By John Walker on June 3rd, 2009 at 7:12 am.
A new class for BioWare’s forthcoming Star Wars MMO was revealed today: the Smuggler. Described by BioWare as, “The Han Solo fantasy,” the Smuggler is a ranged fighter who makes cunning use of a freshly revealed cover system. More details, plus a reaction to our seeing some fantastic battles, below.
The thing I want to report most of all is just how bloody beautiful the game looks. Stylised, it’s one of a number of games around at the moment that appears to have taken its inspiration from concept art. SWTOR’s world looks as if it were created with a watercolour paintbrush. The vistas of the Smuggler’s lush world, or the barren wastes in which a Bounty Hunter stalked, were just breathtaking. Not just because of the sheer volume of detail, but the artistry with which it’s presented. It’s pretty special.
But back to that new class. The Smuggler has his Han Solo-style blaster pistol, and lacking any heavy armour, is reliant on more tactical, stealthy play. This is realised through a cover system unlike any other MMO. When approaching trees, rocks, buildings, and so on, a crude faint green blocky figure appears, indicating places the player can lock into to take the cover. This is apparently not unique to the Smuggler, but certainly won’t be available to all classes. It was quick-n-simple, letting the blaster fire be aimed at multiple enemies easily and with more safety. Of course, the Smuggler needs to be able to do something if the enemy gets too close, and one of his melee options was revealed today: he can kick a baddie in the groin, then shoot him in the head. Nice.
Once again the emphasis could not have been more firmly stated as being on story. And once again, we were shown a ton of really awesome looking battles. The ddifference between BioWare’s claims for the power of the narrative in The Old Republic, and what’s being shown, is always a little disjointed. But it’s understandable. When you’ve got a game that can present battles that look quite so stunning as those shown in LucasArts’ Jedi temple today (no, really, they’ve build a faux-stone Jedi temple in the corner of a small upstairs room of the LA Convention Center), you can see why they’d not want to demo you someone having an extensive chat with an NPC, no matter how emotional the consequences.
However, it’s important to report that we were shown an important choice moment. The game’s dialogue is 100% voiced – a first for an MMO, and a task too gargantuan to bear thinking about – so decisions aren’t as simple as dismissing a screen of text. Decent actors delivering their pleas always add significance. We were shown a level in which a Sith and a Bounty Hunter had fought their way to the bridge of a Republic ship. Killing the captain was a choice put into our hands, and of course the vote went with his death. Sith, after all. The consequences of this action are apparently far reaching, and in this instance led to a tremendous space battle going on outside the window.
There’s no going back on moments like that. Saving that captain’s life would have taken the plot in a whole other direction, and it’s one the bloodthirsty player would never know without playing the game over again from the start. No saving and reloading in an MMO. Quite how such moments are handled when played in a party is not being divulged just yet, but we’re assured it’s all worked out.
Leading up to this decision was a quite remarkable fight. SWTOR is designed to let you fight two, three or four enemies at once without certain doom. The fight for the bridge saw the Sith player perform some really splendid moves to take out multiple targets, including a Force Jump that let him target enemies on the other side of the sizeable level, and leap into them, lightsabre slashing as he landed. Force Choke also provided a grisly ending for a tough Jedi enemy, who had been impressively weakened by the Bounty Hunter who set him on fire with his flamethrower. He was now hovering in midair on his jetpack, taking pot shots. Good times.
The emphasis on story means there’s also a strong focus on morality. Whether you’re Republic or Sith, you can still be a bastard (I have been promised that there will be plenty of opportunities to make some completely horrendous decisions) or a do-gooder. And with Dark and Light come unique abilities unavailable to those who fail to be as lovely or as evil as you. At one point the Sith character had a bar on screen explaining that he was “channelling hatred”. Ooh.
SWTOR boasts a bunch of firsts. As mentioned, it’s the first MMO to have every line recorded. It’s also the first MMO to offer conversation choices (although I think there’s a couple of others in development that are planning the same). And it’s the first MMO that will have a truly unique experience depending upon which side you take. BioWare were keen to once again point out there’s not a single quest common to the Sith and the Republic. When asked why they’re not making Knights of the Republic 3, their reply is that this is it, and it’s KotOR 4, 5, 6 and 7 as well.
