I've repeatedly heard from distractors that SWTOR doesn't have any Star Wars Ambiance. This is true about some parts of the game (I'm thinking of the space combat), but is not true about the majority of the game.
To appreciate the ambiance of the game get a copy of the SWTOR Encyclopedia. This book describes the Old Republic in detail (it is not some cheap guide to the game). Once you read it you will find that BW has filled the game with the ambiance of the Old Republic. The timeline, people, places, the Empire, the Republic, the Mandalorians, the Hutt Cartell all come alive. You understand why BW did what it did with the game.
I think people are thinking of the time frame of the movies and want that kind of feeling about the game, but the Old Republic was a completly different era. The people, the places, the Empire and the Republic are not equal to Luke Skywaker, Darth Vader, the Battle of Yevin, and the Rebellion.
Get into the game, buy this Encyclopedia.
The movies are canon and what most associate with Star Wars. Everything else, other than the Clone Wars, is not truly canon. Lucas would just rewrite everything if he was so inclined to play in that time period.
The Old Republic is just fan fiction with better writers. Just because their universe is well thought out, that doesn't mean it feels like the Star Wars of the films.
I like the story in SWTOR and leveling in that game has been my favorite leveling experience in an MMO. But I just think of SWTOR as being in a parallel universe to the films. Not anything that actually occurred or feels like the films.
G (George Lucas) canon is absolute canon. This category includes the final releases of the six films, the novelizations of the films, the radio dramas based on the films, the film scripts, and any material found in any other source (published or not) that comes directly from George Lucas himself. G canon outranks all other forms of canon.
T (Television) canon, which currently comprises Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the as yet unaired live action Star Wars TV series. This level of canon is considered to take precedence over C canon (see below), possibly due to the fact that George Lucas is directly involved with these shows as executive producer, and in the case of The Clone Wars is also on the writing team.
C (continuity) canon refers to the main body of EU work, and is the next most authoritative level of canon. All material published under the Star Wars label that doesn't fall into either G, T, S, or N canon is C canon and is considered authoritative as long as it isn't contradicted by G canon.
S (secondary) canon refers to older, less accurate, or less coherent EU works, which would not ordinarily fit in the main continuity of G and C canon. For example, this includes the popular online roleplaying game Star Wars Galaxies, and certain elements of a few N-canon stories.
N continuity material is also known as "non-canon" or "non-continuity" material. What-if stories (such as those published under the Infinities label) and anything else that cannot at all fit into continuity is placed into this category. "N-continuity" is not considered canon.
The game is C-canon..which is canon in continuity until George says it isn't canon. SWG was explicitly excluded from canon...according to some info from this discussion...
You see empty world. I see plenty NPCs. Going about their lifes. Like any other game I played. There are roamers NPCs there are static NPCs. Nothing really out of normal,
Ok so SWTOR is not like launch day,Bioware have made the world more living less static?
While the stories were interesting most of the time, excessive questing feels out of place, as part of the ambiance (feel) of the game.
Quests are pretty much hand holding, do this, OK now do this. Good, good, now do this .. "You've saved us from disaster, thank you!"
There are some nice alternative ways to do quests, for instance, you could be instructed to go into the enemies base and kill 20 soldiers... or you could ask the NPC if there was another way to accomplish a mission, in which you might be an alternate solution, maybe disguise yourself as a cleaner droid and sneak inside to corrupt a data center. Quests like this though in SWTOR are extremely few and far between.
Streamlined questing worked well for WoW, since it was designed around Blizzard's RTS game, having guided quests, new quests, and bonus quests all alone the way, with each quest clearly outlined as to exactly what must be done.
In Star Wars though, it seems like there should be less hand holding with guided streamlined quests, and instead having primarily major campaign mission objectives. The method should be left up to the player (like how the majority of the movies were). How you save the universe rests solely in the players personal experiences. I guess it just comes back to more sandbox needed.
Just some thoughts. Having less quests and more increased interactivity with NPC's (using the same amount of voice overs) would have been a plus (and would have also helped solve problems with forced cutscenes and continually removing players from the game world during NPC interaction).
I'm not sure if this came off the right way, but bottom line - thousands of scripted quests worked well for WoW, but was a little weird for Star Wars. Any significance of this is of little difference now though, it's too late to alter core architecture.
Yeah the alternate options to the end of the story was one of the things missing. Plus the fact that Dark and Light points really mean nothing. I know everyone gets all defensive when you mention Skyrim (SANDBOX SANDBOX!! not the same!!), but it's one of the things that makes that game more fun, you don't always have to just smash your way in and kill everything to solve some of the quests.
I said once in another thread, that if you're going to do a story based game, it better be like the old "Choos Your Own Adventure" books, with more than one option to choose, and real consequences for making a poor choice. Getting to a cutscene, and deciding to kill some random NPC Imperial General, that in the end doesn't change the way the whole story plays out, is pointless.
