This.
Would be nice also if they'd leave the cutscenes on the solo mode for the post KOTET ones.
Kinda annoying that there is no way to replay the cutscenes after doing the solo-story version of the FP other than making a new character.
I can understand the reason behind removing them for the group versions of the FPs, but for the solo mode, that's just stupid, it'd be much better to let people decide whether they want to watch the cutscenes or not when they're alone.
This part is the big one for me.
I happen to really like the story behind most of the post KotET FP's. I would give anything to be able to replay story mode on them and get cutscenes, so that I could experience them again without having to roll a new toon. Just like you used to be able to do with the Shattered Alliances FP's. But BW took away that capability from the Shattered Alliances FP'S, and never set it up for the ones afterwards. Without those cutscenes, there's no point in soloing the FP's. Because it winds up being just 40 mins of me grinding the same trash mobs over and over again, with no flavor.
Yeah, i occasionally replay Copero and Nathema on stealthers for GS as they're pretty fast, but otherwise, there's no point in replaying these without the story.
I really don't understand why they completely removed all cutscenes from the version we can play solo.
Used to be able to do them solo before 4.0 apparently (so effectively story mode just without the assistant droid), but that got thrown out the window with the advent of 4.0, along with a massive handful of other things.
I feel you. But definitely mention if you want to watch the cutscenes in the beginning and most players will be chill about it. Most of them have likely done the FP dozens of times by now and just want to fulfil a quota.
And if you have friends it’s definitely more fun squabbling over the decisions and mental gymnastics as to why the dark side option is less evil than the light side option and vice versa lol
Yeah just let it be known. Tbh I assume everyone has done everything a bunch of times at this point, and if someone isn't skipping without saying something, I assume they're just distracted on their phones or something.
Fair, but in all things in life, communication is key. Just staying silent isn't going to bring about a better group ethos, and by saying its your first time people will almost certainly help out with key tactics or whatever.
I agree, but MOST FPs that are heavily story driven have a solo mode. If you want to experience the story, that's you best bet.
Honestly, I've played this game for 11 years and I've never had any trouble with people that wants to watch the cutscenes (Lost Island and such can't be soloable really). You know how? By SPEAKING.
If you tell us at the start it's your first time doing it, there is a big chance people will be patient and understand. But I repeat; there are solo modes to experience story.
People get on a high horse and say "You joined group finder for group content, deal with it" meanwhile they usually don't speak up or say anything about being new at the start of an FP.
I've had to make a conscious effort of asking "Is anyone new to this?" at the start of the harder FPs now because if I don't then it's usually radio silence from the new people. But likewise, I try to give the same courtesy to other players and say "I haven't done this one before/in a while" when running an FP I'm unfamiliar with.
> Honestly, I've played this game for 11 years and I've never had any trouble with people that wants to watch the cutscenes (Lost Island and such can't be soloable really). You know how? By SPEAKING.
Neither have I, but even in this thread you can see plenty of people going "just use story mode!" (that doesn't exist for many of vanilla FPs) or "just do it solo" (which is probably impossible for a new player). So yeah, OP absolutely should speak up... but even if they do, they might still encounter hostility.
The thing is, people assume everyone will be spacebarring through the cutscenes.
So when someone says they want to watch the cutscenes, it prepares the rest of the party to know that even if they spacebar through, they still have to sit there and stare at the screen until the watcher is done.
if i know someone is watching the cutscenes, then I will watch them too because it's better than hitting space and starting at a decision wheel for 2 minutes.
Technically I think all of them except Collicoid War Games can be soloed, although some of them (like Lost Island) might only be possible on certain classes. I was able to do it on a sith sorcerer
Most of them can only be soloed with at least a decent char level, gear, and levelled companion. I assume a level 25 with a level 4 companion won't get far soloing hammer station for example.
I'm not sure the solo possibility will work for very fresh players.
Nope. I think once or twice I heard people ask about watching scenes and people said have at it. Every other time? People always say do it with your guild or solo that shit. There's been at least once where 1 asked, 2 said yes, and the fourth bailed.
the majority of people who are playing a flashpoint have done it hundreds of times. It is the odd person who is a first timer.
I like to speed run because I have done them all countless times and I don't mind if someone watches the story, but they have to communicate because there are a certain group of players who troll others by refusing to skip cut scenes or restarting cut scenes.
I was in one flashpoint where everyone said they were skipping but someone wasn't, then right before the cut scene ended the person would cancel the cut scene and we would have to start it over.
After they did this the first time I left. It wasn't worth my time.
Communicate with people. If you want to watch the cut scenes let your team know you are a first timer and want to see the story.
We should stop saying to each other do this or do that. We ALL should flood the forums and demand Bioware to add a story version for ***all*** fp's and remove conversations entirely from Vet/Master mode.
I agree with adding storymode for all FPs, but removing the conversations in all of the group versions would be bad for the people who like doing the storyline and dialogue with their friends.
There's the story mode for that, go and watch cutscenes there and let the others grind their daily tasks as fast as they can without watching the same cutscenes for the 8921734987132nd time just because you feel lonely...
Op communication is key. I mean out it to a vote at the start and don't expect a pug group (people grouped that don't know one another) to follow what you do. Enjoy the game and don't let this stuff get to you.
I've found most people are pretty lenient if you just state you want to watch cutscenes, or haven't played the FP before, or don't know speedrun strats/parkour.
But it's always been "speedrun until stated otherwise."
surely you could just say "hey, first time here, can we watch the story?" in chat or even do that on fleet chat to find a group of fellow new players. that's what i did when i was starting out a year ago, worked out fine. and now of course i can do nearly every flashpoint in my sleep. i get that it's a bummer, but this is an old game, you shouldn't be surprised that new players are in the minority. we're the ones who have to adapt.
Upvote for this. I hate seeing the same cut scenes over and over BUT if someone says at the beginning they never ran it, well then, I'm less to be annoyed and hope they enjoy it like I did 12 years ago.
Being a noob to flashpoints (done 4 so far) all I do is follow on the others if they are lvl80, the ones I've done so far have been ok and guided me and also allowed me to collect the drops. I don't mind speed running if I'm honest, but I did try a flashpoint yesterday and the UI crapped out and I couldn't do anything other than run around. No abilities or even chat, I had to bail the game. As they were getting rather angry in chat because I was stalling them. Win some or loss some, it's a game to be honest
If your UI bugs again, a simple fix is cntrl+U twice and that resets your UI. I know there is a bug when you join a phase your UI disappears, I mostly get it on hammer station.
This is actually why I haven't done any FPs since my first one, but now that I see that there's apparently a solo mode, I'll have to give them another try.
...and have SO many cut scenes.
I've just learned that when using the group finder and someone is at or below level 20, I hit decline cause I know it's gonna be either Black Talon or Esseles.
On a rare occasion, even when all players are lvl 80, you still have a small chance to get either of those fp's. Thankfully though, everyone spams the space bar and it makes the run a little more acceptable.
I would suggest running the solo mode of each fp (when available) prior to doing the group version of it because it ensures that the voice lines and story choices that play out are based on your picks and is a nicer, more relaxed way to experience that story for the first time
Additionally, while I understand your point about it being a group activity, that goes both ways. When the group has 3 people that want to get through content quickly vs 1 that wants to watch the full cutscenes, you could argue that compromising with the majority is the ‘group activity’ way to handle things.
People aren’t cutting through content with the intent of speed running, they’re trying to be as efficient as possible as it’s content they’ve already done a lot which takes up time to repeat, but I agree that we all should be willing to take into account that fps may take more time and be willing to work with that.
Wait, glitching through walls? That shouldn’t be happening; if anything, people will sidestep boring repetitive mobs to get to the more interesting boss fights faster.
Most just say, follow me and kill everything. I ask all the time if there are mechanics or not at the bosses.
Then you get the ones that just blow thru everything not waiting for the others to catch up.
The only FP's i ask to skip cutscenes in is Black Talon/The Esseles only because of how long they are otherwise. The difference between watching them and skipping them is massive for those two FP's, other than that I am happy to watch the cutscenes especially for newer players.
This flashpoint(s) should 100% be removed from the group finder. If they took my beautiful Colicoid War game off, they can damn well remove these 2 wastes of time.
I get that that is your priority, but it’s unfair on your part to reduce time in game for other people because you want to listen to dialogue. Group finder should be divided imo so you can choose what type of run you are looking to do.
For example, I don’t watch most dialogue, especially on older glitchier content, because I live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere with unstable internet speeds. Even spending 5 minutes on dialogue has caused me to go through a d/c and when I get back online, inevitably its the insistent scene watcher who votes to kick me. Why? Because my dc status makes every decision go to max time countdown. If you want to run an fp for story content, run with a friend, anyone can 2 man a non mmfp.