03/06/2009 at 07:21 Tei says:
“The game’s dialogue is 100% voiced”
To what language? I only speak spanish. Or maybe is too soon to ask that.
03/06/2009 at 07:22 Devan says:
Fascinating. I think this may be my top choice of the classes presented so far. They’ve been pretty good at building the anticipation, and I really hope they can pull this off.
03/06/2009 at 07:23 CryingTheAnnualKingo says:
These screens make me feel a little better about the art style than the first batch they showed a while back.
I think its pretty bonkers that BioWare licensed graphics tech from a completely unknown company (Simutronics’ Hero Engine) that has made and sustained text-based games for the past 15 years or so and hasn’t even released a graphics based game of note.
I’ll take this chance to add that Simutronics’ flagship text based MMORPG Gemstone 4 is still the best thing I’ve ever played in my life.
03/06/2009 at 07:34 Junch says:
EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
03/06/2009 at 07:49 c-Row says:
HAN Solo… he’s not a German.
03/06/2009 at 07:53 mr_monolith says:
What!? What is is this feeling i feel?What is THIS?!!
03/06/2009 at 07:57 Yfel says:
I could not be less excited about this game. Everything I’ve heard about it, from them “adding another pillar to MMO gaming through storytelling” to these 100% voiceovers, shows they’re absolutely clueless to what makes a good MMO game. People don’t even want to read quest logs, let alone listen to them. If they’re going to spend all that money on hiring voice actors, they must be lacking in actual game-content. How about they start by offering a meaningfull large world to explore, an interesting combat system, and a PvP system that provides log-in&play for any number of players instead.
03/06/2009 at 08:05 sfury says:
Who is this “Hans Solo” you’re talking about?
03/06/2009 at 08:08 nutterguy says:
@Yfel: WHAT?
Did you read the article above?
03/06/2009 at 08:10 John Walker says:
Yfel – you appear to have confused you with everyone else in the world.
Everyone else – shut up, it’s late. And be grateful I didn’t write “Hands”.
03/06/2009 at 08:14 nutterguy says:
Poor Mr. Walker. I hope E3 people are being nice to you!
Thanks for all the great info and that interview with Chet Fal… Valve person, that was great!
03/06/2009 at 08:16 Nexus says:
@Yfel Actually that’s what got me interested in this game in the first place. I don’t play MMOs but TOR looks like it’s going to feel pretty much like a singleplayer cRPG. And having in mind KOTOR this sounds really promising.
On the other hand the art design is awfully boring. Everything looks like a slightly modified version of stuff from movies, especially the prequels (that pseudo Vader being just one example). KOTOR created wonderful world that didn’t look like carbon copy of the movies but still managed to retain that unique Star Wars feel. Unfortunately, in case of TOR they still didn’t show anything I haven’t seen before. Yet I’m looking forward to this one – the fact that you don’t have to be a Jedi makes it really interesting (among other things).
03/06/2009 at 08:18 .backslash says:
@Yfel Darkfall is that way>>>
Godspeed.
03/06/2009 at 08:23 adg1034 says:
John Walker, you are dead to me.
EDIT: Never mind; carry on.
03/06/2009 at 08:36 NegativeZero says:
Alpha Protocol is an MMO?
03/06/2009 at 08:37 Deadend says:
Uhh, I don’t think Alpha Protocol is an MMO with dialog choices, what with it not being an MMO.
I can’t think of any MMOs that really gave real dialog options. Age of Conan had some, but from what I could see all options lead to the same thing except for Goodbye.
03/06/2009 at 08:45 John Walker says:
Sorry – brain fart. I didn’t mean Alpha Protocol, obviously. But I think there are a couple of MMOs in development that are planning on doing the choices. SWTOR is certainly the first to have announced it.
03/06/2009 at 08:56 Orange says:
People do not read the quest text in mmos because so much of it has been poorly written or just unnecessary filler. That and the quests themselves have been so often poorly connected and shallow. Why read a great big chunk of text when the only outcome is to kill 10 wolves, then 10 more wolves with a slightly different skin?
