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James Ohlen posts about "What's next for TOR"
james Ohlen has posted about the future of TOR. now isnt really anything new that wasn't said in the recent interviews he did but thought i would share
What’s next for The Old Republic
Welcome to Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. It’s been many years in the making and the team is very proud of what we’ve achieved. Since we’re an online game we are going to continue building on the game for years to come. You can count on us to diligently expand the game and service to surprise and delight you. We’re going to not only respond to your feedback, but also hopefully exceed your expectations on how Star Wars: The Old Republic will evolve over time.
Many of you helped make the game what it is today by participating in our testing programs. You’ve watched the game grow over the past year and have been very vocal about things you’d like to see in the game in the future.
A team is never finished building a massively multiplayer game, so we’d like to take this opportunity to reveal a little information on what the team is working on for patches coming in the near future. Our priorities have been, and will continue to be, based off of the feedback we receive from our players.
New Content – We will be adding new content to the galaxy on an ongoing basis. These worlds will include Operations, Flashpoints and solo content.
Guild Functionality – Guilds are important to the long term health of any MMORPG. We have a huge list of guild centric features. This will be an ongoing effort that will probably never end. Guild banks are the first thing we’ll be delivering in our plans for increased guild functionality. Eventually we even want to deliver on the promise of the long hinted at “Guild Capital Ships”.
UI customization – You like choice. We hear you! SWTOR is all about choice. Being able to choose how you interact with an online game is something we feel is very important. We are going to be giving more control over the UI as an ongoing effort. This is a very big priority for us.
PvP – We have an entire team dedicated to adding content and features to player vs. player. We have some of the most experienced PvP developers in the world on this team. So far very few people have seen, or know much about the stunning Open World PVP on Ilum; when you get to the high levels prepare to be blown away! In addition to that high level PVP content, expect new Warzones and new PvP features on a regular basis.
Space Combat – We will continue to add missions to the space game. We also have a special project going on right now that will expand space gameplay in a significant way... for now the details will have to remain under wraps.
Legacy System – The ability to select a surname for your character is just the start of something much bigger. Soon, the Legacy experience and levels you earn will grant your characters access to powers, objects and other cool benefits.
And more – We have an entire team of developers working on future content. Right now we are focused on nothing else but Star Wars: The Old Republic, so expect new and cool things.
It is fair to say that we’re just as excited as you are about the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not only are we launching one of the largest and most impressive games ever created, but we’re also excited about the prospect of continuing to work on the game so that you, the fans, will always have something heroic and amazing to enjoy. Thanks for playing.
James Ohlen
Game Director
Comments
I hopes it is awesome!
We have, we have, we have....promise, promise, promise. Time is up...what you see is what you get. Do not bet on futures. It never works out, and this kind of false anticipation just ends in tears.
Just be happy the game launched.
BW has a clean slate when it comes to mmo's. I believe him and will trust anyone once. Dont let us down BW
I don't think you've ever played an MMO. Developers are allowed to add stuff to the game after launch.
Good point. WoW was Blizzards first MMO and see where it went. Maybe Bioware can do the same if they keep to the straight and narrow and don't behave like an jaded old MMO developer.
They do good work, I have never witnessed them lie to me yet about anything. I am sure we will happy with the results, just dont quote me on that
Well to add to this if you look at the recent disappointing MMOs from the past few years most were launched be established MMO devs.
I don't know much about Rifts devv company but I do believe Rift was there first MMO and has done better then most.
See the trend? Let me know if I am wrong.
Well this is one reason why SWTOR is on the back burner for me,i've never stated i hated it but at this moment in time i'm not to bothered,but as Bioware have very deep pockets and a lot of talent,some where in the future an announcement may sway me to buy it.
One aspect that killed it for me was space combat,if they introduce total freeform play then i think i would be in like flint so these little tid bits of info are intriuging but i need to see something solid as cash is tight these days,so picking my Mo's from solid facts haveing been burned before on hearsay alone.
Unfortunately history tells us that "miracle" patches never exist, and the developers always, always, always...say that they plan on doing and this and that, and that reality is always, always different from what is said and done. So it is better to not get ones hopes up and the players of SWToR should be greatful the game is actually up and running...and they are not dealing with this...
WoW Queue Dance
Um there have been fantastic patches/updates to several MMOs.
In any event people seem pretty happy with it as it is and launch is going smooth.
so.. IN YA FACE!
Well, I'm not sure if you are just playing the bad guy, as I have seen most of your posts be rather neutral. I'm not sure why you would bring up a "miracle" patch, anyone who has played SWTOR would know it really doesn't need one. The fundamentals are there, there is a solid foundation which to build from, which is what BW is refering to when they are looking to the future.
This isn't Mortal Online, Darkfall, or even Age of Conan. Steady content, and solid work is all that is needed for the first 6 months. Obviously there is no promise that things wont just fall apart once everyone hits the cap, but again, this isn't Age of Conan.
~ ~
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Yeah, there is a big difference between a miracle patch (which isn't needed), and a mention of things they are working on that will be added.
^This.^
Miracle patches are for games like Tabula Rasa and Age of Conan, maybe Darkfall. Not... the smoothest launch MMO in existence.
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While I obviously would not expect a specific date, I would like to get some sort of target timeline of when these things might appear.
Basically, is this stuff we can expect to see in 3 months, 6 months, next year?
I think they won't do that because the game is not released yet. I think they will do some hardcore bug fixing over the next month or so. Lots of people, lots of emergency fixes, and such. Things and priorities might change once more people get high level, and then it sucks to have promises.
