Star Wars The Old Republic

[Scrobbs]

That animation is fabulous. It too reminds me of why I like Star Wars.

[toblix]

BUY MY STUPID SHIT!

[DanJW]

Sideshow Collectibles and Lucasfilm present this dynamic depiction of Jedi Master Yoda and Count Dooku as they battle over the fate of the young Jedi Knights.The Duel with Dooku diorama is expertly sculpted in approximately 1:9 scale, standing over 10 inches tall.

Yes! I would love to be constantly reminded of that fucking awful moment that completely destroyed the mystique of Yoda and the whole of Star Wars by extension!

[Karimi]

I wonder if the other classes will be able to draw people away from being a Jedi/Sith. On the the website there's space for 4 classes per faction (currently) which will probably be something like Trooper, Jedi, Pod racer, and Ewok.

I think I'm more partial to the galaxies system of making jedi/sith a sort of long term goal rather than allowing everyone to create jedi. Or if everyone is allowed to make jedi, there should be a sort of rigor and difficulty to prevent everyone from becoming overpowered. I think the best jedi should be stronger than the best bounty hunter, but becoming the best bounty hunter should be easier.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

Or you could give Jedi and Sith disadvantages unrelated to their attributes. Say, Jedi aren't allowed to carry currency and Sith have constant, unending bounties on their head. Of course those are just off the top of my head and would probably make both classes extremely unfun, but I think there could be ways to balance Force users back down to everyone else's level in ways having nothing to do with how powerful they are.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Or you could give Jedi and Sith disadvantages unrelated to their attributes. Say, Jedi aren't allowed to carry currency and Sith have constant, unending bounties on their head. Of course those are just off the top of my head and would probably make both classes extremely unfun, but I think there could be ways to balance Force users back down to everyone else's level in ways having nothing to do with how powerful they are.

They're pretty cool ideas, actually! (Although being a Sith was nothing to be ashamed of "back then", was it?)

[Horticulture Tycoon]

I would assume using your magic powers to be an evil douchebag would be frowned upon in any era of the Star Wars universe. Though I'm hardly an expert.

[OssK]

The fact that instead of walking in they slamed the door with a giant ship to come crashing into the hall with the pretty clear intention of killing everyone might hint you on what their reputation / legality is.

[Nachimir]

(Although being a Sith was nothing to be ashamed of "back then", was it?)

Why did they have to work in secret through the first films?

[brkl]

This timeline is way before that.

Ack, why did I take part in a Star Wars discussion on the internet.

[Nachimir]

I am feeling the same way. I'm not even going to hang around for breakfast ¬¬

[ThunderPeel2001]

Hey, it was just passing comment based purely on poor memories!

[Nick]

Han class http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/classes/smuggler

Smugglers tend to shoot first...

Saw that in the Combat Tactics section, hehe.

[sachrilege]

I think I'm more partial to the galaxies system of making jedi/sith a sort of long term goal rather than allowing everyone to create jedi. Or if everyone is allowed to make jedi, there should be a sort of rigor and difficulty to prevent everyone from becoming overpowered. I think the best jedi should be stronger than the best bounty hunter, but becoming the best bounty hunter should be easier.

Unfortunately Galaxies failure, and Blizzard's success seem to show a mass appeal game is never going to work like that. People don't want risk vs reward they want fun vs time.

If I'm right about how I think they're doing it, then each class having extensive unique content and wholly original mechanics, some people simply aren't going to like how the Jedi plays, and as all the classes will progress at the same rate through the semi-single player content, then initially Jedi is nothing more then another class. Jedi are going to fill a specific role, and undoubtedly be more popular, but when the luster fails, people will move as they always do to the new class getting the most attention.

Make each class unique, and balance at least the appearance of progression to be equal, and ultimately the game will be homogenized down to nothing.

If interested in just keeping the Population of Jedi down, well, that's why this game is in Old Republic and not Episode IV

[Guest HotScoopDealer]

KOTOR was awesome and I hope that the will release a KOTOR 3 soon. There is supposed to be an unnamed project which might be it but we really need some confirmation.

[DanJW]

Sorry to break it to you, but Bioware have stated the TOR is 'KOTOR 3'.

Plus I think the secret project is a new IP. Can't remember where I heard that though.

Oh, and good find on the Han reference Nick! Now for a wookie class!

[Forbin]

After listening to a few guys from BioWare talk at GDC Online last week, I have convinced myself that I'm going to play this.

Anybody else interested?

[Orv]

After listening to a few guys from BioWare talk at GDC Online last week, I have convinced myself that I'm going to play this.

Anybody else interested?

I've lost all interest in this. I don't really want to pay 15 a month to play KOTOR 3 with akwardly tacked on multiplayer.

Which might be hypocritical, since WoW is yet again drawing my interest with a new expansion. Pandas!

[Lu]

Really? I thought it was a joke at first. My respect for Blizzard's creative abilities has gone down significantly over the past years... I hope that new IP of theirs is gonna be something special a least.