Old Republic can change that, the voicing will definitely help as it did in the early stages of Conan. It’s easier to be drawn into the game when its voiced. A higher quality of text and quests which are interesting and tied into it and an overarching story will help even more.
Also at least it’s trying something different, that in itself will draw people like me in, let alone all the Star Wars fans.
03/06/2009 at 09:09 pauleyc says:
“When asked why they’re not making Knights of the Republic 3, their reply is that this is it, and it’s KotOR 4, 5, 6 and 7 as well.”
The right answer would be that Obsidian is making a proper single-player KotOR 3. One can still hope…
03/06/2009 at 09:12 Solar says:
You know, I’m starting to get the innocent twitterings of fan-gasim. Stay on target Bioware, and don’t let Lucas touch this baby.
…I must not fear Lucas, Lucas it the mind killer, Lucas is the little death that will bring total oblivion…
03/06/2009 at 09:16 Ian says:
I for one want Walker to write a walkthrough of him being a horrendous bastard for hours on end when this comes out. We’ll break his spirit yet!
03/06/2009 at 09:20 Dan says:
Ace. I’m still being a bounty hunter though.
Jetpack > groin kick.
03/06/2009 at 09:26 MonktonGaz says:
I like the idea that this isn’t going to be a Wow clone where you can download a questhelper and skip the ‘boring’ story bits. Maybe the kids will stay away. The worst moment of my gaming life so far came when UO removed the age limit.
03/06/2009 at 09:27 Babs says:
@CryingTheAnnualKingo
Indeed, that is bonkers. On the otherhand, the HeroEngine (from the blurb on the site anyway) seems to have a similar concept to Eskil Steenberg’s LOVE tools. The rapid-prototyping with collaborative development model may well be the future, at least for MMO development.
03/06/2009 at 09:34 Nurdbot says:
Got to give points to Bioware for trying with the differences and morality with the Jedi and Sith.
Unlike another massive failure of a Star Wars mmo.
03/06/2009 at 09:40 Idle Threats & Bad Poetry says:
I feel like something inside me dies every time I hear about this game. Wasn’t KotOR suppose to happen thousands of years before the Star Wars movies? When, then, is everything so much the same! We even have Darth Vader and Han Solo counterparts, for Pete’s sake. Why has civilization advanced so little? :-S
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m taking it too seriously, I know. But if I can’t geek out about Star Wars, what can I geek out about?
03/06/2009 at 09:45 Bananaphone says:
Is this typical push-button-watch-animation MMO combat, or something a bit more exciting?
03/06/2009 at 09:49 CMaster says:
Erm what? That’s an odd thing to say. Neocron was FULL of dialog choices (amittedly none effected how missions turned out, but you did need to pick the right ones to get/complete a mission sometimes). An unamed MMO I am testing at the moment does. I thought dialog choices were normal in MMOs in fact (though I guess CoX didn’t)
03/06/2009 at 09:52 Crane says:
Well, given the descriptions of snapping to cover and the like, I’d assume it’s got a little more player involvement than normal, but IDK how much.
03/06/2009 at 10:13 Bobsy says:
Oh I forgot to mention: I take back what I was saying about Darth Vader yesterday – when I got home and watched the video more closely without panicking to see if my boss was watching, and now with sound, I don’t think the dude there was much of a Vader analogue. He was just a general sith guy. They’re all the same anyway.
But I maintain that Bioware aren’t being creative enough with the design of the universe. There’s no reason for Star Wars to be so stagnant.
03/06/2009 at 10:20 The Sombrero Kid says:
it’s important to rremember that in the star wars galaxy most of the aliens speak thier own language and so will be voiced and then subtitled i expect.
03/06/2009 at 10:20 Nimic says:
I’m starting to get pretty excited about this. For me, the perfect way this could turn out is if it could basically be played like a single player KotOR, just with 2 people (or more, even). I live with my cousin, and we’ll no doubt spend most of the time playing together. And I don’t see how anyone can find anything negative about voice acting. Isn’t it possible that their funding is just so good that they can add all the voice acting without compromising the quality of the rest of the game? Not all problems can be solved by throwing a lot of money at it.
