Doesn't seem negetive actually. Its more like they seen through the marketing and fancy word play to go to the core of whats right and whats wrong. Very good read though.
Hi everyone! Sera from Massively here. Thanks for reading my article on SWTOR! =^_^=
Just one thing though that I noticed in this thread that people are misunderstanding -- the part about being "shot in cover."
Many people seem to think in that sentence that I have a problem with damage being assigned while in cover. That's certainly not the case. My problem lies literally in the animation of cover, as you will be "shot" while in cover.
Case in point: While standing behind a wall (in the game's current state) the round will literally clip the wall, still pierce the smuggler, and the smuggler will still "flinch" from being shot, all while standing behind the wall. That's my problem, and that's why I called it "non-immersive." It was just plain odd to see the round going through the wall, or even homing in on the smuggler at points when the smuggler moves around.
I'm all for damage being assigned while being in cover -- that's the idea of the whole mechanic. It reduces damage by providing protection, but it does not remove that damage. That part works great. It's just I'd rather see the blaster bolts hit the cover, or perhaps blaster bolts would miss as people fire at where the smuggler was.
So, that's all. It's just an animation thing, and it has nothing to do with the damage. I'm sure it will be cleaned up by launch.
~Sera
~Seraphina Brennan Senior Editor / Community Manager Massively.com
You must have read a different article OP, because the one you linked is rather positive. It doesn't say that the game is revolutionary, but it does say that it is fun and polished. I didn't find anything really negative in the entire article...
Ummmmmm.......unless the item of cover can withstand a LASER blast, it is perfectly reasonable that it can go thru and hit what is behind. I mean if someone knows you are there...even in a realistic state its not impossible to shoot thru a wall to hit someone, it is just harder. Just like RL..wow!
OP, do you subscribe to The Sun level of reporting? In other words, you took only the negative part of their article and used that as a summary for the whole article.
Anyway, I read that article and they sounded pretty upbeat about the whole experience. They did have a few problems with it (mostly the animation of being shot through cover) but otherwise they stated it was an enjoyable game.
The problem with the OP and people like him is that they have an agenda; so they turn any sort of criticism someone has of the game into a sweeping condemnation of it.
People seem to forget that this is a business, they aren't here to please the hardcore gamer like myself cause it only sells to a few. If they are gonna please the masses they are gonna appease those who wanna play at an easier level, like the ones who have pured their cash into blizzards coffers forever.
hardcore/Gamers who want a challenge/FFA Pvp'rs and the like, like myself are gonna have to get over the crying and stick to poorly made niche games.
No longer are we going to be able to prey on the timid gamers, pk them and steal their gear. 1997 is over, no more UO.
It sucks, i hate it, i know and i'm dealing with it. Thats why i no longer play MMO's. Nothing in the last 7 years has peaked my interest, too easy, no challenge, no consequence. (except maybe u game like DF, but ive been working. Earthrise may be one to look at though)
That's one of the key issues of the indusry.
Do you make more money aiming for the mass-casual player market that has a very high churn rate - or more money focusing on the smaller hardcore market that has greater loyalty but a slower growth rate?
World of Warcraft has proven that if developers would just cater to their casual crowd without snubbing them with in your face hardcore mechanics, you'll have plenty of very, very loyal casual players. Of course hardcores have been loyal in the past, they were catered to in every way. I'm curious as to how loyal hardcores are in World of Warcraft or any other casual oriented game.
Auto potions? Bit strange, why not just have a bit more hp and do away with med packs at all. Not sure I like the idea of a fairly simple mechanism being done for you, more dumbing down just isn't required.
I agree. I can understand if you have some magical healing potions in your pocket and you sip some medicine in between the shots but using a medkit should take a reasonable amount of time. I'm guessing this is one of the 'movie-factors' in TOR to keep action fast paced. Nonetheless, this feature feels kinda akward to me.
Has anyone heard of the med packs being automatically used with other classes? I'm asking cause the smuggler is suppose to have some kind of medicine/healing skill tree so maybe this is part of that tree and is exclusive to this class.
very good review...though i dont see how it was not a positive impression. The guy touted both positive and negatives, but in the overall it was mostly positive.
