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Star Wars: The Old Republic: James Ohlen Interview
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
An interview has cropped up at DarthHater.com with SWTOR's James Ohlen. The interview focuses on advanced classes (all 16 of them!), PvP issues and space combat. The eight standard classes and the the sixteen advanced classes were designed to give players more game play choices and to diversify experiences. Each base-class player will have two advanced classes to choose from as the game progresses with each path yielding different options and skills.
Can you explain the philosophy behind how the skill sets in each advanced class work? Is it to give you further options to extend the ways you play one role in groups, does it open up additional roles, or is it best described as a combination?
James: Each of the advanced classes does allow you to modify the role you play as a group. For example, if you are a Sith Warrior and you decide to go down the Juggernaut path then you will be wearing heavy armor and wielding a single lightsaber. You are much more of a tank character. However, if you decide to go with the Marauder path, then you get to wield two lightsabers and you are dealing a lot of damage. You are much more of a dps character; you are gonna be the guy dealing the damage instead of taking it. So those are two very different classes, but you are still a Sith Warrior; you are just playing a different role in the group.
Read the full Darth Hater interview here including Ohlen's thoughts about the reaction to the SWTOR space combat video.
Thanks to Azerin for the tip!
Comments
I'm a bit confused about the pvp info, was he referring solely to space combat pvp or to the main game pvp aspect as well? This "group" thingie worries me. There will be planets like Alderaan which are going to be one big battlefield but i was under the impression that open world pvp will be available as well. I can't imagine a SW mmo without it.
Sounded to me like he was talking aboutt war zone PVP, there is no space combat PVP. He didnt say much about the incentive to particpate for people that arent into PVP but WARZONE's sound cool to me and I will give them a try even though I'm not a PVP'er. Sounds like there is a lot to do sounds great!
He's talking specifically about warzone PvP.
I would be worried if he said it was actually aimed at PvE players
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Yes, warzone PvP is confirmed and it will be great to have it. However, i'm referring to the free world pvp like in WoW's contested zones on PvP & RP-PvP realms. I wan't to be able to engage an oposite faction player while i'm questing or doing stuff in the open world. I know, a number of people don't like this and perceive it as bullying or ganking but for many people, me included, it's an essential part of any MMO. I hope Bioware is going to give us PvP realms else i'm going to be a very sad panda.
This game is obviously forcused on PvE players. They are apparently including a fully developed PvP system in Warzones. But, since Open World PvP would definitely hamper the PvE player's fun they couldn't do that and still maintain the happiness of those who would like to quest without being ganked by a bunch of miscreants. Since Bioware is making it I'm sure the Warzones will be well crafted and tons of fun but if you prefer one shotting newbies who are trying to kill 10 whomp rats your probably following the wrong game.
They might add PvP servers so all you sociopaths out there can gank each other though.
Personally, when I feel the need for unrestrained violence I play EVE. I wouldn't want to mix my PvP with PvE.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. - Douglas Adams
Still waiting for some comment on what activities will be available for end game. Do you just go back and play through another story teller arc?
I can imagine one. It's called swg flag on and flag off style pvp where nobody is pvping and the rebs nd imperials hang out in a cantina all day shooting the breeze.
The kind of pvp world I imagine is one where this no flag on and flag off. If you see the enemy you either kill or be killed. No dancing around in the cnatina with jedi and sith blowing kisses at each other and holding hands.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
They've spoken about this briefly before, they have raiding, Warzone PvP, Open PvP, Contested Planets, and they said they have a brand new end game feature they are not ready to release information about. No idea what that could be.
PvP servers have been spoken about as a possibility, Open PvP has been said to be in already. Warzones are the only PvP option that BioWare has agreed to release information on and talk about. Any other questions will be regarded with "we can't talk about that at this time."
Many interviewers received that a lot in the early interviews. You'd hear it all the time. They will only talk about what they are ready to, and that usually seems to be the focus of the release info they are at these conferences to show, such as space combat here.
This game can't get here soon enough. Having been completely driven away from lotro and now eq2 trying to pull the same kind of boneheaded move.
I keep hoping I will get picked for beta or something.
I never liked PvP servers until a group of friends talked me into it.(playing WoW) But now i got to a PvE server and meh, i just cant do it. Waiting for someone to "flag" themself...
My wife hates it though. She gets ganked and I hear the screm through the house, normally followed by some choice words. And yet, when we group together and we gank someone esle the cackles of glee that come from her are not normal!
I do hope that there are PvP servers. It just seems more real to me. I am supposed to be in this battle with the other team. When i see them survival of the fittest IMO.
