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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Community Q&A Thoughts
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest Star Wars: The Old Republic column, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton takes a look at last Friday's community Q&A and the information that the Bioware development team revealed. Mike found a lot of great tidbits that he's excited to discuss so keep reading! Be sure to leave us a comment when you're done.
The first question in last week’s Q&A raised the issue of disconnects during multiplayer dialogue. This would seem like one of those more obvious concerns, but I honestly had not even considered it up until now. Prior to Bioware actually giving us some solid information on how multiplayer dialogue would work, I’d been wracking my brain with some of the truly obvious concerns, but for some reason something as simple as how disconnects would affect the flow of dialogue escaped me.
Read more SWTOR: Community Q&A Thoughts.
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Nice pics !
I really have nothing nice to say about this, so I'll just say one thing.
I foresee tons of box sales and a very low number of subscriptions.
Interesting...
My concern is that EA Bioware's budget and direction indicates a goal of trying to make this game have a very broad audience from the beginning, and whenever a game does this, MMO or not, they usually end up pleasing nobody rather then everybody. As a gamer, a Star Wars fan, a RPG fan, and a MMO fan....I hope they pull it off. Like many have stated in various threads though...its hard to be anything but cynical given the amount of disappointments in the MMO genre, including SWG.
As for Bioware's multiplayer dialogue dilema, they should save any dialogue in an cinematic type menu system, storing any conversation as soon as it is started. Thus, a disconnected player can go back and review the content even though they might no be able to affect the outcome any longer. or something like that...just kind of blurted that out as I was thinking of it...
I don't really see how this is a concern since we don't know all the specifics. This would be no different then being on a Boss mob and disconnecting in the middle of a fight and then logging back on to see that the team beat the boss mob. Also we don't know if we can replay certain flash points.
In Bioware we trust!
Wow would like to have a word with you...
In Bioware we trust!
Granted Pug groups may pass by certain dialogue and forget about the player. But i believe any decent player will hit the esc key when they see someone drop and wait for them to show up. (the closer the friend the more time they may wait for the person to get back)
The story element isn't really any different the the loot option in games. The only thing that may get people worried is the element that once you make a decision that you can't change it (short of deleting the character) I don't see this as a concern or problem but as a great plus.
While granted some of the choices may be obvious so your not going to be scratching your head as to which you'll choose. Killing that captain will be permenant to your character instead of just being able to reload a save game thus makes you rethink if you should kill that captain or not as you'll know it will affect things down the line that you may not be able to see in your first play through.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
As to the person who responed up above me, ahem!!!! We want tons of folks playing the game, that gives us all more chances to do group content.
If you dont want to play a mmo then go play a first person shooter. I am tired of always having to solo, it would be nice to meat folks and make new friends and play with old friends.
I think the plan for agent/smuggler healing options is actually brilliant. BioWare seems to be moving away (at least in this case) from the cookie-cutter archetypes that have become so prevalent in MMO's today (i.e. that you have a standard healer class, a tank class, a DPS class). By spreading some of these skills out, you give hybrid players like me the opportunity to fill several roles in a pinch. In this case, DPS or healing... cool!
I hope they do this with the other advanced classes as well. It will give groups more options on how to fill spots.
I think you're overly worrying yourself. The truth is that none of us will know until we know. I'm trying not to freak myself out over reports from people who haven't played the game.
So... we will see when we see.
No reactions on the advance class specs yet but I'm personally hoping for something like the following when it comes to specs.
Say a juggernaut DPS specs relies on debuffs ( enemies fear you so they put up less of a defence ), in total making their target take double damage. While a Marauder DPS spec relies on buffs ( channel your own anger and hatred ) in total making themselves do double damage.
Say at base they both do 50 DPS. With buffs both do 100 DPS. 2 Juggernauts will as such do 200 DPS, as will 2 marauders.
But a marauder and a juggernaut together will do 300 DPS ( 50 DPS for mara times 2 from buff becomes 100. Plus 50 for jug becomes 150. Times 2 from debuff becomes 300 )
A system in which there's no clear cut choice of the #1 class for any given role but rather reinforcing combinations by putting diminishing returns on using the exact same spec multiple times or adding bonusses to using a mixture of specs.
I'm not sure what size raids will be but I'm hoping that the spec choices for raids will be focusses on filling the gaps in the raids instead of having say 2 tanks with "I can do nothing but tank" spec, 5 healers with "I can do nothing but heal" spec and 9 DPS with "I can do nothing but spam my best direct damage ability" spec.
We are the bunny.
Resistance is futile.
''/\/\'''''/\/\''''''/\/\
( o.o) ( o.o) ( o.o)
(")("),,(")("),(")(")
Normally on hybridization of classes you give something to get something. For example, in the smuggler spec, you may be giving up some additional DPS for a heal or two, but while you may not kill things nearly as fast, you may increase your survivability and the survivability of your group. This may increase the damage you deal over time and allow you to take on tougher enemies or backup a healer if you need to.
I almost always play the most versatile class simply for this reason. If I can do a little bit of everything it makes me more of an asset in non-structured groups where you don't know how good the players around you are or how tough the content ahead of you is. In a structured group, they usually like very strong class selections so they can max the DPS and healing and sometimes don't have as much room for someone that can do a little of everything.