Very good review with both posative and negatives (MMORPG posters and writers take note this is called balanced writing).
Overall the reviewer said it was good polished and solid already, trust some one here to take one quote out of context to support a personal agenda, are you Aioshi in disguise?
Nice balanced review made me happy and look forward to this game with some realism.
Hi everyone! Sera from Massively here. Thanks for reading my article on SWTOR! =^_^=
Just one thing though that I noticed in this thread that people are misunderstanding -- the part about being "shot in cover."
Many people seem to think in that sentence that I have a problem with damage being assigned while in cover. That's certainly not the case. My problem lies literally in the animation of cover, as you will be "shot" while in cover.
Case in point: While standing behind a wall (in the game's current state) the round will literally clip the wall, still pierce the smuggler, and the smuggler will still "flinch" from being shot, all while standing behind the wall. That's my problem, and that's why I called it "non-immersive." It was just plain odd to see the round going through the wall, or even homing in on the smuggler at points when the smuggler moves around.
I'm all for damage being assigned while being in cover -- that's the idea of the whole mechanic. It reduces damage by providing protection, but it does not remove that damage. That part works great. It's just I'd rather see the blaster bolts hit the cover, or perhaps blaster bolts would miss as people fire at where the smuggler was.
So, that's all. It's just an animation thing, and it has nothing to do with the damage. I'm sure it will be cleaned up by launch.
~Sera
Thanks for chiming in Sera. Like you said in the article, it's not necessarily a big problem at this point in the games development. Perhaps the mechanic is intended, but not working yet. In which case certain degrees of cover are not doing their job at the moment. Of course, only Bioware know for sure.
Hi everyone! Sera from Massively here. Thanks for reading my article on SWTOR! =^_^=
Just one thing though that I noticed in this thread that people are misunderstanding -- the part about being "shot in cover."
Many people seem to think in that sentence that I have a problem with damage being assigned while in cover. That's certainly not the case. My problem lies literally in the animation of cover, as you will be "shot" while in cover.
Case in point: While standing behind a wall (in the game's current state) the round will literally clip the wall, still pierce the smuggler, and the smuggler will still "flinch" from being shot, all while standing behind the wall. That's my problem, and that's why I called it "non-immersive." It was just plain odd to see the round going through the wall, or even homing in on the smuggler at points when the smuggler moves around.
I'm all for damage being assigned while being in cover -- that's the idea of the whole mechanic. It reduces damage by providing protection, but it does not remove that damage. That part works great. It's just I'd rather see the blaster bolts hit the cover, or perhaps blaster bolts would miss as people fire at where the smuggler was.
So, that's all. It's just an animation thing, and it has nothing to do with the damage. I'm sure it will be cleaned up by launch.
~Sera
Thanks for chiming in Sera. Like you said in the article, it's not necessarily a big problem at this point in the games development. Perhaps the mechanic is intended, but not working yet. In which case certain degrees of cover are not doing their job at the moment. Of course, only Bioware know for sure.
I think you are misunderstanding her still. It isn't about being hit. She just thinks the round should go through the air, not through walls. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding you. I'm pretty sure cover is doing its technical job of reducing damage (or hit chance, whichever it is supposed to be), but the visual representation, not the mechanics, is what is currently lacking.
I see where Sera is going with this, but at the same time, not all cover should stop the bolt. I mean a stack of boxes full of say clothing might serve to reduce the damage but not stop the round cold. Even a wall might not stop a bolt clean. This, along with balance, are why damage would still get thru.
So what's the problem with a damage given/taken animation? You got hit, you took damage. I agree it would be awesome if they could code different results for each weapon vs each type of cover but that would be alot of work for what I assume would be just one character class.
I see where Sera is going with this, but at the same time, not all cover should stop the bolt. I mean a stack of boxes full of say clothing might serve to reduce the damage but not stop the round cold. Even a wall might not stop a bolt clean. This, along with balance, are why damage would still get thru.
So what's the problem with a damage given/taken animation? You got hit, you took damage. I agree it would be awesome if they could code different results for each weapon vs each type of cover but that would be alot of work for what I assume would be just one character class.
