Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO [Bioware]

[HappyTree]

Star Wars: The Old Republic


Release date(s) Q4 2011

Every character in the game, including the player character, will feature full voice dialog to enhance gameplay, and interactions will feature a dialogue system similar to that used in the Mass Effect series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0imBz6y38

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I loved KOtoR and its sequel. I was just thinking today how much I enjoyed those games and was toying with the idea of buying Republic Commando just so I could play in the Star Ward universe once more. I'm not into online play with other people as I don't like to be tied down to what other people are doing, but the chance to play another Old Republic game is giving me reason to reconsider.

Are MMOs any good?

[wasp_f15ting]

From watching the videos, You can do a lot of quests on your own.

Even with WoW you only really needed to play with others for bigger more challenging quests, and playing with others was fun. That said MMOs are not your typical game I found it extremely difficult to play any other game bar WoW when I had it. It really does suck you in completely and you feel like your cheating on it when you play a good game that isn't wow. I sound like an addict when I say I stopped playing it 4 years ago.. but at times I did feel that was the case.

I think SWTOR is going to be an amazing game my only hope is, it isn't addictive as wow..

[Ignatius_S]

From watching the videos, You can do a lot of quests on your own....

That's an idea that Bioware has certainly been pushing massively and that the multi-player aspects aren't mandatory. Bioware has said although it's possible to play entirely on your own, it hopes that players will, at least, 'dip their toes in the multi-player pool'.

[Big Jack McBastard]

How much is all this going to cost then?

[Ignatius_S]

How much is all this going to cost then?

You get one month free with the game and then it's:

1 Month Subscription: £8.99
3 Month Subscription: £25.17
6 Month Subscription: £46.14

Slight tangent, there have been a few articles revolving round comments by of Sony Online Entertainment's President, who reckons this is going to be the last big MMO that uses the monthly subscription as a revenue model. Recently, SOE announced that DC Universe was going to become free to play – not sure what it's doing with its other MMOs.

[Big Jack McBastard]

Bloody hell well that sounds like a death knell right there.

And 46 quid per half year of gaming on top of the base price? They can piss off as far as I'm concerned.

[Ignatius_S]

Next you'll be saying you won't buy the Collector's Edition for £130!

[VegaLA]

I've been looking for a MMO to get my teeth into since I saw Leeroy Jenkins strut his stuff on WoW but nothing has really pulled me in.
I was a little disapointed that APB fell flat but this star Wars game might actually get me running. One thing though, that video shows just 4 players, how many players can you expect to 'exist' in just one game/universe, all doing their own thing?

[glitch]

Are MMOs any good?

I'm not into online play with other people as I don't like to be tied down to what other people are doing

Probably not what you're after then.

[Famous Mortimer]

Bloody hell well that sounds like a death knell right there.

And 46 quid per half year of gaming on top of the base price? They can piss off as far as I'm concerned.

WoW was roughly similar in price per month, as far as I can tell. I'm glad I got out of playing that when I did, after it took over an entire summer - I have friends who are still playing it pretty much all the time, and have been on an hours-per-night scale since it first came out.

[VegaLA]

This game hit my radar over the past few days and I have some questions I hope can be answered FROM THIS VERY BOARD!

So tell me, an MMO, I've seen some vids of WoW and one gang (a guild) of players ambushed another gang of players while attending a funeral, so is online player interaction possible and if so to what degree? For example if some other player of the many in that particular universe (server) is on a mission could another player interact and kill/arrest/fuck him off at any point?
Can you speak to players and if so how is that done since there are like 100s of players in the same game, is it done by directly facing the player and hitting a button to request an audience?
The star wars game mentions Guilds, and I can't think of anything cooler than me and some friends as a band of Bounty hunters travelling the Star Wars universe capturing or killing other players.
Would this be possible, and if so, could I play the character with a 360 controller as its been a few years since i've played a game with a keyboard.

Thanks muchly!

[HappyTree]

I can only answer your final question. You can get wireless 360 controllers to work with the PC. LINKY.

[Ignatius_S]

....So tell me, an MMO, I've seen some vids of WoW and one gang (a guild) of players ambushed another gang of players while attending a funeral, so is online player interaction possible and if so to what degree?