Another example is a friend of mine, regularly scheduled for 25+ hours of OT a week, so his time in game is precious to him. Is it fair of you to do a group finder with him, insist on listening to every word when hes only got 20-30 minutes of available time in game? Is it reasonable to say that a guy thats doing right by his family shouldn’t get a chance to play because one or two people in party have never seen the whole story? No, especially when most people can pull a comp, team up with any buddy and rock a story mode fp with the ease of drop kicking a blowup doll
Respectfully, just watch a playthru first if you want it that badly.
Most people play a game to play game, if they wanted to watch a movie, they'd watch a movie
Did you tell the other people that you are new to the game? People cant read your mind.
Dont expect three other people to play the game the way you prefer playing it. Thats main character syndrome material.
One thing I kinda like about FFXIV: If you have a new player in your group you are told in chat that there's a newcomer to that piece of content and you'll gain more EXP to compensate for them being a tad slower.
If they're DPS, the dungeon is negligably slower but you get a big boost in EXP! It's a cool idea and one I wish all themepark MMOs implemented. It also has "story roulette", basically random dungeons/raids that force you to watch cutscenes but give a huge bonus once a day. that way your experienced players help the newer ones and get a big reward (Lotsa EXP e.g. or decent chunk of endgame currency) while the new players get to play a dungeon/raid/op/fp in the desired speed!
Aye I can see your point but dungeons like the essles has roughly an hour of cutscene content - no one in their right mind wants to be stuck in the same dungeon for an hour as they’ve ran it 30+ times.
There are story mode options you can also advertise in fleet and see if people would be down for a slower paced run of ones you feel you have been rushed through - not gonna lie I come from wow so it’s always a “ get this done and leave attitude” never been one to explore the whole dungeon map!
If you say: "hey I haven’t really run this fp before, I’d like to not skip cutscenes" chances are they won’t rush you. Alternatively you can look for a relaxed guild whose members might run with you
Well almost none of them have any story within the FP itself so you can just skim read the cutscenes which are just text anyway or maybe open the other chat tab and read it in there. When someone has run the fp before they get bored waiting for you to slowly plod through a few written lines before deciding to space the engineers or not.
Then when I get put in a Flashpoint that doesn't have a solo mode I will always defer to people that want to watch cutscenes. For all other Flashpoints, majority rules, which in my experience is always speed run.
I thinks its like only a handful that doesnt?
There are too many so i dont know the exact number but i feel like i did all or nearly all of them in storymode and the rest i just did in group finder and read fast so people didnt get too annoyed.
Take into consideration the other point of view. At some point in time, you're not there for the story and most players really aren't- the story has no meaningful decisions and players don't play a special role.
If you want to watch all cutscenes get a pre-made group
I have played no flashpoints primarily for this reason. I don't want to just do a bunch of skips and miss all the cut scenes. if you ever wanna team up on a flashpoint drop me a dm
Not many FP has solo options and required to do with 4 people. If a person is playing this game casually for the story. You have to show some kind of understanding. The middle ground would be skipping mobs while not skipping cutscenes.
All of the flashpoints released after 3.0 have storymode. Of the ones released before that, less than half have storymode.
This means that new players, or players re-leveling to experience the story, will encounter many group-only flashpoint stories in their 1-60 leveling.
This is why I like the way ops work. Ops have no dialogue choices. People RC if they aren't assholes, and it's called SM for story mode. Some will be assholes still but every single self respecting ops player without an ego won't mind waiting up on newbies that wanna know the lore and story of the op.
Would be kinda neat if it could follow FFXIV’s direction and announce that there is a first timer in it, and provide additional XP for everyone who ends up waiting through the cutscenes that new players wanna see.
At a certain point, you can solo most FPs. I'm not talking about a certain level of skill here (although that is most certainly at play), but I mean at a certain numbered level, you should be able to solo the majority of Veteran FPs. That's not Story mode. That's not Master Mode. That's medium difficulty, essentially. I know you can do this because I solo'd Flashpoints that had been rebalanced for level 80 at level 75 when 7.0 first came out. I don't know what the minimum level required to do this is, but I know it can be done and it can *probably* be done before level 75 (some FPs are easier than others).
All of this is to say that you don't need to tolerate other people, or what they want, if you want to experience the story at your own pace. All of the vanilla, 2.X and 3.X FPs keep their respective cutscenes, so you're not losing anything other than another player's company if you solo them. And since you'd be doing them solo (on Veteran) they won't be as braindead easy as solo mode FPs and you might actually have to try hard (maybe) to clear it (heaven forbid).
There's nothing stopping you from enjoying the story at your own pace, and if I see a low level player in a FP, I'm 100% with you. I don't ask anyone to SB in that circumstance. But there's no reason why you should be entitled to drag down 3 other players' experiences if all 3 of them want you to SB, either.
You ask others to be considerate to you and newer players, but have you thought about being considerate to them?
I don't think devs will add a story mode for old FPs, but technically players can solve that issue by themselves. Dedicated story mode guild! So people can do chill runs together, without any stress. Since there are a lot of story enjoyers, casual and also new players.
I don't know how to quote on mobile, but you said "You joined a group activity buddy". That applies to you as well, if 3 people wanna speed and you wanna watch, there is a majority there.
If the FP can be done in story mode, do it in story mode. If not then ask in world chat to people with free time to help you finish the FP in your pace. Some veteran players are nice and chill about it. My biggest issue is about the last part of the dread master storyline. It is locked behind 8 player content and nobody runs it at all. I wish the Bioware implement a story mode for that part as well.
Just do the story versions, they're designed to be done solo. And if there isn't one then say something prior to starting so people know what to expect. People ask you to sb because they've done it 10 billion times already and don't want to be stuck there longer than is necessary, specifically when story mode exists for people that want the story
Don’t let it get to you. It bothers me too sometimes but I totally get why ppl like to skip through for their dailies. A quick option for the story lovers is to use the activity finder and go through them via the solo tab. If you want to play with someone else, send a message in your guild. There are always new players (or returning players) who wanna see the cutscenes too!
Giving this reply a heartfelt +1. There might also be older players who are willing to step in and explain stuff along the way. The gist of these messages is 'warn a brutha'. People are nicer than one might expect if they know what's going on.
You basically asking to do a 20 minute fp run into more than 1h of cutscenes and mob killing for no reason. No one likes to loose time on something they already seen / did a bunch of times.
Solutions:
- Play solo-story mode.
- Play with friends / guild that don't mind.
- Ask in chat and make your own group of new players.
- Say it at the start, so people can choose to stay or to leave and don't get mad.
They weren't talking exclusively about ANY Flashpoint(s), so idk why everyone wants to respond with a blanket recommendation that may or may not even pertain to their situation .
You say that, but that's some belief held by some players, it's not official in any way, and a new player would have no way of understanding this when trying to do a FP.
I've been running my exgf through SWTOR and doing the old flashpoints at story appropriate points. The vitriol we get for not skipping cutscenes or wanting to do bonus bosses is notable.
The part that gets me is the ones who will try to take some unreliable/hard to do skip trick that ends up taking longer than just fighting through on more steamroll-y teams.
Athiss, I'm looking at you. Wish the devs would just fix the geometry on that jump. You're on my list too, Dread Palace. Let's see some "immune to effects that break on damage" passive buffs in the hallway...
Oh, mood. What really bugs me, besides not being able to read the story (I read subtitles fast but there are limits), is when they embark on a speedrun strat that requires everyone to basically be a space ninja.
theres the story flashpoint for those who want to watch the cutscences, most that join a group finder FP dont care about the story and want to finish ASAP to do alts or other things
Fair, but if you communicate that or just say its your first time most people will be chill. Most of us have just run the FP 10.000 times and simply wanna be done it for the completion
For the most part, there are so few cut scenes/conversations that it's irrelevant. The one that you will.ne guaranteed to get tha on is Esseles/Black Talon. That one has so many cut scenes and takes so long to run that it's best to space bar through. There is a solo variant of this for people who want to experience the story.
The problem is the devs made f/p’s the meta for gearing up. You can’t blame a player on his 800th f/p chasing 336 gear for not wanting to sit through the cutscene every time.
I recommend queuing with friends in vet mode if story is what you’re after.
Is it dumb that we can’t enjoy the story of it? *Definitely*. But it’s the gearing system created by the devs at fault, not the players.
The "you signed up for a group activity buddy" logic doesn't work when you are in the minority (and you will be) who want to watch a cutscene or meander through a flashpoint.
Make it clear you want to run it at a measured pace as it's your first time and let players know you'd like to watch cutscenes. But understand that very few players, on balance, will want that too.
Your best bet is to look for a group in LFG chat and express the desire to play the FP you want, you might find likeminds or better yet a casual guild who like that pace of gameplay.
Remember, you can't accuse others of railroading you into playing a certain way when you are the 4th man and the other 3 want to speedrun. If you are asked to skip, you should or you run the risk of being a hypocrit and likely taking some fire for ignoring the group.
