Gaming Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][SIZE="2"]After months of speculation it's been confirmed, KOTOR is being given the MMORPG treatment by role-playing gods Bioware (now owned by EA) with LucasArts support and rechristened simply The Old Republic for this new outing.


Star Wars Galaxies and Sony be damned, we're finally getting the SW MMO we've all wanted where a couple of thousand Jedi and Sith running around the galaxy brandishing lightsabers doesn't look retarded if you know the timelines. We've yet to have confirmation of races and classes, but it's definitely going to be a lot, given their activity in the last two games I'd say we might even get playable Mandos in this one.


Oh and yes, we're getting the Jedi Academy on [B][I]Tython[/I][/B] people, if you call yourself a Star Wars fan and haven't just cried manly tears of joy over Bioware's love of fans through the use of SW lore then you need to go commit seppuku with your plastic lightsaber right now.


[url=http://www.swtor.com][B]Link to main page.[/B][/url]

[b][Edit][/b] Added a few polls.[/SIZE][/font] Edited December 6, 2011 by Gavin

[PWNED]

I am looking quite forward to this, I do hope that when released that the only way you pay is when you buy the game ala Guild Wars.

[Gavin]

[quote name='PWNED']I am looking quite forward to this, I do hope that when released that the only way you pay is when you buy the game ala Guild Wars.[/QUOTE]

[SIZE="1"]I doubt it to be honest, Guild Wars is pretty much the only MMO that I know that doesn't charge fees and I can't see the LucasArts and EA money-making machines passing up the ability to make even more cash from their fans. That said, if it's relative to the other big MMOs for the content, I'd say it's well worth it, this is a Bioware RPG after all.

Oh something I forgot to add to the original post, May 4th is almost undoubtedly going to be this things release date, probably next year, maybe the year after that but definitely a May 4th. :animesmil[/SIZE]

[Drizzt Do'urden]

I've never been a real big star wars fan. But the idea of using the "force" powers in massive arena battles, brandishing awesome blasters and missiles as Bounty Hunters, and massive battles in the vacuum of space via crazy spacecraft is none-the-less interesting.

I don't play a lot of PC games myself, but I would be more than willing to give this a go. Barring I'm nto still lost in a sea of dead locusts and/or dead Nazi's thanks to COD 5 and GOW2

[silpheedpilot]

[COLOR="SlateGray"][SIZE="1"]Like we talked about, Gav, as long as I can be a spacer with some ill blaster skills I'll be just fine playing this until the end of time. Of course, by that I mean until the Warhammer 40k MMO drops.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Gavin]

[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx-WeKy9tH0[/media][/center]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Other E3 confirmed facts:

- All players will have their own customisable ships that function as the player "home".

- PvP/RvR will take place in areas called Warzones, although whether this will be confined to instances such as WoW's Battlegrounds or be Open-World like War's RvR Lakes hasn't been confirmed yet.

- Alderaan is/will feature one of these "warzones".[/size][/font]

[CaNz]

i just signed up for testing and am now looking at the forum... its freaking huge even though its still a year in the making...

i do plan on getting into this one though i tend to shy away from mmorpg gameplay (i dont have much of a life... but i could have easily wasted what i have away playing warcraft) i am making an exception for this one.... i just like star wars too dang much to let a well made game go by.

(by the way if anyone here has an account my name there is CaNzCo)

[James P. Galvatron]

I can't wait for the game if my labtop can run it then I will be willing to pay as long as its not more than WOW.

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Well after months of waiting it seems Bioware are finally ready to begin beta testing, and not a moment too soon in many eyes. Sadly at the minute it's confined to US only but hopefully I'll get a chance to beta the game when the European one opens.[/size][/font]

[CaNz]

yeah.. i signed up for it... but alas i was not chosen.

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Only the first round of testing yet CaNz, keep up hope and you never know.[/size][/font]

[Shy]

I've never been a fan of MMORPGs, but this really interests me. Star Wars is a huge passion of mine, and I'm eager to learn more about this era in the Star Wars Universe.

Non-Jedi FTW. I'm hoping that the classes allow a great deal of customization in terms of races and abilities.

-Shy

[CaNz]

[quote name='Gavin' date='13 July 2010 - 05:10 PM' timestamp='1279066225' post='697254']
[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Only the first round of testing yet CaNz, keep up hope and you never know.[/size][/font]
[/quote]
yeah, I have never picked up an mmorpg before so i didn't consider myself the most eligible candidate, but hopefully i will snag a spot in the beta eventually... i certainly signed up early enough.

[Blue]

After the ridiculous amount of money that was invested in this (Already over 100 million for sure), it would be sad for it to be mediocre or just any other MMO. But I know its going to be kick ass. I'm going to need to get a whole new machine to just play it.