People start crying when a deadline or even hint of a deadline is not meant. Just look at this debacle. There is no end to the people who are crying over everything.
List is very conservative. I like it. Not very special. UI will probably come first. Along with Guild Banks. Probably a Operation here and there.
Guild Capital Ships + Space(open space) is probably first expansion(Return of the Space Gungans). Too big to be meaningful. I don't think the ships will go by itself. Would be strange.
Legacy system is really what I am questioning. How will it expand? What is the deal with that, and when?
OMG He never promised us a rose garden!
But yeah, this is echooing exactly what he said in the IGN interview; no reason to doubt their intentions on this list I just hope that their hush-hush space-game content will be free, open and challenging enough, for both PVE and PVP and that they completely break away from the space-on-rails concept.
Group based pve on rails (gunners, pilots, all in one ship) or space warzones would be fun but that won't cut it for me; really hoping on free roaming, exploration, mining and "world" pvp content in an open space format.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Will they add more to the world to make it more immersive - more ambient sounds, critters, NPC's walking around and conversing? What about the atrocious combat animations - they still are terrible from beta...Jedi's sliding when attacking at a wrong angle or trying to attack while moving...it just looks bad. Will they add high res textures( and fix terrible ones like the desert texture of Tatooine - that still looks bad)? What about adding non-combat skills to players skill trees? Will players ever be able to customize their ships? What about allowing others onboard your ship during space mssions to man turrets? See where I am going with this?
Yep sign me up for that please DarkPony, that would be great to see.
Yeah your going down Nitpick Lane into Obsession Street with that.
My brand new bloggity blog.
honestly i wouldnt get your hopes up for full open travel from planet to planet by acutally flying kind of space. i think at most it will be battlefront 2 space type pvp areas. and not even sure it would be that big
another interview with james on whats next, this time with massively
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12/14/massively-exclusive-the-force-ghosts-of-past-present-and-futu/
Besides the story elements, what other kinds of benefits will be coming from the legacy system that you can talk about?
It's a system by which all the characters that are a part of your legacy family gain the benefits of that family. As you level up that legacy family, you're going to have to choose. It's going to be something you're going to have to tailor to the kind of legacy you want. Some of those benefits will involve the itemization system. Some of those benefits will involve the combat system abilities. Some of the benefits will change how character creation works. That's just some of them. I believe people will be very excited when more information comes out about that.
I've got some quick questions about ideas that at you guys have said could eventually be in the game. How soon will we see these? First: grey morality and associated benefits.
That should be coming pretty soon. We already have plans in for that. We have a system for it. The system had some issues, so we had to delay it. On a scale of, let's say, very soon, soon, sometime, and really late, I'd say soon. Not very soon, but soon.
How about sitting in your chairs other than your ship?
It's hard to say on that one. That one may be an easier one. That may be one we can do soon or very soon. It involves content changes but pretty safe content changes. That's another thing -- a lot of this stuff that we do will be based on the feedback that we will be getting from people. If people are demanding more chairs, then we will up the priority on that one. The chairs on the ship was kind of our prototype, but it came in late. I know chair-sitting should be complex, but we didn't wanna go around and touch every level.
Ship customization?
Ship customization (being able to add things to the interior of your ship) probably falls between soon and sometime. It's something that's pretty important. Let's say not as soon as the grey morality thing because it's a little bit of a bigger feature, and we want to introduce it properly.
Here's a fun one: What about guild ships?
That's probably later. That's kind of like the dream for the guild team to get to work on guild ships. But first they have to get the basics: the stuff that guilds are clamoring for, such as guild banks and leveling. That's the dream. There are a lot of fans of it. It's not going to be very soon or soon because when we introduce it, we want it to be really cool. We want it to easily fit into the game. We have to be careful when we unveil the system to make sure that it complements the current socializing in the game rather than detract from it.
Implied by some to be a detractor, I still find much of this news to be pretty effin' cool. Guild Capital ships? Fuck yeah! I'm also really interested to see what they have in store for PvP and Space Combat, but I could also see how people would be looking at this list with some degree of skepticism.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
I chose to have access by friday.
If you don't like a game don't play it, and quit running to MMORPG.com to trash it.
It all sounds pretty good. I hope they have a seperate team to roll out fluff for their item shop. I know this is a sensitive issue for many, but i would have no problem purchasing 'vanity' items if they appealed to me and if they were reasonably priced. Any any money they make could be rolled into game development or more fluff for people like me who like...fluffy games
Legacy system sounds very interesting. Cant wait to hear more. Guild ships would be awesome. Guild banks should have been in at launch but sounds like its coming very soon so that's good. Sitting or not sitting in chairs is not ground breaking but it does make the game feel more interactable and less of a static set piece.
I really hope they game does well. I really hope they make a ton of money and pour it back into the game so we all have something fun to play for years to come.
Who is nitpicking, come on, you actually think the sand texture on tatooine is good? Seriously? It is boring, the ripples that make up the texture are way to big...have you ever been to dunes before? Why is there no sand blowing or even sand moving from something moving on it? Do you really think the sliding of melee characters across the ground looks OK? It is 2011 and that kinda thing happened in games pre-2003. How is adding immersive things a bad thing? So you do not care to see critters, or NPC's actually moving and or conversing? Ship customiztion...so the interior of the ship will remain sterile. The least the can do is allow us to customize the interiors a bit. There is so many little things in this game that are either poorly done or not done at all...and yet peopel say this is a step forward in this genre? Where? ...it makes the world you play in seem lifeless and dead. How is that a good thing? And no that is not nitpicking...most MMO's even bad ones have critters and ambient sounds...some places in SW:ToR have nothing - just dead silence.