Star Wars: The Old Republic: Space Combat Preview

MikeB

With just a few short days until Early Access, we're taking a look at space combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic in this latest preview. Do a barrel roll, and then leave a comment or two below!

Before you can start doing barrel rolls, you’ll have to acquire your ship, and this doesn’t occur until around level 16 or 17 or so. Depending on your class, you’ll receive your ship in a variety of different ways, but all classes will receive their ship at the same point, coinciding with the completion of their capital world story content (Coruscant or Dromund Kaas). Ships in SW:TOR serve as your home base; your Ebon Hawk, basically. You can interact with companions on your ship, manage your bank (cargo hold), initiate important story cutscenes, and of course, do space combat.

Read more of Michael Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic: Space Combat Preview.

SkillCosby

I personally think that their space experience is a big slap in the face. I'd rather nothing at all than this.

face30

I found it a fun little arcade type "getaway", really nothing more. Hope they do some major work in this part of the game.

WhiteLantern

I think it will be a fun diversion and I'm looking forward to giving it a go. From the sounds of it, all of it is optional, so those that don't like it won't be forced to participate.

meccariello

i t hink they should scrap space and redo it as a total sandbox thing. allow people to customize their ship inside with furniture and stuff... allow guests, etc. you know... basically, housing 

plus a feature to have your ship come pick you up in the wild any time, rather than have to run back to a hangar far away. 

Asbo

Originally posted by meccariello

i t hink they should scrap space and redo it as a total sandbox thing. allow people to customize their ship inside with furniture and stuff... allow guests, etc. you know... basically, housing 

plus a feature to have your ship come pick you up in the wild any time, rather than have to run back to a hangar far away. 

 I have to agree with you on this, I feel they missed an opportunity to make this very impressive. But I feel it was thrown in as an after thought and because had they really made a good job of this it would of thrown the release date back at least another 12 months or so and they don't have that option as they bound to be under pressure to make money hence the crap we are left with in space...I'm sure if enough people complain about it then they will be forced to do something with it and the people who have early access need to voice their concerns early with this to get them to either respond or move on it.

I WILL BE BANGING THE DRUM FOR SURE!!

uller30

Guys/Gals they could do a sandbox down the road. But think how well jump to Lightspeed went over. Huge influx then dead. The space part is not a huge facet of the game. I love tie fighter. X-wing, tie v x-wing. This is not about space but the ground life. I whish later on space combat would not be arcade but a little harder. Ships should be your homes considering you have to run through the hangers just to go some where

solarine

In principle this does annoy me. It could have been so much more. Not to mention I *have* been waiting for an X3 sort of MMO gameplay for a long time, and with the scale of production Bioware is capable of, we could have had some quality space sim gameplay here. Such a pity.

On the other hand, I have to admit I did enjoy it as a diversion in the beta. I guess it's taken me to the old days, like 80s to early 90s, to the original Star Wars arcade space combat game and Rebel Assault, so some part of me was giddy with nostalgia.

Thane

i see it as a possibility... improve the engine, go back to x-wing/tie fighter mechanics, and it will be fine

Gruug

For once I agree with the review on Space Combat. I have to say that Space Combat is nothing more then an after-thought in SWTOR. While it can eat up some time and yes it can provide some rewards, it also gets very boring very quickly and has little challenge to it. Given that you  really only have a few choices you can make (and flying is not one of them) it becomes a repetitive side game at best.

One major improvement they could have made would have been to at least design in a freedom of movement to the whole thing. Currently, you follow a pre-set path in which you are given a variety of missions. Those missions can be to ensure the safety or that a ship is not destroyed to killing "X" number of targets....be they ships, turrets or hangars. You can only accomplish this while you "fly" a pre-set path. The only "movement" you have is minor to target objectives that fall within that path. This means  that if you miss that one mission critical item or items, there is little chance you will see it again and thus fail. Some mission paths do take you over the same "ground" more then once, but here again you can't choose when or how many times.

Bottom line, space combat in SWTOR is more like a roller-coaster in space. You can ride many times, but eventually it just gets repetitive.

Ozmodan

Right , talk about the worst part of the game, space combat cira 1990 console games.  Trying to sugar coat their design is a complete waste of time.  It is what it is.  Even SWG space combat was light years beyond what they are offering in this game.

Oh and lightspeed was always popular in SWG, people still played SWG for years after NGE just to play the space portion as they fortunately did not change that part.

Star Wars is just NOT Star Wars without decent space combat.  Hence ground play can never make up for the damaged design. 

Clocksimus

There are entire games based on space combat (EVE) and people wanted a full MMO base and indepth space combat game tied into one?  SWTOR would have to had spent maybe another year in development to achieve this to my best guess.  The space combat is overly simple and offers no real game breaking points and it can also be a fun little time sink if you are not so stuck on it not being a full game in it's own right.

SWTOR didn't have to put in space combat the game without it would stand up perfectly fine. What is a real slap in the face is Bioware hearing the depend and trying to give the community something instead of nothing only to be stoned for their efforts.

Remember this day when Bioware doesn't listen to player requests and ask yourself why.

Robsolf

It's a TUNNEL shooter.  With a rail shooter, you can't smash into an asteroid and lose half your HP.  In this game, you can, and one collision is usually enough to keep you from completing the mission.

It's a fun little distraction.  The XP is a nice bonus and can easily make up for the XP you don't get if you don't complete the Kill X mob bonus quests.  Commendation rewards are pretty weak, though, IMO.

I'd have preferred an updated, FASTER MOVING JtL.  But for what it is, it's fun.