[Gavin]

[quote name='Shy' date='14 July 2010 - 02:02 AM' timestamp='1279069376' post='697257']
I've never been a fan of MMORPGs, but this really interests me. Star Wars is a huge passion of mine, and I'm eager to learn more about this era in the Star Wars Universe.

Non-Jedi FTW. I'm hoping that the classes allow a great deal of customization in terms of races and abilities.

-Shy
[/quote]

One of the major selling points to this game, at least to a huge SW lore nerd like me is that actually it's pretty much a blank canvas for Bioware to work with, I expect to see some references to what happened in KOTOR, and Tales of the Jedi/Sith but all that stuff is three or four hundred years in the past now.

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Also bah at you not wanting to play a Jedi. [/size][/font]

[quote name='CaNz' date='14 July 2010 - 02:26 AM' timestamp='1279070788' post='697259']
yeah, I have never picked up an mmorpg before so i didn't consider myself the most eligible candidate, but hopefully i will snag a spot in the beta eventually... i certainly signed up early enough.
[/quote]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]The one thing I would say CaNz is that a beta shouldn't be treated as just "Yippee, I get to play the game ages before anyone else", you have to look for bugs, weigh up how abilities work and whether they need to be buffed/nerfed and then write fairly detailed reports on it. Obviously yeah there is the "Yippee" part but at the end of the day you're trying to make things better for other player when the game does come out.[/size][/font]

[quote name='Blue' date='14 July 2010 - 07:49 AM' timestamp='1279090183' post='697274']
After the ridiculous amount of money that was invested in this (Already over 100 million for sure), it would be sad for it to be mediocre or just any other MMO. But I know its going to be kick ass. I'm going to need to get a whole new machine to just play it.
[/quote]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Certainly the financial investment in SWTOR is going to give Bioware/EA great incentive to make the game as successful as possible, but as a WAR player I've already heard many sighs of "It's just a PvE game" uttered. On getting a new rig to play it, I doubt that unless you've got a really old (like 4 years) computer you should be able to handle it. The whole reason Bioware are using their "stylised realism" is so that they can allow as many players to get into the game without requiring the latest Alienware PC. [/size][/font]

[Blue]

I'm running a two year old iMac with dual boot. I don't want to start an apple rant but the hardware in it is terrible. And a game like this, I want to run it on the highest possible settings.

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Ahh. I do know what you're saying though, I expect despite Bioware's intent to avail TOR to the largest possible market a lot of their fans are going to upgrade/replace their rigs to run it at max graphics. I'll probably succumb to the temptation myself.[/size][/font]

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]*Necro-bump*

Seeing as BioWare released guild sign ups this week I figured I'd resurrect this thread in case anyone would be interested in joining. Hopefully PAX-East will shed some major light as we're hopefully quite close to release (less than six months at the outset). Anyone interested feel free to throw up an application [url=http://www.swtor.com/guilds/8997/mournival][b]here[/b][/url].

Originally I was going to call the guild Novus Concordia as a nod to OB's old Maverick Hunters RPG series but sadly it violates naming policy because TCW has introduced the planet Concordia in the last year.

[b][Edit][/b] Forgot to say we're a multifaction guild so if you want to play Empire don't worry about it. [/size][/font] Edited March 11, 2011 by Gavin

[Gavin]

[quote name='Boo' timestamp='1299793725' post='705586']
*joins guild* So... Can we play the game yet? 8D

I'm Frownie by the way because Boo was taken. Poo.

[b]EDIT: [/b]... Wait. Why is this guild anti-Sith? wtf. :(
[/quote]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Sorry, my bad Boo, I have the Empire "half" of the guild under a different username. [url=http://www.swtor.com/guilds/6331/mournival][b]Here[/b][/url]. If we want to get both guilds in-game for launch I need 4 preorders for each, should be doable given we're hoping to have maybe ten, twelve players for launch and recruit more as we're going along. Even if you don't know much about Star Wars you're more than welcome, all we really want are fun and active players.[/size][/font] Edited March 11, 2011 by Gavin

[Pumpkin]

[quote name='Gavin' timestamp='1299784887' post='705583']
[font="Tahoma"][size="2"][b][Edit][/b] Forgot to say we're a multifaction guild so if you want to play Empire don't worry about it. [/size][/font]
[/quote]

[size="1"]Umm...yeah I hope so! How else am I going to be a sith secret agent. Thats my goal <3 I'm always the bad girl. It's just how I roll. [/size]

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Boo! Join the Jedi, we can't have women/men, have fun or live like normal people for another three and a half thousand years but at least you can be all heroic with your fluttery cape and lightsaber.

