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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Farewell to Skill Trees, Hello to Disciplines
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Star Wars: The Old Republic site has a new developer blog that lays out the new Discipline system. According to the blog, Discipline will offer players a wider range of game play options and completely gets rid of skill trees as the mainstay of character progression.
From a player’s perspective, interacting with the Discipline system couldn’t be easier. Our goal was to design an elegant system that brings forward class identity without sacrificing the challenge of mastering your role in the process. We have combined the interface and process of taking an Advanced Class and discipline all into a series of linked panels that you access in much the same way you previously accessed the skill tree. Once you are level 10, you can simply open up that interface and are presented with the options for each Advanced Class available to you. After selecting an Advanced Class, the next panel of the interface describes each of the three disciplines available and allows you to select one. You can preview each of them to see what they are all about, and once you see one you like, you simply select and commit it! The chosen discipline path is automatically set to your current level, so if you want to abandon and switch disciplines (similar to resetting skill points on the trees), you can take on the challenge of a new role with ease. To make sure newer characters could immediately feel the identity of their chosen discipline at level 10, we’ve made sure that the very first things you get tend to generate a big impact to the type of character you want to be: healers get a nice heal, tanks get good defense/threat, and DPSers get a nice attack ability for their rotation. Tanks no longer have to grind 30 levels before they really start getting “Tanky” abilities; they can start being tanks right away.
Read more on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site.
Comments
The talent trees were not very good and only have you the illusion of choice.
Some multi-tree specs will no longer be available but they were fee and very situational.
Also, it's about time they put in AC switching. It's also good to see that it's not a cash shop thing.
The new expansion looked good before and now it looks better.
i am happy they finally turned things around..i played during beta and didnt stick around long..i decided to giive it another chance last month..i am glad i came back..good,no,great game
here is the video of the stream for those that missed it
http://www.twitch.tv/swtor/c/5252907
Thanks for that. Looks good overall but the utilities look boring and basic.
Have to agree with that last part. The less any progression has to do with money conversions, gear, or buying items the better in any game!
Yeah, I liked what I saw quite a bit. And there was a good turnout for today's stream as well, with a bunch of people sitting there chatting for like three hours before it even went live.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
So.. I guess no one noticed that the SWTOR skill trees were WoW trees (with matching durations and cooldowns in the cases of some abilities), and now SWTOR is adopting WoW's drop of the skill trees and copying the talent system?
Maybe SWTOR does have a market for people who haven't played WoW yet.
I think the sad truth si tat the swtor devs are clueless on how to develop their mmo.
They were thinking about allowing the killing of companions. The fact that they were debating that in an MMO shows how bad they are in envisioning their own game for an MMO. Imagine someone incapable of thinking of the right thing and having to second guess themselves all the time because they have bad intuition. That's swtor devs, and probably why they develop very little content compared to the amount fo time they had since their game released.
I wish someone that cares about SW or even swtor just creates mods for it. Such as pazaak, gambling, player bounty system, opvp, mounted combat, allowing player creation for puzzles/wz and day/night cycle. I think its impossible for anyone to mod due to how bad the engine is, and it cant handle much more stress. But since they are modding they could also just take any engine and use that... I think that's the only hope to get a good solution to having a swtor that is more enjoyable.
Its nice that every 1.5 years they release a small expansion with some faction story. Its basically a shittier version of a sinlge player game for the time it takes to develop a single player game with completely new everything. So its a lot less developed by swtor and they have existing engines, assets, etc. The engine must also be holding them back since it seems anything they add will mean it throws some aspect of the game engine off, and have to spend so much time ironing out bugs... and ofc them being incompetent in envisinioning a better swtor.
I expect only more faction story at best from swtor. That's disappointing in that has become what swtor has to only offer as something I can enjoy as a paying customer. Combat is fun but out of balance, and pvp wz maps cant be chosen with only 8vs8 as the max.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
I don't like tree systems in any game and in SWTOR it was pretty much the main reason i stopped liking the game on every class at level 20.It did absolutely nothing to make my player feel any different and instead made my player not feel like any specific class but just a mess of weak ideas.
SO needless to say i think it is a brilliant move to make the change.The only problem i have is that level 10 is far too early to be calling any class an elite or advanced class.It is like 1 day of game play and all a sudden you are in advanced mode,seriously not well thought out.I know from my FFXI days it was level 15 but that was a whole different ball game,nothing automated like they are saying Disciplines will be ,like simply opening it up.
An Advanced version of your class should be a quest/mission,something you have to not only EARN but to discover.
Now if they can only understand that groups of 3 mobs together on the same AI is just weak as well they might begin to get this game right.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I do not have any problem if they learn from the best. Wow is my 1st, best game ever made. Swtor 2nd close. Less polished but prever lore.
Best so far however I find Rift soul system. One can have zillion valid combinations and have really customized alt.
the expansion will have 2 new Operations, 2 new Tactical FP's and 4 hardmode FP's.
Notice how the hardmode FP's weren't labelled new. That makes me think the 2 new tacticals doesn't launch as hardmode too. Hopefully later though, but 4 hardmodes isn't much.
Also, the new faction story will be "forged alliance styled" witch basicly means it's 90% the same story for both factions. On the plus side there will be 1 class specific quest thrown in.
Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem to be Makeb sized when it comes to story. On top of that it will be twice the price as Makeb if you are subscriber since there's no subscriber discount this time around.
Maybe this new forged alliance styled faction story will be twice as long as the faction story we got on Makeb, but I realy doubt it. I fear most of this new story will be the 2 new tactical FP's.
I know I'm being a pessimist. SWTOR has come a long way since launch, but almost everytime they do an update I try it out and it's good, but it's not great. The last stronghold feature was good, but it could have been so much better. I'm allways left with a slight disappointed feeling of what it could have been.
Hopefully less time wasted on balancing will mean more time spent on making new content.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Speaking from someone who used to spend tens of hours weekly on class building, there is no such thing as a zillion VALID combinations. You might get 3 or 4 viable builds per class.
PvE is a different story. There's always better builds, but in PvE any build will get you over the hump, generally speaking. You might get booted for being an idiot or making a stupid build, but you can survive on it.
Honestly, the Internet killed skill trees, imo.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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I understand the reasoning behind the change. It makes balancing easier. I just hope it doesn't make levelling/playing less fun. The main focus should be on making the game more fun for the player, not to make it easier for the developer.
Maybe the new discipline system will do both those things. From where I stand it looks like player choices are being taken away. We get new choices in form of these disciplines, so maybe it will even out, but I seriously doubt it.
Having said all that I doubt it will affect me much. I rarely play hybrids so having the game fill in my talents isn't much of an issue.
I guess you missed the casting while moving heroic utility then >.>
Also the utility system is still a top down mini-skill tree so they aren't totally dead.
Hybrids will live on , they will find a way
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Anyway my first impression is good , looks pretty decent really.
Cheers,
BadOrb.
PSO 4 years , EQOA 4 months , PSU 7 years , SWTOR launch ongoing , PSO2 SEA launch ongoing , Destiny 360 launch ongoing.
"SWG was not fun. Let it go buddy." quote from iiNoSkillzii 10/18/13
The original propoganda pixie dust villain :[]
LOL. What it is about Star Wars games that prompts major game mechanic overhauls? What a cursed IP Star Wars has become. I play this regularly, but this article caught me funny for some reason.