And as someone who has played both WoW and AoC, there’s no doubt that quests in AoC were much more “involved” (that is, as are as there were any quests at all. So the later levels were quite empty, but the first 20 were brilliant). That is no doubt partly because of some decent voice acting.
03/06/2009 at 10:21 Legionary says:
@Yfel: actually what you’ve described as an ideal MMO is my nightmare of the worst direction BioWare could ever go. Gamers don’t need another WoW-clone. If you’re a fan of WoW then fine for you (I’m not and don’t enjoy it) but even if you think WoW is a good thing surely it’s important to innovate. I really enjoyed Neverwinter Nights, but I wouldn’t want every RPG ever made to attempt to emulate that game.
SWTOR really does sound like my dream game: an MMO where a strong singleplayer experience is strongly woven into the fabric of the game.
03/06/2009 at 10:30 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Sounds pretty good. Will keep an eye on this one. Cheers for the preview, rps
03/06/2009 at 10:33 Kauhanen says:
The combat system and end game content will make or break the game. All what their describing now is just fluff compared to the combat system and end game content.
03/06/2009 at 10:41 beetleboy says:
Idle threats etc – I’m thinking the same thing, but from another angle.. The first star wars movie came in ’77 – have we had so few original ideas since, that could work in that universe? As the saying goes, “Bad artists borrow, great artists steal”. So far, this all looks more like borrowing to me..
Other than that, I agree with Kauhanen – fancy trailers are fun, but what matters in the end is the gameplay, esp the end-game content. And to have a solo-play story-centered endgame sounds very un-MMO, in all honesty.. so remains to see what Bioware can come up with.
03/06/2009 at 10:50 The Sombrero Kid says:
I’m pretty sure there are more people who don’t play mmo’s who do, the ones who do put up with a hell of a lot, it’s not hard to improve thier experience, i’m sure bioware intend to, but for now i think they’re showing innovatinos to convert gamers who can’t bear to put up with the massive failings of the genre as a whole.
03/06/2009 at 11:03 Lobotomist says:
So nice. Except it is basically singleplayer game with monthly fee
03/06/2009 at 11:04 Rinox says:
/me wonders how the groin kick will work on other races whose nether regions may actually be middle, back, front, eye or upper regions.
I’d like to see anyone try kicking a Hutt in the balls.
03/06/2009 at 11:05 MonkeyMonster says:
Not that I venture much into the Star Wars universe but isn’t part of the point behind the “apparent” stagnation due to the Evil Empire classically not allowing new thoughts/progression (bar new funky weapons) in culture because new thoughts are bad and might lead to an overthrow? This is annoying sound good enough to even tempt me into playing my first mmo ever… As goody jedi that on occasion acts like a real cu…
03/06/2009 at 11:07 DSX says:
A groin kick? With thousands of alien species? What if it’s a Ballchinian???
Anyway… when can we see vids of in-engine stuff you saw??? *impatient*
03/06/2009 at 11:07 beetleboy says:
A lot can be done with MMOs, to be sure – it’s just that talking of gameplay being story-driven, solo-play-focused and companion-heavy – it sounds like a very backwards sort of cure. Hey, I mean – would freeway congestion be more fun in a horse and cart instead of a car? Mind you, better writing and voice-acting is something that I wouldn’t complain about – I’d love it. I just don’t see how it could fundamentally change leveling, end-game content, combat mechanics, etc – i.e. the bread and butter of MMOs. Yeah, more story, nice – but we still have 50/60/70 levels until we participate in the real game. Yeah, companions, but are they used creatively in the endgame? Etc..
03/06/2009 at 11:10 phil says:
If being sith means it will allow me to grind levels solely on the strength of murdering Ewoks, sith it willl be.
03/06/2009 at 11:14 woppin says:
They said they’re fixing Star Wars, so removing Ewoks would be step two, coming straight after removing the Gungans and before removing Hayden Christenson.