*Rereads what he wrote*

God damn it...[/size][/font]

[Boo]

So the latest intel is that Old Republic will be free-to-play? :<

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Nope sorry Boris, subs are definitely in (same price as WAR) though at least they've nailed down the official release date and started beta testing for Europe (though sadly I have not received an invite yet).

Unfortunately the guild is under reevaluation at the minute, my new university course is taking up a lot of my time and quite a few of the people who initially expressed interest have dropped out/joined other guilds since. Those who remain are mostly Republic-slanted and I've had two offers or alliance and adversary so far as well, so to be honest I'm considering making us a Republic-only guild for launch and maybe having our Imperial alts join with an adversary guild or possible resurrect the Imperial side at a later date.[/size][/font]

[CaNz]

Well, I just got an invite to the Beta, and I will be sure to fill out any details I can once I actually get to play. From what I can gather, they are sending a lot more Beta invites out nowadays because they want to stress test the server. If you haven't checked your Email yet, I suggest doing it because odds are really in your favor. All of my friends that signed up got in, and one of them had already beta tested once already.

EDIT: Seems like the Beta is starting this Friday, then going through Monday. Edited November 23, 2011 by CaNz

[Gavin]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Given we're only two weeks from official launch I figured I'd plug this thread a bit again.

I have since my last post had the opportunity to actually beta the game twice, last weekend and the weekend before playing almost the entirety of both weekends with my usual partner in MMO crime Jokopoko for anyone who remembers him. In the end I did decide to disband the guild and join up with some former guildies from WAR however depending on how things go with that post launch we might see about the viability of the guild again at some point.

I won't say something like "the game itself is everything I hoped it would be", because frankly without five-hundred million dollars of a budget, James Luceno and Matthew Stover supervising all of BioWare's writers and Mythic and BioWare's best working in perfect sync that wasn't going to happen. But it is still very, very good in terms of story and bringing a sense of single-player expansiveness to the MMO genre. The voice acting does indeed bring a completely new dimension to the way in which you quest, you do grow more attached, or more against NPCs now that they actually properly interact with you, heck that's not even discussing how much you enjoy your own character responding to them. I'm not really going to discuss the actual class quests themselves because I don't want to spoil them on people, but I've actually found myself quite taken with both the Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior storylines though the Jedi are not far behind and really all of them start out with a bang. Having parties split Light Side and Dark Side as Joko and I experienced on my LS Warrior and his DS Agent can lead to significant moments of tension with teams.

Class wise, unfortunately here I'm not entirely able to sing BioWare's praises because there are some issues. Right know if you're planning to play Jedi Guardian or Sith Juggernaut advanced classes know that we are (because I play both a JG and an SJ) the least effective tank in the game due to our lack of AoE threat generation and mediocre DPS and utility. BioWare have said they're working on it, but frankly after they "worked" on the Jedi Sentinel and Sith Marauder (the other two JK and SW ACs) there are still a lot of complaints that the overall JK class underperforms relative to the other three (and their mirrors). There's a lot of intelligent feedback on the forums and I hope BioWare takes good account of it when working on JG/SJ fixes. It's not impossible to play as a Jedi Knight, but you will have an easier/more satisfying time with other classes (especially Trooper/Bounty Hunter). I genuinely think this is one of the key issues BioWare needs to deal with in the next fortnight, because pretty much anyone can tell them the JK and SW are going to be two of their biggest drawing classes and having them play significantly less "heroically" is a bad move whatever way you look at it.

Away from doom and gloom, the rest of the game is very well polished. I've run 3 different flashpoints without issue (though I would say, if you don't have a healer companion, getting a healer character makes thing so much easier). PvP wise I only played Huttball the once, but it seemed hilariously fast-paced and once we began to actually understand how to play it (and not just dog-pile onto each other attacking) it became a rather competitive match. Crafting I only did last weekend, picking up Artificing (making components for lightsabers, and off-hand stuff for single-saber classes), Archaeology (Picking up materials for Artificing, usually crystals but you can send companions on missions) and Slciing (earns you credits basically). Got to about 100 in each out of 400 overall, and while interesting and kind of fun, I'm not sure how useful they'll be to you at your current level unless you specifically develop them way beyond your current level (like say 200 in each before you get your ship) or better still have an ally supplying you with blue materials/schematics to make the stuff when you need it. I am getting more into crafting as an activity in MMOs but those were just my experiences as opposed to "this is definite fact!, maybe I just went about it arseways.

All in all I think SWTOR is a great game, if you're an uber Star Wars nerd like me there will be bits of lore which make you sigh from time to time but when the alternative is not game at all, well it's easy to put that aside. A tad too similar to WoW IMO, but as someone who never played WoW competitively and as a WAR player was militantly against our great competitor I may be biased. Character creation is a little weak, but AFAIR BioWare have said the creation tool for beta is not the same as for launch.[/size][/font]