Star Wars: The Old Republic: Quests & Companions

SBFord

MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh had the opportunity to attend last week's Comic-Con in San Diego, CA. As part of her schedule, Carolyn sat in on the Star Wars: The Old Republic panel. After the heralded announcement about space combat, the panel spent time discussing the story in The Old Republic with new information about quests and companions.

The Bioware team of writers is three times as large as the Knights of the Old Republic team and have been working on the story three times as long. “It’s an enormous challenge and yet incredibly satisfying working this huge blank canvas,” said Alex, “Every class in The Old Republic has a story longer than KOTOR.” Then as you add on the multiplayer story, the World quests and the personal quests, you’ll see that SW:TOR begins to amount to ten times (and larger) the size and story of KOTOR.

Read more about Quests & Companions in The Old Republic.

bbates024

AWESOME!

Tsukuro

I lost my beta invite in someone elses email apparently.

goemoe

It is not size, that matters, it's all about skill

katarnrul

Ten times KOTOR, that sound very interesting!

Rydran

I give Bioware a lot of credit. They are master story tellers. To make the story that indepth and long will be amazing to be a part of.

Elikal

"...if your group leader decides to kill the Captain although you’ve argued against it in the dialogue, instead of getting darkside points for killing him, you get instead, lightside points for arguing against it. “The puppy is still dead,” said James to much laughter. “But you don’t take the fall for it."

 

THIS will be the main reason why people will NOT group. Just saying. Points or not. We know decisions bite back, even when you dont get bad points, we know the game memorizes decisions. Its still a huge chance for grief and pain, whateveryasay.

Lobotomist

10 times Kotor ?! But thats nothing for a MMO.

Dedicated player can finish kotor in 2-3 days. And i mean do every damn thing there is to do in KOTOR.

So it means you can rip TOR in 30 days of semi-hc playing ?

Comnitus

Originally posted by Lobotomist

10 times Kotor ?! But thats nothing for a MMO.

Dedicated player can finish kotor in 2-3 days. And i mean do every damn thing there is to do in KOTOR.

So it means you can rip TOR in 30 days of semi-hc playing ?

For those who aren't plugged into their PCs and have feed tubes lodged into their veins, slack like a meat puppet while playing the game 24/7, the game will last much longer than 30 days. Especially if you decide to do all the class stories and different faction quests and get all the "achivements" (or whatever they will be called) in PvE, raiding, PvP, space combat, etc, get max crafting, get the best damn-looking ship in the galaxy, etc.

But yes, for the "semi-hardcore" as you put it, it will only take 30 days and they will have conquered TOR utterly and completely.

Ripclaw

Originally posted by Lobotomist

10 times Kotor ?! But thats nothing for a MMO.

Dedicated player can finish kotor in 2-3 days. And i mean do every damn thing there is to do in KOTOR.

So it means you can rip TOR in 30 days of semi-hc playing ?

 

What?!

MMO.Maverick

Originally posted by Lobotomist

10 times Kotor ?! But thats nothing for a MMO.

Dedicated player can finish kotor in 2-3 days. And i mean do every damn thing there is to do in KOTOR.

So it means you can rip TOR in 30 days of semi-hc playing ?

Each class story amounts up to 200 hours of gameplay, so in total 800 hrs of class story for each side, 1600 hrs of fully unique class story content.

That is only the class story content: then added to that you have the World quests that everyone can do, the world arcs that are about the larger conflict, the exploration of the gigantic worlds that's being encouraged, the space combat, and that's only the things they have talked about, there's a lot they haven't talked about.

 

So I gather there will be enough to do. But gl trying to 'finish' SW:TOR and do everything there is to do within 30 days.

Ripclaw

Originally posted by Elikal

"...if your group leader decides to kill the Captain although you’ve argued against it in the dialogue, instead of getting darkside points for killing him, you get instead, lightside points for arguing against it. “The puppy is still dead,” said James to much laughter. “But you don’t take the fall for it."

 

THIS will be the main reason why people will NOT group. Just saying. Points or not. We know decisions bite back, even when you dont get bad points, we know the game memorizes decisions. Its still a huge chance for grief and pain, whateveryasay.

 

LOL, well me personally, that is one of the exact reasons I WILL be grouping up with others. I for one love and welcome the idea of unpredictible story turn out for my characters.

Ripclaw

Sounds freakin awesome to me. And the more I hear about TOR, the more I want to play it.

I love the idea of how everything you do and even others you play with, can effect how your personal story does turn out. Plus it's freakin Star Wars and during one of the best SW times lines EVER.

I'm also very estatic that Drew Karpyshyn is one of the lead writers again this time around. Just as he was the lead writer on KOTOR, which is one of the main reasons that game turned out so damn good. He also wrote the Darth Bane novels, which are aswell some of the best Star Wars story telling out there. Which leaves me more then confident that the TOR story will be more then amazing and could even turn out to be Karpyshyn's best work yet.

