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TwitterHands-on with the Trooper during the Taral V flashpoint
I got to play the flashpoint as the Trooper, and he is the MT of the group. The Smuggler was Scoundrel spec and was the main healer, with the JC being back up heals but mainly did damage. The Knight was the off-tank but mainly did damage as well.
All characters are level 32 (Or 34 forget) and it was a mid-level flashpoint.
Overview: The flashpoint was fun up until the end, the bosses are very static and are also tank and spank encounters. You get surrounded many times with multiple enemies but that is really not a huge issue. Mobs do not do enough damage that if you get aggro, and you are not the tank, you would die. Teamwork is needed to be efficient, which leads me to believe that you will need at least a main healer, main tank, and either "pure" DPS or an off-tank/off-healer. While we can come to this conclusion with each AC having multiple damage or support type roles.
NOTE: My group was not terribly competent, so my opinion is based off that experience, also all the booths had Razer Nagas (So MMO mice compatibly is confirmed).
Graphics and Art Style: The game looks really good, better then anything we have seen. Unfortunately many of the characters and objects had jagged pixels though hopefully that can be fixed with AA.
The art style feels familiar though that is not a good thing. Out on the planet the grass, trees, and plants were "meh" at best. It really did feel like I was playing WoW, but with better textures. (I know the art style is like but the environment did look that great). Inside the main building that we start in, is a different story. Looking around, the base feels like a Star Wars movie and that is something no game I have ever played has accomplished.
Animations: The running, jumping, and combat animations are much improved since we have seen last. The Trooper I was playing had all great animations, even while moving. The Consular seemed a little glitvhy, but this may have been from the Alienware laptops or the connection to the server.
The Jedi leaping into combat has to be hands-down, the coolest looking animation from that flashpoint. You see him jump, a "vapor" trial sorta follows as he hits the ground. The Trooper would focus on one target even when I fell off a bridge into the water, this was annoying because he was facing the enemy for a few seconds as I was walking back up the ramp.
Controls:I had a bit of an issue with the controls, while the timing of an ability to when you pressed the button was accurate, the controls and hot-keys did not feel terribly responsive. Again this could be for a number of reasons, and I am sure will only get better.
UI: I am not positive this is true of the Orign worlds but we could not take pictures of the UI (Like the AC, inventory, etc) though I did manage to get some pictures in of the basic UI and I will be uploading those when my Internet connection is better. The main hot-bar is great, with space for most of the important abilities. The mini-map and main map are also very helpful though I did not look at it much (We wiped twice). The layout was clean and standard and is not that different from what we have seen in the past.
As far as abilities go, the layout was intentional, having emergency items (Like health and ammo) on the far right, buffs in the middle, and main attacks on the far left. This was the same for each class.
Abilities: I will leave the names and tool-tips to fansites, as they will write that stuff down. Though if you would like to ask a question about said action once the list is online, feel free. The DH crew was behind me in line, they should have that list up by now.
Pace of combat: The pace of combat is fast, and you have a lot of things going on all at once. I was more concentrated on my bar, trying to remember what abilities did what, then the actual fights. You get swamped with mobs in many of the encounters and so trying to pick them up, and maintain aggro is a little hard.
Conversation: The roll system is still in effect, everyone picks a choice when in dialouge and whoever wins the roll gets to speak. Though keep in mind what you choose and your choice, will give you alignment points towards that, and not the group. Even with a headset on the conversation was hard to hear, but from what I did hear, the voice-acting is great.
Loot: All that dropped were green items, and a few credits (Between 50-75ish) the system is a need or greed system and the box appears at the very top of your screen. This was an issue as one of my group members did not see it for some time (I had to point it out). Bodies "glow" blue if they need to be looted, and you can loot while in combat. This was not the case when the game was showed before.
Flashpoint layout, mobs and bosses: You start on a ship or base and you engage in conversation, the door to the Yoda guy (Forget his name) is locked red. (The doors are either green or red, if green you can pass through them, if red it is closed). Once you talk to the person outside the energy door, you can then enter it. A conversation between you and the "Yoda guy" takes place which does last a few minutes. I would have liked to skip it but it is nice to watch.
