Star Wars: The Old Republic video thing

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » December 13th, 2008, 6:39

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HXuCeN-d8[/media]
Considerably better quality.

Ready. Steady. HYPE!

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 13th, 2008, 10:36

Thing about this is, by setting it long before any of the films you lose pretty much all identity with the films, for better or worse. I'd have liked to see a game set in the EpIV-VI period, but away from all the big plot elements and characters. That or maybe just after the films where the Empire is in decline but still very powerful.

Post by **HereComesPete** » December 13th, 2008, 19:18

But then you get the problem of it's star wars, people want lighsabres and to choke/lightning each other. The films are set when there's a handful of horse users on either side, swg caved in to we want jedi's pressure and then it fell apart.

Setting it thousands of years before that in a time where everyone/thing was horse sensitive to some extent allows no skywalker name check, no need for vader or star destroyers. Plus shit loads of people all capable of fighting jedi/sith through technology and being horse aware in different ways.

You may lose identity with the films, but the films represent a small part of the universe that encompasses books, manga, toys, memorabilia and video games, so imo you never lose focus with the concept unless all you've ever seen are the films.

If they manage a jedi knight/kotor online multiplayer thing I'll be happy.

Going to planets to investigate strange shit and finding out it's sith/going to a planet and fucking shit up to lure jedi into a fight. Or cruising round the galaxies cantinas picking up bounties then hunting down the player/npc you've got the bounty on.

It will need plenty of content though, if they do something silly like skimp on the space bits, or make jedi/sith horse users the only viable class type then it will fail.

An aoc style combo system for sabre wielders, a faux 1st/3rd person style for sharpshooters and han solo smuggler types. With plenty of routes as to how you level and what that lets you do.

An idea I had for training was things like a mini-game of getting those weeny blaster bots to fire at you and you spend time/money training deflecting the bolts with a 'sabre as a result in battle you hold a block button and your chances of deflecting a bolt back at it's firer/another enemy increase as a result of the time you've put in.

Conversely people firing at sabre wielders train on firing at the gaps in the defence with a mini game that's like a fun fair shoot the things for shit stuff stall.

As you kill more stuff you can train whatever you want to higher levels, everyone has different playing styles so you make your own class by picking what's best for you.

Or spend all day making sweet music in a cantina as people shoot each other, cheat at pazaak and drink Tihaar and blue milk cocktails.

I'm overly excited about this game.

Post by **Roman Totale** » December 13th, 2008, 19:20

It's still not tingling my tongle just yet - I think I'm still disappointed at KOTOR 2.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » December 13th, 2008, 19:24

I hope it's as good as The Star Wars Holiday Special.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » December 13th, 2008, 19:36

*sigh* Galaxies before NGE was good.

I already have disdain for this, far too much emphasis on being a jedi/sith.

At least it's Bioware behind it, rather than Obsidian who keep managing to release fun but critically flawed games.

Post by **HereComesPete** » December 13th, 2008, 19:51

buzzmong wrote:I already have disdain for this, far too much emphasis on being a jedi/sith

They haven't announced species or classes and already you're condemning it, there's lots of lighsabres/horse powers in the advertising/concept stuff because they look cool and they are immediately recognisable.

Have you not seen the screenshots of the kel dor assassin/bounty hunter with wrist flame thrower and elctro staff thing? Looks aces.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » December 13th, 2008, 20:01

It's set in KOTOR world Pete, horse users grow on fucking tree's according to KOTOR.

I know it's only the first proper video and all, but...it's quite apparent being a jedi/sith will be a massive part of it.

I got bored of swishing lightsabers round in KOTOR2, but you're forced to use them as every other cupcake uses one near the end.

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 13th, 2008, 20:08

If a game's set in the original trilogy, people who want lightsabers can fuck off. Setting it just after would enable people to go through the Jedi Academy, so they could get their lightsaber kicks there, but personally I'd do what Galaxies did originally and make it very difficult to get. Setting it in an related but unfamiliar world kind of loses the point of it being a Star Wars game - they might as well have had Laser Swords and Space Magics and not given it a Star Wars license at all.