Anyhoo, The Old Republic looks like WoW with a Star Wars skin to me (also, cutscenes!). The more I've seen of it, the less interested I became. I would try it, because Star Wars, but at 15 bucks a month, that isn't going to happen.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I loved KOTOR, so I think I'm ok with this... Have to see how the multiplayer actually is implemented.

[Orv]

Really? I thought it was a joke at first. My respect for Blizzard's creative abilities has gone down significantly over the past years... I hope that new IP of theirs is gonna be something special a least.

Like I said, I'm a terrible bloody hypocrite. At this point, I'm just keeping up with the WoW expansions for my eventual descent into madness in which I actually feel like playing WoW again.

Still not going to put money on TOR, mind you.

Oh also. "Blizzard's creative abilities"? You mean the 10% of their "lore" that isn't outright stolen from somewhere else? That has only just grown from 1% to 10% in the last couple of years?

[Forbin]

Started playing yesterday. I'm alliance on Cho Mai.

One thing that just feels weird about this game is the dialogue wheel. When you're not free to reload a poor decision, there's a degree of permanence to it. Which I believe has lead to them creating a bunch of trivial decisions. They do a pretty good job at making them seem important, but once you play a bit, you'll probably just find yourself mashing the light or dark side keys without paying attention to the situation. I was running an instance last night and ended up skipping all the dialogue with my party and always mashing "1". We're all experienced MMO players, so it's really a failing on Bioware's part, but it just feels like something that's in the way.

Anyways, it was good enough for me to re-roll a few times because I didn't relate to my character, and once I found a good voice actor and story line it was a lot better. It does narrow the field a bit though, people who want to min-max their stats or play style may have to suffer through sequences that don't interest them.

The starting areas made me a bit worried that they had gone too far in the single player direction. But once I hit level 10, got to the main hub, and saw "Jedi Spiderman" it started feeling like a proper MMO.

The crafting system is cool. You can send companions away to find resources. And they also do vendor trash runs like Torchlight.

[Gwardinen]

Oh yeah, I forgot to say I'm on the Nightmare Lands EU server (because it's the one with the PC Gamer guild) if anyone is planning to play on the EU side. I'd give my character names but for some unknown reason you can only add as a friend someone who is online at the time. So just PM me if you end up on that server yourself.

[Jayel]

I participated in one of the weekend betas. It was a pretty magical experience and one of the best gaming moments I can remember. I was pathetically underleveled for the main quest where you get your spaceship, but I rushed like a mad man and got it (avoiding all encounters and sidequests and overall being pretty cowardly), with exactly 10 min. to spare before the beta shutdown. I traveled to Nar Shaddaa and there was not a single soul around. I was standing at the edge of the platform enjoying the nighttime vista as the time ran out and I was kicked.

But I don't think I'll be getting it. I do like the idea of more story focused MMO experience, but the way Bioware did it, there's something very disconcerting about it that I can't put my finger on. It doesn't feel like a better MMO, but rather a worse singleplayer.

[Forbin]

But I don't think I'll be getting it. I do like the idea of more story focused MMO experience, but the way Bioware did it, there's something very disconcerting about it that I can't put my finger on. It doesn't feel like a better MMO, but rather a worse singleplayer.

I was feeling that way up till about level 10. But especially later, around the mid 20s, it starts feeling like a better MMO. There are little nice touches like having your inactive companions crafting while you're leveling, and them being able to use materials out of a combination of your bank and inventory just make it feel super slick.

They start using cut scenes less for story, and more for visual association with the quest at hand. And there's less loading times and real massive areas. Taris is a great traditional MMO zone. It's open, and massive and the quest design reminds me of the newer WoW expansions.

As for it's unique features, aside from the minor conveniences, I think the companion system is really working out. You have the traditional Bioware companion alignment system, apparently some companion quests. They make solo'ing easy and fun, as well as making incomplete instance groups possible. I've been playing with a friend of mine that's a healer, and we've been 2 manning most 4 player content.

That's an unbelievably important feature, that other games can't really just adopt without major overhauls. A player with a well geared companion, can save a group when it's losing it's tank half way through an instance. Or can start early when they're having trouble filling a spot. They can run things undermanned in the hopes of getting better loot. They provide a sink so that pretty much any gear you get is considered viable, as one of your companions will use it.

The crafting system is excellent. Though I wonder if there's a way to craft your own things when you choose, because if you want to dedicate some down time to power leveling, it can be a bit slow. Still, being able to send out multiple companions on gathering quests while you're actually playing the game makes up for it by far.

I'm curious what the end-game content is going to look like. The combat is at it's weakest when you're spending a few minutes grinding down a boss. But that's purely an aesthetics problem, the mechanics are solid and I really enjoy the way they've implemented the cooldown timer so that you can be sure your ability will be ready on the next attack. The talent trees look well thought out as well.