Star Wars fan base is much larger then Star Trek. Even if Old Republic has graphical issues or game play issues, it's still going to be a very big hit. The timing is right for a new Star Wars MMO. I do hope they tweak and improve some of these aspects, but we will have to see.
You can't take that for granted. They may sell a lot of boxes immediately after launch but if the don't offer a solid MMO game experience, then this massive investment will fail. SWG showed that SW IP games can fail.
You are not alone, a lot of people are miffed about the character models.
Agreed. Hulking shoulders, insect-like waists, the mobs are not appealling to me. I also think they will not change before launch.
Graphics do not make a good game. However, you guys are blowing this whole thing out of proportions. Graphics are quite good and environments are beautiful. Hell, anything better then LOTR character models is all good in my book.
You are not alone, a lot of people are miffed about the character models.
Agreed. Hulking shoulders, insect-like waists, the mobs are not appealling to me. I also think they will not change before launch.
Graphics do not make a good game. However, you guys are blowing this whole thing out of proportions. Graphics are quite good and environments are beautiful. Hell, anything better then LOTR character models is all good in my book.
Your right they don't make a good game but they do help a game to be more enjoyable for me at least. I'm willing to take a bit of a cut on graphics for better gameplay but I still need that visual attraction. The game stil hasent even hit beta but I hightly doubt they will totally revamp the graphics. Some screen shots look more cartoonish than others but I like how it looks so far.
What exactly do you consider NOT to be bland and boring? Star Trek Online? Because I'll tell you now thats about as generic as you can get. WoW? Their graphics are old and boring, and look like they're straight out of an 80's anime.
Yes, I (people?) did read what I wrote, but apparently you didn't. I didn't say 'this game looks bland and boring'. I said 'past bioware games were visually bland to me, so don't be surprised if this one is.' Have you ever played mass effect? I think the 'artist's' palette consisted of solely light grey and dark grey; as one example.
Star Wars fan base is much larger then Star Trek. Even if Old Republic has graphical issues or game play issues, it's still going to be a very big hit. The timing is right for a new Star Wars MMO. I do hope they tweak and improve some of these aspects, but we will have to see.
You can't take that for granted. They may sell a lot of boxes immediately after launch but if the don't offer a solid MMO game experience, then this massive investment will fail. SWG showed that SW IP games can fail.
True...But honestly, do you think BioWare and Lucas don't know that already? This Game is going to have 6 years of Developement by Launch...It will be bigger, more massive, and deeper than any MMO we've ever seen at Launch...You can bank on it...Sure the proof will be in the quality of the Game itself...But just throwing SWG out there as an example of how a SW Game can fail is not really an argument against this Game...Cause SWG made some of the biggest mistakes in the History of MMO developement...It's just not relative to SWTOR whatsoever...
There is already plenty of information out there about SWTOR to support the theory that Bioware/Lucas have learned from the failure that was SWG...They've also learned from the failures of other popular IP's, and the successes of some to...They're not rushing this thing out for a reason...I know some Folks are born skeptics, and as far as MMORPG's go I think it's pretty much well founded...But I think this Group at BioWare and Lucas is going to prove to be the exception...And I'm not exactly the eternal optimist either...
It's not going to be for everybody no question, but it's going to appeal to so many Folks over such a wide spectrum I don't think we even have a clue......It's going to appeal to tons of people who have never even heard of MMORPG.com...In My House alone there is one person who plays MMO's, but 3 people who are going to play SWTOR...My best friends girlfriend does not even play video Games and she's going to play SWTOR...The Community will be massive at launch and that is going to be all the headstart they need...If they supply a deep, stable, really fun Game it's going to go through the roof...
Just as our golden warrior John Smedley would say, you wanna do Star Wars, you do fuckin Star Wars, not some cartoon that looks like it's character models are doing cocaine.
They took Star Wars, put cartoon graphics and then watered down the Star Wars look even more.
If it doesn't look like / resemble this, then it isn't Star Wars to me. ( And why would you want to change the Star Wars Image / Style anyway, it's the perfect look for it's setting regardless. ) Now that we're in a next-gen graphics era, for them to make it cartoony is a major let down.
