SW: The Old Republic MMO

[Uxi]

That trooper is more of a badass than Anakin and Windu both which were defeated by force lightning.

Did he get his hand chopped off first?

[one_klump]

I'm definately looking forward to this game mainly for the playability factor, the graphics could have been better and it would be nice if some of it gets improved but oh well. I dont play MMO's that often and was wondering how secure the game will be to play? Can I expect someone walking up with a hacked/juiced up character that will take my stuff in a blink of an eye or have a combat round cheated combat values switched? Do they do a good job of policing stuff like that or will it just be an eventual free for all?

Even if you make a character on a PVP server, you won't lose any gear to someone that kills you. That MMO model has pretty much gone the way of the dodo (except EVE Online). You will never have to worry that someone you are fighting is using any hacks, because the system will be server based, the client will not be able to be altered to, say, one shot kill random people.

[Zor Primus]

Couldn't find this thread in my original search...anyways here's what I said:

The short short version. Yes, this game will soon dominate my life.

Who else is taking the plunge with me?

The Return

I'm also zorprimus on the swtor forums, look me up!

Probably going to roll a Jedi Sentinel first, get used to the game and as a second roll a Sith Inquisitor for complete pwnage.

Was really hoping for a release date @ E3 but looks like thats not going to happen. Want this game out already!

[Mog]

The Return

Hmm, are they going backwards in time with these trailers? The latest being the earliest, the Alderaan one being somewhere in the middle, and the fall of the Jedi Temple happenning a few years before this so-called cold war starts?

Regarding the above trailer, just before the unmasking, I was wondering whether that was Revan weilding the double-saber. Guess, I was wrong.

Thanks for the link!

[CoryHolmes]

Yeah, that's what they're doing. The trailers were released in reverse chronological order, setting up the stage for something much like the Prequels. For example, the soldier in Return is the same one starring in Hope. That also explains some backstory between Satele Shan's duel with Malgus in Hope, given that he'd killed her master in Return. It's also been suggested that the Twi-lik the smuggler was ogling turned out to be Malgus' wife in Deceived.

Also, I second the notion that this game will take over my life. Fortunatly, it should come out before ME3 so hopefully I'll break the TOR hold long enough for ME3, then jump right back into the fold. Dust 514 will also figure somewhere in this picture...

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Wait does Revan even show up in the new one?

[Mog]

Wait does Revan even show up in the new one?

Genetically speaking, yes .

. . . Assuming the rumors and speculation are true about a certain character that's shown up on these trailers.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Genetically speaking, yes .

. . . Assuming the rumors and speculation are true about a certain character that's shown up on these trailers.

I might not play it so please spoil it for me!

[Mog]

PM'ed you the "not that big of a potential spoiler" info, Shin.

Getting back to the last two cinematic trailers though, if they ever do a live-action movie/series set in the KOTOR era, I could see Olivia Wilde portraying Satele.

The similarities are almost uncanny, especially after watching the Hope trailer again.

Edited June 8, 2011 by Mog

[David Hingtgen]

Renamed topic, as the old one was technically wrong.

[Knight26]

Genetically speaking, yes .

. . . Assuming the rumors and speculation are true about a certain character that's shown up on these trailers.

I'm curious about this too since I do not play MMOs, period!

[Zor Primus]

I know that the space side of the game is not "focal" and hence isn't getting allot of love by the devs at this time. However, for the game to succeed you have to have space. As failed and flawed as SWG is, the space aspect of the game is right on imo.

[Chewie]

It wouldn't be a spoiler at all.

It's not that type of game.

[Zor Primus]

E3 Gamplay Vid

Graphics look really nice. Gameplay seemed pretty smooth.

1) Found it odd that the excuse for a short and stubby vehicle was the space it would take in a city to have a full size speeder.

2)I had to hear it a few times to be sure, but when he talked about inventory he said "you have to pay for more slots". That'd better be in game creds and not real money purchases.

