. Example, I love the Senate building when you first see it. But inside it is just a maze of hallways turning left and right. Now you think that something this emmence would have a little bit more forethought in layout. And what of the Senate chamber itself? It are those missing elements that just do not let many locations live up the iconic-ness of the Star Wars universe.
Don't get me wrong here. I liked my time in SWTOR. But, locations alone were not the draw for me and certainly not something to keep me playing.
Let's party like it is 1863!
I'm with you. And they all felt like completely barren wastelands to me because TOR has such horrendous sound design. It's like... silence, everywhere all the time. NPCs perpetually locked in doing whatever animation they were designed to certainly doesn't help either.
I love Alderaan, and many of the other places mentioned on the article.
For those complaining about the places not feeling "alive"... what other MMOs actually do? They all use the same formula of x and y mobs spawn in this area, walk back and forth a bit while they wait to be slaughtered by the players (or to chase them once they get within range).
Wildlife is practically unheard of, except for the x & y critters mentioned above. No birds ever fly from bushes, you don't encounter random NPCs except for the static ones that are always there (and who make for a nice surprise on your first time through).
Even GW2's "random" events get stale pretty quickly since after a while you'll know which ones happen in a certain place.
No single MMO can match a movie where there's tons of things happening, and each scene is handcrafted by experts.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Great article since it contains a shot from almost every planet in-game showcasing the diversity of landscapes in SWTOR. Yeah it's a beautiful game. If only the ppl playing knew that and got their a&&%s out of the fleet to venture in the varoius planets. I miss my early days in the game where my RP guild got to our 'hub' on Voss to train and hung around.
P.S. The OP DOES like lavas ain't he?:P
I like swtor. After 3.0 not so much though. The static planets are a bit of an issue though imo. Lately I've begun playing vanilla WOW and all these critters moving about and birds singing and weather changes. Even the world itself feels so non-linear compared to SWTOR. And tbh if you crank up the resolution and the grafics even classic WOW looks pretty good imo.
It probably wont last for me though. The crafting seems better done in old wow, there's even secondary crafting. I prefer the classic wow talent system over swtor's. There's moving npc's. Enemies seems smarter in wow. They run when they get low on hp and come back with friends. There's a ton of quest and you don't even need to do ½ of them to get to max level in wow.
The only thing swtor does better than wow is the class story, and tbh that allways felt like it belonged in a singleplayergame imo. It's just silly that every trooper in swtor is the leader of Havok Squad.
WoW isn't star wars though. I'm sure i'll be back for more of that star wars feeling at some point. But as MMO it's pretty mediocre. I'm missing that world feel. All levelling worlds are stuck in time. Even after completing planet storylines the world still stays stuck in the same timeline. We defeat the other faction on whatever planet, but nothing changes.
Well, City of Heroes, had NPCs walking around. You could go up to them and depending on their name, you could get a specific dialog from them. Ex: A certain name would tell you the server time. They would also talk about the heroics of characters by name. "Did you you hear that waynejr2 just defeated the Rikti" type of messages. There were also cars and trucks driving around on the streets. It felt kind of alive.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
FYI, it always helps to use extreme words like "the worst in the industry" to get people to believe that point.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
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City of Heroes was great in that regard, yeah! The first time one of those NPCs talked about my character's exploits I practically squealed. xD
Unfortunately there are very few like it. TSW also does an alright job, but only in the city hubs. The actual "adventure" zones are a lot like every other MMO.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I didn't know Topnotch did the artwork!
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I remember when they added access to Alderaan in beat. I thought it was the most beautiful planet in the game!
Personally, I would love for them to add more areas to explore around on existing planets. All the starting planets are ripe for adding areas for higher level characters. It won't happen, but it would be nice.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
It might happen. Rise of the Hutt Cartel added a few small areas with level 50+ mobs on several of them for the micro binoculars and seeker droids missions.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I was going to write in my post that the micro binoculars didnt' count but felt nobody would really bring that up as making my point. go figure.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Loved the npc reactions, it was 'borrowed' later in other games, AoC and LotRO both have it (I mean when NPCs are reciting past events, addressing you based on your activities, etc). Same for the wandering, especially annoying if it's an NPC for barter or vendor
like the elf in Echad Candelleth for the Tasks, you try to give him the stuff and after a while he just walk away... (or the different mobs and mob density according to the day / night cycle)
For wildlife, I think TSW is very active, swarms are usually stationary but a lot of mobs patrolling around in a pretty wide area, frequent spawning (al-Merayah for example, ok, it's under siege but the cultists running up and down with their wide aggro range could be a pain in the rear
), not to mention the sabotage areas where everything is in constant movement and you have to find the temporary 'blind spots' for sneaking through, Hitman-style...
I defo agree with Huta, You just have to go to the top of the map and stand on the coast and look out at the beauty of the sea and the sky. I have a screenshot of my old toon stood there somewhere, might put in on my backdrop.
Ahhh good old days, kinda missing SWTOR now
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Loved SWTOR prior to 3.0. Now the game won't run anymore. A lot of players are experiencing this well-documented FPS problem, with no solution from BioWare. Just check out the forums. I guess I should be happy they did acknowledge the issue, but for me and many other previous subs, the game is dead until it is fixed.
Good luck BioWare. May the force be with you when you embark on finally fixing the engine.
I think you succinctly stated the only strengths of the title. It's pretty much the mantra of SWTOR. It's interesting that SWTOR arrived in what was apparently a downward swing in the genre, so it benefits from the subsequent poor offerings in the industry. I'm glad to see some posters actually admitting that they really only play it because it is Star Wars. Nothing wrong with that, but for a long time that was also a prevalent pretense.
It's a Star Wars single player story driven themepark with some nice visuals, and not at all anything else.