It's nice to have a thinly veiled direction the story is headed, but how you get their should be up to the player.
As for the "ambience"... The quests are part of that, but the fact that NPC's don't move around, there is no day night, no changing weather... all these things add to immersion, and probabaly would have made the existing game without any changes feel just a bit more lifelike for most folks.
G (George Lucas) canon is absolute canon. This category includes the final releases of the six films, the novelizations of the films, the radio dramas based on the films, the film scripts, and any material found in any other source (published or not) that comes directly from George Lucas himself. G canon outranks all other forms of canon.
T (Television) canon, which currently comprises Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the as yet unaired live action Star Wars TV series. This level of canon is considered to take precedence over C canon (see below), possibly due to the fact that George Lucas is directly involved with these shows as executive producer, and in the case of The Clone Wars is also on the writing team.
C (continuity) canon refers to the main body of EU work, and is the next most authoritative level of canon. All material published under the Star Wars label that doesn't fall into either G, T, S, or N canon is C canon and is considered authoritative as long as it isn't contradicted by G canon.
S (secondary) canon refers to older, less accurate, or less coherent EU works, which would not ordinarily fit in the main continuity of G and C canon. For example, this includes the popular online roleplaying game Star Wars Galaxies, and certain elements of a few N-canon stories.
N continuity material is also known as "non-canon" or "non-continuity" material. What-if stories (such as those published under the Infinities label) and anything else that cannot at all fit into continuity is placed into this category. "N-continuity" is not considered canon.
The game is C-canon..which is canon in continuity until George says it isn't canon. SWG was explicitly excluded from canon...according to some info from this discussion...
I'm aware of that list. It's just a way to make people that spend tons of money on EU stuff feel better. It's fan fiction with professional writers is all.
It's either Lucas canon or it's not. Simple as that. The same goes for anything someone writes in Tolkiens world somewhere down the line. If they don't/didn't approve of the outlines and final stories, then it's not canon.
Ambiance isn't about the lore and all of the game, its about the feel of the game.
I agree with this guys first sentence. Hero engine has amazing ai control, yet they didn't use it, at all. When I went to tatooine, I didn't feel like the sand people where lurking, waiting too attack, i felt like they where all standing in groups of 4 or 5 lifelessly staring at the sand(Except the pop up ones).
The cantina's are stocked full of people lifelessly meandering in the same place. Thats what bothered me about ambiance.
As far as lore(seperate thing), yeah, I think bioware did a great job with the lore, in theory the time span and story are very interesting. Hell the holocron entries where more exciting than the game was. I remember some of them, like magball. Using magnetic grapplers to climb up an arena to score(huttball, just vertical). That shiznit sounded amazing!
I think SWTOR lore would make some great books. I just don't think mmo's especially as static as that one can make the universe as exciting as you would expect or hope for. Than again, isn't that the problem with most mmo's now?
For those that say its worlds are full of life, and immersive, ok, but this is what I saw.
I wanted to pipe in about the day/night cycle.. For me it's almost a must if you truly want to call yourself a MMORPG.. Without simple things like that, you're nothing more then a shooting gallery console game.. How can a game breath and live without having some dynamic changes in the game such as day/night.... EQ did it right, I wish others followed..
G (George Lucas) canon is absolute canon. This category includes the final releases of the six films, the novelizations of the films, the radio dramas based on the films, the film scripts, and any material found in any other source (published or not) that comes directly from George Lucas himself. G canon outranks all other forms of canon.
T (Television) canon, which currently comprises Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the as yet unaired live action Star Wars TV series. This level of canon is considered to take precedence over C canon (see below), possibly due to the fact that George Lucas is directly involved with these shows as executive producer, and in the case of The Clone Wars is also on the writing team.
C (continuity) canon refers to the main body of EU work, and is the next most authoritative level of canon. All material published under the Star Wars label that doesn't fall into either G, T, S, or N canon is C canon and is considered authoritative as long as it isn't contradicted by G canon.
S (secondary) canon refers to older, less accurate, or less coherent EU works, which would not ordinarily fit in the main continuity of G and C canon. For example, this includes the popular online roleplaying game Star Wars Galaxies, and certain elements of a few N-canon stories.
N continuity material is also known as "non-canon" or "non-continuity" material. What-if stories (such as those published under the Infinities label) and anything else that cannot at all fit into continuity is placed into this category. "N-continuity" is not considered canon.
The game is C-canon..which is canon in continuity until George says it isn't canon. SWG was explicitly excluded from canon...according to some info from this discussion...
This makes sense, however, I will say that 90% of what is in SWG is more like Star Wars than content in SWTOR. Thus the complaints of SWTOR "not feeling Star Warsy enough."