3) Vehicle summoning inside an instance +1

[CoryHolmes]

I know that the space side of the game is not "focal" and hence isn't getting allot of love by the devs at this time. However, for the game to succeed you have to have space. As failed and flawed as SWG is, the space aspect of the game is right on imo.

It has space combat as a rail-shooter.

[Warmaker]

E3 Gamplay Vid

2)I had to hear it a few times to be sure, but when he talked about inventory he said "you have to pay for more slots". That'd better be in game creds and not real money purchases.

Welcome to the new era of MMORPG gaming. Where companies strip bits of basic features from a game that you bought full price and / or pay a subscription for, and on top of it, sell to you again those basic features.

Microtransactions is the name of the game these days in the genre. Considering Blizzard works for Activision, it doesn't surprise me.

[CoryHolmes]

I truely hope TOR isn't powered by microtransactions. That's the one thing, the only thing, that stands in my path of playing this game.

[Zor Primus]

Welcome to the new era of MMORPG gaming. Where companies strip bits of basic features from a game that you bought full price and / or pay a subscription for, and on top of it, sell to you again those basic features.

Microtransactions is the name of the game these days in the genre. Considering Blizzard works for Activision, it doesn't surprise me.

I'm a guildie with a beta tester and while he cannot say much, he hinted enough to debunk this theory.

[eugimon]

I truely hope TOR isn't powered by microtransactions. That's the one thing, the only thing, that stands in my path of playing this game.

I hope it is a microtransaction game. You pay 50 bucks and get to play for free. Pay for extra stuff that isn't essential to playing or completing the story component.

I'm MUCH more cool with that model then paying a monthly subscription

[CoryHolmes]

I'm against microtransactions because it encourages to buy their way to a decent character instead of working for it. And that just takes all the fun away from things for me.

[eugimon]

I'm against microtransactions because it encourages to buy their way to a decent character instead of working for it. And that just takes all the fun away from things for me.

it depends on what's for sale. Uber weapons and gear, obviously that's not right. But I don't mind for cosmetic stuff or variants of standard gear, etc.

[Ghost Train]

I used to be strongly against micro-transactions and a believer of "you get what you put into the game." However, this has been tempered by the realities of real-life time constraints and human behavior. People are going to buy online currency from farmers to get ahead, irrespective of threats, violations of TOS, etc, they're just going to do it period. It's better for the game publishers to have control over some aspects of enhanced gear and items from microtransactions themselves.

I remember the days in Final Fantasy XI (~2005-ish), gil-sellers literally wrecked the in-game economy to the point where you had to buy their currency in order to do anything in-game. This of course induced a lot of in-game racism directed towards anyone suspected of being Chinese. There were organized Japanese and English speaking parties enacting a digital form of ethnic cleansing, whereby they would MPK (since there is no open pvp in FFXI, this is the technique whereby you'd pull a whole crap load of monsters near the person you want to harass) anyone suspected of being a farmer (even if it was just an honest player farming for Gil). The chat screen was filled with stuff like, "Go back to China and eat cat," and other forms of tasteless comments.

In conclusion - publishers should take charge of their economy and in-game world before it spirals out of control, microtransactions is one way to do it.

[Knight26]

Back on a Star War Topic. This trailer once again illustrates one of my biggest beefs with Star Wars, technological stasis. This game takes place what 1000 years before the movies and yet the tech level looks the same if not higher, and the Jedi/Sith more powerful as well. What gives folks, is that the pinnacle of technology, why can't they at least try and make the stuff look more low tech in some way, big bulky power packs, oversized equipment, etc...

[Dynaman]

Back on a Star War Topic. This trailer once again illustrates one of my biggest beefs with Star Wars, technological stasis. This game takes place what 1000 years before the movies and yet the tech level looks the same if not higher, and the Jedi/Sith more powerful as well. What gives folks, is that the pinnacle of technology, why can't they at least try and make the stuff look more low tech in some way, big bulky power packs, oversized equipment, etc...

