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Ask Slashdot: What To Do In SW:TOR For Just 3 Days?
rodrigoandrade writes "I've been invited to participate in the beta testing program for SW:TOR. However, EA's giving out 3-day passes to most testers. A few people are receiving passes for longer periods. Mine will be from Friday 5am through Monday 12am (CST) (i.e. Sunday evening). Since it's a frakking 10GB download (almost 2GB for video alone) I'll use for only 3 days, I'd like to make the most out of it. If you're an experienced beta tester, please post some tips travel-guide style on what I should do, quests I should take, places to visit, etc. TYIA. May the Force be with you!"
What is SW:TOR?
(Yes, I can google it, but shouldn't it be explained in the summary?)
I'm in the full beta test, not just weekend, and unless your TOS is different, there will be no discussion here. All beta testers can admit is:
1. The fact that the game exists
2. The fact that you are in the beta test
So yeah, umm... just try it out?
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Isn't this still under an incredibly strict NDA?
Play the game?
give your key to me for the 3 days, I'll figure it out for you!
I would sit in the cantina and tell everyone how you were into Star Wars before it was cool and how Star Trek is better anwyays...
By the way, does anyone have good tips to use the truly awesome beta of Win8? Because it's a big download, I thought i'd ask here first.
Sit in WoW trade chat spamming how SW:TOR is going to kill WoW while you wait for the EA beta servers to respond.
Rabid Star Wars fanbois would pay top dollar for 3 days beta (read: early) access - probably enough to buy a nice dinner out or put your kid in private school for a year - or something in between.
Weep, because someone reported this article to EA and you've both lost tester privileges and received a dire nastygram (+5 vs armchair lawyers) from EA's legal department.
Thank you for using a name that is nearly identical to the one you used to enter the beta. You will no longer need to spend any time downloading the game as your beta pass has been revoked for reasons that should be entirely obvious to you at this point.
I can't believe this question got posted to ask slashdot. how about you BETA TEST THE GAME and figure out what you like for yourself?
There is a testing program, and I am participating in the testing program.
That said, some of the details in the posers question are false.
From the get-go TOR has reeked of a development clusterfuck. After failing to follow through with the massively successful KOTOR series on consoles, they come out with this PC-only MMO, followed by years of development hell (to the point where some were speculating it would be cancelled altogether). Now this supposed WoW-killer is coming out, and BioWare is suddenly pulling back on how many people will even be able to buy it, or beta it (not exactly a ringing endorsement of their confidence in their server load capacity). It doesn't help that part of the pre-order hype was that pre-ordering it would get you a chance to get into the beta (guess they forgot to mention the "for just three days" part at the press conference).
Much as I loved KOTOR and want this game to be good, this whole thing is starting to smell less like a WoW-killer and more like the Star War Galaxies mess all over again.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Look for bugs. Not design bugs, but real bugs. Like spiders and report these findings.
Play it
And have Fun!!!
While you're downloading the mammoth client, ask this question in the Beta Tester forums on Bioware's SWTOR site. There, people who have been in the test for a long time can give you tips without fear of violating NDA.
Dare to Hope. Prepare to be Disappointed.
So, the first rule of SW:TOR beta is... you do not talk about SW:TOR beta?
Um. Play 1 class as far as they will let you.
Report bugs in a coherent manner.
Have fun and tell your friends if you like it.
Resist the darkside...
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
Go do the things at the place.
Are you on a roleplaying server? If so run around town in your underwear and beg for money in trade chat, act like a kid and whine about your older/brother or parents, when in party talk shit about your team mates gear, while doing anything which requires cooperation make sure you do not participate. In general, spend more time chatting and less time playing. If you know a fart joke make sure everyone else knows it and 10 variants. Are you on a pvp server? If so level as fast as possible and then when you are level 10+ go to the opposing starter area and grief the newbies. Are you on a normal server? Go to town and whine about how good players are on a pvp role playing server. Roll a tank, wear dps gear and rag on your healers.
Just play the game.
Choose a class you find appealing, try to level it, complete quests etc.
I am not a beta tester, but have tested betas before, and you're supposed to just play the game.
If you're an experienced beta tester, please post some tips travel-guide style on what I should do, quests I should take, places to visit, etc. TYIA.
Places to visit: Take the kids to the park and have a picnic, leaves are beginning to change and most of the mosquitos are dead where I live. Take (your) spouse to romantic dinner. Find a museum and look at artifacts for awhile. "Interpretive centers" mostly suck. Stay away from tourist traps in general.