I have large reservations about the game, especially since we've had a lot of turkeys over the last couple of years. However, if I'm proven wrong and it turns out to be a brilliant game that's taken in a new direction from so many identi-Warcrafts then I'll be very happy.

Post by **HereComesPete** » December 13th, 2008, 20:35

buzzmong wrote:It's set in KOTOR world Pete, horse users grow on fucking tree's according to KOTOR.

I know it's only the first proper video and all, but...it's quite apparent being a jedi/sith will be a massive part of it.

I got bored of swishing lightsabers round in KOTOR2, but you're forced to use them as every other cupcake uses one near the end.

I know that. I did point out that (just like in the kotor games) you don't have to use ligtsabres when you're a horse user. In that game horse is used to fucking bake bread and grow coconuts and shit like that. Mandalorians use metals that are lightsabre resistant for their swords and armour. Bounty hunters train and become capable of offing multiple sabre users at once in the books. As for it being the first video, you might be right and every fucker in the game will be glow sticking it about, but maybe it's just marketing hype to light the imaginations of those who aren't quite so cynical because of what happened to swg. It's not a foregone conclusion that lightsabers is a bad thing, it was in swg because they chucked them in as a superpower class then made it piss easy to get to.

As for forced to use them in kotor 2, by the end of it I found them weaker than aoe horse powers, horse lightning took the piss and shat on any sabre skills I had. I'm ignoring the end of that game because it was rushed and shit.

Dog Pants wrote:Setting it in an related but unfamiliar world kind of loses the point of it being a Star Wars game - they might as well have had Laser Swords and Space Magics and not given it a Star Wars license at all.

It's unfamiliar to you it would seem, but I've read books and comics that have nothing to do with skywalker and yoda, they are set in kotor times, film times and completely unrelated times too and they didn't seem pointless. And they tied in with ideas about the horse, lightsabres, blasters and stuff like rancors and hutts. You might as well take the same idea and use it on star trek the next generation, it's not kirk and spock et al, so just call it space hike and star trek can die in peace.

Dog Pants wrote:I have large reservations about the game, especially since we've had a lot of turkeys over the last couple of years. However, if I'm proven wrong and it turns out to be a brilliant game that's taken in a new direction from so many identi-Warcrafts then I'll be very happy.

I think this game has massive potential to suck really hard. It could be content lite, lightsabre heavy and as deep as a puddle, lucasarts have a habit of making shit.

But I also think both of you are looking at the failure in galaxies, the stuff that's been churned out over the past year in the mmong genre and the stuff that went wrong in obsidians hands and judging from that and a first concept/art video.

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 13th, 2008, 21:58

HereComesPete wrote:You might as well take the same idea and use it on star trek the next generation, it's not kirk and spock et al, so just call it space hike and star trek can die in peace.

You've missed my point. It's not the characters, it's the setting. I don't want to see any of the characters, but I would like to see Star Destroyers, Correllian Corvettes, Stormtroopers, Rebel soldiers in silly hats.

Post by **HereComesPete** » December 13th, 2008, 23:03

I don't see the setting they intend to use isn't unfamiliar because it's been seen in kotor. Plus they tend to introduce new planets with new stuff on each iteration of film. It might not be as instantly recognisable as the first three films, but that's why they changed stuff in the games and when they made episode 1-3. Give the art guys a chance to make new stuff. It'll still have big ships and men in silly hats.

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 13th, 2008, 23:44

I guess what it boils down to is that, for me, Star Wars is Star Destroyers being strafed by X-Wings and Rebels fighting losing battles against Stormtroopers. I know there's a lot more to it now, but I've had no inclination to stray into the extended background outside the original trilogy, it just doesn't grape my squildo. The difference, I think, is that the stuff I like is dark, dirty and desperate (wish I could have thought of a few words that didn't start with D there). I just don't get that with any of the new stuff. Art guys can still play in the trilogy setting - Nar Shaddaa is a fantastic place that I'd love to go blasting my way around against the Hutt's henchmen.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kTSqpyeqbI[/media]

I suppose if they can still capture this sort of thing I can live without the Empire, I just don't want it to be all shiny starships and wise Jedi.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » December 14th, 2008, 0:16

DF2: Jedi Knight was an awesome game, it's sequal wasn't too bad either (Myst of the Sith), and JKII was rather fun.