Can't wait!

knyghttearer

Originally posted by cyphers

Originally posted by Lobotomist

10 times Kotor ?! But thats nothing for a MMO.

Dedicated player can finish kotor in 2-3 days. And i mean do every damn thing there is to do in KOTOR.

So it means you can rip TOR in 30 days of semi-hc playing ?

Each class story amounts up to 200 hours of gameplay, so in total 800 hrs of class story for each side, 1600 hrs of fully unique class story content.

That is only the class story content: then added to that you have the World quests that everyone can do, the world arcs that are about the larger conflict, the exploration of the gigantic worlds that's being encouraged, the space combat, and that's only the things they have talked about, there's a lot they haven't talked about.

 

So I gather there will be enough to do. But gl trying to 'finish' SW:TOR and do everything there is to do within 30 days.

if someone's life is so pathetically empty that all they have is trying to blow through a game with 1600 hours plus of content in as short amount of time as possible, i think they have more important issues to deal with, then worry about any video game ....

knyghttearer

i can't wait to play this game. i have never been looking forward to a game so much in my life..the more information i hear fromthe devs is like they were reading my mind the last few years while i was discussing things i disliked about the mmo's i was playing.

Lanthir

James was careful to let us know though, that darkside / lightside points will only be accumulated based on your personal choices. Which is to say, if your group leader decides to kill the Captain although you’ve argued against it in the dialogue, instead of getting darkside points for killing him, you get instead, lightside points for arguing against it. “The puppy is still dead,” said James to much laughter. “But you don’t take the fall for it.”

 

This is one of the reasons I love bioware and look forward to this game.  It should limit the amount of sith warrios grouping with jedi knights in groups.  Infact I can see "guilds" limiting thier memberships to certian "factions."  It wil really help bring back the RPG in the MMORPG .

Nifa

Thanks for the article.

 

Now for a moment of nerdrage...please learn to spell Mandalorian, Alderaan and Consular before writing any more about Star Wars.

 

But I do love your hardware reviews.

Books

The only thing they need to do is double the amount of item art they have currently. AoC said they had thousands of armor sets too but what happened with that? Everyone looked the same and for the most part still does.

 

Story, is cool. Really cool. But without the feeling of visual progress constantly in the game from beginning to beyond the end it won't beat WoW.

Heretic451

The information is good, but you guys really need to get an editor who knows English grammar and spelling. It's a bit irritating to read an article with so many mistakes and so little attention to detail.

And for the hundredth time, it's "consular." Not "counselor."

DeaconX

Originally posted by Comnitus

Originally posted by Lobotomist

10 times Kotor ?! But thats nothing for a MMO.

Dedicated player can finish kotor in 2-3 days. And i mean do every damn thing there is to do in KOTOR.

So it means you can rip TOR in 30 days of semi-hc playing ?

For those who aren't plugged into their PCs and have feed tubes lodged into their veins, slack like a meat puppet while playing the game 24/7, the game will last much longer than 30 days. Especially if you decide to do all the class stories and different faction quests and get all the "achivements" (or whatever they will be called) in PvE, raiding, PvP, space combat, etc, get max crafting, get the best damn-looking ship in the galaxy, etc.

But yes, for the "semi-hardcore" as you put it, it will only take 30 days and they will have conquered TOR utterly and completely.

...and then they can leave TOR and go back to grinding in WoW or something.  I know I certainly wouldn't miss any 'hardcore' players.  I intend to enjoy every bit of the game and let the game story set the pace for my adventures in TOR hehe

solocrono

Originally posted by Elikal

"...if your group leader decides to kill the Captain although you’ve argued against it in the dialogue, instead of getting darkside points for killing him, you get instead, lightside points for arguing against it. “The puppy is still dead,” said James to much laughter. “But you don’t take the fall for it."

 

THIS will be the main reason why people will NOT group. Just saying. Points or not. We know decisions bite back, even when you dont get bad points, we know the game memorizes decisions. Its still a huge chance for grief and pain, whateveryasay.

 

 Apparently you didn't actually watch the video for this.  These choices won't come back to bite you.  THESE particular choices are the "dungeon" runs, which can be repeated as many times as you like for whatever reasons you want, be it to see a different outcome of the "dungeon", more loot, etc.  These choices that are made in the dungeon won't have a lasting effect on your character's overall choices/path.  It's the other aspects of the game that will bite;   World Arcs, and Main story line.  And other people in your groups for the World Arcs will see your past creeping back up on you if you happen to have had an encounter with whatever area you're in.