No Ewok grinding pls.
03/06/2009 at 11:26 Quests says:
@beetleboy: I see you purposedly didn’t consider the whole choices and consequences system impacting on the whole levelling progression, which is what Bioware’s are pretty much all about ever since kotor.
Which is odd, almost the entire article focuses on this concept.
03/06/2009 at 11:28 Xercies says:
Still unsure how the hell they can do choices in an MMO without fragmenting the playerbase, using instances, or just not changing very much. To be honest this sounds like Guild Wars Factions morality at the moment, where basically what changed was which mission you could do..nothing much else.
And also thats a stupid reason why your not making Kotor 3. and it does not address the actual issue.
03/06/2009 at 11:30 Rinox says:
Bobsy said:
He was just a general sith guy. They’re all the same anyway.
Racism alert!! Don’t worry though, I’m sure many of your friends are Sith.
@ making the decisions John mentioned while in a party…I guess it could be done through a simple voting system where every party member can choose an option and the majority wins, with the party leader’s vote breaking ex aequo votes if necessary. This could also be applied to conversation choices.
It could make for interesting interactions really, provided you have some people who actually like to play RPG’s (as opposed to grindkiddies) in your party…if you’re playing a blindlingly light side jedi and your party kills said captain by majority vote, do you stick it through? Try to convince your party members? Attack them? Bail? Coolio. Something tells me all this is better done with a group of friends than a random PUG though, kinda how L4D changes from good to awesome depending on who your fellow survivors are.
03/06/2009 at 11:31 Nallen says:
“Bring me 10 Ewok feet and save the village!”
Yeah hrm. Interested in this though. First MMO in a while I’ve liked the look of.
03/06/2009 at 11:34 El_MUERkO says:
Can you walk through people like WoW or are they solid like WAR?
I fecking hate that you can walk through people in WoW, it really breaks the immersion.
03/06/2009 at 11:41 Tom says:
This is looking awesome
03/06/2009 at 11:41 R. says:
Re. the lack of progression over 4000 years – think about it, guys. Once you have a galaxy spanning civilisation that can go faster than light and make laser swords, it’s not like there’s a lot else to advance to from there, is it? Surely there comes a point where you can’t help but hit a technological brick wall, where all the stories are written, all the songs are sung.
03/06/2009 at 11:49 Carra says:
Having to make choices with real consequences. I haven’t thought about having no save games to rely on before. No “let me try that, I’ll just reload when I make the wrong choice”.
And unique stories for all characters sounds too good to be true. Although everyone will want to try out a good & evil side.
I do wonder if the hyping hasn’t started too fast. The game won’t hit stores until over a year. Great expectations are made but will they be able to fill them in? I sure hope so.
03/06/2009 at 12:10 beetleboy says:
Quest – Choices with consequences is an interesting concept, to be sure. It’s been used to great effect in many single-player RPGs. Again, like the other things I mentioned (better writing/acting, etc) it’s certainly something I’d like to see, but that I do not really see the impact of in the core of a MMO – combat, leveling, endgame.. Or are we gonna have a raid team sitting around and having conversations including choices-with-consequences with a bunch of NPCs before going on to kill this weeks selection of raid bosses?
03/06/2009 at 12:30 Dexton says:
I am starting to get very excited about this, but like some of the other commentors the make and break of SWOR is going to be end game. End game meaning what you do when you finish levelling, will the story arc continue? will they end up with raids/pvp like most other mmos?
I would love to see the story arc continue after you have reached max level, but that would require frequent updates, something most other mmos have failed to deliver. People might buy the game based on the single player story arcs but they won’t renew their subscriptions for years on end unless there is something else to do.
03/06/2009 at 12:36 Noc says:
You know, the thought just occurred to me that while the whole “single player MMO” thing sounds a little questionable, if you think of it like a “Single player game with a persistent world and drop-in drop-out co-op,” then it makes a hell of a lot more sense and starts to sound significantly less dubious.
03/06/2009 at 12:51 toni says:
i wanna be able to wipe out all ewoks in the whole universe. that’s my personal grinding mission.
