Every Good Adventurer Deserves a Travel Companion...
The gameplay in the first ten levels serves as a tutorial and does a good job of familiarizing the player with the basics of gameplay, as well as providing a pretty good feel for the state of war between the Republic and the Imperials, as well as the Jedi and Sith's part in the conflict. OR, at least, enough to prepare you for what lies ahead. Around the time that you get past the tenth level, an NPC known as a "Companion Character" will join your party (or, in this case, your "Crew"). Over time, you will gain additional Companions, until you have a crew of at least five, but by that time, you'll also have your own starship and be able to travel from planet to planet... or so I've read.
Even with just one Companion, however, you will find that they can be great assistance in fights, helping to distract your enemies or just helping to whittle them down; since there's no such thing as friendly fire, it never hurts to have a friend when blaster fire starts flying.
In addition to helping out in battles, however, Companions can serve more purposes. Specifically, they were designed to not only help you out in battles, but to assist you with other tasks that you might not want to do yourself. If you fill up your inventory but don't want to trek back to the nearest vendor to sell your loot, you can dispatch your Companion to take care of that task for you. They will take your items, making room in your inventory, and disappear for a bit, then, when done, will return to you. As you learn to craft items or to scavenge for raw materials (a set of skills you learn after reaching Level 10), you can assign these mundane tasks to your Crew members, as well. Further, they will continue to work on these tasks while you're outside of the game, so it makes sense to assign tasks to your Crew members right before you end a game session, so the next time you play (as long as enough time has gone by), those tasks will be complete.
Words Of Advice...
I was surprised to see the amount of out-of-channel interaction that the folks at
The Old Republic provide. For one, there's an online Player Guide that does a pretty good job of showcasing anything you need to know to get you going in the game. There's also the
Holonet, an online encyclopedia for all things
Star Wars: The Old Republic on their website. However, the thing I found really interesting was that, upon reaching level 10, I received an email advising me on what to do next. After level 10, you can choose a specialization, which is a further refinement of your class. My primary character, Geck'o, for example, was a Mirialan Smuggler. When I chose a specialization, I had the option of either choosing to become a Gunslinger or a Scoundrel. Although the Scoundrel's field-medic abilities did have its allure, I chose to become a Gunslinger because I'd been trying to figure out how to get their dual-wielding ability since I first saw a character using two blasters at once. The email was a nice touch; I felt that it was a little hand-holding, but it mainly pointed me to the Player's Guide's Advanced Play section, and I investigated the things that interested me once I got there.