Interaction with other players is one of the key points of massively multiplayer online games - how much depends on the game and the player, but I'll stick to Star Wars The Old Republic.

With Star Wars The Old Republic, Bioware has pushed the solo story mode campaigns heavily and the company is quite correct, when it says that you can play alone if you want - and with a story campaign for each character, there would be plenty to do.

However, you would be missing out on quite a bit - e.g. there are side quests (dubbed Heroic) that are recommended for 2 or 4 characters; the 2 Heroic ones are very doable with a NPC companion, the others not so. To do these, you might form a party with strangers for just several minutes until the mission is done.

Bioware has said it wants to get people who don't usually play MMOs into the game and hopes those who never were interested in playing with others will 'dip their toes into the multi-player aspects - and I think they've done a good job.

....For example if some other player of the many in that particular universe (server) is on a mission could another player interact and kill/arrest/fuck him off at any point?...

It depends on the mission and the server environment. If you enter a story mission environment, then the area is restricted to you (and your party, if you have one and they are a different class to you) - so other players can't just appear.

If you're on a Player versus Environment sever, the idea that you play against the environment so you can't attack others normally. However, you can challenge someone to a duel, so any player versus player combat would be consensual - that said, in my experience, when someone was asking publicly for a challenge/duel, others asked why didn't they go a Player versus Player environment - in those, players can attack each other as much as they like. There are also roleplaying versions of both these server types, were players stay in characters.

On the SWTOR website, in the FAQ section, it explains about the different server environments and I would have a look at that for starters and if you've any questions, I'll pretend I know what I'm talking about.

....Can you speak to players and if so how is that done since there are like 100s of players in the same game, is it done by directly facing the player and hitting a button to request an audience?

You can speak publicly so anyone can hear, or privately to an individual player or to your party or guild. If you saw someone on-screen, you could click on them and just start talking to them or - going from memory here - select their name from a list of players who are online.

....The star wars game mentions Guilds, and I can't think of anything cooler than me and some friends as a band of Bounty hunters travelling the Star Wars universe capturing or killing other players....

Guilds are essentially private social networks - you wouldn't need to be in one at all, but for group playing, they make a lot of sense.

You can kill, but not capture - at the moment, players do not accrue bounty, but it's something that they're possibly looking at.

... could I play the character with a 360 controller as its been a few years since i've played a game with a keyboard....

The game doesn't support gamepads but you could install additional software as a workaround, but quite frankly, I think that would give you a simply horrible gaming experience. Hotkeys are your friend.

[VegaLA]

Thanks very much for that Ignatius_S, very interesting.
It sounds like the PvP server would be my starting point in order to draw me in but I imagine i'd get involved in no time.

Cheers again!

[RickyGerbail]

"It may be the largest entertainment production in history. More than 800 people on four continents have spent six years and nearly $200 million creating it. The story runs 1,600 hours, with hundreds of additional hours still being written. Nearly 1,000 actors have recorded dialogue for 4,000 characters in three languages.

At the Austin home office of game developer BioWare, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, more than 400 designers, programmers, writers and artists have immersed themselves in the imagined Star Wars universe, surrounded by maps of the ice planet Hoth, armor designs for bounty hunters and even a five-day weather forecast for Princess Leia's home world of Alderaan.

Art has been outsourced to Russia, Estonia and China. Motion capture filming is done in L.A. and Vancouver, Canada, with voices recorded in New York, London and Paris in English, French and German. Quality assurance testing takes place in Romania, Argentina and India, while technical operations are run out of Virginia and the customer service center operates in Ireland. A regular plane shuttles employees between Austin and Electronic Arts' headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif.

"Coordinating it all is like teaching elephants to do ballet," said Greg Zeschuk, who co-founded BioWare with Ray Muzyka."

all this to make a substandard wow clone with no inventions in gameplay. or so i've heard i wouldn't touch this turd with a stick.

[The Region Legion]

Yes.. I hope this doesn't fuck Bioware completely when it inevitably falls apart. Seems like no one wants to mention Star Wars Galaxies.

[RickyGerbail]

it's a very odd project that seems to have been made by people that doesn't really enjoy the gaming part of games or sees it as a necessary evil or something. i don't get it.

[Ignatius_S]

...all this to make a substandard wow clone with no inventions in gameplay. or so i've heard i wouldn't touch this turd with a stick.

