I will say nothing of the article but this: If ever Bio manages to stay true on the launch period of '11 Spring, how will they ever manage to bring about this huge monster of universe within just 12 months?!
I will say nothing of the article but this: If ever Bio manages to stay true on the launch period of '11 Spring, how will they ever manage to bring about this huge monster of universe within just 12 months?!
The same way Turbine included all of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings Online. Or Blizzard included all of Azeroth, Outland, the Emerald Dream, and the Twisting Nether at launch.
Hint: They won't. They'll focus on specific planets, because that's the only possible way. They already have 10 planets down and there's probably a few more that haven't been revealed yet. Isn't that enough?
The known galaxy is more than 100,000 light-years in diameter and consists of billions of star systems. Among these star systems, current estimates suggest there are more than one million inhabited worlds—many of them still unknown. At the current time, several planetary systems have been singled out for further study. It is on these worlds that analysts believe the future of the galaxy will be decided.
I will say nothing of the article but this: If ever Bio manages to stay true on the launch period of '11 Spring, how will they ever manage to bring about this huge monster of universe within just 12 months?!
The same way Turbine included all of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings Online. Or Blizzard included all of Azeroth, Outland, the Emerald Dream, and the Twisting Nether at launch.
Hint: They won't. They'll focus on specific planets, because that's the only possible way. They already have 10 planets down and there's probably a few more that haven't been revealed yet. Isn't that enough?
The known galaxy is more than 100,000 light-years in diameter and consists of billions of star systems. Among these star systems, current estimates suggest there are more than one million inhabited worlds—many of them still unknown. At the current time, several planetary systems have been singled out for further study. It is on these worlds that analysts believe the future of the galaxy will be decided.
Isn't that enough?
Sure is friend.. Still remains to see how they will piece all this together.
This writer needs to be replaced. I clicked on the link to this article expecting it something semi intelligent. This is just a ridiculous and invalid rant. This guy needs to find a new line of work.
The Clever Legion is Recruiting! www.clever-legion.com
This writer needs to be replaced. I clicked on the link to this article expecting it something semi intelligent. This is just a ridiculous and invalid rant. This guy needs to find a new line of work.
Well your post has as much strength as when I state your forum icon smells like a fetid rotten rat carcass.
I afraid Bioware will follow typical recipte "to make a MMORPG":
0. Always remember - we making MMO = Massive Multiplayer Online. Massive means - everyone should by it, ppl will not buy complicated game, make it easy. To advertise for hardcore games - shout about PvP, they like it.
1. Make 2 sides, dark & light. Almost same classes, just minor differences. Making different sides make it complicated for content balance. So avoid it at all cost. Two is enough for PvP. Do not need more - just waste of time.
2. Announce "cool PvP". If classes are unbalanced in 1 vs 1 call it "group oriented pvp". If you manage to dumb classes so much that "1 vs 1" is balanced - don't forget to scream about it on every corner.
3. Make a few classes with typical roles (healer, tank, like 2+ diffrent DPS). Do not make pure support classes, do not make too complex classes, make it easy, so a noob can play any class and will never be confused. Classes should not be played differently in solo and group. Never expect that players can think logically, just make it easy. If there are not enough "pure classes" just make hybrids between any two.
4. In combat players should be busy mushing buttons. So force them to hit attack buttons non stop. Don't forget to prevent macroing it. Making combat where players should watch situation, think and press buttons only when it really change something, not just to hit mob, is much harder for design. Avoid it.
It's easy to contiunue... :-(
If you disagree - pick any of "top" MMOs, released this year, or a few years ago, and check them against listed above rules. Do the game follow them or no?