Two character classes, which is 25% of the characters. Further, the code could be used for all classes when they are behind something so that you have basically zero rounds clipping through solid objects.
Anyhow, Sera's problem is PURELY visual, not one of changing the game mechanics. Rounds that hit you should go over/around cover, not right through it. All the coding it requires is for any "hits" to be show properly.
So, in short, don't get yourself super hyped about this game. It's not amazingly innovative or a complete genre changer. It's not re-inventing the wheel, but it is taking that wheel and giving it the gold plating it needs.
Which, to my mind is really what Bioware THEMSELVES have been saying to those who would listen.
Yes, they are excited about the stories they have put together for us in an MMO setting, and yes they think the stories gives MMO gameplay more of a purpose, but that is it.
Anyone with half a brain would have realised long ago that Bioware is not setting out to be innovative in the same way as Anet are with Guild Wars 2.
The problem is that it is Star Wars and people go a bit silly. Not a completely bad thing.
Bingo. Thank you.
Although I'm not sure what you mean about Guild Wars 2. Perhaps I have more reading to do on that.
Favorites: EQ, EVE | Playing: None. Mostly VR and strategy | Anticipating: CU, Pantheon
Important facts: 1. Free to Play games are poorly made. 2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals. 3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE. 4. Community is more important than you think.
Ummmmmm.......unless the item of cover can withstand a LASER blast, it is perfectly reasonable that it can go thru and hit what is behind. I mean if someone knows you are there...even in a realistic state its not impossible to shoot thru a wall to hit someone, it is just harder. Just like RL..wow!
Except that it doesn't happen in Star Wars and thus the breaking immersion part. Why are you getting so deffensive over this? It was a review of a game that isn't out yet and perhaps that type of critism will be the catalyst for Bioware redoing the animations if they weren't already.
So, in short, don't get yourself super hyped about this game. It's not amazingly innovative or a complete genre changer. It's not re-inventing the wheel, but it is taking that wheel and giving it the gold plating it needs.
Which, to my mind is really what Bioware THEMSELVES have been saying to those who would listen.
Yes, they are excited about the stories they have put together for us in an MMO setting, and yes they think the stories gives MMO gameplay more of a purpose, but that is it.
Anyone with half a brain would have realised long ago that Bioware is not setting out to be innovative in the same way as Anet are with Guild Wars 2.
The problem is that it is Star Wars and people go a bit silly. Not a completely bad thing.
Bingo. Thank you.
Although I'm not sure what you mean about Guild Wars 2. Perhaps I have more reading to do on that.
As far as ToR goes we don't know if they'll have public quests. GW2 does and everyone in a zone getting together to repond to something is a great thing. Hopefully ToR will have this...seems like they should be able to manage it given some of the help Bioware is getting. Beyond that, the other awesome thing GW2 has is a more immersive quest system. If a town is being attacked by bandits/ogres/whatever then when you come to town you don't pick up a quest to defend it, instead you see the attack and choose whether to defend the town or not. Both choices have consequences, but the choice is as seamless as choices in real life. That's completely awesome (GW2 also will have story stuff similar to ToR, though we don't know the exact mechanics, we do know player choice MATTERS as far as story goes).
Anyhow, GW2 has a lot to say for itself and I'm pretty excited by it. I am also excited about ToR.
I don't get why people say that was a bad article. Saying it plays like WoW with an epic movie feel is awesome news. WoW is a great game .... there I said it. The few thousand people who like to bitch about it here are insignificant compared to the millions who like it. The only thing that always bugged me about WoW and any other MMO for that matter is a lack of story. There is never a reason to do anything other than the usual gear/level grind. So if Bioware copies everything good about current MMOs and adds epic story we have ourselves a great game.
Btw, this makes me so happy: "This see-through green panel denoted a "storyline instance" -- one that would allow only my party and myself to enter. I hit the panel, expecting a quick loading screen, but I was surprised to find myself passing right through it and into the next room. The instancing had occurred without me even realizing it. The only confirmation I had that I was in a special instance was the system notification of my instance ID in the bottom right corner."