The most interesting aspect of this class system though, is that you have very different playstyles for your smuggler, IA and jedi's. You have healing, crowd control, DPS and stealth abilities in these characters. I can't wait to get my hands on them.
can't wait to hear more from the game... It has all the 'ingridients' to revolutionize the MMO industry and finally push WoW to the Greatest MMO... of the Past
Having seen the dialogue wheel of other Bioware games such as Mass Effect 1 and 2 I do have some concerns over the choices where what you think you are picking comes up differently when the protagonist speaks. And in the end you end up picking your option where it is in the wheel rather than what choice you pick. And this can be a shame in the design.
The other problem as seen in Mass Effect is that you need a high Paragon or Renegade score to get certain dialogue options. Getting both options seldom helps cause you can only pick one so its best to focus on light or dark. So people may just pick all good through the conversation choices just to max thier lightside so they can make the difficult choices. More so if Dark Side leads to making you look like a walking corpse.
I will buy this game and I will play it, if it is even a mediocre game, I will enjoy it, I have no expecptaions, I do not wear my devlopers cap and try to pic apart everything, that can go wrong, the biggest problem with TOR imho, is players are coming here with allot of baggage they can't seem to let go of, just enjoy the game for what it is, if it's not fun to you, move on, thats what I do when I do not like a product, I am not expecting TOR to turn the mmo world upside, I just hope it's fun..:)
I would also like to see some randomness to where the choice is on the wheel. But it sounds like if may be more obvious as in Me. Jedi will have the light choice on top and dark choice on the bottom. And Sith will have the dark choice on top and the light choice on the bottom. Random and a bit vague would be better IMO, but I guess they have to develop the game with the least common denominator as far as intelligence.
As far as ligh and dark alignment. You could always just pick missions as a crew skill point and change your alignment as you wish. So you could pick any choice you want in the dialogue and still be a walking corpse by use of the dark point missions. But it would cost you a crafting skill if you want to craft.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
Just wanted to say you're wrong about the Smuggler / IA not being as dedicated as the JC / SI...
A dev responded to that question saying those classes are just as viable for healing as the Jedi / Sith healers...
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
I can sympathize with wanting my dialog and story choices to follow some predetermined path I have concocted in my imagination. Sometimes it's just more fun to let things happen. If it really concerns players, I'm sure every dialog choice and chain will be on the internet in less than a month after release.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I tought they changed this issue by pressing ESC key if you are in a party , or solo want to skip the cinematic and choices.
(think by pressing ESC you going for the standard reply dark is dark , light is light )
The other issue about connectivity i really dont know or cannot answer at all , since i am curious how EA is going to do the net work support .
The Advance classes and choices i love it .
Honestly with myriads of choices and points to put , yes mistake will be big but sorry , one thing i cannot stand about wow.
Is the dumbing down of talent choices , i like a bit of calcuation and testing when working out talent combinations .
So dont think the medic is going to be broken since enough people want to play healers .
I am continually surprised to see posts disparaging a game that has not even been released yet, nor even given us a whole lot of information on how the playing will actually be. Really it is nothing more than a show of ignorance on the part of those posters, it just amazes me that they want to show their own ignorance to so many people.
I have no idea how this game is going to turn out, but I do admittedly have a little bit of faith in this particular game. If for no other reason than I have not yet played a BioWare game that I did not like. I am excited to see what happens with it as time goes on as I can see a lot of posters are.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
Don't make me dig it up, but I am 99% sure that the choice you make during dialog counts towards your dark/light side points and then a roll is made for the entire group which has no bearing on your dark/light side points. Also, you can repeat these flashpoints until you get the result you want, the last iteration being the one that sticks with your character.
This means that if there is a loot drop at the end of the flashpoint that you are better off going all the way through with your current group to get the loot and then rerunning with a new group if you are unhappy with the dialog choices. From my understanding, your choices and what the group chooses are independent of each other so you might as well get the loot.
These Q&A dev posts stink of intramural softball pitches. With that said, I am as titillated (or is it Twi'lekated in the SW universe?) as the author is. The mistake that many people are making right now is focusing too much on story. Yes, there is story, but how does it impact the actual immersion of gameplay? It isn't about story. It is about CONTEXT. Context means "why am I doing this?". Am I doing this because the questhelper arrow tells me to go to this spot and kill things? If so then there is no context. Am I doing this because I feel emotionally tied to the quest givers plight, or emotionally driven to ruin their day? If yes, then there is context.
This is why this Q&A question is so devious. It makes us think about why context is so important, and why the lack of context in other MMO's is such a glaring omission.
I can't wait to get into a group of former WoW players and "experience the storyline" with them. I think most people playing these games don't even read the dialogue, of those that do, most don't roleplay their character and just choose based on what sounds cool or they would think would yield the best reward.
Multi-player storyline would be cool to do with a few like-minded, RP-centric guildies. Doing it with a bunch of random lolcats is going to be .. uhm.. interesting. "lulz, i just shot him so i can corpse-hump him...lol lol lol".
Their LFG tool better have an IQ test and a RP personality evaluation.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
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I think the lack of World PVP is killing me..... i hate stupid battleground they take all the fun out of pvping.