There was a few exceptions.... but that was long ago :-(
I afraid Bioware will follow typical recipte "to make a MMORPG": 0. Always remember - we making MMO = Massive Multiplayer Online. Massive means - everyone should by it, ppl will not buy complicated game, make it easy. To advertise for hardcore games - shout about PvP, they like it. 1. Make 2 sides, dark & light. Almost same classes, just minor differences. Making different sides make it complicated for content balance. So avoid it at all cost. Two is enough for PvP. Do not need more - just waste of time. 2. Announce "cool PvP". If classes are unbalanced in 1 vs 1 call it "group oriented pvp". If you manage to dumb classes so much that "1 vs 1" is balanced - don't forget to scream about it on every corner. 3. Make a few classes with typical roles (healer, tank, like 2+ diffrent DPS). Do not make pure support classes, do not make too complex classes, make it easy, so a noob can play any class and will never be confused. Classes should not be played differently in solo and group. Never expect that players can think logically, just make it easy. If there are not enough "pure classes" just make hybrids between any two. 4. In combat players should be busy mushing buttons. So force them to hit attack buttons non stop. Don't forget to prevent macroing it. Making combat where players should watch situation, think and press buttons only when it really change something, not just to hit mob, is much harder for design. Avoid it. It's easy to contiunue... :-( If you disagree - pick any of "top" MMOs, released this year, or a few years ago, and check them against listed above rules. Do the game follow them or no? There was a few exceptions.... but that was long ago :-(
I think that one needs to establish that TOR will play and feel like KOTOR with an updated combat system but in multi player mode. The game will not be like traditional MMORPG's. It will not be a sandbox. It is not going to be the Star Wars saga of late. It will be story driven like Dragon Age or KOTOR. It will be a simplistic MMORPG. I would not expect the second coming from this game. I suggest downloading the UT III UDK and design the game you want to play. Some people will love TOR. And some people will hate it. Personally I think technology is 20 years away from what a star wars MMORPG should be. Either way I do feel strongly that BioWare will make a solid game in the Old Republic Time Era they are setting this game in. And it makes sense. Let it go. Eve is the Universe you are looking for when Incarna is released,
I read the article : good one. Grtz. Some thoughts: MMORPG's are not story tellers. So Bioware is on a difficult mission here. A challeging one.
LOTRO's doing a pretty good job of preserving story and canon, creating a hero's path for each individual to solo which converge on group quests/raids. And this is (dare I say) not Turbine's forte.
If Turbine can do what they did with LOTRO, I have hopes that Bioware, with their *multiple* awesome story games, can do at least as well. I am more worried about the game mechanics.
I've found more replay value in Dragon Age than I did in KOTOR -- if they can even approach that sort of branchiness, I'll probably be collecting alts...! (how unSWGish)
MMORPG.com's resident Star Wars aficionado Michael Bitton writes this article expressing some of the concerns that he, as a major Star Wars geek, has about the upcoming Bioware MMO.
Will it resemble Star Wars? For me, games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed are absolute blasphemy. If you enjoyed that game, most of what I’ll be saying here might very well go over your head. The mantra throughout the game’s development was “kicking ass with The Force.” Each and every time I read this rattled off in an interview or heard it in a video, I could only react by shaking my head or facepalming. Watching the main character yank a Star Destroyer out of the sky using The Force really sealed the deal for me never wanting to touch the game.
Playing: *sigh* back to WoW -------- Waiting for: SW:TOR, APB, WoD --------- Played and loved: Eve and WoW -------- Played and hated: WoW:WotLK, Warhammer, every single F2P
As I stated in my previous post on this thread, anyone who thought that there would only be one Force Wielder per faction after playing KOTOR was really kidding themselves. It was totally obvious that there would be more than one per faction.
The similarity in looks technologywise is explained by the Star Wars galaxy reaching a technological plateau. KOTOR had it's own look, but it still looked like the movies in some ways. This helped people identify with it. Same thing here with SW:TOR, although I do agree with the writer a little as BioWare seems to be nodding more towards the movies in SW:TOR than they did in KOTOR. For example the Republic Trooper armour looking more like Stormtrooper or Clonetrooper armour than the armour worn by either the Republic Soldiers or Sith Troppers in KOTOR.
As for Jedi Consulars and Sith Inquisitors being healbots - wrong again. They will have heals available to them and they will be able to improve on these healing powers by investing in that direction if they so wish. However, both of these classes also have offensive force powers (especially the S.I.) and are also required to melee with their sabers. There was even an article written about the Sith Inquisitor that explained that you could go down a more melee focused route with them and they would play like an acrobatic, lightly armoured melee/martial arts expert ala Darth Maul.
Other classes will also be able to heal, in fact the Smuggler if he goes down the Scoundrel route instead of the Gunslinger route will be just as capable at healing as Jedi Consular.
The author trying to pigeon-hole the classes into a holy trinity, healer, tanker, dpser traditional setup is just flat out wrong. The classes are not designed that way. Sure, you could roll a Jedi Consular and spend a lot of your points in healing and just run in groups and sit back and heal all day, but what fun would that be?