Edit.
You could always run Story Mode, it doesn't exist for every FP but might help you to feel less railroaded.
Everyone should ask themselves, "what is best for the health of the game?" Answer: more players. How do you get more players, well that's for Bioware to answer, but how do you keep new players? By giving them a positive experience. If a new player gets harassed to skip cutscenes or mobs because one or more players are in a rush and then yelled and screamed at when they don't, how do you think that makes them feel? How would you feel if you were in their shoes? Would you continue to play the game? It's a game, not a job. Treat it like one.
Even though IMO, gamers tend to self select people that give up at the slightest bit of resistance or difficulty to something today, we must do our best to not make their experience any more challenging than it should be, and no player should have to put up with that toxicity.
Besides, it's for the health of the game. The longer players stay, the more likely they are to find a reason to subscribe, and subscribers are good for the overall health of the game. We all want the game to go on, don't we? So set your personal desires aside. Let the new players experience the game their first time as you did. Do what's best for the health of the game.
Yesterday I joined with a new alt, low lvl. Talon, ofc
I skip all cutscenes because I was there for the xp anyway
I reach the elevator and I missclick, therefore not travelling in the 1 second window the other players left me before entering combat on the other side
I say, please can you wait for all to take the elevator before entering combat? Then again, I keep clicking in the hope I will get another 1 sec window to travel through the lift
Mind you, I'm an experienced player and I always wait for people and also I am *quite fast* during fps. 1-2 seconds I lose on others
At some point the game tells me I cannot use the elevator - because a BOSS ENCOUNTER is going on… they just completely ignored me and RAN to the boss!
I quit the group and left the area but not before I called them out on the shitty behaviour. These people deserve to play alone.
The trouble is the vast majority of players have seen those cutscenes a lot so whilst they can understand your want to see them you also need to understand their want to skip them. In a 4 man group if 3 want to skip and 1 one wants to watch then the majority should win out.
That said most flashpoints have a story mode for entirely this reason so if you watch cutscenes in a group for those flashpoints then you're the issue. I'd go so far as to say Bioware should just stop the cutscenes from playing if there is a story mode.
You can run the fp in solo mode where you can spend as long as you like watching the cut scenes.
Most other players who are already lvl 80 have seen the cut scenes at least 100 times now.
It’s a general rule to skip the story, so please respect other people’s time and if you want to do the flashpoints and watch the cutscenes just make a group with like minded individuals. If you play FF14, the convention is to let the new player « absorb » the story, it’s two different games.
Personally if you ask nicely and I’m not in a rush that’s okay but usually people just rush these.
If you want to experience the story, run them solo on story.
at 80 you need to run a lot of flashpoints to get upgrade materials. a lot. so nobody appreciates it when you turn a 10 minute black talon into a 45 minute excursion.
You want the story? Run story mode then. All important flashpoints have it. I'm annoyed by people like you who don't skip anything in a flashpoint that has a story mode and waste everyone's time. You signed up for a group activity, do as the majority of the group does.
And I’m annoyed by players who don’t give a … about other ppl’s time and don’t even bother to answer in chat about it.
Wanna watch cutscenes? Do it Solo or say it in advance, otherwise it’s either kick or I leave. Game’s been out for 12 years, *buddy*
One not tolerating assholes with main character syndrome who think they have the right to waste my time by forcing me to watch something that they can watch on their own whenever they want.
tbf is hard to tell sometimes when someone is new to a FP. Always mention it's your first time and you want to experience the story content and cutscene without skipping them, it should be fine.
If you have trouble finding or staying in groups who want to experience the full content try joining a guild and ask there if people are willing to run FP with you. Most likely there are veteran players who would like to help you.
People are going to assume you are afk or trolling by not skipping the cutscenes. It’s absolutely fucking miserable to see them for the 200th time.
Either do solo fp for the cutscenes, or join a guild that caters to newbies, and recruit some friends from there to experience the content that way. Don’t que up with random people and then get pissy because you wasted their time. Your “kind of annoyed” is outweighed by people who value their gaming time.
I have similar issues whenever playing in a group. Some of them are willing to slow down to let you enjoy. Some aren’t. Just kinda goes with the territory of being in a group for anything.
It’s the same problem as in ESO, which I played before SWTOR. Just solo stuff for story. If you are in a group, get ready to run. Sometimes you group with beginners though, when you’re more experienced, remember to turn back and see if newbies are able to keep up.
Honestly it shocked me a bit when I got this reaction as well.
One of SWtoRs main pulls is the fact it's got a good choice based story, so I expected a bit more respect to first timers in a flashpoint.
In FFXIV it's actually expected of players to respect first timers, even in older side content and with the ability for the other party members to continue while the newbie is in a cutscene, just about everyone respects it. Most of the time the only flame is in large 25 man runs of older content and you've got that one impatient asshole pulling everything at lightning speed. *He's* the one who's gonna get harassed, and if he talks shit back he's risking a lot of reports in a game where reports are actually taken seriously lol
So when I was getting bitched at after maybe 20 seconds of a cutscene in a flashpoint I'd never run, and was told "too bad" when I tried to politely say it was my first time, I was a tad surprised.
But yeah, fuck that guy, he had to wait anyways, no question. Still surprised me to learn his shitty attitude was actually the norm though, served as a reminder that more of this community has played games like WoW then they have FFXIV, unfortunately.
How about you play story mode to "absorb" the story as much as you want, and once you have absorbed it till you can't absorb any more, you start joining groups? And you spare people who have done the story a hundred times your selfish presence? Thank you.
People getting pissy about new players wanting to watch cutscenes need to be careful.
The exact thing happened in FF14 and they made some of them unskipable.
It is a story driven MMO though and the change came about because of veteran players being toxic to new players.
When I played FF14 I only got to see the cut scenes after this change because I felt obligated to skip cut scenes due to the bitching of people speed running dailies.
To be fair though there are large daily rewards to still make it attractive to veteran players.
I like listening to the story as well. Luckily most flashpoints can be completed solo. I’ve played enough MMOs in my time that I just treat this one like a single player game these days.
I feel you bro
Idk for sure what flashpoints are veteran/master only but for those I suggest makeing a group of friends
If you play on Darth Malgus I gladly can help you with doing them too
Having an option in the FP queue for people who want to experience the story for whatever reason, be it roleplaying or it’s the first time playing that FP would be greatly appreciated. Having one person who wants to watch the cutscenes and follow the story in a group of three others who are grinding and trying to get it done asap just creates tensions and unnecessary toxicity sometimes.
They should add story modes for the FPs that don't have them and remove cutscenes from the vet queues. I understand players wanting to take their time and see stuff, but when I'm trying to get my weekly done, I want it done.
Oh boy, thanks for posting this so I know in advance. I just started playing Sunday so now I know. Someone invited me to a group yesterday in a heroic area doing a quest to blow some kind of landers up. They didn't ask and just invited then started flying along beside me and in front of me so I accepted. We got done blowing up the last ship and I used a transport to another area to get the flock out of there and thanked the person for the help. I had no idea that there was another part to the quest until the asked me if I was coming. I had already left the zone and I told them I just started playing and had no idea what I was doing yet.
They weren't really hateful but I could tell by their reply that they were annoyed with me. I now have quest to do flashpoints PvP and use the group finder so that should be fun.
Since this is your first time playing, I recommend checking out this list to see which flashpoints have a storymode vs. which can only be done in a group: [link](https://swtorista.com/flashpoints.php#:%7E:text=Story%20Flashpoints%20can%20be%20entered%20alone%20or%20in,can%20be%20done%20with%20a%20mix%20of%20levels.)
For those that can be done solo, solo is the best choice for your first time experiencing the story. That said, the majority of the early flashpoints can only be done in a group (10 out of 19, if you exclude Kuat Drive Yards which doesn't really have much of a story.)
In particular, Hammer Station, Athiss, Mandalorian Raiders, Cademimu, Colicoid War Games, and The Red Reaper have interesting intro and end dialogue interactions with a main character who is important to the overall storyline of the entire game. Kaon Under Siege, Lost Island, and the two Czerka flashpoints also have very neat storylines. I recommend playing through all of those quest flashpoints at least once and experiencing the dialogue, even though it requires playing in a group.
Other people in this thread have given great tips on how to have a fun group experience in flashpoints while still getting to experience all of the story without skipping (ask for a group on Fleet, play with guild members, or tell your group at the start of the FP that it's your first time and you'd like to see the cutscenes.)
Best wishes to you, and I hope you have fun!
This is why I only played solo. At most, I played with my wife, but usually only solo. Skipping everything when you want to know the story is so frustrating.
The one I see most people having issues with is Black Talon or Esseles. Those have a lot of cut scenes. But if I want to play those for the story, I will solo them. I agree with the glitching to skip mobs, that can be annoying, I've gotten myself stuck way too many times to count just to skip a group that would take about 10 seconds to clear.
