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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Space Combat Presentation
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
During a recent visit to EA's Redwood Shores studio for Star Wars: The Old Republic "Immersion Day", MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton had the opportunity to sit in on a presentation regarding one of the game's more controversial features: Space combat. See what Mike saw and check out his thoughts about the presentation.
For the purposes of our presentation, Daniel Erickson and crew demoed the Bounty Hunter’s D5-Mantis, though he also touched briefly on the Imperial Agent’s X-70B Phantom. The D5-Mantis is a cramped ship with a vertical design, clearly inspired by Boba Fett’s Slave I. Players can access their ships via instanced hangars in any spaceport, with a hangar set up for each class.
Read more of Mike Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic Space Combat Presentation.
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Sometimes I think Mike may have the best job in the world. Well writen as normal and an enjoyable read.
I love the ship interiors and exteriors. I hate the Star Fox or on rails space combat. Enough said.
Let's party like it is 1863!
Still don't like that its a rail shooter, but the hopes that multiplayer may be more "free" formed is a great tease to keep me interested.
Jeez, I hope the romancing the NPC's comment was a joke, the last thing a MMO like this needs is a "Leisure Suit Larry" episode. That would really make the game a laughing stock if it is in game IMO.
Have to wait and see how the space environment plays out, looks like it is much better than we initially thought.
If you're talking about romancing companions in general, that's been part and parcel of every BioWare RPG since Baldur's Gate 2; and all the sci-fi RPGs they've put out, such as KOTOR and Mass Effect, had you doing the dirty deed on your ship. Not exactly unexpected.
Wouldn't really call a kiss and a shot of bare back "doing the dirty deed."
It's merely implied like in basically every single movie produced in the last 10 years.
We are the bunny.
Resistance is futile.
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With such a large amount of ground content at launch I am forgiving of the rail shooter, as it will be a fun mini game for a while, and I am sure an expansion will come out to modify it. I mean look at SWG it didn't get space exploration until Jump to Lightspeed. Give it time, I'm sure there are some changes coming post launch.
Have Played: FFXI, WoW, Aion, DCUO
Waiting For: TSW, World of Darkness, SWTOR
Currently Playing: KOTOR
Tried: Matrix Online, Rift, Xsyon, LOTRO, EVE, Guild Wars
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Gladiator had no such implications, or any sort of female nakedness, or "dirty deed" doing. best movie ever.......still, i agree it's a rare exception to the rule.
as for SWTOR, who cares about the 1 scene? just make sure the game works when it's launched.
I may be the only one here, but I am looking forward to the "tunnel shooter". I like that style of gameplay.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Cool write-up.
Yup give the game initial popularity and growth and feed-back - THEN - in proportion to those key things add the 2nd Gameplay in addition to the 1st gameplay (class combat) ie SPACE-FLIGHT: Ranging from multi-coop to multi-player coop to full multiplayer and free roaming and even pvp... there's a wide number of possibilities ranging from the lowest "add-on feature" to the most ambitious second game in a game.
This is very situation with B* by Spacetime Studios trying to create an mmo with ground combat and space combat. They're going the "wait and see" route for their mobile mmo. I really hope both games eventually go the distance and are massively successful. To mix up the gameplay in this way would be very welcome.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
Soooooo, "free fly" space combat.....Lets see if i got the gist of their line on this.....
IF you buy the game and give them a ton of feedback,they will listen and it could get added...
BUT since there was already huge feedback before the release asking for it,and many many forum posts saying the "tunnel " implementation was a major drawback in the posters opion,and that didnt manage to change their minds yet.....
It sure comes off as a "buy our product and we will surely listen to you, even though we havent in the past" kind of sales pitch.Which suggests they understand this is considered a weak point in their game, but that they are NOT quite willing to change it yet,or ever.
BUT are more than happy to give the impression they might, as long as it drives sales.....
Thanks for the write up.
I like the traveling along with friends in spaceships bit.
And the keeping prisoners in a cage bit.
As well as the traveling with spaceships costs money bit.
I hope they get to work on customization of the spaceships soon though, would add a lot of RP flavor and incentive imo.
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Would you rather have them hold off the release for another year while they add in the space combat that you will approve of? No thanks.
Sounds great.
I personally had no issue with the "tunnel" space flight, i like to get to the point and have exploration be optional.
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I see it more as a "We'd add it if we had infinite time and money, but we don't. So for release we're making some choices as what goes in and what does not. After release though when there's more time and money available we can take a second look at things to see if we can put them into the game or if there's other things that are better put in."
Don't count on free fly space combat being put in. If free fly space combat is something you require from SWToR then don't buy the game. But if you think free fly might be a nice addition to what's already there then it's not impossible for an expansion or something to add it in. Just make sure you're also happy without it.
We are the bunny.
Resistance is futile.
''/\/\'''''/\/\''''''/\/\
( o.o) ( o.o) ( o.o)
(")("),,(")("),(")(")
Im dreaming an xwing vs tie fighter some time.