[Mod edit]
MMORPG History: Playing - EVE Online. Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion. Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9). Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
You definitely bring up some good points there. I myself like to consider myself a huge SW fan and there's some games that have been made (SW TFU for example) that absolutely disgust me in the way that they are preformed. Some of them just don't fit the Star Wars feel, or story like they should.
However, and please understand that this is just my opinion (however strongly opinionated I am), BioWare has yet to produce a game that I didn't absolutely fall in love with. In my opinion, they are the best at RPG's out there, especially when it comes to story; And, when they made the first KotOR, I think it was pure genius. Personally I think it was one of the best Star Wars games to ever launch. Personally, I think that this game has great potential to be a grand success, and I think that they are taking care to make sure to stick with the Star Wars feel that we know and love.
I really don' t think that it's going to be a disappointment at all in any way. I could end up wrong, but like I said, BioWare has never failed at making an excellent game. It's definitely a "ballsy" move, but with the gaming industry now depending so heavily on MMO's I think it's a smart move, as long as they take their time and do it right.
I guess my concerns are different than the ones in the article, however, i do understand his troubles.
Force Unleashed in particular, i enjoyed the game, i even played it to the end - for the supposed devout thats use to conservative force tossing here and there with a ballet of saber dueling, the game would just feel alien to them, and rightfully so.
Cringe if you must... Unleashed was about kicking ass with the force, period, they took a aspect of the game and amplified 5 times over. yet i myself was drawn to the game due to finishing up both KOTOR 1 and 2, hearing stories of great sith and jedi warriors using the force in unnatural, unconventional ways... Force Tornado anyone? draining the life from everything living being with in its radius?. with force unleashed, it was a attempt to add character to the force which they did going by reviews of various gaming sources-- yet despite the praise from me and those that have played and enjoyed the game-
Jedi Academy is still top dog... and in comparison, makes Force Unleashed feel like Harry potter with a glow stick ( saber combat as a after thought in that game)
Alright Digress time!
One thing is for certain, i know what to expect from Bioware, in whatever way shape or form it will be a game that we will recognize as "hey, this is a bioware game" and go from there.
However.
I am curious, very curious of how SWTOR will be structured?
I will not kid myself to think this is a mild concern, far too many times there are customers who are turned off when said MMO's leans too close to a 25 cent arcade game.
My only fear with this title is that EA will impose too many restrictions and unreasonable goals on the Bioware team. Bioware are beyond a doubt the best studio in existence for creating story driven games but EA's influence can clearly be seen in their latest title ME2, which has been dumbed down and aimed more at the FPS crowd to the detriment of it's RPG roots. If anyone can ruin a game EA can.
Originally posted by Perkunas Originally posted by Dostya There are those of us who don't give a **** about if it Follows the six movie storyline and just want something that lets us into Star Wars again
There's six movies? Are you sure? Somebody was trying to tell me they made a sequel to The Matrix the other day, but I didn't believe him.
ROFL! And here I thought there were only 2 real SW movies .
They say that right before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. That's true, even for a blind man. ^DareDevil^
Originally posted by Michael Bitton How about the lack of a third faction?.
So true, it somehow laked in SWG and was the success factor in Dark Age of Camelot's RvR, we all (but the suits) know that.
Consistency guys. You want Bioware to follow the magic codex, but don't blink an eye at *inventing* an entire 3rd faction in this time period which is clearly dominated by the Jedi/Sith war...? Please.
They say that right before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. That's true, even for a blind man. ^DareDevil^
Have to disagree with this post. Clearly you did not play WAR very much because the pvp was horrendous to say the least, two factions does NOT make good pvp. It has been proven time and time again. Even if the classes were balanced it would not have saved it.
Soon as they announced classes I knew this game was going to be 2nd rate. Oh it will probably be fun to play, but it won't attract the long term crowd. This game is going to be just another wanna be.
I think that branding smugglers and bounty hunters in specific sides is a mistake. The game could surely support a third, criminal neutral faction. The war argument is bullshit. Switzerland anyone?
