Friday Musings

Happy soon-to-be Friday!
Here is a nice (if not over-played) MTG teaser trailer to Dark Ascension.




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I haven't been blogging too much about TOR b/c I think I realized i'm not having too much fun with it as before. Just like that *click* and what was very addictive, became 'meh.'


Lets go through the process of what makes TOR difficult to play and may damn the company when people are done with their first month of gametime.


Lack of money
Playing solo with my Bounty Hunter, I never truly struggled making money and surprised myself when I finished some quests in Nar Shaddaa and had 61k in credits. The problem i've seen is that crafting is a huge money sink especially when you're not doing Slicing as any gathering missions become very expensive. Second, skills become hugely expensive to purchase as you level. Crafting skills and class skills become very expensive; at level 23, although my Bounty Hunter had 61k, one class skill at that level cost 4k; I actually dread leveling up for fear that it'll cost me an arm and a leg, not to mention having to save up 25k for a mount.


Modding
Although I like the idea of modding your equipment to stay up to date with your level and not having to rely on drops to have the near-best gear, modding is a big time sink. I waste spend alot of time with two crafters just making items and breaking them down to level their skill. Then I need to make sure the proper characters with the correct gathering skills are gathering unique metals/fabrics/etc. Then I have to ensure that I gain the blue/purple recipes for the mods. By that time, my character is 2 levels higher than the mod I need and I can make the next version of the mod. This process seems slow, inefficient and tedious.


Companions
Simply: they stand far too close to you.
Always. Always, they're standing on your lootable corpse. 


Travelling
I appreciate the functions of Quick Travel, Imperial Fleet Pass, and tons of taxi waypoints, but there is alot of travel to get to things I need in the game. In Nar Shaddaa, the mailbox is so far away from the Cantina; I honestly don't see a problem with it being in the Cantina or right outside. In Balmorra, there are no crafting skill trainers, so a person would need to go to get to the Imperial Fleet. Sure you can use the Imperial Fleet Pass, but then what? You need to go to the spaceport hanger, jump into your ship, go to the holomap and select Balmorra, travel there, exit the ship, take a shuttle to the spaceport, go through the spaceport THEN take a taxi to wherever you last needed to quest. Thats ALOT of unnecessary travelling.


Stacking
For the love of god; when you get similar items, or move them from your inventory to your bank and vice versa, it should stack appropriately. Why would the game put it in a separate stack? Another time sink, if you care about organization in your inventory/bank.

PvP
Disclaimer: I haven't done pvp yet, but I reserve the right to comment about it.
No tiered pvp? 
Seriously what mmo does that? stick level 10s against level 50s?
Sure, one will argue that everyone is leveled to 50 to create a more balanced playfield and allows you to play with your higher lvled friends, but is that really the case? No. Higher level players will have higher level skills that lowbies won't even possess. Higher level players will also have talent points that lower level plays won't have either. 
Yes yes, skill and teamwork will triumph over these imbalances.. but it makes a big difference to me.