BioWare confirms space combat for Star Wars: The Old Republic

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I find your lack of Kevin Butler... distrubing.

@Mrguy you know that guy

Whoa man, let's not say things we can't take back. Falcon Punches can own pretty dang hard...

@finnith

Yes. And so did common sense.

@Deschain

Based on what?

@Michelobius

It's an MMO for one. And secondly, Legendary Bioware Laziness. Also known as LBL Syndrome. I can give some examples if you like.

@Deschain

Please give examples. When has BioWare ever made a bad game that wasn't that Sonic game that no one could've made into a great game?

I never said they made bad games. So don't make that assumption. I like there games (Mass Effect 1 is one my my favorites this gen) but there is no denying their faults either. Besides, without criticism there is not much reason to improve.

Anyway here is one major example:

In Mass Effect 1 the inventory was pretty tedious to navigate and was overall a pretty cumbersome thing to use compared to other games, would you agree? So to me at least, it makes sense that this would be something to improve on for Mass Effect 2 right? Well I guess Bioware's idea of fixing something is to simply avoid fixing it and instead remove it completely. This led to a shallow upgrade system, very few weapons compared to ME1, and several other things.

Some smaller examples:

Keeping the ME2 theme, can anyone tell me why Garrus does calibrations for the whole game after you talk to him more than twice on the ship? LBL Syndrome, that is why.

Why does Dragon Age even bother letting you pick your characters voice if he/she has no dialogue? LBL Syndrome.

Why do nearly all Bioware games since Kotor use the same cookie cutter plot, with the same cookie cutter dialogue system, with the same false sense of choice? LBL Syndrome. (This point always causes a shit storm so if you want more explanation on this, again just please ask)

Some of these points are very nit picky so there is no need to tell me. But for a developer that gets as much praise as Bioware, I expect these types of nit picky things to be polished and done right.

@Deschain

Go ahead an down vote me.

If the game tanks I might actually get some enjoyment out of it while everyone else on the hype train will be participating in "Were you disappointed in SW:ToR?" threads. Low expectations lead to bigger surprises.

@Deschain

"Why do nearly all Bioware games since Kotor use the same cookie cutter plot, with the same cookie cutter dialogue system, with the same false sense of choice? LBL Syndrome. (This point always causes a shit storm so if you want more explanation on this, again just please ask)"

I'll bite. How so?

@Deschain Actually, I love Bioware's games and am ok with everything you just said. It's all true.

For instance, I remember in Mass Effect 1, they kept using the same props over and over again. It didn't bother me tho. However, I wish the game more in the way of DLC and gameplay after you beat the game, like Mass Effect 2.

@Deschain I'm really with you on the low expectations things, that's helped me enjoy many a mostly bad game. But LBL? That's just douchey

@Deschain

I really hate the example of the inventory as some horrible thing. Here, think about this for a minute: Commander Shepard is a Specter, an elite group picked from the best of elite groups on super-secret missions by the Council to protect the galaxy: WHY is he so poorly equipped and outfitted that he must scavenge weapons from random colonies? It was a TERRIBLE and outdated RPG mechanic that had someone that would already be equipped and provisioned looting for no reason. They got rid of this (and simply gave the player the only weapons they needed because it made sense in the narrative and got rid of the ridiculous buying and selling merchant aspect (elite solider; not a merchant). There is nothing lazy about it and it finally made narrative sense.

The character still upgrades, but no longer had to deal with the ridiculous idea that your super elite soldier can't fire a gun to save their life until they level up and etc. I mean, come on, are people so dedicated to the RPG mechanic that they forget they are supposed to be playing a role and that the role of a super-elite soldier negates the need to "level up" their shooting skills?

Here is a much more ridiculously overlong explanation about why such arguments are patently ridiculous and why the changes so decried by the player base don't remove role playing elements but boos them, even though it removes RPG elements.

http://narrativefiction.blogspot.com/2010/07/towards-gameplay-narrative-integration_03.html

As for the Dragon age bit, the voice being chosen is one of dozens and pertains to the random attack/defend/loot/heal/etc. exclamations that the character makes through the game. So many different voice overs for all of the dialogue would have been so insanely expensive it couldn't possibly be done (they were different for each race and disposition) and that they decided to add the exclamations instead of leaving blank noise (as most RPGs with non-spoken dialogue do) is actually more work than the standard. I'm personally glad they've decided in DA2 to make a single character story that's fully voiced over the non-voiced choose from so many races idea, but for those that prefer that it is ridiculous to expect full voice over (indeed, there is not a single game that does it).

@GuardianLegend

I would hope its XWing style, well thats what im taking it to be, if its like Eve meh. Couldnt be arsed. X-Wing and Tie Fighter were two of the best games ever.

@(Unverified)

Thats already confirmed if you read about the game for 10+ minutes, you will find all you need to know

@(Unverified)

We learned about other playable races at E3 in June. We saw playable Twi'lek, Chiss, and Rattataki. Yesterday at Comic-Con they confirmed that races will be limited to specific classes, so you won't be seeing a million Chiss Jedi or whatever.

@RogueJedi86

That's awesome that they'll have different races, but kind of sad that they'll be limited to the classes.

Sure everyone lists jedi/sith as the main two classes, but it'd be sweet to be a wookie bounty hunter or a twi'lek commando.

Needless to say, I'm really pumped for this game.... And I need a new pc.

@(Unverified)

They're restricting races to certain classes like WoW. No big deal. I didn't mean to imply each race can only be one class. Just more like races will only be a few classes and not all. Humans will be the exception that, since they always get a wide range of classes in MMOs, and we've seen them as all 8 classes.

@Chareth Cutestory

Anything to do with Jumpgate Evolution or Black Prophecy maybe? :p

@Deschain absolutely agree with you bro. What's up aswell with going from unlimited(not actually unlimited technically but close enofth) ammo to haveing to re-load!!!!! (yes I'm screaming) how is that an upgrade? They changed too much to please FPS fans aswell_I'm one of them by the way but still love the original gameplay in 1 compared to 2. I just wanted a great story with polished gameplay... Not completelly diffrent gameplay. Also went from running at light speed to speed walking? I loved the inventory system, all I wanted was a more eficient way to manage it. Example, removing items to make room for new ones was a pain... One by one, allowing multiple items to be removed at once would have made me a happy camper.

@cha this is only reason I played Star Wars Galaxies for a month

@(Unverified)

it may appear as if it was the same from a visual point of view...
but a 4000 year old fighter vs. an X-Wing would have pretty much the chance of a Messerschmidt against an F-22 Jet.


@ TOPIC

w00000t !!!

@Z3R0B4NG

I think he meant, as I wondered, why there have been no large jumps in technology. While individual technologies have improved, there's no real 'lack' of technologies in the past, or new technologies in the future, save upgrades. They have the lightsaber, warp drive, etc.. why not something more? What did they not have in the past?

In the future, technology is more stagnant than it has been since 2000BC. really?

@(Unverified)

Technological plateau. How would YOU advance beyond lasers and faster than light travel?

@nomore7734
"In the future, technology is more stagnant than it has been since 2000BC. really?"

I'm pretty sure that Star Wars is in the past. You need to watch one of the intros again.

@RogueJedi86 I think it's more to do with the fact that all advanced technology is derived from artifacts like the hyperdrive which originally was Force-powered. It's pretty straightforward that nobody really understands the mechanics of hyperspace (referenced so many times in the EU), so it makes sense that reverse-engineering can only work so far before they hit the technological-brick wall and simply can't progress further.