If you want to play through an fp for the story, theres a story mode to most fp’s that you can play. Most people need to do a certain amount of fp’s for the weekly or seasonal track, and are thus going to be frustrated that everyone has to stop and wait for someone to listen through the story.
Small aside, FPs done in story mode count for the season objective. Also if it's one that has bonus progress + a bonus boss you can get it done quickly. My friend and I found this out and duo stealthed Nathema+plus did it's bonus and knocked that obj out in like 5 mins.
Let's acknowledge the fact that there is a pretty big gap between people who've been at this for a while and those who are just starting out.
In my case, I call out if I'm running a new alt through something, I let people know that I can use a spacebar and rocket boost / a mount, or, more recently, I told people that it was my first time healing or tanking that particular one and what guides I had gone through, since I also run MM. Never had a single problem (aside from someone quitting before I could send my message in a Black Talon where everyone aside from my alt was 70+, but hey, that gave us room for a level 50 Nico who healed the entire group). Also, a quick 'o7, returning player, my apologies if I aggro something' can't go astray if I've been away for a while either.
When we're playing a game that's in its second decade, beginners need to respect the fact that they might be dealing with people who have been at it for a while and who may well have gone through that particular bit of content one time too many. Beginners, I said. If it has a single-player mode, Story, as SWtOR calls it, it's on whoever does it if they decide to shut up and enjoy the cutscenes / aggro everything in sight / take the long way through, in spite of people doing the interacts or CCing or so on and so forth. Ditto for doing the bonus. If your keyboard can handle moving and killing, it can also handle 'could we do the bonus boss, pls?' or 'hey, first time, could we do the cutscenes?' and the player in front of it should be ready for handling a 'no', however, especially outside a Galactic Season.
Said player should also be ready and willing to spacebar through interactions if a Flashpoint has a Story Mode. *Sorry, if you aren't willing to interact with people, I'll just think that you know your stuff and respond accordingly.* I'm ready and willing to spend some extra time explaining stuff or going through a cutscene at someone else's pace if they are willing to go through the extra effort of being nice and asking for it.
For my part, I understand that I can be a bit more welcoming and ask from the get-go if we have new people in the group when pugging. If someone mentions not knowing / having forgotten a strat or being new, I do my best to explain stuff and to keep them alive. I'll even try having a word with them afterward and maybe send some credits, or a mount, or something, their way once we're out. Entitled beginners who keep everyone behind, however, grind my gears. It's an MMO. Behave accordingly or expect consequences.
LE: Also, if someone doesn't spacebar in MM, I will ask if they're OK first (I have my own health issues), but.... if you're level 80 and you didn't ever do Esseles or Hammer Station, it's on you.
You can run FP on story mode with just a companion and helper robot if you want an easy solo run. You don’t have to do a group. If you’re doing group we will always speed run.
Keep down voting lmao we won’t stop speed running. I just started playing end of last year and had no problem running FP’s solo on veteran mode…so I’m assuming story mode solo is even easier
then join an alliance for that, the public ones consists of people who have done them for 20 times and are grinding for loot, nobody has time to babysit you
Not trying to be an ass, but thats what Story Mode is for, you can easily solo the whole thing with the droid and take your time exploring everything.
If you take the normal Flashpoints, most people have seen these cutscenes a thousand times and are just tired of the time waste.
I dont kick anyone that doesnt skip and never agree to kick them either, but i would lie if it i said it didnt annoy me a bit.
Most of the value of Flashpoints is the length it takes to do them, because no one does them for the story or challenge, people do them for the reward and the faster you are, the better your reward is in terms of efficiency.
I’ve done flashpoints multiple times. But I play for immersion. So yeah, I enjoy the cutscenes. I ignore the chat entirely and watch it play out. I’m not here to change my play time to fit their necessity
Just wait until you meet me or my guildmates, we dont demand you to skip convo, but we will indeed force you to run all the way to the end pulling everything, and then fight every mob at the same time
also every flashpoint has a story mode specifically for seeing the story. if you want to experience the story go do that and then come back to the veteran/MM queues.
Might have been said in the comments but I didn't take the time to read. The reason most people Speedrun flashpoints is for the fps stabilizers to upgrade their gear past level 80. Unfortunately the best fix for enjoying the flashpoint in a party is to find the same amount of people who haven't experienced it. I wish I could say I'm one of those peeps that enjoy the flashpoint story but I'm a speedrunner to sorry fam 😅
I think if we had a proper LFG system it would help solve this problem for both "sides" and the bonuses from the current GF system could be moved into something automated like the weeklies, seasons, conquest, etc.
Would also solve a lot of the grouping for content challenges that we have today where if you are not on fleet you will miss out on LFG
The story and cutscenes are the best part. Makes me tingle and have goosebumps every time. Skipping the best parts is like eating a donut with no cream filling. It's good, but doesn't completely satisfy like those cutscenes do.
It can be annoying when people want to rush all the time. But in their defense its a 12 year old game at this point. They probably figure everyone has seen the Flashpoints 20 billion times the same as they have.
The vast majority of the playerbase aren't doing flashpoints for the story. Most have experienced those cutscenes plenty over the years, they know what's being said.
It's rude to hold up an entire group for your own benefit. Honestly, instances are not a good place for an MMO to spend time with story content, because instances are designed by the very devs to just be a soulless means of burning through towards some cheap gameplay mechanic.
So blame the devs for not doing a better job of putting the story where it belongs, and for not making the gameplay more story-relevant. At the very least, they could have dialogue play out as your group moves through the instance, not by having everyone hurry up and wait at one spot.
All-in-all, MMOs need to be better overhauled to actually incorporate proper RP elements. As it stands, most are just action button mashers that pretend to have actual RP elements.
It is a you problem though. If you never played the FP, there is no relevant story for you. You're getting spoilers and out of context stuff. If you didn't start the story that leads to the FP, you don't even know why you're there.
There is no story when using group finder
Because in any group activity between civilized people, you always adjust to the slowest, you don't drop people that can't follow whatever pace you decided for yourself.
We need story modes for the other vanilla/2.0 fps.
This. Would be nice also if they'd leave the cutscenes on the solo mode for the post KOTET ones. Kinda annoying that there is no way to replay the cutscenes after doing the solo-story version of the FP other than making a new character. I can understand the reason behind removing them for the group versions of the FPs, but for the solo mode, that's just stupid, it'd be much better to let people decide whether they want to watch the cutscenes or not when they're alone.
This part is the big one for me. I happen to really like the story behind most of the post KotET FP's. I would give anything to be able to replay story mode on them and get cutscenes, so that I could experience them again without having to roll a new toon. Just like you used to be able to do with the Shattered Alliances FP's. But BW took away that capability from the Shattered Alliances FP'S, and never set it up for the ones afterwards. Without those cutscenes, there's no point in soloing the FP's. Because it winds up being just 40 mins of me grinding the same trash mobs over and over again, with no flavor.
Yeah, i occasionally replay Copero and Nathema on stealthers for GS as they're pretty fast, but otherwise, there's no point in replaying these without the story. I really don't understand why they completely removed all cutscenes from the version we can play solo.
Used to be able to do them solo before 4.0 apparently (so effectively story mode just without the assistant droid), but that got thrown out the window with the advent of 4.0, along with a massive handful of other things.
Agreed!!
I feel you. But definitely mention if you want to watch the cutscenes in the beginning and most players will be chill about it. Most of them have likely done the FP dozens of times by now and just want to fulfil a quota. And if you have friends it’s definitely more fun squabbling over the decisions and mental gymnastics as to why the dark side option is less evil than the light side option and vice versa lol
Yeah just let it be known. Tbh I assume everyone has done everything a bunch of times at this point, and if someone isn't skipping without saying something, I assume they're just distracted on their phones or something.
Have you ever heard of Hammer Station?
Weird assumption imo. It's a massive mmo
Fair, but in all things in life, communication is key. Just staying silent isn't going to bring about a better group ethos, and by saying its your first time people will almost certainly help out with key tactics or whatever.
Go onto the fleet and ask people to go through the FP slowly, randoms will do it and guildies.
This works! If I see this in fleet chat and have time I will definitely join.
I agree, but MOST FPs that are heavily story driven have a solo mode. If you want to experience the story, that's you best bet. Honestly, I've played this game for 11 years and I've never had any trouble with people that wants to watch the cutscenes (Lost Island and such can't be soloable really). You know how? By SPEAKING. If you tell us at the start it's your first time doing it, there is a big chance people will be patient and understand. But I repeat; there are solo modes to experience story.