The Star Wars universe is ripe for a "Fall of Rome" type situation, the endless wars between the Sith and the Jedi causing periodic technological dark ages. Think of it like "The Long Night" from traveller.

[jwasko]

This trailer once again illustrates one of my biggest beefs with Star Wars, technological stasis. This game takes place what 1000 years before the movies and yet the tech level looks the same if not higher, What gives folks, is that the pinnacle of technology, why can't they at least try and make the stuff look more low tech in some way, big bulky power packs, oversized equipment, etc...

It's actually ~3500 years before the movies. And they actually did make stuff look old-fashioned/low tech in the comic series "Tales of the Jedi"...which took place around the same era or sometime before.

I think, at this point, it's that the people involved with Star Wars realize everyone loves "classic" Star Wars ships, Mandalorians, and troopers. Hence we get funny-looking Star Destroyers, TIEs with slightly different wings, clone trooper look-alikes, and all bounty hunters own a set of Mandalorian armor.

and the Jedi/Sith more powerful as well.

That part I actually like for some reason. Unlike technology, which is often lost only when it is replaced with a better/more efficient/cooler technology, the Force is reliant on the passage of knowledge from teacher to student. If that chain is somehow broken, that power/ability is lost.

In all, it seems consistent with magic in fantasy stories: Usually there's some ancient magical art which no one knows how to perform anymore (except maybe one guy, who is the key to defeating the bad guy).

[Dynaman]

It's actually ~3500 years before the movies. And they actually did make stuff look old-fashioned/low tech in the comic series "Tales of the Jedi"...which took place around the same era or sometime before.

Hence the term, periodic. It took a good 1000 years to truly recover from the fall or Rome as well. (that is simplyfying things alot of course, things were not quite as terrible in the dark ages as they are made out to be)

I think, at this point, it's that the people involved with Star Wars realize everyone loves "classic" Star Wars ships, Mandalorians, and troopers. Hence we get funny-looking Star Destroyers, TIEs with slightly different wings, clone trooper look-alikes, and all bounty hunters own a set of Mandalorian armor.

Now you are just being a realist, of all the nerve...

[Chewie]

Bear with me on this, it's been a long time since I(think I) read it, but I'm pretty sure it's stated somewhere that hyperspace travel was the last technological jump in the Star Wars universe.

Once they got that, they were done as far as anymore advancements. As far as I can tell from any of the post OT EU is they just got things to be smaller, not "better."

Jwasko hit it on the head with Jedi and Sith being more powerful. With as many times as they've all but wiped each other out, something has to be lost in translation. Look at he differences in power/skill between Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Palapatine and Yoda compared to Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade, Corran Horn, the twins and even Anakin Solo. I also seem to recall even the 7 forms being lost for until Luke discovered them on some Holocron somewhere 20 some odd years ABY.

[eugimon]

Well, to be fair. In the books and comics, set post RotJ, Luke is pretty damn skilled and powerful. He crunches at-at's with the force, manipulates matter on a near atomic level, is pretty much unmatched when it comes to the lightsaber, and is easily able to learn new force powers from a variety of different sources.

Even in the movies, when you consider that Luke starts studying the Force really late in life (for a jedi) and how he really only trains with yoda for a short time... it's pretty remarkable just how powerful he became. Especially when we watch ep 2 and 3 and see fully trained Jedi Knights being cut down left and right in situations that Luke in RotJ would have been able to handle pretty easily.

[Chronocidal]

Sadly, microtransactions are pretty much here to stay, they're just far too profitable for companies to ignore. Even if it does piss off a good number of people and convince them not to play along, they'll make up the losses by people with money to burn who absolutely must have that vintage Starsky and Hutch edition speeder, completely with a set of Jedi Ray-Bans.