Look I think we're all after a kind of dream 'Elite'-styled, hyperspeed-around-a-realistic-scale-galaxy, fly through random planetary atmospheres, land where you like, run about and shoot things and get into adventures, free-roaming, massive scale sandbox , even partially Eve-like game here. I'd a least hoped this was the next logical direction in sci-fi MMORPGs and naively thought that SWTOR would be the game to deliver this in a Star Wars format. It's not and was never going to be. Why? Because:
a) Making such a dream game with virtually limitless roaming and play possibilities would be very hard if not impossible to make on a normal game development budget.
b) Such features are way beyond surplus to requirements to keep 99% of the Star Wars punters happy forking out a monthly sub to live out their Han Solo fantasies in a scripted-multiple-choice-answer form.
They're a company and like all companies they'll do as little as reasonably possible to make the most cash in the short term (preferably long term) of the game's lifespan. Anyone interesed in the game should consider themselves lucky to be even getting an on-the-rails space combat system given the relatively superficial intent of the game developers.
Nah. I actually love that sort of game.
If it's 1/2 as good as Panzer Dragoon, the game play will be 8 times better than most MMORPGs general gameplay.
Here's the thing. I think of the space travel as basically their version of flight paths from WoW (Not that I'm saying they're basing it off of WoW, but just the whole idea of a location-to-location slow travel)
It's just that Bioware decided to make it a minigame instead of an excuse to make yourself a sandwich. Sounds fine to me.
So SW:ToR is a game focused on ground exploration, they could have just used a cinematic flying scene, and that would have been a lot worse.
What id rather, is that they didnt hold out "what the game could be" to try and sell what the game is.Enron based marketing is not a good thing....
While I am still disapointed by the rail shooter space game I am glad to see that they want to make a free roam part and it will depend on feedback. I am sure there will be tons of people that want a free roam there are more pilots out there then most of you might think. I do hope that they make it an optional thing though those who want to go free roam or actually fly to where they want to be can and those that just want to click on the map and go right into a little space fight can do that as well. I think that would be the best of both worlds.
My experince in SWG showed me that the people focused on the ground did not realize how active space was and the same goes for the people focused on space, there is a large number of people in both catigories. That is why I think they need both, some people simply are not interested in getting that into space other are both should be an option.
As far as the romance goes, good throw it in there, Romantic links have been in all the star wars movies and in fact a romantic link was a huge part of Anikin's desire to control everything, was not the only part but, was a large part. Most movies have the hero and the hero's romantic link does not mean it has to be porno style, porno is not romance anyway, but a romatic link adds flavor IMO.If you don't like the romantic link don't pursue it. it is really that simple.
I think it is high time they start making games more geared for adults anyway, most of the 80's and 90's gamers are adults now and they still like playing games. Despite popular belief games are not just for children any more and many adults that play are getting tired of restrictions based on children. Not to say that children should be exposed to it, I don't agree with that but, there needs to be a method of letting the adults be adults and let the children be children. Anyone who thinks there kids don't encounter this information outside the house and at school is an idiot.
The ship interiors look great although I recall it being said that you could decorate the inside of your ship and now it looks like you can't. That needs a fix as well, I loved swg before SOE totally wreacked it and I realize that The Old Republic is not tring to be SWG2 nor do I want it to be but, people like decorating there house they like to have that weapon they used for so long on the wall, Put that personal touch on there residence. Decorating should be an option, my houses in swg had everything from my first set of armor to rare artifacts I have found in my adventures and I loved to show them off.
House decorating is lacking in most other games and non exsistant in games like wow so it is not a must have but, is a nice option. I have heard many devs say that it is hard to keep up because of resources, well then get your company's head out of there behind and get them to supply the server with more resources. Games like wow that are makeing millions if not billions per month have no place complaining about resources, use some of that money to buy a few sticks of ram.
Space combats are single player only?! I think this game will actually give some meaning to the oxy moron single player MMORPG.
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Space combat is just a minigame at launch, no telling how it'll develop after launch. All the other gameplay aspects in SWTOR so far are reported to be as massively multiplayer as any other MMORPG by people who actually played the game.
In several cases even more multiplayer oriented than other MMO's because of the addition of a number of group friendly features that other MMO's don't have.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I have a somewhat heretic opinion on this matter. I never cared much about space combat / travel in the time frame TOR takes place. Besides, the best SW game lacked completely of this aspect. And yes, i am referring to KotOR. Creating a free roam space feature consistent with Bioware's standards will require time and a a hefty amount of money. I would prefer having these spend on other features like more worlds in the first expansion, fully fledged swoop bike racing where players race each other etc.
Two things of note caught my attention:
1) Someone frozen in Carbonite and displayed on your ship. In Empire when they freeze Han Solo they do it as a test to see if Luke will survive the same process, because it hadn't ever been before. Now 5000 years in the past it's apparently done all the time. It's something a casual fan will let slide, sure, but it's going to make a lot of the hardcore fans scratch their heads.
2) They mention they'll consider free flight if it turns out that's what the community wants. Well... the community has been pretty vocal about this feature up to this point that free flight would be ideal. Don't get me wrong, I loved me some Star Fox and I'm sure I'll enjoy this mini-game, but I also think X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Wing Commander, and similar space flight sims were the pinnacle of this type of entertainment. I would love to see that incorporated in the game.
I'd rather see them hold off on the space feature entirely and introduce it in an expansion sometime in the near future. This isn't the best IP to go half-assed on the space part, know what I mean
I can see a lot of customers ending up pretty disappointed once they see all this has to offer.
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