Edit - and I also think that the game automatically picking your side depending on class is bullshit too. Why cant we pick a initial faction and then switch later depending on our choices? What kind of star wars is this if jedi cant fall to the sith side and vice versa? And jedi falling to the dark side but still be part of the republic sounds absolutely stupid.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Have to disagree with this post. Clearly you did not play WAR very much because the pvp was horrendous to say the least, two factions does NOT make good pvp. It has been proven time and time again. Even if the classes were balanced it would not have saved it.
Soon as they announced classes I knew this game was going to be 2nd rate. Oh it will probably be fun to play, but it won't attract the long term crowd. This game is going to be just another wanna be.
First off, you have to agree 3 factions wouldn't make much sense in this setting. The third 'neutral' faction would only catch a fraction of the Sith / Jedi (Republic) players, because it doesn't have the force users and doesn't really participate in the whole war.
Secondly, it's not very clear why people seem to be convinced 3 factions solves the whole RvR / PvP issue.
The most frequent argument for it seems to be that it divides the population better and allows people to team up against the larger faction. But as I state above, I believe a third faction doesn't make sense and would only attract a mere fraction of the population, so this argument is kind of null.
There are also other ways to make sure one faction doesn't outnumber the other greatly, look at what Aion did: put a block on rolling one faction if a server begins to become unbalanced, it worked there anyhow.
I also agree with nightfallrob in that the problems with WAR weren't only population based, it was also the whole grind, the bugs, the unbalanced classes etc.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
So true, it somehow laked in SWG and was the success factor in Dark Age of Camelot's RvR, we all (but the suits) know that.
Consistency guys. You want Bioware to follow the magic codex, but don't blink an eye at *inventing* an entire 3rd faction in this time period which is clearly dominated by the Jedi/Sith war...? Please.
You know even in the darkest or lightest places there are grey areas as there are Jedi, Sith and force users walking the thin grey line.
The third faction could be simply about not being openly with either the Siths or the republic. I think that's what many players would look for.
Not only it would be consistent but more realistic and logic. In that period of time, planets weren't all aligned toward one or the other side and both factions spend huge resources to bring some of them to their side.
Separating classes between 2 factions was an error. But I can understand the marketing gurus saying how WoW is doing great with that model. Same guys saying being unable to communicate with the other faction gives players a deep sense of belonging to their own faction.
Why do so few people understand that this is not KotOR the MMO? It's an entirely different game. It's not supposed to just be about the jedi characters. If anything, they're a minor part of the Star Wars universe. It's like using Hollywood to describe the entirety of the USA. At least half of the criticism I read for this game is just about whether or not it will be like KotOR. And the other half is about whether it will be like WoW. Can we please look at the game by itself?
Force users are balanced with non force users. Leveling up will take place in a mostly solo environment. Once you get past those two points, the rest of the game looks pretty cool. There seems to be a wide range of locations. The classes have very different playstyles. On the whole, the game looks pretty solid. I only worry about how much community and group play there will be in the game. A big, online, dungeon crawler is fine, but I like my MMOs a little more MM.
Important facts: 1. Free to Play games are poorly made. 2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals. 3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE. 4. Community is more important than you think.
Honestly, you're all bickering about the wrong things. Gameplay and mechanics will make or break this game not that fact that the cannon lore is skewed.
This game will initially draw in many players but I seriously doubt they will retain any of the pre cu swg vets longer than a few months, and it will all boil down to being stuck in an iconic NGE-wow-type clone. Im sorry but theres way too much I see developing with this game that absolutely stinks of the NGE. I also see them trying to rip off more wow features as well. Yes they are trying to cater to the casual wow player. And yes it fkn sucks balls..
Jedi should be secret and un-lockable class.. ( something to play for) or I.E RETENTION...
skills vs class system is a no brainer.. Skill systems own any and all class and level system for the simple fact you're not locked into any particular role thus giving the illusion of freedom and realism. Another thing not being locked into a class system did was remove the need for a second and third or fourth character slots... So no alts... no hiding your identity.. You were unique and your conduct in game would eventually be known to all who played alongside you.. This whole deal of multiple character slots and crap that wow and eq2 have forced unto us promotes griefing and underhanded gameplay which would be eliminated with the 1 character slot skill system.
Yes I will play this game at launch but I have serious doubts it will retain my interest or my money much longer than 3-6 months.