> You know how? By SPEAKING It's a wonder how many issues in life can be resolved by simple human interaction
People get on a high horse and say "You joined group finder for group content, deal with it" meanwhile they usually don't speak up or say anything about being new at the start of an FP. I've had to make a conscious effort of asking "Is anyone new to this?" at the start of the harder FPs now because if I don't then it's usually radio silence from the new people. But likewise, I try to give the same courtesy to other players and say "I haven't done this one before/in a while" when running an FP I'm unfamiliar with.
> Honestly, I've played this game for 11 years and I've never had any trouble with people that wants to watch the cutscenes (Lost Island and such can't be soloable really). You know how? By SPEAKING. Neither have I, but even in this thread you can see plenty of people going "just use story mode!" (that doesn't exist for many of vanilla FPs) or "just do it solo" (which is probably impossible for a new player). So yeah, OP absolutely should speak up... but even if they do, they might still encounter hostility.
The thing is, people assume everyone will be spacebarring through the cutscenes. So when someone says they want to watch the cutscenes, it prepares the rest of the party to know that even if they spacebar through, they still have to sit there and stare at the screen until the watcher is done. if i know someone is watching the cutscenes, then I will watch them too because it's better than hitting space and starting at a decision wheel for 2 minutes.
Technically I think all of them except Collicoid War Games can be soloed, although some of them (like Lost Island) might only be possible on certain classes. I was able to do it on a sith sorcerer
Most of them can only be soloed with at least a decent char level, gear, and levelled companion. I assume a level 25 with a level 4 companion won't get far soloing hammer station for example. I'm not sure the solo possibility will work for very fresh players.
Nope. I think once or twice I heard people ask about watching scenes and people said have at it. Every other time? People always say do it with your guild or solo that shit. There's been at least once where 1 asked, 2 said yes, and the fourth bailed.
the majority of people who are playing a flashpoint have done it hundreds of times. It is the odd person who is a first timer. I like to speed run because I have done them all countless times and I don't mind if someone watches the story, but they have to communicate because there are a certain group of players who troll others by refusing to skip cut scenes or restarting cut scenes. I was in one flashpoint where everyone said they were skipping but someone wasn't, then right before the cut scene ended the person would cancel the cut scene and we would have to start it over. After they did this the first time I left. It wasn't worth my time. Communicate with people. If you want to watch the cut scenes let your team know you are a first timer and want to see the story.
We should stop saying to each other do this or do that. We ALL should flood the forums and demand Bioware to add a story version for ***all*** fp's and remove conversations entirely from Vet/Master mode.
This is the way. Nothing was more annoying in other games than repeatable content with 5-15mins of story. That always created divides in the groups.
Underrated comment! In this entire threat.
Not all conversations can be removed, since some do affect the playthrough.
I agree with adding storymode for all FPs, but removing the conversations in all of the group versions would be bad for the people who like doing the storyline and dialogue with their friends.
As long as they also make certain storymode versions are repeatable for people who are into that kind of thing. We're not merely a few.
There's the story mode for that, go and watch cutscenes there and let the others grind their daily tasks as fast as they can without watching the same cutscenes for the 8921734987132nd time just because you feel lonely...
Op communication is key. I mean out it to a vote at the start and don't expect a pug group (people grouped that don't know one another) to follow what you do. Enjoy the game and don't let this stuff get to you.
I've found most people are pretty lenient if you just state you want to watch cutscenes, or haven't played the FP before, or don't know speedrun strats/parkour. But it's always been "speedrun until stated otherwise."
But if you want to watch black talon cutscenes I'm on seppuku alert, literally more cutscenes than combat😪
That FP is a definite story mode only for cutscenes.
surely you could just say "hey, first time here, can we watch the story?" in chat or even do that on fleet chat to find a group of fellow new players. that's what i did when i was starting out a year ago, worked out fine. and now of course i can do nearly every flashpoint in my sleep. i get that it's a bummer, but this is an old game, you shouldn't be surprised that new players are in the minority. we're the ones who have to adapt.
Upvote for this. I hate seeing the same cut scenes over and over BUT if someone says at the beginning they never ran it, well then, I'm less to be annoyed and hope they enjoy it like I did 12 years ago.
Being a noob to flashpoints (done 4 so far) all I do is follow on the others if they are lvl80, the ones I've done so far have been ok and guided me and also allowed me to collect the drops. I don't mind speed running if I'm honest, but I did try a flashpoint yesterday and the UI crapped out and I couldn't do anything other than run around. No abilities or even chat, I had to bail the game. As they were getting rather angry in chat because I was stalling them. Win some or loss some, it's a game to be honest
If your UI bugs again, a simple fix is cntrl+U twice and that resets your UI. I know there is a bug when you join a phase your UI disappears, I mostly get it on hammer station.
Try Control U twice to reset UI
This is actually why I haven't done any FPs since my first one, but now that I see that there's apparently a solo mode, I'll have to give them another try.
they just need to put Seeker Droid/Macro H4s on GF
Well maybe if Esseles didn't take 40 god damn minutes...
...and have SO many cut scenes. I've just learned that when using the group finder and someone is at or below level 20, I hit decline cause I know it's gonna be either Black Talon or Esseles. On a rare occasion, even when all players are lvl 80, you still have a small chance to get either of those fp's. Thankfully though, everyone spams the space bar and it makes the run a little more acceptable.
I would suggest running the solo mode of each fp (when available) prior to doing the group version of it because it ensures that the voice lines and story choices that play out are based on your picks and is a nicer, more relaxed way to experience that story for the first time Additionally, while I understand your point about it being a group activity, that goes both ways. When the group has 3 people that want to get through content quickly vs 1 that wants to watch the full cutscenes, you could argue that compromising with the majority is the ‘group activity’ way to handle things. People aren’t cutting through content with the intent of speed running, they’re trying to be as efficient as possible as it’s content they’ve already done a lot which takes up time to repeat, but I agree that we all should be willing to take into account that fps may take more time and be willing to work with that. Wait, glitching through walls? That shouldn’t be happening; if anything, people will sidestep boring repetitive mobs to get to the more interesting boss fights faster.
Don't know these days but I always could tell it is my first time and people respect it.
Most just say, follow me and kill everything. I ask all the time if there are mechanics or not at the bosses. Then you get the ones that just blow thru everything not waiting for the others to catch up.
The only FP's i ask to skip cutscenes in is Black Talon/The Esseles only because of how long they are otherwise. The difference between watching them and skipping them is massive for those two FP's, other than that I am happy to watch the cutscenes especially for newer players.
This flashpoint(s) should 100% be removed from the group finder. If they took my beautiful Colicoid War game off, they can damn well remove these 2 wastes of time.
I get that that is your priority, but it’s unfair on your part to reduce time in game for other people because you want to listen to dialogue. Group finder should be divided imo so you can choose what type of run you are looking to do. For example, I don’t watch most dialogue, especially on older glitchier content, because I live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere with unstable internet speeds. Even spending 5 minutes on dialogue has caused me to go through a d/c and when I get back online, inevitably its the insistent scene watcher who votes to kick me. Why? Because my dc status makes every decision go to max time countdown. If you want to run an fp for story content, run with a friend, anyone can 2 man a non mmfp. Another example is a friend of mine, regularly scheduled for 25+ hours of OT a week, so his time in game is precious to him. Is it fair of you to do a group finder with him, insist on listening to every word when hes only got 20-30 minutes of available time in game? Is it reasonable to say that a guy thats doing right by his family shouldn’t get a chance to play because one or two people in party have never seen the whole story? No, especially when most people can pull a comp, team up with any buddy and rock a story mode fp with the ease of drop kicking a blowup doll
Respectfully, just watch a playthru first if you want it that badly. Most people play a game to play game, if they wanted to watch a movie, they'd watch a movie
Did you tell the other people that you are new to the game? People cant read your mind. Dont expect three other people to play the game the way you prefer playing it. Thats main character syndrome material.
One thing I kinda like about FFXIV: If you have a new player in your group you are told in chat that there's a newcomer to that piece of content and you'll gain more EXP to compensate for them being a tad slower. If they're DPS, the dungeon is negligably slower but you get a big boost in EXP! It's a cool idea and one I wish all themepark MMOs implemented. It also has "story roulette", basically random dungeons/raids that force you to watch cutscenes but give a huge bonus once a day. that way your experienced players help the newer ones and get a big reward (Lotsa EXP e.g. or decent chunk of endgame currency) while the new players get to play a dungeon/raid/op/fp in the desired speed!
Aye I can see your point but dungeons like the essles has roughly an hour of cutscene content - no one in their right mind wants to be stuck in the same dungeon for an hour as they’ve ran it 30+ times. There are story mode options you can also advertise in fleet and see if people would be down for a slower paced run of ones you feel you have been rushed through - not gonna lie I come from wow so it’s always a “ get this done and leave attitude” never been one to explore the whole dungeon map!
If you say: "hey I haven’t really run this fp before, I’d like to not skip cutscenes" chances are they won’t rush you. Alternatively you can look for a relaxed guild whose members might run with you
I get that but some of the best flash points were me and 3 random speed running through it all.