I hate instancing with a passion so if it needs to be used this is the way to do it. It doesn't interfer or break immersion and it's nice that in contrast to WoW's phasing it actually tells you when you and your party are instanced.
So really, nothing but good impressions here. The smuggler getting blaster hit animations behind cover is simply a collision detection issue and easily fixable so if that's the biggest complaint he had that's good news for the game especially considering it's still a year away from release.
I find it interesting that you chose the words "not positive impressions" in your thread title, and 'they are not overly impressed" as your closing line.... I read the entire article and it sounded like he enjoyed the game to me.
Comments
Doesn't seem negetive actually. Its more like they seen through the marketing and fancy word play to go to the core of whats right and whats wrong. Very good read though.
Hi everyone! Sera from Massively here.
Thanks for reading my article on SWTOR! =^_^=
Just one thing though that I noticed in this thread that people are misunderstanding -- the part about being "shot in cover."
Many people seem to think in that sentence that I have a problem with damage being assigned while in cover. That's certainly not the case.
My problem lies literally in the animation of cover, as you will be "shot" while in cover.
Case in point: While standing behind a wall (in the game's current state) the round will literally clip the wall, still pierce the smuggler, and the smuggler will still "flinch" from being shot, all while standing behind the wall. That's my problem, and that's why I called it "non-immersive." It was just plain odd to see the round going through the wall, or even homing in on the smuggler at points when the smuggler moves around.
I'm all for damage being assigned while being in cover -- that's the idea of the whole mechanic. It reduces damage by providing protection, but it does not remove that damage. That part works great. It's just I'd rather see the blaster bolts hit the cover, or perhaps blaster bolts would miss as people fire at where the smuggler was.
So, that's all. It's just an animation thing, and it has nothing to do with the damage. I'm sure it will be cleaned up by launch.
~Sera
~Seraphina Brennan
Senior Editor / Community Manager
Massively.com
You must have read a different article OP, because the one you linked is rather positive. It doesn't say that the game is revolutionary, but it does say that it is fun and polished. I didn't find anything really negative in the entire article...
Ummmmmm.......unless the item of cover can withstand a LASER blast, it is perfectly reasonable that it can go thru and hit what is behind. I mean if someone knows you are there...even in a realistic state its not impossible to shoot thru a wall to hit someone, it is just harder. Just like RL..wow!
OP, do you subscribe to The Sun level of reporting? In other words, you took only the negative part of their article and used that as a summary for the whole article.
Anyway, I read that article and they sounded pretty upbeat about the whole experience. They did have a few problems with it (mostly the animation of being shot through cover) but otherwise they stated it was an enjoyable game.
The problem with the OP and people like him is that they have an agenda; so they turn any sort of criticism someone has of the game into a sweeping condemnation of it.
Essentailly WoW with light-sabers?
World of Warcraft has proven that if developers would just cater to their casual crowd without snubbing them with in your face hardcore mechanics, you'll have plenty of very, very loyal casual players. Of course hardcores have been loyal in the past, they were catered to in every way. I'm curious as to how loyal hardcores are in World of Warcraft or any other casual oriented game.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Has anyone heard of the med packs being automatically used with other classes? I'm asking cause the smuggler is suppose to have some kind of medicine/healing skill tree so maybe this is part of that tree and is exclusive to this class.
very good review...though i dont see how it was not a positive impression. The guy touted both positive and negatives, but in the overall it was mostly positive.
Very good review with both posative and negatives (MMORPG posters and writers take note this is called balanced writing).
Overall the reviewer said it was good polished and solid already, trust some one here to take one quote out of context to support a personal agenda, are you Aioshi in disguise?
Nice balanced review made me happy and look forward to this game with some realism.
Thanks for chiming in Sera. Like you said in the article, it's not necessarily a big problem at this point in the games development. Perhaps the mechanic is intended, but not working yet. In which case certain degrees of cover are not doing their job at the moment. Of course, only Bioware know for sure.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
I think you are misunderstanding her still. It isn't about being hit. She just thinks the round should go through the air, not through walls. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding you. I'm pretty sure cover is doing its technical job of reducing damage (or hit chance, whichever it is supposed to be), but the visual representation, not the mechanics, is what is currently lacking.