I could understand if they made something similar to Super Star Wars for the Super Nintendo with next-gen graphics, but instead we get this cartoony, watered down garbage.
Soooo... you would refuse to play a Star Wars game because it doesn't feature movie like characters and animations? The graphical style is an early design decision. They went with an already existing game engine so that they could focus on the content and the overall experience. It's a video game. It'll be a long time before videos games look that way. Get over it. Have you played the Knights of the Old Republic games? If you have, I would find it hard to believe that you think BioWare butchered them....
Star Wars fan base is much larger then Star Trek. Even if Old Republic has graphical issues or game play issues, it's still going to be a very big hit. The timing is right for a new Star Wars MMO. I do hope they tweak and improve some of these aspects, but we will have to see.
You can't take that for granted. They may sell a lot of boxes immediately after launch but if the don't offer a solid MMO game experience, then this massive investment will fail. SWG showed that SW IP games can fail.
True...But honestly, do you think BioWare and Lucas don't know that already? This Game is going to have 6 years of Developement by Launch...It will be bigger, more massive, and deeper than any MMO we've ever seen at Launch...You can bank on it...Sure the proof will be in the quality of the Game itself...But just throwing SWG out there as an example of how a SW Game can fail is not really an argument against this Game...Cause SWG made some of the biggest mistakes in the History of MMO developement...It's just not relative to SWTOR whatsoever...
There is already plenty of information out there about SWTOR to support the theory that Bioware/Lucas have learned from the failure that was SWG...They've also learned from the failures of other popular IP's, and the successes of some to...They're not rushing this thing out for a reason...I know some Folks are born skeptics, and as far as MMORPG's go I think it's pretty much well founded...But I think this Group at BioWare and Lucas is going to prove to be the exception...And I'm not exactly the eternal optimist either...
It's not going to be for everybody no question, but it's going to appeal to so many Folks over such a wide spectrum I don't think we even have a clue......It's going to appeal to tons of people who have never even heard of MMORPG.com...In My House alone there is one person who plays MMO's, but 3 people who are going to play SWTOR...My best friends girlfriend does not even play video Games and she's going to play SWTOR...The Community will be massive at launch and that is going to be all the headstart they need...If they supply a deep, stable, really fun Game it's going to go through the roof...
I love how people still think Bioware really has much of a say in this game anymore, Lucas maybe but not Bioware. There team is owned by EA, and I still think that is going to bite them in there collective butts just like it did with WAR and Mythic. Everyone figured Mythic had "Creative Control" and well when push came to shove EA told them when to release if they were ready or not, because they needed the cash infusion to make the profits go up. Then they gutted the company and now look at the state WAR is in now.
The number one biggest problem with SWTOR is not going to be Bioware or Lucas but instead EA. I hope I am wrong but history has shown this is how EA works.
Actually Bioware and Lucas are going with a whole new set of problems,
SWG which was SOE and Lucas failed because of several reasons, first was Imcomplete and Poorly implemented fixes, the game was launched too soon, and instead of listening to the fanbase, they installed Space way to soon. Instead of focusing on fixing its first problem which was ground combat. Crafting was great, the skill system was great, everyone loved the game for its core principals, they just wanted more content and for bugs to be fixed. But the further blow was when they installed NGE. that was the final blow, because by then there were so many classes that folks had fallen in love with besides Jedi/Sith. They took a hammer to all creature handlers/other classes out there.
Secondly, the current version turned into a Jedi Versus Sith Game, really slicing even more of the character classes, and then after many many terrible balancing acts which never really in my mind straightened themselves out and much of their clientel gone, you have its current version. They tried to get folks back with a poorly implemented Beast Master system which was a huge credit sink, and in the end, it was a week wasted.
The reason the space part of it isnt very good has alot to do with them letting go their original space team, that was a mistake, space really wasn't a failure, it was just launched way to soon, furthermore, grandfathering parts to try to balance the game, doesnt balance the game, it leaves grandfathered parts in the game that keep the imbalance, just make it so new players suffer.