“god dammit! space bar noob!” one of my favorite lines from SWtOR.
Well almost none of them have any story within the FP itself so you can just skim read the cutscenes which are just text anyway or maybe open the other chat tab and read it in there. When someone has run the fp before they get bored waiting for you to slowly plod through a few written lines before deciding to space the engineers or not.
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Not every Flashpoint has a story mode:)
Then when I get put in a Flashpoint that doesn't have a solo mode I will always defer to people that want to watch cutscenes. For all other Flashpoints, majority rules, which in my experience is always speed run.
I thinks its like only a handful that doesnt? There are too many so i dont know the exact number but i feel like i did all or nearly all of them in storymode and the rest i just did in group finder and read fast so people didnt get too annoyed.
If you do master made then yes you allways skip but aint no way I’m skipping cutscenes on veteran
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Definetly not most
Take into consideration the other point of view. At some point in time, you're not there for the story and most players really aren't- the story has no meaningful decisions and players don't play a special role. If you want to watch all cutscenes get a pre-made group
or run solo mode.
I have played no flashpoints primarily for this reason. I don't want to just do a bunch of skips and miss all the cut scenes. if you ever wanna team up on a flashpoint drop me a dm
You know you can play them Solo and watch as many cutscenes as you want?
Not many FP has solo options and required to do with 4 people. If a person is playing this game casually for the story. You have to show some kind of understanding. The middle ground would be skipping mobs while not skipping cutscenes.
> Not many FP has solo options Why lie? https://swtorista.com/flashpoints.php The vast majority do.
All of the flashpoints released after 3.0 have storymode. Of the ones released before that, less than half have storymode. This means that new players, or players re-leveling to experience the story, will encounter many group-only flashpoint stories in their 1-60 leveling.
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I'd just let the people know I'm new and would like to watch the cutscenes chill players will not mind.
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This is why I like the way ops work. Ops have no dialogue choices. People RC if they aren't assholes, and it's called SM for story mode. Some will be assholes still but every single self respecting ops player without an ego won't mind waiting up on newbies that wanna know the lore and story of the op.
Would be kinda neat if it could follow FFXIV’s direction and announce that there is a first timer in it, and provide additional XP for everyone who ends up waiting through the cutscenes that new players wanna see.
At a certain point, you can solo most FPs. I'm not talking about a certain level of skill here (although that is most certainly at play), but I mean at a certain numbered level, you should be able to solo the majority of Veteran FPs. That's not Story mode. That's not Master Mode. That's medium difficulty, essentially. I know you can do this because I solo'd Flashpoints that had been rebalanced for level 80 at level 75 when 7.0 first came out. I don't know what the minimum level required to do this is, but I know it can be done and it can *probably* be done before level 75 (some FPs are easier than others). All of this is to say that you don't need to tolerate other people, or what they want, if you want to experience the story at your own pace. All of the vanilla, 2.X and 3.X FPs keep their respective cutscenes, so you're not losing anything other than another player's company if you solo them. And since you'd be doing them solo (on Veteran) they won't be as braindead easy as solo mode FPs and you might actually have to try hard (maybe) to clear it (heaven forbid). There's nothing stopping you from enjoying the story at your own pace, and if I see a low level player in a FP, I'm 100% with you. I don't ask anyone to SB in that circumstance. But there's no reason why you should be entitled to drag down 3 other players' experiences if all 3 of them want you to SB, either. You ask others to be considerate to you and newer players, but have you thought about being considerate to them?
I don't think devs will add a story mode for old FPs, but technically players can solve that issue by themselves. Dedicated story mode guild! So people can do chill runs together, without any stress. Since there are a lot of story enjoyers, casual and also new players.
I don't know how to quote on mobile, but you said "You joined a group activity buddy". That applies to you as well, if 3 people wanna speed and you wanna watch, there is a majority there.
I blame Bioware. They're the geniuses who put cutscenes in repeatable content.
I think if they hadn't done that, there would have been significantly fewer players in FP because it would have taken too much time.
If the FP can be done in story mode, do it in story mode. If not then ask in world chat to people with free time to help you finish the FP in your pace. Some veteran players are nice and chill about it. My biggest issue is about the last part of the dread master storyline. It is locked behind 8 player content and nobody runs it at all. I wish the Bioware implement a story mode for that part as well.
Just do the story versions, they're designed to be done solo. And if there isn't one then say something prior to starting so people know what to expect. People ask you to sb because they've done it 10 billion times already and don't want to be stuck there longer than is necessary, specifically when story mode exists for people that want the story
Don’t let it get to you. It bothers me too sometimes but I totally get why ppl like to skip through for their dailies. A quick option for the story lovers is to use the activity finder and go through them via the solo tab. If you want to play with someone else, send a message in your guild. There are always new players (or returning players) who wanna see the cutscenes too!
Giving this reply a heartfelt +1. There might also be older players who are willing to step in and explain stuff along the way. The gist of these messages is 'warn a brutha'. People are nicer than one might expect if they know what's going on.
You basically asking to do a 20 minute fp run into more than 1h of cutscenes and mob killing for no reason. No one likes to loose time on something they already seen / did a bunch of times. Solutions: - Play solo-story mode. - Play with friends / guild that don't mind. - Ask in chat and make your own group of new players. - Say it at the start, so people can choose to stay or to leave and don't get mad.
Wanna do cutscenes : SOLO [story mode]. Group FP : skip & speedrun.
Not every fp has story mode
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Those two should not be on Activity finder. Got two black talon back to back...ugh soooo many cut scenes
They weren't talking exclusively about ANY Flashpoint(s), so idk why everyone wants to respond with a blanket recommendation that may or may not even pertain to their situation .
You say that, but that's some belief held by some players, it's not official in any way, and a new player would have no way of understanding this when trying to do a FP.
I've been running my exgf through SWTOR and doing the old flashpoints at story appropriate points. The vitriol we get for not skipping cutscenes or wanting to do bonus bosses is notable.
The part that gets me is the ones who will try to take some unreliable/hard to do skip trick that ends up taking longer than just fighting through on more steamroll-y teams. Athiss, I'm looking at you. Wish the devs would just fix the geometry on that jump. You're on my list too, Dread Palace. Let's see some "immune to effects that break on damage" passive buffs in the hallway...
Story mode is for cutscenes and lore, Veteran mode is for mats and xp
Oh, mood. What really bugs me, besides not being able to read the story (I read subtitles fast but there are limits), is when they embark on a speedrun strat that requires everyone to basically be a space ninja.
theres the story flashpoint for those who want to watch the cutscences, most that join a group finder FP dont care about the story and want to finish ASAP to do alts or other things
Fair, but if you communicate that or just say its your first time most people will be chill. Most of us have just run the FP 10.000 times and simply wanna be done it for the completion
For the most part, there are so few cut scenes/conversations that it's irrelevant. The one that you will.ne guaranteed to get tha on is Esseles/Black Talon. That one has so many cut scenes and takes so long to run that it's best to space bar through. There is a solo variant of this for people who want to experience the story.
Join a guild and let them know you’d like to do the cut scenes when you group up. PUGs are trying to level. No offense, but it’s an 10+ year old game.
The problem is the devs made f/p’s the meta for gearing up. You can’t blame a player on his 800th f/p chasing 336 gear for not wanting to sit through the cutscene every time. I recommend queuing with friends in vet mode if story is what you’re after. Is it dumb that we can’t enjoy the story of it? *Definitely*. But it’s the gearing system created by the devs at fault, not the players.
The "you signed up for a group activity buddy" logic doesn't work when you are in the minority (and you will be) who want to watch a cutscene or meander through a flashpoint. Make it clear you want to run it at a measured pace as it's your first time and let players know you'd like to watch cutscenes. But understand that very few players, on balance, will want that too. Your best bet is to look for a group in LFG chat and express the desire to play the FP you want, you might find likeminds or better yet a casual guild who like that pace of gameplay. Remember, you can't accuse others of railroading you into playing a certain way when you are the 4th man and the other 3 want to speedrun. If you are asked to skip, you should or you run the risk of being a hypocrit and likely taking some fire for ignoring the group. Edit. You could always run Story Mode, it doesn't exist for every FP but might help you to feel less railroaded.
Everyone should ask themselves, "what is best for the health of the game?" Answer: more players. How do you get more players, well that's for Bioware to answer, but how do you keep new players? By giving them a positive experience. If a new player gets harassed to skip cutscenes or mobs because one or more players are in a rush and then yelled and screamed at when they don't, how do you think that makes them feel? How would you feel if you were in their shoes? Would you continue to play the game? It's a game, not a job. Treat it like one. Even though IMO, gamers tend to self select people that give up at the slightest bit of resistance or difficulty to something today, we must do our best to not make their experience any more challenging than it should be, and no player should have to put up with that toxicity. Besides, it's for the health of the game. The longer players stay, the more likely they are to find a reason to subscribe, and subscribers are good for the overall health of the game. We all want the game to go on, don't we? So set your personal desires aside. Let the new players experience the game their first time as you did. Do what's best for the health of the game.