Havig to wait for them to flag themself. Or going to a BG just doesnt seem right to me.
If this game was not under the Star Wars IP, only a few would talk about it today. It offers the exact same (if not worse in the sense that it is at its very beginning) as a whole bunch of other MMOs out there. Sadly, i fail to see something special.
My brain has 2 sides;Left and right. My left side has nothing right and my right side has nothing left...
Excuse me my friend but i find your post quite offensive. Where on Earth did i equaled world pvp with killing low level players? 5 years in WoW playing hunter, a class which favors "ganking" as you put it, i never attacked a weakling unless he had it comming. However, i love engaging same level players. Why? Because it's fun, exhilarating and more interesting than PvP within the the boundaries of a battleground. It adds flavor to the gameplay. Facing human opponents in spontaneous combat is something i seek in an MMO game. This makes me a sociopath and miscreant? Why?
I do accept and respect some peoples dislike for world pvp hence i ask for pvp servers.
Teamwork: using the morons on your team as bait.
Teamwork: using the morons on your team as bait.
PVP warzones, you might aswell call them instanced WOW battlegrounds and flashpoints = Dungeons. I've been waiting for this game a long time and as the release date nears I can't help but feel totally disappointed.
They claim to have 16 classes but to my count its still 8. The classes announced for Empire/Rebellion are mirror classes. That sounds like what WAR did and that just makes me cringe.
I am going to have to sorely disagree that it is an essential part of any MMO. I get the point that you prefer a PvP alligned environment ,but it is hardly essential. This will be a never ending debate, I know this. However, neither side can really ever say with any real data to back it up that one is more essential than the other. Heck if it is even needed in the IP, that is the question honestly. There is this push of late by a section of the MMO world that are dedicated to push PvP in every MMO title. It's not needed everytime, and if introduced it doesn't necessarily have to be the focus or a destraction from the story.
END OF LINE_
~V
This interview is a joke. It reads about as honest as reading Bill Roper try to hype CO. He said in the interview "...Space combat in SWTOR is for those who don't like space simulators.."
First-off, there are no space simulator mmo's out in the market, period. EVE for example is not a space sim and if you think real spacecraft fly like those ships then you might want to pick up a book sometime.
Secondly, he shouldn't generically state "SW is about space combat" when the fact is that in no SW movie did they fly in a straight path as if they were on rails like in SWTOR.
Couple questions on this post... for clarity.
Books fly better then EvE does for space combat?
The flight combat in TOR didn't allow you to dodge or move, but just stay in a straight line?
Wish people would give it a rest. Everytime they say something about SWTOR all the negativity comes out. Alot of it is unfounded. I see no other game doing any thing any different from some other MMO...
The Voice overs and the choices ARE different... Some people will actually love this part of the game and alot of the other aspect this game will have to offer. I am excited for it.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
There is no need for sarcasm and trying to veil a flame.
The book comment, for those who don't understand, is in reference to the fact that EVE's space flight mechanics are not true to nature. So people need to stop referring to EVE as a space sim and maybe read a book or two if they don't understand what real spaceflight mechanics are about.
A sim is something that closely resembles the true mechanics of it's model and EVE is anything but that.
Lastly, flight combat in SWTOR has already been shown in the video that you fly in a direct linear path. Yes, you can "do a barrel roll" to dodge, mr. obvious, but you still are travelling in a linear flight path.
Voice overs and choices are anything but new. The scale of them, maybe, but the mechanics? no.
I think you're being too literal about what people mean when they say space flight sim, sure the "right" definition for it is as you describe but that's not really what most people mean when they say it. On your second point, it's a predefined flight path not a linear flight path, big difference.
I don't get what people are so angry about. Space Combat is a completely optional portion of the game, or at least something you are only forced to do a few times then can literally skip every other time. Seriously, it's like trashing a Pokemon game because you hate the Battle Tower or something. You want the space combat to be different, then go play a game that has those features. They're not making SWTOR: EVE Edition (or whatever game that has these mechanics you're so horrified not to be seeing). They're making SWTOR, so therefore it will have it's own features that set it apart.
As far as the PvP news, I'm not so sure I like it. It's looking like it'll go down WoW's path, where you'll need a set of equipment to prevail at PvE, and another for PvP. If that's the case, I'll probably be avoiding it as much as possible.
Ok then. Point me to a game other than AoC that does the voice over and Choices that Is as involving as the ones that SWTOR will have? BTW the choices in AoC are a bit of a joke since they all lead to the same outcome. They also seem to end in tortage.
Can you name a game out that is doing something innovative and new? I don't see one.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"