 

So people will want to still group, at least I know I will, because re-running the "dungeons" won't be AS repetitive as, say WoW, which are EXACTLY the same everytime.  At least with this, it can be one of a few different outcomes, so that, at least is a refreshing take on dungeon grinding for me.

solocrono

Originally posted by Lanthir

James was careful to let us know though, that darkside / lightside points will only be accumulated based on your personal choices. Which is to say, if your group leader decides to kill the Captain although you’ve argued against it in the dialogue, instead of getting darkside points for killing him, you get instead, lightside points for arguing against it. “The puppy is still dead,” said James to much laughter. “But you don’t take the fall for it.”

 

This is one of the reasons I love bioware and look forward to this game.  It should limit the amount of sith warrios grouping with jedi knights in groups.  Each faction can't group with eachother so this won't be an issue.  Infact I can see "guilds" limiting thier memberships to certian "factions."  It wil really help bring back the RPG in the MMORPG.   I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.  The game is going to make people connect with their character in a much more organic way than WoW.

 

surfsk8snow

Man, 2 fantastic info reveals at Comic-Con this year! I wish I coulda been there, my friend sat in the panel discussion and said it was awesome.

With so much gameplay possible, so much story - and they've thought through potential repercussions of their mechanics - this game really is shaping up to be an insane game. Add this to space combat, amazing potential. I've been on the SWTOR forums since Oct 08, and I'm still eagerly anticipating this game.

2 Things that do worry me still:

1) “You can be as evil as a Jedi, or as good as a Sith as you like,” Alex reminded the audience, “But you cannot really switch factions. You never cross over.” -- I understand the rationale for this, however, this could prove too limiting for people's desire for storying ONE single character. This basically makes you reroll completely if you want to switch sides - but some people have a real loyalty to their 1st char and want to just keep the continuity of that char up. Additionally, I'm sure that the Sith Empire would welcome in Dark Jedi into their ranks, and the Republic might be tempted to work with spies/converts from the Sith. I could see this being changed in an expansion.

2) "Light saber restrictions are for gameplay reasons, to make the classes visually recognizable, so the Jedi Counselor, for example, will be restricted to a single light saber or pole only." -- BAD FORM PETER. This is a horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE decision, and Bioware will realize it after enough QQing from all the players who want to be a certain class with a different lightsaber style. Come on now, this seems like a very noob mistake.

Lanthir

Originally posted by solocrono

Originally posted by Lanthir

James was careful to let us know though, that darkside / lightside points will only be accumulated based on your personal choices. Which is to say, if your group leader decides to kill the Captain although you’ve argued against it in the dialogue, instead of getting darkside points for killing him, you get instead, lightside points for arguing against it. “The puppy is still dead,” said James to much laughter. “But you don’t take the fall for it.”

 

This is one of the reasons I love bioware and look forward to this game.  It should limit the amount of sith warrios grouping with jedi knights in groups.  Each faction can't group with eachother so this won't be an issue.  Infact I can see "guilds" limiting thier memberships to certian "factions."  It wil really help bring back the RPG in the MMORPG.   I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.  The game is going to make people connect with their character in a much more organic way than WoW.

Well maybe sith and jedi grouping was and over simplifaction.  I do think people will be a bit more carefull about who they do group with  as someone psuhign towards max light would not necessarily want to be grouped with those trying to get as close to the edge of light and dark. 

Lobotomist

Originally posted by knyghttearer

Originally posted by cyphers

Originally posted by Lobotomist

10 times Kotor ?! But thats nothing for a MMO.

Dedicated player can finish kotor in 2-3 days. And i mean do every damn thing there is to do in KOTOR.

So it means you can rip TOR in 30 days of semi-hc playing ?

Each class story amounts up to 200 hours of gameplay, so in total 800 hrs of class story for each side, 1600 hrs of fully unique class story content.

That is only the class story content: then added to that you have the World quests that everyone can do, the world arcs that are about the larger conflict, the exploration of the gigantic worlds that's being encouraged, the space combat, and that's only the things they have talked about, there's a lot they haven't talked about.

 

So I gather there will be enough to do. But gl trying to 'finish' SW:TOR and do everything there is to do within 30 days.

if someone's life is so pathetically empty that all they have is trying to blow through a game with 1600 hours plus of content in as short amount of time as possible, i think they have more important issues to deal with, then worry about any video game ....

 

Learn to read

I commented on previous comment that claims TOR is x10 bigger than KOTOR

Kotor was 30 hours gameplay. That puts TOR at only 300 hours gameplay. Judging from the comment i was talking about.

Alas LEARN HOW TO READ

Lanthir

(I do not know why it is not letting me quote and edit properly today i am having to just do a new post

 

 

)Well maybe sith and jedi grouping was and over simplifaction.  I do think people will be a bit more carefull about who they do group with  as someone pushing towards max light would not necessarily want to be grouped with those trying to get as close to the edge of light and dark as they can.