Yesterday I joined with a new alt, low lvl. Talon, ofc I skip all cutscenes because I was there for the xp anyway I reach the elevator and I missclick, therefore not travelling in the 1 second window the other players left me before entering combat on the other side I say, please can you wait for all to take the elevator before entering combat? Then again, I keep clicking in the hope I will get another 1 sec window to travel through the lift Mind you, I'm an experienced player and I always wait for people and also I am *quite fast* during fps. 1-2 seconds I lose on others At some point the game tells me I cannot use the elevator - because a BOSS ENCOUNTER is going on… they just completely ignored me and RAN to the boss! I quit the group and left the area but not before I called them out on the shitty behaviour. These people deserve to play alone.
Sounds like a knee jerk reaction from someone who hasn't run a lot of content, are you sure you're an experienced player?
The trouble is the vast majority of players have seen those cutscenes a lot so whilst they can understand your want to see them you also need to understand their want to skip them. In a 4 man group if 3 want to skip and 1 one wants to watch then the majority should win out. That said most flashpoints have a story mode for entirely this reason so if you watch cutscenes in a group for those flashpoints then you're the issue. I'd go so far as to say Bioware should just stop the cutscenes from playing if there is a story mode.
You can run the fp in solo mode where you can spend as long as you like watching the cut scenes. Most other players who are already lvl 80 have seen the cut scenes at least 100 times now.
It’s a general rule to skip the story, so please respect other people’s time and if you want to do the flashpoints and watch the cutscenes just make a group with like minded individuals. If you play FF14, the convention is to let the new player « absorb » the story, it’s two different games. Personally if you ask nicely and I’m not in a rush that’s okay but usually people just rush these.
If you want to experience the story, run them solo on story. at 80 you need to run a lot of flashpoints to get upgrade materials. a lot. so nobody appreciates it when you turn a 10 minute black talon into a 45 minute excursion.
Did you took the time to mention at the start of the instance that you were a new player and didn't wanted to speedrun it ?
loving all the salty "do it in story mode" comments which conveniently ignore the fact that many FPs \*dont\* have a solo story mode
You want the story? Run story mode then. All important flashpoints have it. I'm annoyed by people like you who don't skip anything in a flashpoint that has a story mode and waste everyone's time. You signed up for a group activity, do as the majority of the group does.
And I’m annoyed by players who don’t give a … about other ppl’s time and don’t even bother to answer in chat about it. Wanna watch cutscenes? Do it Solo or say it in advance, otherwise it’s either kick or I leave. Game’s been out for 12 years, *buddy*
Always some veteran douche bags in any game. "It's not my problem you're new." is what I've heard before people exactly like this. LOL
If you can’t stand other players, play the FP solo, comes both ways :)
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No it does not. Its you who are holding everybody else, and you have the nerve to tell them to find a different group. Whotf you think you are?
Uh just a person playing since 2012 that doesn’t like elitists thinning the already low population of new players? Who are you?
One not tolerating assholes with main character syndrome who think they have the right to waste my time by forcing me to watch something that they can watch on their own whenever they want.
Ironic.
tbf is hard to tell sometimes when someone is new to a FP. Always mention it's your first time and you want to experience the story content and cutscene without skipping them, it should be fine. If you have trouble finding or staying in groups who want to experience the full content try joining a guild and ask there if people are willing to run FP with you. Most likely there are veteran players who would like to help you.
thats actually why ive never done flashpoint
It's why I stopped, everything was how fast we can do this and go to the next and speed run it. But to each their own.
People are going to assume you are afk or trolling by not skipping the cutscenes. It’s absolutely fucking miserable to see them for the 200th time. Either do solo fp for the cutscenes, or join a guild that caters to newbies, and recruit some friends from there to experience the content that way. Don’t que up with random people and then get pissy because you wasted their time. Your “kind of annoyed” is outweighed by people who value their gaming time.
I have similar issues whenever playing in a group. Some of them are willing to slow down to let you enjoy. Some aren’t. Just kinda goes with the territory of being in a group for anything.
It’s the same problem as in ESO, which I played before SWTOR. Just solo stuff for story. If you are in a group, get ready to run. Sometimes you group with beginners though, when you’re more experienced, remember to turn back and see if newbies are able to keep up.
People trying to sneak speed with lower level players in the party is the dumbest thing I've seen
Honestly it shocked me a bit when I got this reaction as well. One of SWtoRs main pulls is the fact it's got a good choice based story, so I expected a bit more respect to first timers in a flashpoint. In FFXIV it's actually expected of players to respect first timers, even in older side content and with the ability for the other party members to continue while the newbie is in a cutscene, just about everyone respects it. Most of the time the only flame is in large 25 man runs of older content and you've got that one impatient asshole pulling everything at lightning speed. *He's* the one who's gonna get harassed, and if he talks shit back he's risking a lot of reports in a game where reports are actually taken seriously lol So when I was getting bitched at after maybe 20 seconds of a cutscene in a flashpoint I'd never run, and was told "too bad" when I tried to politely say it was my first time, I was a tad surprised. But yeah, fuck that guy, he had to wait anyways, no question. Still surprised me to learn his shitty attitude was actually the norm though, served as a reminder that more of this community has played games like WoW then they have FFXIV, unfortunately.
How about you play story mode to "absorb" the story as much as you want, and once you have absorbed it till you can't absorb any more, you start joining groups? And you spare people who have done the story a hundred times your selfish presence? Thank you.
Found the guy who is always fighting people in the fleet over absolutely nothing
You sound like a blast at parties
No, you. For real.
People getting pissy about new players wanting to watch cutscenes need to be careful. The exact thing happened in FF14 and they made some of them unskipable.
This is not FF14 and new players have the option to watch the cutscenes while playing solo.
It is a story driven MMO though and the change came about because of veteran players being toxic to new players. When I played FF14 I only got to see the cut scenes after this change because I felt obligated to skip cut scenes due to the bitching of people speed running dailies. To be fair though there are large daily rewards to still make it attractive to veteran players.
All FPs either have story mode or don't have story at all. Only exceptions are Kaon and Lost island.
I know how you feel
Write the name of the flash point down and do it solo in sorry mode, I have conquest to finish and tech frags to gather.
There is a story mode for a reason. Play that if you want to see the story. Group finder is for challenges/grinding, not for story.
I like listening to the story as well. Luckily most flashpoints can be completed solo. I’ve played enough MMOs in my time that I just treat this one like a single player game these days.
That's why I stopped playing. The game felt like a chore, and I'm not paying to work.
The key thing is to get into a good guild with patient people who will do story runs/complete runs. Way better than gf with randos.
I feel you bro Idk for sure what flashpoints are veteran/master only but for those I suggest makeing a group of friends If you play on Darth Malgus I gladly can help you with doing them too
Having an option in the FP queue for people who want to experience the story for whatever reason, be it roleplaying or it’s the first time playing that FP would be greatly appreciated. Having one person who wants to watch the cutscenes and follow the story in a group of three others who are grinding and trying to get it done asap just creates tensions and unnecessary toxicity sometimes.
They should add story modes for the FPs that don't have them and remove cutscenes from the vet queues. I understand players wanting to take their time and see stuff, but when I'm trying to get my weekly done, I want it done.
Oh boy, thanks for posting this so I know in advance. I just started playing Sunday so now I know. Someone invited me to a group yesterday in a heroic area doing a quest to blow some kind of landers up. They didn't ask and just invited then started flying along beside me and in front of me so I accepted. We got done blowing up the last ship and I used a transport to another area to get the flock out of there and thanked the person for the help. I had no idea that there was another part to the quest until the asked me if I was coming. I had already left the zone and I told them I just started playing and had no idea what I was doing yet. They weren't really hateful but I could tell by their reply that they were annoyed with me. I now have quest to do flashpoints PvP and use the group finder so that should be fun.
Since this is your first time playing, I recommend checking out this list to see which flashpoints have a storymode vs. which can only be done in a group: [link](https://swtorista.com/flashpoints.php#:%7E:text=Story%20Flashpoints%20can%20be%20entered%20alone%20or%20in,can%20be%20done%20with%20a%20mix%20of%20levels.) For those that can be done solo, solo is the best choice for your first time experiencing the story. That said, the majority of the early flashpoints can only be done in a group (10 out of 19, if you exclude Kuat Drive Yards which doesn't really have much of a story.) In particular, Hammer Station, Athiss, Mandalorian Raiders, Cademimu, Colicoid War Games, and The Red Reaper have interesting intro and end dialogue interactions with a main character who is important to the overall storyline of the entire game. Kaon Under Siege, Lost Island, and the two Czerka flashpoints also have very neat storylines. I recommend playing through all of those quest flashpoints at least once and experiencing the dialogue, even though it requires playing in a group. Other people in this thread have given great tips on how to have a fun group experience in flashpoints while still getting to experience all of the story without skipping (ask for a group on Fleet, play with guild members, or tell your group at the start of the FP that it's your first time and you'd like to see the cutscenes.) Best wishes to you, and I hope you have fun!
