New details on Star Wars: The Old Republic companion characters

BioWare's lead designer James Ohlen has done a quick interview with IGN about Star Wars: The Old Republic's concept of "companion characters." Not only do you get to tool around the universe as a Sith or a Jedi, but as we first heard back at the game's announcement, you get to bring some other poor suckers with you. The idea sounds a lot like your party members from Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2 -- your companions will follow an "Affection" system, and you can end up making them "twisted to the dark side of the Force" or "stronger and more independent," depending on how you treat -- even gift -- them. (Those being just a couple of examples.)

Companion characters will also have a lot of combat utility, and you may want to bring some of them based strictly on how they complement you in combat. The gear you equip for them will also make a difference, so you may have to tailor your party and their gear for the specific goals of any given mission. The system doesn't sound too different from past BioWare games, with the caveat that, since it's an MMO, you'll have to direct AI players in real-time rather than pausing the game to give out orders. Ohlen also says his favorite recent character is Alistair, which worries us a little bit -- he always struck us as whiny.

[Via Massively]

Reader Comments (30)

You have recruited Carth Jr.!

Carth Jr. : Where are we going? Oh, that planet. Do we have to? I mean, you're the leader and all, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but...well, let's just say some dark things happened there. Why didn't you ask me before we went? I don't appreciate being left out of the loop. With all due respect, if we're going to be a team, I need some input too.

You have removed Carth Jr. from your party.

Gonna bust your balls on your example and say that in the 300 years since KotOR, Carth had to have more descendants than just a single long-lived son. Maybe Carth the 13th? 300 years, at one generation every 25 years, that's 12 generations after Carth.

With any luck, BioWare has learned how to make great companions from Mass Effect 1 and 2 and DAO so we'll get more awesome characters like Wrex and Mordin and Garrus and some DAO characters(haven't played it) rather than characters like Carth and Juhani.

I liked Juhani. She tickled that oft neglected lesbian cat-girl itch.

RogueJedi, is it conceivable that maybe his father was the first Carth in generations? Possibly they aren't even related as you assumed.

It'll be interesting to see exactly how much control we'll have over our companion in real time. I can imagine it would be difficult to even deal with yourself, should tactics come into play.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was cotrol like the pet's of hunters in WoW.

I wished there's a class where I'm just a Force user and not affiliated to the Jedi Order nor the Sith.

Btw, I LIKE Alistair.

Yeah, like a Bounty Hunting Jedi. That would be cool.

Wrex.

Shepard.

That's why I love Wrex. Such a wonderful conversationalist.

The idea sounds a lot like your party members from Knights of the Old Republic.

Alistair was hilarious, you guys suck.

(Spolers)

Alistair had every right to be whiney! He was a virgin, his mentor and father figure died, and I forced him to have sex with a woman he hated so that he could produce a demon baby that he'd never be allowed to see ever again and he still managed to make me laugh with his dry wit all the while.

I don't know if I can trust you anymore, Mike Schramm; you've really disappointed me here.

:*(

My favorite Alistair line was when I saved that one town from Zombies and basically told those two kids that I was going to keep their dad's sword:

"That's right, join the Grey Wardens! You get to fight the Darkspawn and steal from orphans!"

I find it interesting how selective Joystiq is about which MMO's they'll feature even stories as minor as this about.

This is a gaming blog, not a news site, so they can selectively talk about any games they want. I figure they'd care more about the very out there big name upcoming MMOs like TOR rather than small scale ones that only 5 people know about outside of Massively, like Love or Runes of Fantasy or Alganon Online.

Actually, it makes a lot of sense to me. The way The Old Republic has been talked about almost seems like a multiplayer version of the two successful Knights of the Old Republic titles. They plan to change how plot is delivered in an open world, which is long overdue (the needle is still in Blizzard, don't panic). I'm sure all sorts of PC and console gamers would be interested.

Not to mention Bioware is a top notch developer with a very impressive track record. Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights were both a pretty big deal. Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins are still going strong in the news.

If you want to read about MMO's, check out Massively. It's Joystiq's sister site all about them, no matter the size. I subscribe to both and personally I just prefer the writers here at the 'Stiq.

Firstly, of course I'm not expecting them to talk about Korean grindfest X here.

Anyway, I like Bioware as much as the next guy (Neverwinter Nights is my #2 PC game ever), so I do wish them well with ToR.

ToR isn't the only major upcoming MMO making the rounds with major announcements lately though, but it seems to get attention for system details like this almost exclusively here. Call me cynical.

There's a difference between getting a post on Massively and a post here though, and that is that as a general gaming site Joystiq gets a lot more traffic I would imagine.

Why do people keep abbreviating TOR as ToR? It's not The Old Republic, not The old Republic. I've seen it a lot lately and it's weird.

Shh, the Republic is sensitive about its age.

Yang, its obvious there is a particular mmo you want to be mentioned. Just go ahead and say it. "I am a fanboy of X"

They keep posting TOR news because someone with a post button likes it. I follow massively and didn't notice anything of particular importance recently.

Yeah, which news are you speaking of?

This (was posted on the site wednesday): http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/personal-stories/personal-story-overview/

Funnily enough it's a similar part of the game being detailed as in this TOR post, albeit a completely different approach. Can't really say at this point which is being more innovative with these novel MMO storytelling approaches. I find both very interesting in that they're taking things into relatively uncharted waters here.

You're right, it is weird. No clue, I'm just hitting keys.

Okay, Cool...

Now lets talk about classes.

I want to know if I can be a wookie with sith force powers.

I hope they put Bossk on a Segway.

So, will your companions always follow you around? And will other people have the same companions?

It would just be weird to walk up to another player with Juhani, Alistair, and Deekin in tow only to see them accompanied by Juhani, Alistair and Deekin as well.

I'd like to think the companions would be phased so only you can yours except in situations where other players need to see them(ie in a group or PvP). It'd be a nice use of phasing technology and it would ensure the hub towns aren't filled with 20 players and their 20 companions, all filling up the Bazaar/Auction house area.

I'm super excited about this MMO, but there is so much we don't know and it is annoying. Here's hoping the 30 minute presentation during E3 lets a lot out of the bag.

No pausing to strategize while soloing is disappointing. STO showed it could be done in an MMO.

New details on Star Wars: The Old Republic companion characters

Reader Comments (30)

Posted: May 28th 2010 2:14AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 28th 2010 4:48AM RogueJedi86 said

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