Yup, even though it plays incredibly well, the story campaigns have been fantastically executed and people enjoy playing it, it's actually rubbish.

[RickyGerbail]

well if you're not dissapointed with doing exactly the same thing as in wow then good for you (and those other people). again i haven't played the game so perhaps it's vastly different.

[Ignatius_S]

well if you're not dissapointed with doing exactly the same thing as in wow then good for you (and those other people). again i haven't played the game so perhaps it's vastly different.

Given that I was one of the beta testers (only myself and a carefully hand-picked 5 million others can say that), I can't see why I would be disappointed in something that I thought was good enough to pay money for.

There are certainly similarities with the mechanics of WOW but it's not as if that product wasn't influenced by, or lifted from, elements in previous MMOs, particularly Everquest. The gameplay experience is rather different – and one only needs to consider countless comments and articles about what lessons WOW could learn, to see this.

The feedback that you've mentioned isn't representative of reviews, reader comments, players, forum posters etc. That isn't to say I haven't heard anyone make such claims – but when I have, it's never been in a coherent or convincing manner.

[VegaLA]

Free to play...up to level 15, no time limit...so may be fun to meet up online and tour the planets...I don't know.

Check it out here and if you do fancy some online explorig let me know!

https://account.swtor.com/trial

[Slaaaaabs]

Free to play...up to level 15, no time limit...so may be fun to meet up online and tour the planets...I don't know.

Check it out here and if you do fancy some online explorig let me know!

https://account.swtor.com/trial

You don't get your ship until around level 15 and I bet they use that as a carrot on a stick at the end of the trial.

By all means play the trial, but don't be lulled into thinking the game improves much beyond that artificial level cap.

[Ignatius_S]

You don't get your ship until around level 15 and I bet they use that as a carrot on a stick at the end of the trial...

Usually, it's a bit higher but yes that's a decent ball-park figure. By that stage, you have acquired your first companion and have moved to another planet, and I wouldn't say that it's a particularly big deal not having the ship.

[VegaLA]

Ah thanks for the input Gents.

I'm still so very new with all this MMO gaming so my understanding may be way off the mark with how you can go about playing in these games but, if I weer to play and met with a veteran player, could I not bum a ride around the universe. Some sort of Cosmic Hobo?

[Ignatius_S]

...I'm still so very new with all this MMO gaming so my understanding may be way off the mark with how you can go about playing in these games but, if I weer to play and met with a veteran player, could I not bum a ride around the universe. Some sort of Cosmic Hobo?

Nope, you can't do that. Although the Sith and Republic disagree on many things, the subject of not allowing hitchhiking is a rare point of distinct unanimity.

You get a starship as part of your class storyline and up to that point, I wouldn't say it's a huge restriction not having one. For example, there's quite a lot of stuff to do on two different worlds (and can move between them) – plus, there's a starbase (for which ever faction you're in) to explore. Locations have a recommended level, so even if you were able to get somewhere sooner than you were meant to, a level 15 character would be incredibly fragile.

On a slight tangent, EA says it's exploring "different models" to bring new players into the game, so it'll be interesting watching what happens. So many MMOs have moved away from the subscription model as they struggled, and that's a big issue for any MMO. Richard Vogel, who was the Executive Producer for SWTOR and a mainstay at Bioware, has left the company but nothing is known for sure about the reasons...

[rudi]

So is it worth playing? I couldn't get to grips with WoW at all by the way.

[James Blunt]

So is it worth playing?

No, it's shit.

[Ignatius_S]

So is it worth playing? I couldn't get to grips with WoW at all by the way.

If you didn't get on well with WoW, then I doubt you'll find this another kettle of fish. However, if you're a fan of the Knights of The Old Republic games, then I would say have a look as the story campaign is highly enjoyable – just for reasons of sheer curiosity, if nothing else!

There have been quite a lot of improvements since it launched – there have been some suggestions that it's not what it should have been at launch, but in any event, new content has been added. Although I quite enjoyed it, I was really playing for the story campaign so the subscription model isn't something that really appeals...

[The Masked Unit]

^What's more tedious - that or this?

[VegaLA]

Thanks again for the information.
I thought these MMOs were all about open gameplay, but it all sounds very restrictive once you dig around.