Anyways, back to SWTOR, they are going to have to do better then 2 jedi types, a smuggler and a storm trooper to get me there, furthermore, if they really want to win audiences, they should be taking notes from Conan, considering most their fan base are older people who don't want fake cartoony garb, if we wanted that, we could go play a whole other venue of games that are better constructed.
And understand one thing, these are alpha photos, generally things dont get better once your in the game, they get worse.
So to close, SWG had alot more going for it, they just blew it by not listening to their fanbase and releasing the game way before its time, looking at those pictures, Bioware, Lucas and EA better really considering taking another 2 years to develop it, because 8 classes will never truly satisfy their fanbase, and they better have a ton of character customization. Because people want Eye Candy. Eye Candy to bait them in, Content to keep them hooked.
Big world, lots of quests, ugly characters, few classes, no space. Let me see what other games are out there that I can spend my bills on.
What exactly do you consider NOT to be bland and boring? Star Trek Online? Because I'll tell you now thats about as generic as you can get. WoW? Their graphics are old and boring, and look like they're straight out of an 80's anime.
Yes, I (people?) did read what I wrote, but apparently you didn't. I didn't say 'this game looks bland and boring'. I said 'past bioware games were visually bland to me, so don't be surprised if this one is.' Have you ever played mass effect? I think the 'artist's' palette consisted of solely light grey and dark grey; as one example.
Yes, I'm on my second playthrough right now. And what are you talking about? It must have been your tv because I see blue's, yellow's, green's, reds, brown's, AND black, white and shades of gray. I LIKE the colors in Mass Effect precisely because they aren't painful to the eyes. There's nothing bland about them at all.
They took Star Wars, put cartoon graphics and then watered down the Star Wars look even more.
If it doesn't look like / resemble this, then it isn't Star Wars to me. ( And why would you want to change the Star Wars Image / Style anyway, it's the perfect look for it's setting regardless. ) Now that we're in a next-gen graphics era, for them to make it cartoony is a major let down.
I could understand if they made something similar to Super Star Wars for the Super Nintendo with next-gen graphics, but instead we get this cartoony, watered down garbage.
If it looked like that, the game would not only suck but it would kill the star wars franchise. Quit living in the past, its upgraded and new. Its going to be awesome no matter what. Its the star wars story that people love not episode 4,5,6. Life is to short for anyone to cry about something that is new, because if it wasn't for change you wouldn't even know star wars. We'd all be living in caves and doing boring crap all day n nite.
More detail doesn't necessarily mean more polys, or more shaders, etc. etc. More detail can simply mean more detailed texture art.
For example...
Here's some images from Lineage 2 where there's lots of detail in the characters and environments... this is on modified Unreal 2 tech and it looks and performs great...
The detail you see in those shots is 90% texture art. There's not a bump-map or any other sort of pixel-shader to be seen. All achieved through clever polygon work and detailed texture art. The same can be achieved in any other "style".
And the best part, in my opinion, is that while today's hottest tech will invariably look dated in a few years.... good texture art never "gets old".
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Well to be honest with SW: TOR being based on the Knights of The Old Republic series of games, it wouldn't make sense to go with a more Star Wars (insert movie here) look.
Most people interested in TOR are fans of the KOTOR games and would expect almost the same look within the game. It's only a logical choice to stick as close to the KOTOR franchise as possible.
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Star Wars fan base is much larger then Star Trek. Even if Old Republic has graphical issues or game play issues, it's still going to be a very big hit. The timing is right for a new Star Wars MMO. I do hope they tweak and improve some of these aspects, but we will have to see.
You can't take that for granted. They may sell a lot of boxes immediately after launch but if the don't offer a solid MMO game experience, then this massive investment will fail. SWG showed that SW IP games can fail.
True...But honestly, do you think BioWare and Lucas don't know that already? This Game is going to have 6 years of Developement by Launch...It will be bigger, more massive, and deeper than any MMO we've ever seen at Launch...You can bank on it...Sure the proof will be in the quality of the Game itself...But just throwing SWG out there as an example of how a SW Game can fail is not really an argument against this Game...Cause SWG made some of the biggest mistakes in the History of MMO developement...It's just not relative to SWTOR whatsoever...