I liked the idea of gaining rifle experience by using a rifle, or gaining 1 handed swords experience by using 1 handed swords.. Why isn't there more mainstream, well known IP's developed into games like this.. ffs.. Dont give us the masterpiece that was the original SWG skill system, then this pos-hacked-up-wow version of bioware story driven dog $hit... I mean look at the frigging UI in tor.. I seriously puked in my mouth when I saw NGE written all over that ui.. What a waste of resources LA/bioware.. I never did like bioware sw games.. Too much story and crappy mechanics..
I prefer logic over brutal assumptions. As such I am not that guy. I am however, a huge Star Wars fan... my attempt to prove this would only anger people, so I digress. I agree with the road they took of the four force users. This is something I predicted very early and I am very happy with. Also reading through the info revolving around this story (including the recent references made by Obi-wan in the Clone Wars series) I am actually quite pleased with how they are, in general, handling this game. I disagree that JC will get boxed into healing, and I am even more sure with this after recent play changes I have seen. Further more the JK and JC classes are so drastically different I don't think there would have been a reasonable way to combine their stories and then branched them off as specializations, I also believe that their current structure will allows them to add in more force wielding classes in the future, including non-jedi. Such as the Jal Shey and Krath cult members. I also think they are planning long term, not short term. BioWare tends to think ahead with their games, and I think they realize how they must release content over the years to keep up with the players. This isn't to say I don't have concerns, I do. But my concerns are quite a bit more in-depth then your worries about the style of building looking to much like the movies. And I believe in that regard, your worry is misplaced.
I am bit worn out these days, so I just say this poster said all I would have to say as well. Nothing the Op wrote really concerns me, like 4 force classes or armor or lightsaber styles. *shrug*
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I seem to have fallen into this magical fantasy land where SWG wasn't losing tons of subscribers before they even thought about the CU or NGE that these pseudointellectuals live in. Read some of the dev blogs and attempt to get over yourselves.
My word and world holds ground and is real Your word is like floods of poisoned water A language spoken with spit from different tongues More of my unwanted opinions
Comments
I will say nothing of the article but this: If ever Bio manages to stay true on the launch period of '11 Spring, how will they ever manage to bring about this huge monster of universe within just 12 months?!
http://www.youtube.com/user/chopgr?feature=mhee
"The Heavens burned, the stars
cried out
And under the ashes of infinity,
Hope, scarred and bleeding,
breathed its last."
The same way Turbine included all of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings Online. Or Blizzard included all of Azeroth, Outland, the Emerald Dream, and the Twisting Nether at launch.
Hint: They won't. They'll focus on specific planets, because that's the only possible way. They already have 10 planets down and there's probably a few more that haven't been revealed yet. Isn't that enough?
The known galaxy is more than 100,000 light-years in diameter and consists of billions of star systems. Among these star systems, current estimates suggest there are more than one million inhabited worlds—many of them still unknown. At the current time, several planetary systems have been singled out for further study. It is on these worlds that analysts believe the future of the galaxy will be decided.
Isn't that enough?
The same way Turbine included all of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings Online. Or Blizzard included all of Azeroth, Outland, the Emerald Dream, and the Twisting Nether at launch.
Hint: They won't. They'll focus on specific planets, because that's the only possible way. They already have 10 planets down and there's probably a few more that haven't been revealed yet. Isn't that enough?
The known galaxy is more than 100,000 light-years in diameter and consists of billions of star systems. Among these star systems, current estimates suggest there are more than one million inhabited worlds—many of them still unknown. At the current time, several planetary systems have been singled out for further study. It is on these worlds that analysts believe the future of the galaxy will be decided.
Isn't that enough?
Sure is friend.. Still remains to see how they will piece all this together.
http://www.youtube.com/user/chopgr?feature=mhee
"The Heavens burned, the stars
cried out
And under the ashes of infinity,
Hope, scarred and bleeding,
breathed its last."
This writer needs to be replaced. I clicked on the link to this article expecting it something semi intelligent. This is just a ridiculous and invalid rant. This guy needs to find a new line of work.
The Clever Legion is Recruiting! www.clever-legion.com
Well your post has as much strength as when I state your forum icon smells like a fetid rotten rat carcass.
I afraid Bioware will follow typical recipte "to make a MMORPG":
0. Always remember - we making MMO = Massive Multiplayer Online. Massive means - everyone should by it, ppl will not buy complicated game, make it easy. To advertise for hardcore games - shout about PvP, they like it.