Good quests, easily accomplished in 3 days: learning everything you need to pass the entry level ham radio license in your country. Another good quest is setting up IPv6 and completing the entire hurricane electric "sage" testing program. Set up a simple, crude mythtv system for the pure fun of it. Set up an asterisk voice pbx and fool around with all the features.
Travel guide style? Rick Steves to the rescue.
Oh you meant a SW:TOR beta tester, not just a guy who tests software in general. Oh you meant inside SW:TOR not just a long weekend. I still say skip it, the MMORPG bubble is over and poppin' and after SW:TOR is just a memory (probably pretty soon) you'll look back and wish you did something useful that weekend. What could you go with 10 gigs of downloads that would be more fun? Well, probably almost anything else. Even 10 gigs of spam emails would be fun to data-mine or graph or analyze.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Easy - don't sleep :)
Advice: If you trade the trolls your sword- you can always get it back by saying "Kentilla" - no force required.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
What might you do that's not within the "norms?" can you run through walls - find a way to get an unfair advantage through quirks in the programming? I'd look for things that can ruin the experience if not fixed. That's what adds value to a beta test - finding the bugs that no one thought about.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Hunt down and destroy the ancestors of Ja-Ja Binks.
The purpose of beta testing SHOULD be to find bugs. However, since EA apparently think THEY'RE the ones doing YOU a favor by ALLOWING you to FIND BUGS for them, give them the finger.
The fun part about an MMO (for those inclined to play MMO's) is developing your character, which is a complete waste of time when your virtual character has only 3 days to live.
Get as many of them as you can if they exist and run around to people setting them off. Be sure to type "Ssssssssssssssss...." in chat before it goes off and make sure you are wearing as much green as possible.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
maybe bf3?
You have been eaten by Darth Grue.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
All the showstoppers have been found already. Since we're in beta (I'm in too), directed tests are out, unless you really want to feel like one of the minimum-wage guys they force to do the same thing over and over again. If you're feeling playful, you could try to break collision detection and get out-of-bounds, try to cheat, what-have-you.
Developers love nothing more than for you to test edge cases. If you find something rare or unusual the typical response (even internal) is "designed that way" or "working as intended." :V
Focus on the beginning and end of actions and quests. The middle is usually tested to hell. Achievements are usually rife with bugs, so pay special attention to ones that count quests and kills, and make sure they're tracking yours.
They're also worrying quite strongly about polish (and rightly so). If you see something that bothers you, say something! (And try to make it eloquent and to the point about why it bothers you.) Awkward animations, equipment placement on your character model (I can't tell you how many bugs I've filed over weapons and shit that clips through a model's hand in weird ways), missed, early or late sound cues, missing visual effects (just about everything you do should have one)... See what happens if you get a bunch of people together in one place and spam emotes. Used to crash WoW servers that way. In fact, one of the best things to do in beta is get together in a group and do the random shit you have planned. Testing is usually done individually or in small groups, which is why the beta is going to be big: they want stress testing like you wouldn't believe. So feel free to spam.
Above all, document what the hell you're doing! Be detailed to the point of insanity if you feel like someone won't be able to exactly mirror your actions leading up to an issue.
30 gig? Let's hope they'll release it as a Blu-ray title or people are going to be in trouble.
Swing by Tosche Station and pick up some power converters.
It says it needs 30GB during the install, it only downloads about 10.
Griefing!
You should run around and shoot first. A LOT.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
My understanding was that Ask Slashdot was supposed to be something that people could read and learn from, and apply to their own lives... I don't really see how a very, very limited Beta Test applies to anything important, and certainly not important enough to be the Ask Slashdot topic??
First select a Stormtrooper to play. Now run around aimlessly shooting inaccurately at things. Also despite wearing fearsome looking armor, simply die if anything even touches you, and yes that includes small rocks.
Next select a Bothen, and go spy on something. Be sure to die in a very sad way, but somehow get the information to the rebels.
Finally select a Wookie, find someone who wants to play freaky monster chess. Lose. Justifiably pull opponents arms off.
If for some reason you can't select all sorts of crazy SW races, quit immediately as that would be stupid.
You could just download WoW and skip the 3-day limit. SW:TOR is just WoW with a different skin anyways. It's not like they're doing anything original.
Time to hand in your girlfriend and get your Nerd card back so that you can know what all the acronyms mean including "any of those games" that you don't play.
n/c
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Made me lol
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
OP, you're asking people who may have Beta tested the game to break the NDA they agreed to, that's a no no. I was in a testing weekend in mid-August -- I am also set to test this weekend as well -- but am I going to tell you a thing, nope!
Michael
http://s1.sfgame.us/index.php?rec=58163
Way way too far down in the comment section. A proper troll has to be timely and witty. You fail both of these requirements.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.