Next we ran back into the main hallway and then into an elevator which took us to the main hanger. Once upon the ship (Right-click the door), you have a brief cut-scene of the ship going into space. There was a loading screen as we entered the flashpoint and landed (Subject to change of course). Once on the planet you saw a few of these big creatures (Check the screenshots or flahpoint video for how they look). The giant guys take a while to kill but do not hit terribly hard. Once in a while you will aggro these little blue or green in color creatures and many of them will crawl out of the dirt. Again these guys do not hurt to bad (Helps when someone is healing you) but they are a pain to hold aggro on. We would run into blocks of five or six guards at a time and a few look like the Trooper with a big gun. What is more fun is to destroy the explosive boxes near many of these guys. You get close, right-click, and it blows up causing aggro. I did not have time to see how the AI acted when we approached them, but it was on-par with most MMOs.
Sometimes, when the big green creatures would attack the guards on the road, if you let them duke it out someone will die, making the pull easier.
There is a ton, and I mean a ton of trash on this planet. While that is great for experience and loot, it does get a little dull. Though BioWare has done a good job at mixing and matching the types of groups. Sometimes you will get guards, other times creatures, and sometimes both (Bad things happen).
Once inside the imperial fortress (Inside the walls not the building) packs of guards were everywhere. We ended up pulling two packs by accident (The JC kept pulling and not me), however we manged to get through it without anyone dieing.
Flashpoint bosses: We fought three bosses overall, two being the big creatures who hit like a truck, the last a high ranking "official". The first fight was out in the open (Before the fort) and we had a few mobs on us, plus the boss. This was not the case with the second and third boss. I was extremely disappointed with the boss encounters, the first guy (Guard boss) did nothing. He had a few big hit attacks but stood on one place and was a tank and spank encounter. The second boss (Second big creature) also hit like a truck but did move. This was a bit better but not by much. While I like a mix of tank and spank along with multiple enemies, the bosses had little life (Character). They took forever to kill and elites have gold stars around their portrait.
Final thoughts: While I was only able to play the Trooper the game feels great, looks pretty good, and can be engaging. However, it is not the end all be all for the MMO genre. From my hands-on the game is still worth a buy and I think I will enjoy it, but it needs work on the AI, the bosses, and the art.
If I left anything out I will fill it in, also if you have any questions please ask or PM me.
All characters are level 32 (Or 34 forget) and it was a mid-level flashpoint.
Overview: The flashpoint was fun up until the end, the bosses are very static and are also tank and spank encounters. You get surrounded many times with multiple enemies but that is really not a huge issue. Mobs do not do enough damage that if you get aggro, and you are not the tank, you would die. Teamwork is needed to be efficient, which leads me to believe that you will need at least a main healer, main tank, and either "pure" DPS or an off-tank/off-healer. While we can come to this conclusion with each AC having multiple damage or support type roles.
NOTE: My group was not terribly competent, so my opinion is based off that experience, also all the booths had Razer Nagas (So MMO mice compatibly is confirmed).
Graphics and Art Style: The game looks really good, better then anything we have seen. Unfortunately many of the characters and objects had jagged pixels though hopefully that can be fixed with AA.
The art style feels familiar though that is not a good thing. Out on the planet the grass, trees, and plants were "meh" at best. It really did feel like I was playing WoW, but with better textures. (I know the art style is like but the environment did look that great). Inside the main building that we start in, is a different story. Looking around, the base feels like a Star Wars movie and that is something no game I have ever played has accomplished.
Animations: The running, jumping, and combat animations are much improved since we have seen last. The Trooper I was playing had all great animations, even while moving. The Consular seemed a little glitvhy, but this may have been from the Alienware laptops or the connection to the server.
The Jedi leaping into combat has to be hands-down, the coolest looking animation from that flashpoint. You see him jump, a "vapor" trial sorta follows as he hits the ground. The Trooper would focus on one target even when I fell off a bridge into the water, this was annoying because he was facing the enemy for a few seconds as I was walking back up the ramp.
Controls:I had a bit of an issue with the controls, while the timing of an ability to when you pressed the button was accurate, the controls and hot-keys did not feel terribly responsive. Again this could be for a number of reasons, and I am sure will only get better.
