Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Warzone Thoughts
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest column covering all things Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton takes a look at last week's news about Warzones. Mike admits to being pleasantly surprised by what the Bioware team showed off with regard to Warzones and he's got a few thoughts about what it all means. Read Mike's thoughts, then head over to the forums to have your say.
I have to start my column this week admitting that I’ve got some hat to eat. In a recent column, I noted that the fact that the show season had come to a close was a solid reason to not expect much in the way of new information on Star Wars: The Old Republic for a little while yet, and clearly, that wasn’t true.
Read more SWTOR: War Sometimes Changes.
Comments
Best piece of information released yet. Really has me stoked now. Even if we can't have more than 8vs8 warzone's, with 4 classes per-side, i can see these being really fun and competitively balanced. I am disappointed to see 'Warzones' are merely scenarios/battlegrounds and not ongoing open PvP zones, but with the addition of real-time objectives to spice things up i'm happy with how it is for now.
I wonder if we can expect open PvP in TOR at all? If not now, perhaps in future expansions?
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Eight vs. eight is for the Alderaan Warzone. They have not announced details on any other Warzones, so there may very well be Warzones with larger team sizes.
Encourages people to group up before hand. Larger groups won't make a difference, 8 people could still make a pre-made and say they are half of a team, 16v16. If they are any good they can easily change the battle.
It doesnt matter some people arent gonna like anythign bioware releases or says. They release info on one warzone thats 8 vs 8 and they say its the only type of warzone ull have. When bioware stated that each warzoen will be diffrent with diffrent kinds of objectives and group size. So it doestn really matter some hate everythign about this game and just post to put it down. I cant belive i got yanked back into defending tor. I wouldnt have to ddfend it if people wouldnt just post lies about it though.
8v8 seems like a good starting size to me. As pointed out whatever the size is even a small group within the larger team can dominate. Most other games have different size groups and objectives depending on the map size and I'm sure it will be the same here. To me it's about the only way a developer can try and please as many people as they can. I personaly like the objectives inside the warzone and can't wait for them to reveal more info.
As far as the companions go I would think it would be a must have. It will just bring that many more options and stratagies to the battle field
well, i will skip this part of SWTOR for sure. i like open pvp in persistent zones. you call 16 vs 16 an epic-fight? epic-fights are starting somewhere at 500 vs 500 from my point of view.
i remember that they said once, that there will be open-pvp in persistent zones as well. did they cancel this feature, or am i wrong?
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
Im just in shock the author didn't have a negative spin and was able to somehow keep Guild Wars 2 out of the article. I do think they are going to offer numerous scenarios like this one with different size teams (both big and small) and different objectives. The fact that there are quests within a scenario is a cool feature.
There Is Always Hope!
Encourages people to group up before hand. Larger groups won't make a difference, 8 people could still make a pre-made and say they are half of a team, 16v16. If they are any good they can easily change the battle.
That's bad. You should always keep organized pre-mades away from your general random queue players. When you queue up in a preset group you should only ever play other reset groups. Forcing someone with limited time to have to find a preset group just to compete is a terrible game mechanic. I'm just happy that TOR isn't a pvp focused game or that would be a game breaker for me.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Eight vs. eight is for the Alderaan Warzone. They have not announced details on any other Warzones, so there may very well be Warzones with larger team sizes.
Well Thats good news. I generally like to random queue when a game offers instances pvp and small scale maps force me to get a organized team together and I hate doing that in themepark mmos.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
They will still have open world PvP.
As for 8 vs 8, if you can end up using your companions in these warzones then I think you could easily expect 16 vs 16 gameplay, or even have the ability to have an uneven number of combatants. In this way I think they'll probably keep the companions out, as not everyone would use them.
If they do keep them in however, I think it would be one crazy battle. Later on with larger maps, different objectives and larger teams it could be really tough if they allowed companions in that as well.
I will wait and see what they do, i don't jump to conclusions and dictate a unleased game.
Just hope they note the problem Blizzard has had with their pvp zones and prevent the abuse you see in Wow.
What game is out there that has 500 vs. 500? The most I've ever seen is 30 vs. 30, and that happened twice. I'm hoping they will still have open world pvp, but you're expectations are unrealistic if you expect to see more than 60-100 people total in any fight.
Warzones? 8v8s? Really Bioware? Really?! This is the vision that you guys have in regards to PVP in SWTOR? It's one of the major reason why I couldn't stand Warhammer or didn't like the WoW Battlegrounds.
So basically you are going to have little multiplayer death matches with your 8v8's instead of having open world PVP. Hell even faction based PVP is fine as long as it's open world.
I think I'm going to skip this game and just play GW2 and Rift. Seriously. What garbage.
yes they will still have open world PvP.
And Usu, what game are you playing where there are epic 500 vs 500 PvP battles??
EVE Online had a battle just last week with 1600 v 1600.
So 500 v 500 is very much possible.
As has been said by Bioware in the past, the warzones are just one aspect of PvP in TOR. there will be open worldPvP, and there might even be PvP servers. Who knows.
Pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject as well. Bioware is doubling down financially on the same failed game direction that has torpedoed the previous "AAA" MMOs in recent years. You might think after watching countless failures and mass exoduses from games like Age of Conan and Warhammer who went this same route that someone at Bioware would have had enough foresight to recognize that people are sick to death of this model for PvP.
We can't forget I guess that the folks at Mythic are "helping" Bioware with this game. Given the recent track record of Mythic I wouldn't want them anywhere near my 150+ million dollar project, let alone adding in the worst parts of their failed game into mine. It's as if Bioware hasn't watched anything that has happened in the MMO genre in the last few years and think that somehow doing the same thing over and over will yeild a different result. It's MMO Insanity at its finest. The more info they release the more I think we are watching Titanic of MMOs steer into an iceberg in super slow motion.
TwitchTV Partnered Streamer
MMORPG.com Spotlight Blog Writer
Co-Leader of Inquisition
Youtube Channel
My only concern regarding narrative-centered "battlegrounds" is that the narrative will just be an annoyance that you have to deal with after you've done each warzone a couple of times. Cutscenes, quests, and story will lose their effect after they've been seen more than once or twice, and the repeatable nature of instanced PvP scenarios means players will be taking part in that same Alderaan warzone many times. Will we still care at that point, or will the narrative backdrop of each warzone go the way of similar aspects of WoW, like the quests in Alterac Valley that nobody's done in years, or the intro before Culling of Straholme that everyone hated sitting through so much that Blizzard had to add the option to skip it?
Bro I shiver at the thought of this. Having to sit through the same cutscenes over and over for quests, battlegrounds, etc? Should I scratch my nails against the chalkboard now or later?
Bah.. no thanks.
Thanks but no thanks. I don't need another capture the flag game.
Really had high hopes on this one. I wonder if we will ever get another DAOC style PvP game. If you wanted to pvp you could if you didn't want to you didn't have to. Grps had a role, solo's had a role, large zergs had a role.
Well these latest bunch of carebear catering mmo's have finally allowed me to leave the MMO world I believe for good.
BG that ends with a dramatic boom. Seeing a ship blow up and rubbing that in the face of the other side is EPIC. I am happy with this also not a hum drum get a flag WoW BG but I would like to see 16 vs 16 - 40 vs 40 BG with more depth. Quests, siege engine and structures you can smash.
For all those wanting open world FFA PvP....browse the game list, there are tons of those out there. Trying to turn every game in development into a FFA PvP game is just silly.
This is a storyline based themepark MMO with all the standard features. If that's not what your looking for, stop reading SWTOR news, your barking up the wrong skilltree.
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
Not sure I could have said it better myself!