1. Make 2 sides, dark & light. Almost same classes, just minor differences. Making different sides make it complicated for content balance. So avoid it at all cost. Two is enough for PvP. Do not need more - just waste of time.
2. Announce "cool PvP". If classes are unbalanced in 1 vs 1 call it "group oriented pvp". If you manage to dumb classes so much that "1 vs 1" is balanced - don't forget to scream about it on every corner.
3. Make a few classes with typical roles (healer, tank, like 2+ diffrent DPS). Do not make pure support classes, do not make too complex classes, make it easy, so a noob can play any class and will never be confused. Classes should not be played differently in solo and group. Never expect that players can think logically, just make it easy. If there are not enough "pure classes" just make hybrids between any two.
4. In combat players should be busy mushing buttons. So force them to hit attack buttons non stop. Don't forget to prevent macroing it. Making combat where players should watch situation, think and press buttons only when it really change something, not just to hit mob, is much harder for design. Avoid it.
It's easy to contiunue... :-(
If you disagree - pick any of "top" MMOs, released this year, or a few years ago, and check them against listed above rules. Do the game follow them or no?
There was a few exceptions.... but that was long ago :-(
A+
Exam passed.
I think that one needs to establish that TOR will play and feel like KOTOR with an updated combat system but in multi player mode. The game will not be like traditional MMORPG's. It will not be a sandbox. It is not going to be the Star Wars saga of late. It will be story driven like Dragon Age or KOTOR. It will be a simplistic MMORPG. I would not expect the second coming from this game. I suggest downloading the UT III UDK and design the game you want to play. Some people will love TOR. And some people will hate it. Personally I think technology is 20 years away from what a star wars MMORPG should be. Either way I do feel strongly that BioWare will make a solid game in the Old Republic Time Era they are setting this game in. And it makes sense. Let it go. Eve is the Universe you are looking for when Incarna is released,
LOTRO's doing a pretty good job of preserving story and canon, creating a hero's path for each individual to solo which converge on group quests/raids. And this is (dare I say) not Turbine's forte.
If Turbine can do what they did with LOTRO, I have hopes that Bioware, with their *multiple* awesome story games, can do at least as well. I am more worried about the game mechanics.
I've found more replay value in Dragon Age than I did in KOTOR -- if they can even approach that sort of branchiness, I'll probably be collecting alts...! (how unSWGish)
Shava
Read Some Concerns about The Old Republic.
1.) Play KotOR
2.) Be amazed
3.) ????
4.) PROFIT
Playing: *sigh* back to WoW
--------
Waiting for: SW:TOR, APB, WoD
---------
Played and loved: Eve and WoW
--------
Played and hated: WoW:WotLK, Warhammer, every single F2P
Too much rage.
Did not read.
As I stated in my previous post on this thread, anyone who thought that there would only be one Force Wielder per faction after playing KOTOR was really kidding themselves. It was totally obvious that there would be more than one per faction.
The similarity in looks technologywise is explained by the Star Wars galaxy reaching a technological plateau. KOTOR had it's own look, but it still looked like the movies in some ways. This helped people identify with it. Same thing here with SW:TOR, although I do agree with the writer a little as BioWare seems to be nodding more towards the movies in SW:TOR than they did in KOTOR. For example the Republic Trooper armour looking more like Stormtrooper or Clonetrooper armour than the armour worn by either the Republic Soldiers or Sith Troppers in KOTOR.
As for Jedi Consulars and Sith Inquisitors being healbots - wrong again. They will have heals available to them and they will be able to improve on these healing powers by investing in that direction if they so wish. However, both of these classes also have offensive force powers (especially the S.I.) and are also required to melee with their sabers. There was even an article written about the Sith Inquisitor that explained that you could go down a more melee focused route with them and they would play like an acrobatic, lightly armoured melee/martial arts expert ala Darth Maul.
Other classes will also be able to heal, in fact the Smuggler if he goes down the Scoundrel route instead of the Gunslinger route will be just as capable at healing as Jedi Consular.
The author trying to pigeon-hole the classes into a holy trinity, healer, tanker, dpser traditional setup is just flat out wrong. The classes are not designed that way. Sure, you could roll a Jedi Consular and spend a lot of your points in healing and just run in groups and sit back and heal all day, but what fun would that be?
[Mod edit]
MMORPG History:
Playing - EVE Online.
Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion.
Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9).
Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
You definitely bring up some good points there. I myself like to consider myself a huge SW fan and there's some games that have been made (SW TFU for example) that absolutely disgust me in the way that they are preformed. Some of them just don't fit the Star Wars feel, or story like they should.
However, and please understand that this is just my opinion (however strongly opinionated I am), BioWare has yet to produce a game that I didn't absolutely fall in love with. In my opinion, they are the best at RPG's out there, especially when it comes to story; And, when they made the first KotOR, I think it was pure genius. Personally I think it was one of the best Star Wars games to ever launch. Personally, I think that this game has great potential to be a grand success, and I think that they are taking care to make sure to stick with the Star Wars feel that we know and love.
I really don' t think that it's going to be a disappointment at all in any way. I could end up wrong, but like I said, BioWare has never failed at making an excellent game. It's definitely a "ballsy" move, but with the gaming industry now depending so heavily on MMO's I think it's a smart move, as long as they take their time and do it right.
I guess my concerns are different than the ones in the article, however, i do understand his troubles.
Force Unleashed in particular, i enjoyed the game, i even played it to the end - for the supposed devout thats use to conservative force tossing here and there with a ballet of saber dueling, the game would just feel alien to them, and rightfully so.
Cringe if you must... Unleashed was about kicking ass with the force, period, they took a aspect of the game and amplified 5 times over. yet i myself was drawn to the game due to finishing up both KOTOR 1 and 2, hearing stories of great sith and jedi warriors using the force in unnatural, unconventional ways... Force Tornado anyone? draining the life from everything living being with in its radius?. with force unleashed, it was a attempt to add character to the force which they did going by reviews of various gaming sources-- yet despite the praise from me and those that have played and enjoyed the game-
Jedi Academy is still top dog... and in comparison, makes Force Unleashed feel like Harry potter with a glow stick ( saber combat as a after thought in that game)
Alright Digress time!
One thing is for certain, i know what to expect from Bioware, in whatever way shape or form it will be a game that we will recognize as "hey, this is a bioware game" and go from there.
However.
I am curious, very curious of how SWTOR will be structured?
Persistant world?, zoned areas?...or Instance Heavy?
I will not kid myself to think this is a mild concern, far too many times there are customers who are turned off when said MMO's leans too close to a 25 cent arcade game.
My only fear with this title is that EA will impose too many restrictions and unreasonable goals on the Bioware team. Bioware are beyond a doubt the best studio in existence for creating story driven games but EA's influence can clearly be seen in their latest title ME2, which has been dumbed down and aimed more at the FPS crowd to the detriment of it's RPG roots. If anyone can ruin a game EA can.
ROFL! And here I thought there were only 2 real SW movies
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They say that right before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. That's true, even for a blind man. ^DareDevil^
Consistency guys. You want Bioware to follow the magic codex, but don't blink an eye at *inventing* an entire 3rd faction in this time period which is clearly dominated by the Jedi/Sith war...? Please.
They say that right before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. That's true, even for a blind man. ^DareDevil^
Have to disagree with this post. Clearly you did not play WAR very much because the pvp was horrendous to say the least, two factions does NOT make good pvp. It has been proven time and time again. Even if the classes were balanced it would not have saved it.
Soon as they announced classes I knew this game was going to be 2nd rate. Oh it will probably be fun to play, but it won't attract the long term crowd. This game is going to be just another wanna be.
I think that branding smugglers and bounty hunters in specific sides is a mistake. The game could surely support a third, criminal neutral faction. The war argument is bullshit. Switzerland anyone?
Edit - and I also think that the game automatically picking your side depending on class is bullshit too. Why cant we pick a initial faction and then switch later depending on our choices? What kind of star wars is this if jedi cant fall to the sith side and vice versa? And jedi falling to the dark side but still be part of the republic sounds absolutely stupid.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
Have to disagree with this post. Clearly you did not play WAR very much because the pvp was horrendous to say the least, two factions does NOT make good pvp. It has been proven time and time again. Even if the classes were balanced it would not have saved it.
Soon as they announced classes I knew this game was going to be 2nd rate. Oh it will probably be fun to play, but it won't attract the long term crowd. This game is going to be just another wanna be.
First off, you have to agree 3 factions wouldn't make much sense in this setting. The third 'neutral' faction would only catch a fraction of the Sith / Jedi (Republic) players, because it doesn't have the force users and doesn't really participate in the whole war.