There is already plenty of information out there about SWTOR to support the theory that Bioware/Lucas have learned from the failure that was SWG...They've also learned from the failures of other popular IP's, and the successes of some to...They're not rushing this thing out for a reason...I know some Folks are born skeptics, and as far as MMORPG's go I think it's pretty much well founded...But I think this Group at BioWare and Lucas is going to prove to be the exception...And I'm not exactly the eternal optimist either...
It's not going to be for everybody no question, but it's going to appeal to so many Folks over such a wide spectrum I don't think we even have a clue......It's going to appeal to tons of people who have never even heard of MMORPG.com...In My House alone there is one person who plays MMO's, but 3 people who are going to play SWTOR...My best friends girlfriend does not even play video Games and she's going to play SWTOR...The Community will be massive at launch and that is going to be all the headstart they need...If they supply a deep, stable, really fun Game it's going to go through the roof...
Star Wars fan base is much larger then Star Trek. Even if Old Republic has graphical issues or game play issues, it's still going to be a very big hit. The timing is right for a new Star Wars MMO. I do hope they tweak and improve some of these aspects, but we will have to see.
You can't take that for granted. They may sell a lot of boxes immediately after launch but if the don't offer a solid MMO game experience, then this massive investment will fail. SWG showed that SW IP games can fail.
True...But honestly, do you think BioWare and Lucas don't know that already? This Game is going to have 6 years of Developement by Launch...It will be bigger, more massive, and deeper than any MMO we've ever seen at Launch...You can bank on it...Sure the proof will be in the quality of the Game itself...But just throwing SWG out there as an example of how a SW Game can fail is not really an argument against this Game...Cause SWG made some of the biggest mistakes in the History of MMO developement...It's just not relative to SWTOR whatsoever...
There is already plenty of information out there about SWTOR to support the theory that Bioware/Lucas have learned from the failure that was SWG...They've also learned from the failures of other popular IP's, and the successes of some to...They're not rushing this thing out for a reason...I know some Folks are born skeptics, and as far as MMORPG's go I think it's pretty much well founded...But I think this Group at BioWare and Lucas is going to prove to be the exception...And I'm not exactly the eternal optimist either...
It's not going to be for everybody no question, but it's going to appeal to so many Folks over such a wide spectrum I don't think we even have a clue......It's going to appeal to tons of people who have never even heard of MMORPG.com...In My House alone there is one person who plays MMO's, but 3 people who are going to play SWTOR...My best friends girlfriend does not even play video Games and she's going to play SWTOR...The Community will be massive at launch and that is going to be all the headstart they need...If they supply a deep, stable, really fun Game it's going to go through the roof...
"...it will be bigger, more massive, and deeper than any MMO we've ever seen at Launch...You can bank on it..."
Absolutely not. If this industry has shown us one thing, it's that the greatest minds in the business with the best industry models, technical talents, popular IPs and deep cash reserves behind them can fuck up big-time - and do so more often than not. Just look at SWG, D&L, Vanguard, AoC, Warhammer, Hellgate... And those are just the failires I came up with after ten seconds of thinking.
this is an MMO that is INSPIRED on Star Wars. Want the real deal? Watch the movies or better yet, read the books!
QFT, when devs made a game for the Movies you so love Star Wars Galaxy it was a epic fail after a year or so. And dont say Pre-CU and Post-CU or NGE ruined SWG because it didn't. WoW ruined SWG because it caused every company to want that kind of subs so they changed and redeisgn to appease the masses (gimme now crowd) and not the MMO player. BioWare is making a quality game that will appease everyone. Its got the crappy Graphics for shitty comps and Cooler effects for People who actually have a true gaming rig.
