Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Video of ships in flight?
SynxVII
Member Posts: 168
The ship interiors look really nice but I cant find any footage of them being flown, would be nice to see. Anyone have any links?
Comments
I don't think that's how they work. They're basically player housing. They don't fly. They just jump from planet to planet. You get the choice of more planets every time you are given their coordinates during the 'story'.
ah, thats kinda dissapointing =/
Welcome to the club. Although we aren't 100% sure yet. Maybe will be a surprise in the future.
Didn't BioWare already say something along the lines of "if we add space combat we'll add it at the beginning or not at all", mainly because they saw how space combat was implemented in SWG?
If you read reviews about SWG when it came out in '03, it was thoroughly, THOROUGHLY panned by many for not having space travel and space combat. People expect that in Star Wars, especially for something big like an MMORPG. It usually reviews something like, "Where's the space combat? Where's the starfighters? This is Star Wars for f***'s sake!"
BioWare would do well to not do SOE's mistake in this.
SWG eventually got the Jump to Lightspeed expansion. It was good but there were limitations as to what kind of an experience you can get. Fleet engagements were impossible, since the presence of a single Star Destroyer was barely what the game engine could handle.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Initially the SWTOR ships will function just like the Ebon Hawk did in the KOTOR games: its a base of operations and storage for your items and companions. However, in SWTOR you wil be able to invite your friends in (if thats your kind of thing). And there's mention that they will be customisable in some way (we don't have the specifics).
Now, they DID mention that theres more coming concerning "space".....
http://www.massively.com/2010/06/15/massivelys-exclusive-swtor-interview-starships-pvp-and-craft/#continued
"One of the things people have been asking -- especially since the ships came out yesterday -- can you fly them through the galaxy? Do you fly them? Can you go through space? How is space implemented in the game?
As far as space goes we are not talking much about that. We talk about the player ships. Every class will have their player ship. Which is really cool -- kind of their central base for things. That's pretty much where we like to have it because we are actually working right now on some cool stuff for space, and we'd rather talk about it when we get it finalized. If everyone thinks about Star Wars there are always components we have to have. We have ships! We may have other things.
Ooh... That sounds interesting. Now the ships, they are going to work like player housing, right?
They are bases for you very similar to player housing. We haven't talked much about customization. and the reason we [haven't] is because we haven't really implemented a lot of those systems in the game yet. We are working with other things with your spaceship other than that. About customization, you will have to wait and see. Other than player housing? Yeah, it's your base.
You can bring your friends in and socialize in your own personal little instance?
Yes. There will be places to go. Think of the map in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. That's kind of what our navigation will be for traveling around in your spaceship."
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
honestly, SWG didn't drop Jump to Lightspeed till a year after release. so im sure it will get there.
If we want to guess from looking at KotOR what the ships will be like then they will fly. But they will be interactive cutscenes with dialogue and ships dogfighting. The player won't be able to directly control the ship flight. The player might be able to aim the turrets at ships in chase, protect the engine room from boarding attackers.
There will probably be cut scenes showing the ship landing and taking off from planets.This is Bioware's style and it allows them to develop quests or missions that can really get into the storytelling factor.
Although this is what it sounds like, nothing has been confirmed about space travel when it comes to the ships.
For now they are just player housing but that in itself isn't bad at all. Not sure they are going to make it a KOTOR cloned system but like I said, nothing have really been confirmed/denied so we'll have to wait.
If they do implement space like that, it would be the largest disappointment with a Star Wars MMORPG.
The form of space combat from KOTOR is fine for a single-player RPG, but not (IMO) for something like an MMORPG where the scope of gameplay really needs to be expansive. Something for players to sink their teeth into. Not some pitiful railshooter.
Even SWG's "Jump To Lightspeed" expansion pack from 2004 enabled:
+ Player Starfighters - X/Y/A/B-Wings, TIEs, etc.
+ Multiplayer Starcraft - Player owning ship is pilot, rest can man the turrets and whatnot. Examples: YT-1300, Decimator. In addition, the ship could act as a player's home to store things and decorate.
+ Custom Outfitting and Paint Schemes of your ships: Get different engines, shields, weapons, torpedoes, power plants, etc. This equipment could be looted or purchased from player shipwrights.
+ Missions run in space
+ Resources to gather in space
+ PvP zones
"JTL" had flaws as a space portion for SWG, but it did allow a number of things. I would be very surprised and extremely disappointed if BioWare cannot top this effort. An effort that went live in 2004. I find it absurd for me to throw out SOE a kudos since I detest them so, but I have to give them credit: SWG's space game was one of the only things they did good after going live with SWG, and the ONLY thing they decided not to screw over when they went with the NGE in '05. For BioWare to not even talk about details that blow away a 6 year old effort is very disappointing.
Heh, they probably figured to finally start working on it now
BioWare Dev 1: "The unwashed masses keep asking about space travel and combat."