Comments
The movies are canon and what most associate with Star Wars. Everything else, other than the Clone Wars, is not truly canon. Lucas would just rewrite everything if he was so inclined to play in that time period.
The Old Republic is just fan fiction with better writers. Just because their universe is well thought out, that doesn't mean it feels like the Star Wars of the films.
I like the story in SWTOR and leveling in that game has been my favorite leveling experience in an MMO. But I just think of SWTOR as being in a parallel universe to the films. Not anything that actually occurred or feels like the films.
G (George Lucas) canon is absolute canon. This category includes the final releases of the six films, the novelizations of the films, the radio dramas based on the films, the film scripts, and any material found in any other source (published or not) that comes directly from George Lucas himself. G canon outranks all other forms of canon.
T (Television) canon, which currently comprises Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the as yet unaired live action Star Wars TV series. This level of canon is considered to take precedence over C canon (see below), possibly due to the fact that George Lucas is directly involved with these shows as executive producer, and in the case of The Clone Wars is also on the writing team.
C (continuity) canon refers to the main body of EU work, and is the next most authoritative level of canon. All material published under the Star Wars label that doesn't fall into either G, T, S, or N canon is C canon and is considered authoritative as long as it isn't contradicted by G canon.
S (secondary) canon refers to older, less accurate, or less coherent EU works, which would not ordinarily fit in the main continuity of G and C canon. For example, this includes the popular online roleplaying game Star Wars Galaxies, and certain elements of a few N-canon stories.
N continuity material is also known as "non-canon" or "non-continuity" material. What-if stories (such as those published under the Infinities label) and anything else that cannot at all fit into continuity is placed into this category. "N-continuity" is not considered canon.
The game is C-canon..which is canon in continuity until George says it isn't canon. SWG was explicitly excluded from canon...according to some info from this discussion...
http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/13511/what-level-of-canon-is-the-lore-in-star-wars-the-old-republic
list of canon is found in wikipedia.
Ok so SWTOR is not like launch day,Bioware have made the world more living less static?
It's not like in these two clips anymore?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Rrk6lgi24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9_hqGsnpp8&feature=relmfu
If they have indeed made the world more living, good then I guess.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
Yeah the alternate options to the end of the story was one of the things missing. Plus the fact that Dark and Light points really mean nothing. I know everyone gets all defensive when you mention Skyrim (SANDBOX SANDBOX!! not the same!!), but it's one of the things that makes that game more fun, you don't always have to just smash your way in and kill everything to solve some of the quests.
I said once in another thread, that if you're going to do a story based game, it better be like the old "Choos Your Own Adventure" books, with more than one option to choose, and real consequences for making a poor choice. Getting to a cutscene, and deciding to kill some random NPC Imperial General, that in the end doesn't change the way the whole story plays out, is pointless.
It's nice to have a thinly veiled direction the story is headed, but how you get their should be up to the player.
As for the "ambience"... The quests are part of that, but the fact that NPC's don't move around, there is no day night, no changing weather... all these things add to immersion, and probabaly would have made the existing game without any changes feel just a bit more lifelike for most folks.
I'm aware of that list. It's just a way to make people that spend tons of money on EU stuff feel better. It's fan fiction with professional writers is all.
It's either Lucas canon or it's not. Simple as that. The same goes for anything someone writes in Tolkiens world somewhere down the line. If they don't/didn't approve of the outlines and final stories, then it's not canon.
I agree with this guys first sentence. Hero engine has amazing ai control, yet they didn't use it, at all. When I went to tatooine, I didn't feel like the sand people where lurking, waiting too attack, i felt like they where all standing in groups of 4 or 5 lifelessly staring at the sand(Except the pop up ones).
The cantina's are stocked full of people lifelessly meandering in the same place. Thats what bothered me about ambiance.
As far as lore(seperate thing), yeah, I think bioware did a great job with the lore, in theory the time span and story are very interesting. Hell the holocron entries where more exciting than the game was. I remember some of them, like magball. Using magnetic grapplers to climb up an arena to score(huttball, just vertical). That shiznit sounded amazing!
I think SWTOR lore would make some great books. I just don't think mmo's especially as static as that one can make the universe as exciting as you would expect or hope for. Than again, isn't that the problem with most mmo's now?
For those that say its worlds are full of life, and immersive, ok, but this is what I saw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Rrk6lgi24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9_hqGsnpp8&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUdZn5v5sEU&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJIsdl4BL2Q&feature=relmfu
to be fair, tor is huge making this more noticable than smaller mmo hubs packed full of the same amount of npcs.
This makes sense, however, I will say that 90% of what is in SWG is more like Star Wars than content in SWTOR. Thus the complaints of SWTOR "not feeling Star Warsy enough."
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011