SethiusX

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Right , talk about the worst part of the game, space combat cira 1990 console games.  Trying to sugar coat their design is a complete waste of time.  It is what it is.  Even SWG space combat was light years beyond what they are offering in this game.

I think that the space combat in TOR leaves a lot to be desired, if you compare it to something like EVE or really any other fully fledged space game, but it's really a very minor and optional part of the game. Your ship is far more important currently as simply a "house", a means to travel around, and as a base place to have interactions with your companion. 

Ultimately, I think what they were really trying to achieve is a way to round out the cinematic experience they are trying to create in TOR, which is why they keep referencing the movies when they talk about design choices. They wanted the game to play like one of the movies as much as possible, and in the movies, space battles are all about explosions and fighters swooping past big ships and asteroids with gun fire all over the place. That's pretty much what the mini-game delivers. You play it as if you are watching one of the movies, and by limiting the vastness of space and directing the player, they can keep the action fast and furious.

Is that a good design choice? Not so sure really. But, I think it is a valid choice, and I think they are trying to make something people will enjoy. If people hate it, no doubt they will expand on it, because I believe Bioware wants to create a fun game. 

hikaru77

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Right , talk about the worst part of the game, space combat cira 1990 console games.  Trying to sugar coat their design is a complete waste of time.  It is what it is.  Even SWG space combat was light years beyond what they are offering in this game.

Oh and lightspeed was always popular in SWG, people still played SWG for years after NGE just to play the space portion as they fortunately did not change that part.

Star Wars is just NOT Star Wars without decent space combat.  Hence ground play can never make up for the damaged design. 

So you´re asking for a¨copy and paste¨ of the swg space combat?. No.  in swtor atm is just a minigame, but is really fun and a great way to make some extra credits and earn experience, and even when is a rail shooter like starfox, is full of action and it looks like a starwars movie. And we will some improvements in the space combat in the future, Pvp?, Multiplayer missions?, Guildships?, the game is not even out, poeple need to learn to be patient and some point. 

NekoNoTejas

Certainly more could have been done with space combat...but as someone who has read a few books and seen all the movies....  I dont think its a big part of the space opera that is Star Wars.  The initial game is fine imo.  It leaves something for them to expand into further down the road as well...

onthestick

Never cared much for space part of Star Wars anyways. Even in the movies it wasn't a major part like say Star trek.

Mardukk

I have no doubt that they will revamp space combat to tie fighter/xwing style in the future. Space was such a major part of this universe i dont see how they wouldnt do a revamp in the near future.

Arcona

there's also a preview here

http://torwars.com/2011/12/08/space-combat-video-balosar-outpost/

ProfRed

As someone who loves rail shooters like Panzer Dragoon and Star Fox I really really like it.  Although I don't really care about the longevity of this game because I think I won't be able to play it longer than 2 months.  I could see in the long run people wanting something much deeper. 

JeroKane

Originally posted by NightBandit

Originally posted by meccariello

i t hink they should scrap space and redo it as a total sandbox thing. allow people to customize their ship inside with furniture and stuff... allow guests, etc. you know... basically, housing 

plus a feature to have your ship come pick you up in the wild any time, rather than have to run back to a hangar far away. 

 I have to agree with you on this, I feel they missed an opportunity to make this very impressive. But I feel it was thrown in as an after thought and because had they really made a good job of this it would of thrown the release date back at least another 12 months or so and they don't have that option as they bound to be under pressure to make money hence the crap we are left with in space...I'm sure if enough people complain about it then they will be forced to do something with it and the people who have early access need to voice their concerns early with this to get them to either respond or move on it.

I WILL BE BANGING THE DRUM FOR SURE!!

 

The whole "own spaceship" is also just thrown in.

Your spaceship is nothing more than an empty shell to transport you from Planet A to Planet B and a storage locker (aka personal bank).

When I was in the Beta weekend two weeks ago and finally got my spaceship, I was all excited!  ..........till I entered it, walked around .......and discovered it offered absolutely NOTHING! /sigh

So I agree too! I really hope they going to work on this Big Time!

Xicom

from my play in beta, I found some of the space combat like the bombing runs in Warcraft.    I was really hopeing we could freely fly around space or the planets.

bobfish

It is an amusing past time when you need a break from questing, but nowhere near as good as it could've been if they'd gone the JTL/Xwing route.

Arcona

Originally posted by bobfish

It is an amusing past time when you need a break from questing, but nowhere near as good as it could've been if they'd gone the JTL/Xwing route.

expansion 1

Mors.Magne

I will be subscribing to both SWTOR and Eve Online.

 

I think it's good that Eve Online is getting some serious competition at last - I think CCP became complacent from 2006 until recently.

Tardcore

Meh. I loved Starfox, my mates and I even pooled our money and bought a Super Famicon cartidge adaptor and a Japanese copy of the game so we could play it six months early. It was a game that was just that freaking cool.

 

However that was 1993. Seeing the same kind of game (with admittedly better graphics), just tacked on top of a massive Star Wars MMO is a bit insulting. More so when the space mini game doesn't even have the depth of space combat in a game like Star Wars Battlefront II, a five year old SW FPS game.

 

To be fair, brilliant open space combat was not one of the things Bioware promised to deliver. They could have given players ground based combat only. In reflection after first hand experiance with the space mini game myself, I'm not entirely sure such a move would have been a bad thing. Better to keep players hoping for something good in the future rather than annoying them with a very weak space experiance today.

 

I feel Bioware have delivered quite well on the features they promised. But again, unforutnately they have wrapped so much of the game design resources around the (in my book excellent) VO content, that SWTOR seems to resemble a Hyena. A strong powerful front end, with a puny afterthought hindquaters. And if said afterthought hindquaters has a rectum, I'm sad to say the space mini game is it.