Secondly, it's not very clear why people seem to be convinced 3 factions solves the whole RvR / PvP issue.
The most frequent argument for it seems to be that it divides the population better and allows people to team up against the larger faction. But as I state above, I believe a third faction doesn't make sense and would only attract a mere fraction of the population, so this argument is kind of null.
There are also other ways to make sure one faction doesn't outnumber the other greatly, look at what Aion did: put a block on rolling one faction if a server begins to become unbalanced, it worked there anyhow.
I also agree with nightfallrob in that the problems with WAR weren't only population based, it was also the whole grind, the bugs, the unbalanced classes etc.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Consistency guys. You want Bioware to follow the magic codex, but don't blink an eye at *inventing* an entire 3rd faction in this time period which is clearly dominated by the Jedi/Sith war...? Please.
You know even in the darkest or lightest places there are grey areas as there are Jedi, Sith and force users walking the thin grey line.
The third faction could be simply about not being openly with either the Siths or the republic. I think that's what many players would look for.
Not only it would be consistent but more realistic and logic. In that period of time, planets weren't all aligned toward one or the other side and both factions spend huge resources to bring some of them to their side.
Separating classes between 2 factions was an error. But I can understand the marketing gurus saying how WoW is doing great with that model. Same guys saying being unable to communicate with the other faction gives players a deep sense of belonging to their own faction.
Why do so few people understand that this is not KotOR the MMO? It's an entirely different game. It's not supposed to just be about the jedi characters. If anything, they're a minor part of the Star Wars universe. It's like using Hollywood to describe the entirety of the USA. At least half of the criticism I read for this game is just about whether or not it will be like KotOR. And the other half is about whether it will be like WoW. Can we please look at the game by itself?
Force users are balanced with non force users. Leveling up will take place in a mostly solo environment. Once you get past those two points, the rest of the game looks pretty cool. There seems to be a wide range of locations. The classes have very different playstyles. On the whole, the game looks pretty solid. I only worry about how much community and group play there will be in the game. A big, online, dungeon crawler is fine, but I like my MMOs a little more MM.
Important facts:
1. Free to Play games are poorly made.
2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals.
3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE.
4. Community is more important than you think.
Honestly, you're all bickering about the wrong things. Gameplay and mechanics will make or break this game not that fact that the cannon lore is skewed.
This game will initially draw in many players but I seriously doubt they will retain any of the pre cu swg vets longer than a few months, and it will all boil down to being stuck in an iconic NGE-wow-type clone. Im sorry but theres way too much I see developing with this game that absolutely stinks of the NGE. I also see them trying to rip off more wow features as well. Yes they are trying to cater to the casual wow player. And yes it fkn sucks balls..
Jedi should be secret and un-lockable class.. ( something to play for) or I.E RETENTION...
skills vs class system is a no brainer.. Skill systems own any and all class and level system for the simple fact you're not locked into any particular role thus giving the illusion of freedom and realism. Another thing not being locked into a class system did was remove the need for a second and third or fourth character slots... So no alts... no hiding your identity.. You were unique and your conduct in game would eventually be known to all who played alongside you.. This whole deal of multiple character slots and crap that wow and eq2 have forced unto us promotes griefing and underhanded gameplay which would be eliminated with the 1 character slot skill system.
Yes I will play this game at launch but I have serious doubts it will retain my interest or my money much longer than 3-6 months.
I liked the idea of gaining rifle experience by using a rifle, or gaining 1 handed swords experience by using 1 handed swords.. Why isn't there more mainstream, well known IP's developed into games like this.. ffs.. Dont give us the masterpiece that was the original SWG skill system, then this pos-hacked-up-wow version of bioware story driven dog $hit... I mean look at the frigging UI in tor.. I seriously puked in my mouth when I saw NGE written all over that ui.. What a waste of resources LA/bioware.. I never did like bioware sw games.. Too much story and crappy mechanics..
I am bit worn out these days, so I just say this poster said all I would have to say as well. Nothing the Op wrote really concerns me, like 4 force classes or armor or lightsaber styles. *shrug*
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I seem to have fallen into this magical fantasy land where SWG wasn't losing tons of subscribers before they even thought about the CU or NGE that these pseudointellectuals live in. Read some of the dev blogs and attempt to get over yourselves.
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