I was really looking forward to this actually, until I saw a gameplay clip. I really just can't deal with this type of combat system. So many people use it, either out of simplicity (real easy to program attack animations if you have a standard pose that never changes), or because it worked for WoW, but the way it adapts old turn based rpg battle to real time just looks dumb to me. There are so many other ways to make a game, I wish people would get more creative.

I guess overall, I just don't care for anything that I can use a macro system in. To me, that becomes roughly, "Press A to win battle."

Plus, there's the disconnect between seeing my lightsaber slice through someone's head, only to see in giant red letters, "MISS." I realize that's a carryover from old rpg systems, but I guess it just seems incredibly counter-intuitive to me to make games that way, when it's entirely possible to make a real time combat system. When there are so many games where I can aim a weapon manually, I have a hard time letting a random number generator decide whether or not my shot hits my target.

Eh, but what can I say, I'm a bit of a control freak.

[azrael]

Well, now that Escapist isn't being DDoS'd, I figure this is good for a laugh.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/3538-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic

[Duke Togo]

Sadly, microtransactions are pretty much here to stay, they're just far too profitable for companies to ignore.

And not a single one of you going on and on about this has any evidence there will be any in SWTOR.

Go discuss it here: All Things Video Games Thread: II

[Zor Primus]

And not a single one of you going on and on about this has any evidence there will be any in SWTOR.

Go discuss it here: All Things Video Games Thread: II

QFE, I dropped a hinted hint from a beta tester on this as well.

Now back on topic:

UPDATED] High-Scale TOR Beta To Begin End Of June?

This morning on a conference call for William Blair & Company, a Chicago-based investment firm, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello made some interesting remarks in regards to the current and future Game Testing phase of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Riccitiello noted that a “high scale beta” test of The Old Republic would begin in late June, following that statement up with “the release date would be dependent on the results” of this testing phase.

Now, it’s not clear what “high-scale” means, specifically, and we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions about anything like a public beta, or anything of that sort. But at the very least, we hope it means many more Game Testing invites will be hitting our inboxes.

The conference call is still ongoing (though it covers much beyond EA) and you can listen to it here. It’s possible it will be available later as an audio recording, and we’ll link to it then if that’s the case.

Stay tuned as we work to find our more about this breaking news for The Old Republic!

[uPDATE] We checked with BioWare, and no further comment is available at this time, other than testing is “ongoing.”

[uPDATE #2] The full transcript of the call is now available. A very sloppy transcript.

[uPDATE #3] BioWare Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid made a post on the official forums regarding John Riccitiello’s comments from earlier this morning:

Take a deep breath, everyone…

Game Testing is currently ongoing for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This isn’t news – it’s been ongoing for quite a while. At different points in the process, we have invited a number of people to test. Some of those people tested for short periods, some for longer periods.

We’ve recently transitioned into longer-term and larger-scale testing. We have more people testing the game now than ever before. We are allowing them to play for longer than ever before. We’re also continuing to invite people to test, so if you haven’t signed up for testing yet – now is a good time.

We will be allowing more and more people to test The Old Republic before launch, and that means occasionally we’ll spike in our invite numbers. It doesn’t mean everyone who’s signed up for testing is going to be invited in one block.

What we’re doing now, essentially, is similar to a ‘Closed Beta’ for other MMORPGs, but we call it Game Testing. It’s invite-only, and it’s limited in size. That gives us the most ‘bang for our buck’ in terms of getting meaningful, actionable feedback. However, we’re still ramping up, we’re getting more people in… and we’re still aiming to launch in 2011.

[jwasko]

Even in the movies, when you consider that Luke starts studying the Force really late in life (for a jedi) and how he really only trains with yoda for a short time... it's pretty remarkable just how powerful he became.

Yeah...but the Force runs strong in his family.

[Duke Togo]

UPDATED] High-Scale TOR Beta To Begin End Of June?

Yeah, unfortunately they've already gone on the record that there will be no open beta because the player demand would be too large for the beta server.

[Zor Primus]

Bounty Hunter Progression

BH Progression

Decisions, decisions...