After looking at all the content about this game on the net... I will definitely be giving it a try. Everybody knows the quality of the graphics is largely dependant on the optimisation of the engine and the detail and sharpness of the textures. From what I've seen they are right on the mark with the performance/look of the game. This is going to be a game that looks great and can run on mid range computers and not be marketed to just enthusiast computer geeks. That's what we want, a nice steady subscription from a bunch of people so that the game can evolve and become the ultimate epic mmo. Story and immersion is key to a good MMO and I think this will do nicely. Fingers crossed the character progression system is going to be deep and rewarding to go along with the storylines and graphics.
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized" "The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
More detail doesn't necessarily mean more polys, or more shaders, etc. etc. More detail can simply mean more detailed texture art.
For example...
Here's some images from Lineage 2 where there's lots of detail in the characters and environments... this is on modified Unreal 2 tech and it looks and performs great...
The detail you see in those shots is 90% texture art. There's not a bump-map or any other sort of pixel-shader to be seen. All achieved through clever polygon work and detailed texture art. The same can be achieved in any other "style".
And the best part, in my opinion, is that while today's hottest tech will invariably look dated in a few years.... good texture art never "gets old".
Textures cost memory too, I am actually a game artist and nothing is free in video games. Detail costs more resolution, Just so you know polycount is cheaper than texture resolution. It is harder to do realism with hand painted textures, and Textures that use photos can look dated really fast. This also comes down with also trying to make something not look generic, most realism looks generic. your examples are also toony as well with exaggerated proportions and the textures have a very illustrative quality. You basically like you asian art style more. Some people will not like the art style, I personally hate most asian art styles.
What i do mind is the narrowing of character selection to those (again really narrow and sometimes overlapping) archetypes.
I would enjoy it more if i started as a farmer (like luke) and could end up as anything i want (meaning a class system still... Skills are ok but this not a snadbox) through the story. Want to be a smuggler? Sure.. hitch a ride with smugglers.. learn their trade... all as a tourtorial mission or something... Bah...
we don't know much about the actuall "choosing" of classes or tourtorials i give you that... But i don't like the classes themselves. Thought bioware would stick more to kotor.
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I'm a hot-wired, heat-seeking, warm-hearted cool customer; voice-activated and bio-degradable.
I like the graphics of SWTOR better than those crappy old star wars movies. Those things were made so many years ago and look like garbage. I don’t know why you would want to have those effects in game. Like the death star blowing up, that explosion was so fake, it’s just funny.
Comments
You can't take that for granted. They may sell a lot of boxes immediately after launch but if the don't offer a solid MMO game experience, then this massive investment will fail. SWG showed that SW IP games can fail.
Graphics do not make a good game. However, you guys are blowing this whole thing out of proportions. Graphics are quite good and environments are beautiful. Hell, anything better then LOTR character models is all good in my book.
Your right they don't make a good game but they do help a game to be more enjoyable for me at least. I'm willing to take a bit of a cut on graphics for better gameplay but I still need that visual attraction. The game stil hasent even hit beta but I hightly doubt they will totally revamp the graphics. Some screen shots look more cartoonish than others but I like how it looks so far.
Yes, I (people?) did read what I wrote, but apparently you didn't. I didn't say 'this game looks bland and boring'. I said 'past bioware games were visually bland to me, so don't be surprised if this one is.' Have you ever played mass effect? I think the 'artist's' palette consisted of solely light grey and dark grey; as one example.
True...But honestly, do you think BioWare and Lucas don't know that already? This Game is going to have 6 years of Developement by Launch...It will be bigger, more massive, and deeper than any MMO we've ever seen at Launch...You can bank on it...Sure the proof will be in the quality of the Game itself...But just throwing SWG out there as an example of how a SW Game can fail is not really an argument against this Game...Cause SWG made some of the biggest mistakes in the History of MMO developement...It's just not relative to SWTOR whatsoever...
There is already plenty of information out there about SWTOR to support the theory that Bioware/Lucas have learned from the failure that was SWG...They've also learned from the failures of other popular IP's, and the successes of some to...They're not rushing this thing out for a reason...I know some Folks are born skeptics, and as far as MMORPG's go I think it's pretty much well founded...But I think this Group at BioWare and Lucas is going to prove to be the exception...And I'm not exactly the eternal optimist either...