BioWare Dev 2: "But they can travel map to map."
BioWare Dev 1: "No, not just that. I mean, like fly around like a pilot and blow sh*t up in space and stuff."
BioWare Dev 2: "Why?"
BioWare Dev 3: "Something about Star Wars methinks..."
BioWare Dev 1: "D**n. We need to start working on it. Let's put a rail shooter in instead. That'll shut 'em up."
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
While I do like space combat in Star Wars I disagree that it needs to be in a Star Wars MMO for certain. In addition I don't know how realistic it is to expect them to not only have a great MMO, but then another game in there as well with a different style of gameplay all in one release.
Just my opinion on this though. I'll be fine if its just player housing and travel.
Realistic expectations or not, it WILL be expected by many that TOR will have space flight and combat. Again, SOE was railed hard by reviewers for not having such a thing when the game went live in 2003. BioWare is a reputable company, and one, including myself, would expect a better effort from them than SOE did with SWG. Most especially since SOE's effort is from 2004.
Again, people will expect space flight and combat. Because it **is** Star Wars. Not having it will be a huge mistake and people will not look kindly at that. SWG certainly did not get the benefit of the doubt when it came out for not having it.
Edit to add: Why do you think people from different sources ask about space combat, or bother to reprint a query from another group that asked about it? Because it means quite a bit, and the Star Wars movies showed space combat quite a bit, oftenly being at the climax of something big. All the movies had them from the Original Trilogy and even into the Prequel Trilogy. The first Clone Wars cartoons showed quite a bit also. Why? Because not having starship combat in Star Wars is like seeing a 3 legged dog. Something's missing and it just doesn't look right. And since TOR is supposed to be a MMORPG, just like SWG is, it is fair to expect people wanting a broad experience in the game if they're going to put alot of time into it.
SWG was buggy as hell when it came out and it was mentioned in the reviews. But the lack of space combat was constantly, constantly a major point that the game lacked. The same will be done with TOR if it doesn't have it.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Oh that is such a shame. I on the other hand think that this looks great a base to play from on any visited planet even the ones that may not have formal cities or starports. THis will be a useful tool for linking quests/planets and will add some nioce immersion to the game, all in all yet anoter nice addition to the game.
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
Bioware are a reputable company you are right and as such will deliver to their design which is realistic. I love the IP and will enjoy playing what they deliver. I guess I could create lots of false expectations in my mind, which is what you are doing here.
That way I will enjoy the game delivered. Unlike others who will be dissapointed ecause their mind will be telling them that something is missing when it is not.
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
In all probablity the size of the ships would make space combat in any meaningful way impossible. Everyone would be in a frieghter or bigger and there would be a lack of fighters. Which means if space combat is it in will be some clone wars adventure style mini game involving a turret and taking pot shots as fights fly passed you.
I think you forgot to say "some" before "people". I could care less about space fighting. If I wanted that, I'd play STO or EvE. I would be happy playing in Bioware's version of the Star Wars universe.
Funny how people think they will spend how much on this game? and not launch with space combat?I have been reading a lot this past week about what people think this game is going to be like when it launches and laugh a bit on the inside cause 90% of them are wrong. Oh no open world, instanced only PvP, Single player game with "MMO" slaped on it, WoW with lightsabers, I can go on.
I had a talk with a friend over beers last weekend and we got to talking about the game he is now working on for Bioware(he is a employee) and how it was comming along. I launched into a rant about how people are guessing about this and that when it comes to SW:ToR which provoked this comment "Yeah people don't understand the scope of this game. It is funny because people are used to games launching without this feature and that feature but ToR is gonna have it all." So I was like "Yeah it took them how long to put space combat in SWG?" which got the reply "Yeah and even then it was not that shit hot. But for a MMO to have ground and space combat at that time was HUGE! So hats off to them for pulling that off. Anyways, ToR is gonna blow that away." To which I reply "What? The space combat? and he responds "Yeah" At which point My GF and his GF showed up (Who are best friends) and the topic quickly changed to who was ordering what and why we did not have cold beer waiting for them...
Not that I expect anyone to believe a word of this but after reading all the crap posted on these forums I could care less.
"Some" people ARE "people." For all we know, folks like you who don't care about space combat could be the minority. You could care less about space combat, but I guarantee you quite a bit of others do. The fact that many gaming sites / etc. bother to ask or reprint someone else's query about space combat should give you a slight clue as to how much it means. Mark my words on this:
When the game goes live and the game has no space combat. Reviewers WILL question the decision not to have it and will reflect. Players WILL ask why there's no space combat and will complain about it.
Alot of boasting for a company that "supposedly" has great space combat but refuses to even tell not one single, supposedly great detail that "blows away" anything done before. Alot of boasting for a company that the only thing they talked about was that people can have ship "houses" and shuttle planet to planet.