UI: I am not positive this is true of the Orign worlds but we could not take pictures of the UI (Like the AC, inventory, etc) though I did manage to get some pictures in of the basic UI and I will be uploading those when my Internet connection is better. The main hot-bar is great, with space for most of the important abilities. The mini-map and main map are also very helpful though I did not look at it much (We wiped twice). The layout was clean and standard and is not that different from what we have seen in the past.
As far as abilities go, the layout was intentional, having emergency items (Like health and ammo) on the far right, buffs in the middle, and main attacks on the far left. This was the same for each class.
Abilities: I will leave the names and tool-tips to fansites, as they will write that stuff down. Though if you would like to ask a question about said action once the list is online, feel free. The DH crew was behind me in line, they should have that list up by now.
Pace of combat: The pace of combat is fast, and you have a lot of things going on all at once. I was more concentrated on my bar, trying to remember what abilities did what, then the actual fights. You get swamped with mobs in many of the encounters and so trying to pick them up, and maintain aggro is a little hard.
Conversation: The roll system is still in effect, everyone picks a choice when in dialouge and whoever wins the roll gets to speak. Though keep in mind what you choose and your choice, will give you alignment points towards that, and not the group. Even with a headset on the conversation was hard to hear, but from what I did hear, the voice-acting is great.
Loot: All that dropped were green items, and a few credits (Between 50-75ish) the system is a need or greed system and the box appears at the very top of your screen. This was an issue as one of my group members did not see it for some time (I had to point it out). Bodies "glow" blue if they need to be looted, and you can loot while in combat. This was not the case when the game was showed before.
Flashpoint layout, mobs and bosses: You start on a ship or base and you engage in conversation, the door to the Yoda guy (Forget his name) is locked red. (The doors are either green or red, if green you can pass through them, if red it is closed). Once you talk to the person outside the energy door, you can then enter it. A conversation between you and the "Yoda guy" takes place which does last a few minutes. I would have liked to skip it but it is nice to watch.
Next we ran back into the main hallway and then into an elevator which took us to the main hanger. Once upon the ship (Right-click the door), you have a brief cut-scene of the ship going into space. There was a loading screen as we entered the flashpoint and landed (Subject to change of course). Once on the planet you saw a few of these big creatures (Check the screenshots or flahpoint video for how they look). The giant guys take a while to kill but do not hit terribly hard. Once in a while you will aggro these little blue or green in color creatures and many of them will crawl out of the dirt. Again these guys do not hurt to bad (Helps when someone is healing you) but they are a pain to hold aggro on. We would run into blocks of five or six guards at a time and a few look like the Trooper with a big gun. What is more fun is to destroy the explosive boxes near many of these guys. You get close, right-click, and it blows up causing aggro. I did not have time to see how the AI acted when we approached them, but it was on-par with most MMOs.
Sometimes, when the big green creatures would attack the guards on the road, if you let them duke it out someone will die, making the pull easier.
There is a ton, and I mean a ton of trash on this planet. While that is great for experience and loot, it does get a little dull. Though BioWare has done a good job at mixing and matching the types of groups. Sometimes you will get guards, other times creatures, and sometimes both (Bad things happen).
Once inside the imperial fortress (Inside the walls not the building) packs of guards were everywhere. We ended up pulling two packs by accident (The JC kept pulling and not me), however we manged to get through it without anyone dieing.
Flashpoint bosses: We fought three bosses overall, two being the big creatures who hit like a truck, the last a high ranking "official". The first fight was out in the open (Before the fort) and we had a few mobs on us, plus the boss. This was not the case with the second and third boss. I was extremely disappointed with the boss encounters, the first guy (Guard boss) did nothing. He had a few big hit attacks but stood on one place and was a tank and spank encounter. The second boss (Second big creature) also hit like a truck but did move. This was a bit better but not by much. While I like a mix of tank and spank along with multiple enemies, the bosses had little life (Character). They took forever to kill and elites have gold stars around their portrait.
Final thoughts: While I was only able to play the Trooper the game feels great, looks pretty good, and can be engaging. However, it is not the end all be all for the MMO genre. From my hands-on the game is still worth a buy and I think I will enjoy it, but it needs work on the AI, the bosses, and the art.
If I left anything out I will fill it in, also if you have any questions please ask or PM me.
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