It's not going to be for everybody no question, but it's going to appeal to so many Folks over such a wide spectrum I don't think we even have a clue......It's going to appeal to tons of people who have never even heard of MMORPG.com...In My House alone there is one person who plays MMO's, but 3 people who are going to play SWTOR...My best friends girlfriend does not even play video Games and she's going to play SWTOR...The Community will be massive at launch and that is going to be all the headstart they need...If they supply a deep, stable, really fun Game it's going to go through the roof...
Just as our golden warrior John Smedley would say, you wanna do Star Wars, you do fuckin Star Wars, not some cartoon that looks like it's character models are doing cocaine.
Soooo... you would refuse to play a Star Wars game because it doesn't feature movie like characters and animations? The graphical style is an early design decision. They went with an already existing game engine so that they could focus on the content and the overall experience. It's a video game. It'll be a long time before videos games look that way. Get over it. Have you played the Knights of the Old Republic games? If you have, I would find it hard to believe that you think BioWare butchered them....
I'm glad I'm not affected by trivial things like this.
I love how people still think Bioware really has much of a say in this game anymore, Lucas maybe but not Bioware. There team is owned by EA, and I still think that is going to bite them in there collective butts just like it did with WAR and Mythic. Everyone figured Mythic had "Creative Control" and well when push came to shove EA told them when to release if they were ready or not, because they needed the cash infusion to make the profits go up. Then they gutted the company and now look at the state WAR is in now.
The number one biggest problem with SWTOR is not going to be Bioware or Lucas but instead EA. I hope I am wrong but history has shown this is how EA works.
Actually Bioware and Lucas are going with a whole new set of problems,
SWG which was SOE and Lucas failed because of several reasons, first was Imcomplete and Poorly implemented fixes, the game was launched too soon, and instead of listening to the fanbase, they installed Space way to soon. Instead of focusing on fixing its first problem which was ground combat. Crafting was great, the skill system was great, everyone loved the game for its core principals, they just wanted more content and for bugs to be fixed. But the further blow was when they installed NGE. that was the final blow, because by then there were so many classes that folks had fallen in love with besides Jedi/Sith. They took a hammer to all creature handlers/other classes out there.
Secondly, the current version turned into a Jedi Versus Sith Game, really slicing even more of the character classes, and then after many many terrible balancing acts which never really in my mind straightened themselves out and much of their clientel gone, you have its current version. They tried to get folks back with a poorly implemented Beast Master system which was a huge credit sink, and in the end, it was a week wasted.
The reason the space part of it isnt very good has alot to do with them letting go their original space team, that was a mistake, space really wasn't a failure, it was just launched way to soon, furthermore, grandfathering parts to try to balance the game, doesnt balance the game, it leaves grandfathered parts in the game that keep the imbalance, just make it so new players suffer.
Anyways, back to SWTOR, they are going to have to do better then 2 jedi types, a smuggler and a storm trooper to get me there, furthermore, if they really want to win audiences, they should be taking notes from Conan, considering most their fan base are older people who don't want fake cartoony garb, if we wanted that, we could go play a whole other venue of games that are better constructed.
And understand one thing, these are alpha photos, generally things dont get better once your in the game, they get worse.
So to close, SWG had alot more going for it, they just blew it by not listening to their fanbase and releasing the game way before its time, looking at those pictures, Bioware, Lucas and EA better really considering taking another 2 years to develop it, because 8 classes will never truly satisfy their fanbase, and they better have a ton of character customization. Because people want Eye Candy. Eye Candy to bait them in, Content to keep them hooked.
Big world, lots of quests, ugly characters, few classes, no space. Let me see what other games are out there that I can spend my bills on.
Yes, I'm on my second playthrough right now. And what are you talking about? It must have been your tv because I see blue's, yellow's, green's, reds, brown's, AND black, white and shades of gray. I LIKE the colors in Mass Effect precisely because they aren't painful to the eyes. There's nothing bland about them at all.