Excuse me for saying this, but the term Underwhelming comes to mind.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Pretty sure the largest disappointment with an Star Wars MMO would be that you get a job washing dishes and can't be a Jedi.
Anyhow, ToR will definitely have combat in space. I don't know if they'll implement you controlling a ship or not, but they have scenes where you have to stop borders and things like that on a ship. So there are space battles you are part of, which is pretty significant. Your ship is also a real object in the game, and they've shown how the smuggler has to get their ship back, among other things, so it isn't treated like something that is separate from the world. Overall I think these are good things.
I believe that's mashing a quote about general features with the idea of space flight. IIRC, they've never said anything like that about space flight.
Eh, I look at it this way:
1: There is still a year or so of development left on TOR.
2: Bioware has already announced all their base classes
3: The basics of ground combat have already been revealed
4: They need something to keep the hype going, or growing, for the remainder of the dev cycle.
Sure, they can get into the specifics of raiding, warzones, companions and advanced classes, but that doesn't have that much pull to it in terms of hype. They have already announced that it will be there, and while specifics are nice, there is no 'omg this is huge' factor in any of that. Same goes for things such as crafting, and their take on server economies which, while very interesting, are a bit academical for the casual player and are things that need to be experienced rather than just read about to truly understand.
Announcing that "Yes, we will have space combat" would qualify as an "omg this is huge" announcement, and would build a considerable amount of hype. It would be silly for Bioware to announce this yet, as the hype surrounding TOR would peak well before the game is released. Bioware are anything but stupid and you can bet money that they have a very carefully planned out announcement schedule made specifically to maximize hype leading up to the game. After all, as has been pointed out many times, for most distributors (not saying Bioware necessarily, but definitely EA), it's all about the number of sold boxes on release day.
Given how tight-lipped Bioware has been with giving out information beyond their announcements, I am fairly certain that we will get more "major" surprises along the way. Will space flight and combat be in the finished game? Hell, I have no idea. I do think though, that their campaign of announcements and information/lack of information is very carefully planned out, and that we will know in time.
http://machineborn.guildportal.com - Now recruiting players!
They are also tight-lipped because they like to be certain the feature is working right and will be fun before they put it in. If they are working on space combat, and it ended up they couldn't get it to work right, then they can not have it in the shipped game without taking back anything they said. This avoids a lot of negative hype which many other devs get by promising the moon and failing to deliver. Frankly I think this is the major motivation in what keeps them tight-lipped.
I understand why they are tight lipped. A lot of SWG players are constantly bashing the game progressions head in with no good words for the game. And apart from that... its a fact the these days people expect more from a game. MMO's are not longer played in the same way as 10 years ago where people just logged in to have fun with fellow players.
These days people just want to get cookies & pats on the back for every achievement. Some people have no interest in the storyline and group activity's. Instead.. they only look to other games... WoW has this and that (WoW clone)... SWG had this already... Aion bla bla.. AoC had that too. Most MMORPG's share similar things which serve as a good and steady base. Pushing and bashing games that are under development instead of giving proper feedback.
As I mentioned several times in other threads.. I am really looking forward to SWTOR and what Bioware comes up with. Same counts for other games that will be developed in the future.
Hopefully the storylines will be great, as in most Bioware games. I am also curious about the gameplay but I guess that we will find that out soon enough!
Maybe, or this might be something they plan to add in an expansion. Or not at all.
But only fools talks about a lot of untried features, WAR got really bashed for cutting a lot of things that either sounded good but didn't work or just cost them to much money to be implemented. People are still complaining that Aoc cut the drunken brawling.
Bioware play safe like Arenanet, it either works or we wont hear about it at all.
I don't care if the feature is in or not personally, just if the game is fun to play or not..
Those that keep saying SWG was panned for not including space flight/combat at release are only telling half the story. The reason the game was panned was not because the missing content was somehow fundamentally offensive to Star Wars fans. The reason that SOE was criticized for not including space combat at release was because they chose to split the game in half for increased box sales (the ground portion named An Empire Divided, and the space portion named Jump to Lightspeed). The SWG dev team had announced that space combat would be an integral part of the game over two years before it went live. The community knew it existed, and they naturally and reasonably wanted it included with the base price of the boxed game.
So yes, SOE and SWG were panned for not including space combat on release, but for an entirely different reason than has been suggested in this thread. Fans were pissed that they were being nickel and dimed. JTL was ready for prime time at SWG's release, the official reason for the staggered release was to give players a chance to establish their characters before the added layer of space flight was turned on (for addl $$$).
That all said, I think SW:TOR will not suffer if it does not have full space flight/combat. Sure some small percentage of players that want to be pissed, will be pissed, and may not play (or will play, but complain none-the-less). But the vast majority of potential players will probably not be overly disturbed by the lack of content that was never advertised to begin with.