03/06/2009 at 13:00 Bobsy says:
Progression isn’t the problem – Star Wars is fantasy after all and it’s like asking why the characters in Lord of the Rings were still using swords over a 10,000 year period. But my beef with this is that they’re visually emulating everything far too closely. Star Destroyers, Tie Fighters, tri-wing shuttles, dropships and so forth.
03/06/2009 at 13:04 beetleboy says:
I’d even say it’s more a lack of progression in vision from 1977 to 2009.. where’s the new artistic ideas?
And lest I come off as a bag of gripes and nay-saying, this is the most exciting MMO that’s been on the horizon for ages (granted, not much in the way of competition, but still!), and I’ll buy it in a second. Even tho I already play several MMOs and it’s a fair slice of time to devote.
03/06/2009 at 13:19 M.P. says:
Yeah, the dialogue choices in Conan were mostly cosmetic, but I did always enjoy having a little backstory to every quest, it created the illusion that it was more than just “Kill X of Y for 10,000 XP”
I can’t think of another MMO that had proper branching storylines, although you do in effect have different progression choices in every game that gives you a choice between different areas for where to go and level up next.
03/06/2009 at 13:46 Sonic Goo says:
…but will he have an option to shoot first?
03/06/2009 at 14:22 Shoe says:
Is it just me or does that smuggler have six fingers?
03/06/2009 at 14:28 Barts says:
@ Hans Solo & Hands Solo
http://www.tshirthell.com/funny-shirts/han-job-han-solo-princess-leia/
03/06/2009 at 14:40 Meat Circus says:
I’m finally started to be rather excited by this.
03/06/2009 at 15:07 Dave says:
I think its pretty bonkers that BioWare licensed graphics tech from a completely unknown company (Simutronics’ Hero Engine) that has made and sustained text-based games for the past 15 years or so and hasn’t even released a graphics based game of note.
Hi there, I’m a HeroEngine developer at Simu, and former DragonRealms GM, and former former GemStone addict. :D
Anyway. It’s not even primarily “graphics tech”, but the entire back end, client/server communications, world-building tools and so on. When you talk to developers about their impression of HeroEngine, it’s the tools they get excited about.
We’re actually not that unknown in the industry, we’re just not a household name among gamers (except GemStone and DR players).
The original CyberStrike was released in something like 1992 (I’m working from memory here) and won a Game of the Year award from some magazine or other. CyberStrike II kind of fell over, sadly, but we aren’t all completely clueless about graphical games.
03/06/2009 at 15:23 Daniel says:
Drool. Is it 2010 yet?
03/06/2009 at 15:28 ilves says:
@Dave
I used to be a dragonrealms junkie… looove me some Simutronics. Are you guys ever actually going to release Hero’s Journey are you mostly selling off the engine?
03/06/2009 at 15:50 Jeremy says:
Wow, this sounds pretty amazing. If they can pull this off, it could open up a huge group of people to MMOs, myself included (never liked getting gear just so I could get better gear so that I could get even better gear). Adding story, meaningful choices and interesting combat could definitely change the game. It would actually be a game that could co-exist peacefully with WoW I think, and that in itself is a very intelligent business model.
03/06/2009 at 16:02 Comment system, what comment system? says:
“When asked why they’re not making Knights of the Republic 3, their reply is that this is it, and it’s KotOR 4, 5, 6 and 7 as well.”
No. No No No NO!
Alternatively:
No, that’s not true… that’s impossible!
03/06/2009 at 16:10 Houdini says:
@Dexton: Since each class will have its own story, plus a light side and dark side alternative to that story, they’re betting that players will want to experience each unique story as opposed to level up one character and wait for new endgame content, as in other MMOs.
What sounds most interesting to me right now is the idea that morality won’t just be pure good vs. evil based on the side you choose. I look forward to being a jedi Order member whose a real douche nozzle, like a cop gone bad or something.
03/06/2009 at 16:21 Rei Onryou says:
I still don’t 100% see how it will work as an MMO. Will it be like Guild Wars or do they have some inventive way of achieving awesome storytelling without instances?
