121173-new-player-just-putting-in-my-2-cents

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So..new to the game..finally decided to give it a go 3 weeks ago (the lower price helped ) . Definitely not new to MMO's..played Wow for years...Play Swtor since release and still sub to it..played GW2, ESO etc etc among a ridiculous list of RPG's.
 
So far loving the game. Certainly no shortage of quests to be had and side missions . I am mainly and always have been a PVE player and your game definitely fills that role nicely. The quests are interesting(with a few exceptions), the graphics look great..the colour pallet for the game is pleasing, the animations are nicely done and have good variety.
 
I only subbed for 1 month to start and will increase that possibly to 3-6 months but im still deciding. 
 
 complaints so far.
 
1) Voice acting..main story and other elements are entertaining and well done with good humor . Interaction with most NPC's is seriously lacking Imagination. its like you blew the voice acting budget on the some of the main story and a few other bits and got the janitorial staff and some local unemployed folks to do the rest. The dialogue is limited with most Npc's at best and the fake accents atrocious and many times the lines they speak don't make sense to the quest itself. I helped a grieving widow that was apparently crying..she sounded like daisy duke was ready for a party when i spoke to her in game...you get the quest and the NPC communicated a sense of urgency and importance...you complete the quest and you get nothing of any real dialogue relating to the quests importance. basically "see ya round Y`all" giggle giggle..........huh?
 
 
 
2) Crafting. So far its not bad but could be soooo much better. usually crafting is something i'll do for consumable buffs  or a bit of gear and nothing i take to serious. your crafting system really doesnt encourage me to do it and neither does it bring a sense of satisfaction in the end result. I am trying to put my finger on a few points that annoy me the most..but i can't and think the overall implementation of the crafting system as a whole is flawed in many ways..its not totally broke but it definitely is missing something.
 
 
3) story progression and immersion. I feel part of the world..but i haven't made any connection to my character. I haven't found where you tried to get me emotionally involved into my characters development or situation. i don;t feel like i have a stake in the characters progression. Swtor as an example has light and dark paths..the voice acting and stories really are immersive...you feel "attached" to that characters story and development ...This game i feel like im playing a toon and running around questing and missing that attachment. I still have a ways to go and just about to cross level 20 so hopefully things change..but if you haven't made the attempt to grab me on an emotional level in the 1st 20 levels when its critical i doubt you will going ahead. 
 
i know it may seem silly to use buzz words like emotion and attachment...but that's what makes me and many others that enjoy MMORPG's  to open the wallet. you have the MMO part...but for me missing the immersion...your close..
 
anyways thats my 2 cents before taxes  :P	
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Well on your first point with voice acting.
 
Its expensive and can be very expensive. Swtor is a prime example of this. They spent a fortune on it. Even though Carbine had NCsofts backing, Carbine itself is a very small developer.
 
Not going to deny the voice acting in a few areas is lacking, but I often find myself laughing at some of the characters.....especially the evil caretaker.	
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			P.s. Welcome :)	
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The actual storyline of the game kicks off at lvl 30-35 which might help you with the immersion part. Before that there really isn't much like that. Also later regional questlines have a better story than in the early game zones.
 
Pretty sure you will enjoy them :)	
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on crafting.
 
my engineer is lvl 30 and I have made every heavy gun I've used. unlike warcraft, low level crafting is very useful. with the ability to tweak the stats on them, one can create a much better damaging weapon instead of getting one from a quests. now this is only weaponsmith, I can't speak for the others but I'm sure its. comparable.	
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On voiceovers, they're a double edged sword.  I tend to hate voice acting (I swear, after playing FFXIV:ARR, I wanted to kill everyone that opened their mouth) but in this game, it's not usually so bad.  Then again, one grating voice over can ruin a portion of the game.  I love Omnicore, all of it... that Belle Walker isn't talking.  I hate her voice, I hate the lines she read, and hate her Texas-Valley Girl accent.  Omnicore would be so much better with just text you can skip.  Although there are voiceovers that don't make my ears bleed, and they're good.  For every Arwick I want to just outright slap when he speaks, there are the Lopp, that are hilarious.  I'd suggest more caution with them than expansion on them.
 
On crafting, it's extremely useful if you keep it at-level and use the best cores for your equipment.  It made leveling a million times easier for me on my characters.  I actually like it so much that I wish it was used to make endgame gear (then activated by drops from dungeons and RPVP, so that only those completing the content could actually wear it).  However, at present, it does take a lot of work to learn to make the best gear, which is then outrated by things dropping from vet content.  It could be better balanced into the endgame.  And the Technologist/Architect/Cooking method is kind of fun, but can be incredibly frustrating when you're trying to make a variant.  Your mileage may vary, but you will find it useful, especially when you're risking it all when you overcharge the gear and you start dealing with the expanded chipsets and power switches.
 
On immersion, Wildstar offers you two paths.  There's a lot of lore around the world, a few cutscenes, and datacubes that have a lot of emotionally weighty, interesting, and extensive lore to read into.  I still find things I forgot about or didn't see the first time as I level new alts.  However, it's all entirely skippable.  If you want to get into the story, you definitely can.  Carbine made most of the reading optional, though, because they figured some people don't care about immersion, they just want to get to the content.  If you aren't taking your time to enjoy it, you may accidentally be on the path of ignoring the lore as much as possible.  Take some time to read the things you pick up, listen to what the datacubes you find say (and find all the datacubes).  It's really deep.  Still, you have to allow for the soldier who asks no questions and doesn't care about anything but getting paid; those people shouldn't really have to be forced to sit through long cutscenes and such.
 
Welcome to the game, though!  I hope this information helps!	
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Man, I have to say, I hated crafting. To me, the system was confusing, I didn't understand how the dailies worked at first, and it all seemed like a repetitive grind with no real rewards until the final tier. That was, of course, until I sat down and spent a couple hours unlocking enough to craft myself a full set of armor at level 30.
 
And then I shit my pants.
 
At the time, I was duo-ing through leveling content with a friend, and we were both light armor users. So I took up Tailoring and, one day after he logged off and I stayed on, I made us both a full set of armor. The results were  incredibly satisfying. Being able to assign your own stats, tweak them, weigh the benefits of going for better power cores or waiting a couple levels for the next tier of armor, REALLY awesome. And crafted armor and weapons are going to be better than almost everything that drops during leveling content, certainly better than the CRAP you get as quest rewards.
 
I've also been a part of an RP guild since about a month after launch. Having tailors and other armor crafters has been nice for costume design.	
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3) story progression and immersion. I feel part of the world..but i haven't made any connection to my character.
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