I see where Sera is going with this, but at the same time, not all cover should stop the bolt. I mean a stack of boxes full of say clothing might serve to reduce the damage but not stop the round cold. Even a wall might not stop a bolt clean. This, along with balance, are why damage would still get thru.
So what's the problem with a damage given/taken animation? You got hit, you took damage. I agree it would be awesome if they could code different results for each weapon vs each type of cover but that would be alot of work for what I assume would be just one character class.
Two character classes, which is 25% of the characters. Further, the code could be used for all classes when they are behind something so that you have basically zero rounds clipping through solid objects.
Anyhow, Sera's problem is PURELY visual, not one of changing the game mechanics. Rounds that hit you should go over/around cover, not right through it. All the coding it requires is for any "hits" to be show properly.
Bingo. Thank you.
Although I'm not sure what you mean about Guild Wars 2. Perhaps I have more reading to do on that.
So we herd u leik World of Warcraft
/thread
Important facts:
1. Free to Play games are poorly made.
2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals.
3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE.
4. Community is more important than you think.
Except that it doesn't happen in Star Wars and thus the breaking immersion part. Why are you getting so deffensive over this? It was a review of a game that isn't out yet and perhaps that type of critism will be the catalyst for Bioware redoing the animations if they weren't already.
As far as ToR goes we don't know if they'll have public quests. GW2 does and everyone in a zone getting together to repond to something is a great thing. Hopefully ToR will have this...seems like they should be able to manage it given some of the help Bioware is getting. Beyond that, the other awesome thing GW2 has is a more immersive quest system. If a town is being attacked by bandits/ogres/whatever then when you come to town you don't pick up a quest to defend it, instead you see the attack and choose whether to defend the town or not. Both choices have consequences, but the choice is as seamless as choices in real life. That's completely awesome (GW2 also will have story stuff similar to ToR, though we don't know the exact mechanics, we do know player choice MATTERS as far as story goes).
Anyhow, GW2 has a lot to say for itself and I'm pretty excited by it. I am also excited about ToR.
Massively just posted "Best of E3" article
..guess which MMO they didnt even mention :O
And which made best of show...
uhg...
Vindictis? lol I saw so many baaaad f2p games from China and Korea there...the booths were usually empty.
Also SWTOR was being treated like some secret project. The only thing I saw there was the CG trailer and two people dressed like Jedi.
SWTOR is bound to be a mediocre release anyhow, the art style and design choices from what we have seen so far have just been underwhelming.
Good grief. I don't care that they didn't mention TOR, but the MMOs they did include are so... distasteful, aren't they?
At least Black Prophecy is pretty, I guess.
There is only a small handful complaining. People that are going to play shouldn't worry about the small minority whiners.
I don't get why people say that was a bad article. Saying it plays like WoW with an epic movie feel is awesome news. WoW is a great game .... there I said it. The few thousand people who like to bitch about it here are insignificant compared to the millions who like it. The only thing that always bugged me about WoW and any other MMO for that matter is a lack of story. There is never a reason to do anything other than the usual gear/level grind. So if Bioware copies everything good about current MMOs and adds epic story we have ourselves a great game.
Btw, this makes me so happy: "This see-through green panel denoted a "storyline instance" -- one that would allow only my party and myself to enter. I hit the panel, expecting a quick loading screen, but I was surprised to find myself passing right through it and into the next room. The instancing had occurred without me even realizing it. The only confirmation I had that I was in a special instance was the system notification of my instance ID in the bottom right corner."
I hate instancing with a passion so if it needs to be used this is the way to do it. It doesn't interfer or break immersion and it's nice that in contrast to WoW's phasing it actually tells you when you and your party are instanced.
So really, nothing but good impressions here. The smuggler getting blaster hit animations behind cover is simply a collision detection issue and easily fixable so if that's the biggest complaint he had that's good news for the game especially considering it's still a year away from release.
I find it interesting that you chose the words "not positive impressions" in your thread title, and 'they are not overly impressed" as your closing line.... I read the entire article and it sounded like he enjoyed the game to me.