03/06/2009 at 17:00 Ian says:
@ Meat Circus: When you say you’re “starting to get rather excited” I assume what you really mean is you’re preparing vast reserves of bile to spew all over it when it doesn’t include everything you’ve ever dreamed of and come with a free pony?
=)
03/06/2009 at 17:13 Nick says:
I hope it is like GW so I don’t get my story ruined by pricks.
03/06/2009 at 17:51 Azazel says:
A Smuggler class. That was as predictable as a really predictable thing. Or a *amazed face” Bounty Hunter class.
Um, I don’t really know what point I’m trying to make here.
Spaced moment:
“I’m Han.”
“Aw, can’t I be Han?”
“No.”
03/06/2009 at 18:03 Dave says:
@ ilves: the yellow flag is out for Hero’s Journey right now due to publisher negotiation stuff.
Meanwhile the HeroEngine team continues to chug along, and the game team is working on an unannounced new project (and is hiring a writer).
03/06/2009 at 18:22 Blast Hardcheese says:
@Rei
You don’t need instances for storytelling. They obviously have a workaround, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense and their “dynamic range of consequences” wouldn’t be very dynamic.
Or all the missions will be on ships.
03/06/2009 at 18:31 Tei says:
We must learn to love TOR for what it is, and ignore and pardon what is not. And maybe, only maybe, we will get some incredible quality enteirnamente with it.
I only have ONE problem, but is a big one. These “unattacable invulnerable” NPC’s. TOR smell like one of these games where guards are unatacable, and likeable aliens like the ewoks are unattacable. This to me break the inmersion and the fun.
03/06/2009 at 18:35 Tei says:
oops.. dbl post
03/06/2009 at 19:00 CryingTheAnnualKingo says:
@Dave
Nice to hear from you. I started playing Gemstone 3 over AOL in the late 90′s and played on and off for the next 6-7 years or so and always lamented the dwindling number of players. If people only realized how amazingly deep and expressive the game is…
It was such a pleasant surprise to hear about the deal with BioWare and I hope that Simu can finally emerge from obscurity and get the recognition it deserves.
Other note: Did Blizzard outright steal the Dwarven disease storyline from GS4 or is that just my imagination?
03/06/2009 at 19:17 A Delicate Balance says:
/me puts on flame-proof jacket
I think I must be the only person who has seen Return of the Jedi and doesn’t want to lead a holocaust against the Ewoks. I liked them.
03/06/2009 at 19:22 TariqOne says:
@Noc You know, the thought just occurred to me that while the whole “single player MMO” thing sounds a little questionable, if you think of it like a “Single player game with a persistent world and drop-in drop-out co-op,” then it makes a hell of a lot more sense and starts to sound significantly less dubious.
That’s been exactly my thinking. A KotOR with a persistent community you can play with friends sounds great to me.
I’ve pretty much soured on MMOs and gone back to single-player and co-op titles for a simple reason: utlimately most MMOs aren’t very good games. So if BioWare wants to put some more RPG in my MMORPG, I ain’t mad at all. It’s time we got away from the old model
03/06/2009 at 19:49 dozilla says:
Couldn’t be more excited for this.
Keep up the great PC news Mr. Walker, you’ve got the entire PC gaming universe on your shoulders!
03/06/2009 at 20:03 BrokenSymmetry says:
I’ve always played any MMORPG as a single-player RPG with co-op with friends. So if SW:TOR makes this kind of play its focus, all the better…
03/06/2009 at 21:03 Jeremy says:
My biggest problem with MMORPGs (WoW in particular, since that’s the one I’ve played) is that there is “hardcore” content. I don’t want access to the best items in the game, that’s no big deal, I don’t even deserve access since I’m not willing to put in the time. However, in spite of Blizzard’s admirable attempt to make all content accessible to all people, there is stuff that I simply won’t see because I’m not willing to spend 200 hours getting decked out in the gear required to either survive or be invited into the high end content. I don’t hate Blizzard for it, or WoW even, I just choose not to play it. If they were able to make a way for all content to be accessible for storyline purposes, I would pick it up and play again. Hopefully TOR makes that possible.