You've got a point Pants, KOTOR and the like do seem to kind of gloss over the nastyness that's around the SW universe, at least the original stuff included the nasty elements but put a good coat of good vs evil on it with a splashing of epic fantasy. Not much of a difference, but in one you can still feel the undercurrents, in the other they don't exist.

Post by **Roman Totale** » December 14th, 2008, 0:31

I've always liked the sound of the SW campaign that Doggers ran. From how he's described it players were only tiny, tiny cogs in a huge universe - far removed from the glamorous role models of Luke and Han etc. I also like the idea that becoming a Jedi is nigh on impossible due to the training required.

I suppose that's why I like SLA too - it's always more realistic to be the mug doing all the groundwork whist some other high ranking fucker gets all the credit. There's something about the whole "you are the chosen one" in MMOs that really puts me off.

Fear · Post by **Fear** » December 14th, 2008, 0:37

DF2: Jedi Knight was an awesome game

Oh happy memories. On MotS I used to love multiplayer with the carbonite gun. I used to play 1v1 with my best mate when I was a wee lad, and he used to get so shit'd up when he'd hear my carbonite gun pwning him, and then the inevitable comedy shatter.

Also, the rocket darts with the delay were funny, fire, lol, lol some more, bang, lol.

Also, worms was awesome for 1v1 in them days.

Post by **Roman Totale** » December 14th, 2008, 0:46

Just been reminded of this:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqKQuJFxz_A[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzHa2KNIpZY[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjy4pv_BHMU[/media]

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » December 14th, 2008, 0:56

star wars sux star trek rox yo!

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 14th, 2008, 9:26

Roman Totale wrote:I've always liked the sound of the SW campaign that Doggers ran. From how he's described it players were only tiny, tiny cogs in a huge universe - far removed from the glamorous role models of Luke and Han etc. I also like the idea that becoming a Jedi is nigh on impossible due to the training required.

I suppose that's why I like SLA too - it's always more realistic to be the mug doing all the groundwork whist some other high ranking fucker gets all the credit. There's something about the whole "you are the chosen one" in MMOs that really puts me off.

Very this. It also allows a lot more scope to cut your own path, rather than have it scripted for you. I'd love to play Old Republic as a smuggler or something and center my whole gaming experience around dodgy dealings on some shitty backwater, rather than being the great Jedi working for the good of the republic.

To elaborate (well, indulge myself with nostalgia) on my SW RPG campaign, my particular group were centered around a small-time pirate, mainly because he was the only one with a ship. They never actually did much pirating, somehow the rest of them managed to instil some sense of morals into him, but they did manage to get a letter of marque from the Rebels so thet they could attack Imperial shipping 'legally'. They were only ever loosely affiliated though, and were occassionally used as a sort of special horses. For the most part they bummed around the Outer Rim making enemies in the underworld and attacking the occasional Imperial thing they thought they could beat and sell.

Two of them, at various points decided they wanted to be Jedi. One was a fighter pilot. He was shot down on a shitty planet and managed to scrape together enough tech to get the slowest hyperdrive in the world working on his X-Wing (I forget how he got that). He spent two months in hyperspace trying to lift a spoon with his mind. It never moved. Later he got both his legs blown off by a mine.

As far as I remember they only ever met Luke Skywalker. It was quite a while after the films and it was because of the other one who fancied being a Jedi. Under the circumstances I thought it realistic thet Skywalker would have wanted to meet him. He played it well and by the time we'd stopped playing he'd managed to get some rudimentary powers. He never had the balls to use a lightsaber though for fear of cutting himself in half (something that had happened before in the game).

Other than that, they turned up about a day late at Hoth and found only the Star Destroyer that had been disabled by the big Ion Cannon under repair. Its compliment of fighters gave them a kicking before they could nick anything (TIE Fighter pilots were fucking good in this game). They did find some sort of useful information about the shield generator on Endor, but again arrived too late and came out of hyperspace in the Imperial supply lines behind the attack. They didn't do much - the Death Star exploding fried their circuitry and they spent all their lootin' time repairing it.

Ah, happy days.