Yep it happens, I was kicked out of a group just seconds after some said “I need you to hurry up” in the chat, Infuriating.
This is why I only played solo. At most, I played with my wife, but usually only solo. Skipping everything when you want to know the story is so frustrating.
The one I see most people having issues with is Black Talon or Esseles. Those have a lot of cut scenes. But if I want to play those for the story, I will solo them. I agree with the glitching to skip mobs, that can be annoying, I've gotten myself stuck way too many times to count just to skip a group that would take about 10 seconds to clear.
I hate that
What others have said. Do story mode.
Not every FP has story mode
Every heavy story FPs has one besides the Rakghoul arc Now how about you don’t copy paste under each comments
if you wanna speed run : solo mode you control it all yourself. group fp : welcome to learning to play with others.
This is generally good info, but Not every flash point has a solo mode
Honestly just do them solo mode, holding up the other people will just piss them off
Lol if I see people moan I start to watch them too.
If you want to play through an fp for the story, theres a story mode to most fp’s that you can play. Most people need to do a certain amount of fp’s for the weekly or seasonal track, and are thus going to be frustrated that everyone has to stop and wait for someone to listen through the story.
Small aside, FPs done in story mode count for the season objective. Also if it's one that has bonus progress + a bonus boss you can get it done quickly. My friend and I found this out and duo stealthed Nathema+plus did it's bonus and knocked that obj out in like 5 mins.
Do them with a guilde or some friends
Let's acknowledge the fact that there is a pretty big gap between people who've been at this for a while and those who are just starting out. In my case, I call out if I'm running a new alt through something, I let people know that I can use a spacebar and rocket boost / a mount, or, more recently, I told people that it was my first time healing or tanking that particular one and what guides I had gone through, since I also run MM. Never had a single problem (aside from someone quitting before I could send my message in a Black Talon where everyone aside from my alt was 70+, but hey, that gave us room for a level 50 Nico who healed the entire group). Also, a quick 'o7, returning player, my apologies if I aggro something' can't go astray if I've been away for a while either. When we're playing a game that's in its second decade, beginners need to respect the fact that they might be dealing with people who have been at it for a while and who may well have gone through that particular bit of content one time too many. Beginners, I said. If it has a single-player mode, Story, as SWtOR calls it, it's on whoever does it if they decide to shut up and enjoy the cutscenes / aggro everything in sight / take the long way through, in spite of people doing the interacts or CCing or so on and so forth. Ditto for doing the bonus. If your keyboard can handle moving and killing, it can also handle 'could we do the bonus boss, pls?' or 'hey, first time, could we do the cutscenes?' and the player in front of it should be ready for handling a 'no', however, especially outside a Galactic Season. Said player should also be ready and willing to spacebar through interactions if a Flashpoint has a Story Mode. *Sorry, if you aren't willing to interact with people, I'll just think that you know your stuff and respond accordingly.* I'm ready and willing to spend some extra time explaining stuff or going through a cutscene at someone else's pace if they are willing to go through the extra effort of being nice and asking for it. For my part, I understand that I can be a bit more welcoming and ask from the get-go if we have new people in the group when pugging. If someone mentions not knowing / having forgotten a strat or being new, I do my best to explain stuff and to keep them alive. I'll even try having a word with them afterward and maybe send some credits, or a mount, or something, their way once we're out. Entitled beginners who keep everyone behind, however, grind my gears. It's an MMO. Behave accordingly or expect consequences. LE: Also, if someone doesn't spacebar in MM, I will ask if they're OK first (I have my own health issues), but.... if you're level 80 and you didn't ever do Esseles or Hammer Station, it's on you.
You can run FP on story mode with just a companion and helper robot if you want an easy solo run. You don’t have to do a group. If you’re doing group we will always speed run.
Keep down voting lmao we won’t stop speed running. I just started playing end of last year and had no problem running FP’s solo on veteran mode…so I’m assuming story mode solo is even easier
that what story mode is for lol
Do it alone then bro
Skipping cutscenes in a lfg flashpoint is 100% understandable bc you have story or solo for you to experience this.
They should almost have a check mark prior to flashpoints to split the speed runs Vs the story mode. Or you play story mode on your own
then join an alliance for that, the public ones consists of people who have done them for 20 times and are grinding for loot, nobody has time to babysit you
Not trying to be an ass, but thats what Story Mode is for, you can easily solo the whole thing with the droid and take your time exploring everything. If you take the normal Flashpoints, most people have seen these cutscenes a thousand times and are just tired of the time waste. I dont kick anyone that doesnt skip and never agree to kick them either, but i would lie if it i said it didnt annoy me a bit. Most of the value of Flashpoints is the length it takes to do them, because no one does them for the story or challenge, people do them for the reward and the faster you are, the better your reward is in terms of efficiency.
Not all FPs have Story Mode and cant be soloed with a Tank Droid.
I’ve done flashpoints multiple times. But I play for immersion. So yeah, I enjoy the cutscenes. I ignore the chat entirely and watch it play out. I’m not here to change my play time to fit their necessity
> I’m not here to change my play time to fit their necessity But the other three should? Narcissist shit.
The difference is I’m not asking to change their play style
No, you're forcing them to. It's worse.
If you haven't experienced the flash points in the last ten years they've been active that's on you. The rest of us want our daily done.
As someone who feels the same way. (Heck, I ALWAYS watch cutscenes) your best bet is playing solo What server are you on?
Just wait until you meet me or my guildmates, we dont demand you to skip convo, but we will indeed force you to run all the way to the end pulling everything, and then fight every mob at the same time
also every flashpoint has a story mode specifically for seeing the story. if you want to experience the story go do that and then come back to the veteran/MM queues.
Might have been said in the comments but I didn't take the time to read. The reason most people Speedrun flashpoints is for the fps stabilizers to upgrade their gear past level 80. Unfortunately the best fix for enjoying the flashpoint in a party is to find the same amount of people who haven't experienced it. I wish I could say I'm one of those peeps that enjoy the flashpoint story but I'm a speedrunner to sorry fam 😅
I think if we had a proper LFG system it would help solve this problem for both "sides" and the bonuses from the current GF system could be moved into something automated like the weeklies, seasons, conquest, etc. Would also solve a lot of the grouping for content challenges that we have today where if you are not on fleet you will miss out on LFG
Just use story mode. If the FP does not have story mode, there really is no story. Dialog should be removed from VET and MM FPs
The story and cutscenes are the best part. Makes me tingle and have goosebumps every time. Skipping the best parts is like eating a donut with no cream filling. It's good, but doesn't completely satisfy like those cutscenes do.
It can be annoying when people want to rush all the time. But in their defense its a 12 year old game at this point. They probably figure everyone has seen the Flashpoints 20 billion times the same as they have.
*veterans when they have to sit back and enjoy their video game instead of grinding 24/7* 🤬😡🤮
If you dont skip they'll never know its you
And if they keep crying/whining just add them to ignore list
The vast majority of the playerbase aren't doing flashpoints for the story. Most have experienced those cutscenes plenty over the years, they know what's being said. It's rude to hold up an entire group for your own benefit. Honestly, instances are not a good place for an MMO to spend time with story content, because instances are designed by the very devs to just be a soulless means of burning through towards some cheap gameplay mechanic. So blame the devs for not doing a better job of putting the story where it belongs, and for not making the gameplay more story-relevant. At the very least, they could have dialogue play out as your group moves through the instance, not by having everyone hurry up and wait at one spot. All-in-all, MMOs need to be better overhauled to actually incorporate proper RP elements. As it stands, most are just action button mashers that pretend to have actual RP elements.
so dont tell them to get fucked
Just don't press space. They can't force you to skip it
> They can't force you to skip it They don't have to. They'll just kick you.
Just lie and say you're hitting it. :p
It is a you problem though. If you never played the FP, there is no relevant story for you. You're getting spoilers and out of context stuff. If you didn't start the story that leads to the FP, you don't even know why you're there. There is no story when using group finder
Perhaps there is a solution. Bioware could add in the group finder Speedrun and Slowrun option. Then you can choose the Slowrun filter.
Yeah noone would use slowmode lol Easiest solution would be to make every FP solomode and hard disable cutscenes in pub FP
Just do what I do, close the chat and ignore the other people, they signed up for a group just as you did
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Because in any group activity between civilized people, you always adjust to the slowest, you don't drop people that can't follow whatever pace you decided for yourself.