03/06/2009 at 21:22 Torgen says:
Just hope there’s captions for the hearing impaired such as myself.
03/06/2009 at 21:35 TooNu says:
“I hope it is like GW so I don’t get my story ruined by pricks.”
@ Nick
I couldn’t agree more.
04/06/2009 at 00:08 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
A game in which you actually have a choice? Haven’t seen that since pong. Those were some really difficult choices, shall I go up, or down? OOH, or maybe I should stand still!
04/06/2009 at 00:19 Sonic Goo says:
For those wondering about actual storyline that changes the world in MMOs: check out the phasing technology in World of Warcraft. Apply that everywhere throughout the game where possible and you’re pretty close to what you want. No instancing required.
04/06/2009 at 01:06 cjlr says:
…
I’ve got a bad feeling about this…
04/06/2009 at 01:29 Radiant says:
@c-Row
“HAN Solo… he’s not a German.”
So he’s Turkish?
ALSO!
@DSX
“A groin kick? With thousands of alien species? What if it’s a Ballchinian???”
Is not getting the respect it deserves!
04/06/2009 at 03:25 Shoe says:
Dude you guys made cyberstrike?
That was pretty awesome. Weird, but awesome.
Good times, back in the day.
never graduated above blood bursting rats in the sewer in Gemstone though :p
04/06/2009 at 12:38 ryan says:
@sonic goo: Stood in a grassy field, wondering what those thirty players are doing stood in an apparently random and empty circle?
Uunless you’re talking about phasing other player characters too, and i think that would be the anathema of any mmo.
04/06/2009 at 15:39 Jayteh says:
Hope this game can pull it off, it looks good from what I’ve seen/heard.
04/06/2009 at 17:12 Sonic Goo says:
Ryan: that’s not how it works. I would say try World of Warcraft, but the phased stuff happens from level 55 onwards… One example would a quest called The Battle for the Undercity.
[SPOILERS] In this quest a conspiracy by apothecary Putress and Varimathras succeeds in seizing power in the Undercity, the main undead city. The player then assists major characters like Sylvanas and Thrall in retaking it in an epic battle.
During the battle, when the player is fighting his way through the Undercity, he is in a different version of the world with the whole place turned into a battlefield. Once the battle is over, life returns to normal, though with some slight changes.
The two conspirators are missing, for example. This causes some complaints since players often still have quests that end at Varimathras, so they can’t hand them in anymore. That’s what you get for killing your quest giver.
Another way this is applied is in the final zone, Icecrown. There, players can unlock various quest hubs, camps with quest givers, vendors, etc., by completing certain quests that help the npcs establish a base there. Elsewhere there are bases that only become populated as you complete quests to make this happen. So you will see people entering and leaving houses that for you only have useless npcs, but for them have useful vendors etc. [/SPOILERS]
In short, it’s a technique that works, if applied correctly. And it would be interesting to see it as part of the very concept of a game, rather than being tacked on to an existing game.
05/06/2009 at 07:29 drygear says:
@Shoe
You’re right, he has six fingers! Maybe he’s this guy: http://www.shanemacgowan.com/covers/peace.jpg
19/10/2009 at 00:25 Darth Pants says:
Yeah, that’s what they thought at the US Patent Office nearing the turn of the 20TH century. Nothing serious’s happened since then, right? They already had automobiles, they already had airplanes, they already had computers, guess there hasn’t been too much in the past hundred years, huh?
But in all seriousness, there were changes and developments that happened over the millennia in the SW universe, just.. it’s a comic world, and we stick to the presentation we like. It’s space, so it’s all spacy, but we don’t need to get into the details of how many kilometers per second what ship goes for what reason. In some of the books they give snippets, but that’s pretty much it.
Oh, and imagine a universe without lightsabers. The first Jedi didn’t have them. They really used swords, then developed battery backpack-powered ginormous rough-lookin’ things, and it went from there. So there is some development over the ages shown, just not much.
And at the time of the Original Trilogy the SW universe is sortof in the middle of the dark ages.. so it’s natural for things to be held up a bit.
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