Agreed. Must make one's life miserable.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
If it looked like that, the game would not only suck but it would kill the star wars franchise. Quit living in the past, its upgraded and new. Its going to be awesome no matter what. Its the star wars story that people love not episode 4,5,6. Life is to short for anyone to cry about something that is new, because if it wasn't for change you wouldn't even know star wars. We'd all be living in caves and doing boring crap all day n nite.
Not necessarily.
It all comes down to the art style.
More detail doesn't necessarily mean more polys, or more shaders, etc. etc. More detail can simply mean more detailed texture art.
For example...
Here's some images from Lineage 2 where there's lots of detail in the characters and environments... this is on modified Unreal 2 tech and it looks and performs great...
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
The detail you see in those shots is 90% texture art. There's not a bump-map or any other sort of pixel-shader to be seen. All achieved through clever polygon work and detailed texture art. The same can be achieved in any other "style".
And the best part, in my opinion, is that while today's hottest tech will invariably look dated in a few years.... good texture art never "gets old".
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Well to be honest with SW: TOR being based on the Knights of The Old Republic series of games, it wouldn't make sense to go with a more Star Wars (insert movie here) look.
Most people interested in TOR are fans of the KOTOR games and would expect almost the same look within the game. It's only a logical choice to stick as close to the KOTOR franchise as possible.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
this is an MMO that is INSPIRED on Star Wars. Want the real deal? Watch the movies or better yet, read the books!
"...it will be bigger, more massive, and deeper than any MMO we've ever seen at Launch...You can bank on it..."
Absolutely not. If this industry has shown us one thing, it's that the greatest minds in the business with the best industry models, technical talents, popular IPs and deep cash reserves behind them can fuck up big-time - and do so more often than not. Just look at SWG, D&L, Vanguard, AoC, Warhammer, Hellgate... And those are just the failires I came up with after ten seconds of thinking.
QFT, when devs made a game for the Movies you so love Star Wars Galaxy it was a epic fail after a year or so. And dont say Pre-CU and Post-CU or NGE ruined SWG because it didn't. WoW ruined SWG because it caused every company to want that kind of subs so they changed and redeisgn to appease the masses (gimme now crowd) and not the MMO player. BioWare is making a quality game that will appease everyone. Its got the crappy Graphics for shitty comps and Cooler effects for People who actually have a true gaming rig.
After looking at all the content about this game on the net... I will definitely be giving it a try. Everybody knows the quality of the graphics is largely dependant on the optimisation of the engine and the detail and sharpness of the textures. From what I've seen they are right on the mark with the performance/look of the game. This is going to be a game that looks great and can run on mid range computers and not be marketed to just enthusiast computer geeks. That's what we want, a nice steady subscription from a bunch of people so that the game can evolve and become the ultimate epic mmo. Story and immersion is key to a good MMO and I think this will do nicely. Fingers crossed the character progression system is going to be deep and rewarding to go along with the storylines and graphics.
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Textures cost memory too, I am actually a game artist and nothing is free in video games. Detail costs more resolution, Just so you know polycount is cheaper than texture resolution. It is harder to do realism with hand painted textures, and Textures that use photos can look dated really fast. This also comes down with also trying to make something not look generic, most realism looks generic. your examples are also toony as well with exaggerated proportions and the textures have a very illustrative quality. You basically like you asian art style more. Some people will not like the art style, I personally hate most asian art styles.
This commuity has gone to rubbish.
lucas butchered star wars himself.
I don't mind the graphics at all...
What i do mind is the narrowing of character selection to those (again really narrow and sometimes overlapping) archetypes.
I would enjoy it more if i started as a farmer (like luke) and could end up as anything i want (meaning a class system still... Skills are ok but this not a snadbox) through the story. Want to be a smuggler? Sure.. hitch a ride with smugglers.. learn their trade... all as a tourtorial mission or something... Bah...
we don't know much about the actuall "choosing" of classes or tourtorials i give you that... But i don't like the classes themselves. Thought bioware would stick more to kotor.
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I like the graphics of SWTOR better than those crappy old star wars movies. Those things were made so many years ago and look like garbage. I don’t know why you would want to have those effects in game. Like the death star blowing up, that explosion was so fake, it’s just funny.