The Old Republic

[Lord Noctis]

So I assume most of us have heard of Bioware's upcoming MMO based in the Star Wars universe. It looks like it could be really good, seeing as each class will have its own story, and every line of dialogue will be voice-acted. I think they said somewhere that the game is going to have more content than all other Bioware games put together. I'm a bit nervous though. The graphics and art style seem a bit weak, though it doesn't bug me to much. I'm also a bit worried that the voice-acting might not be very good, like in Oblivion for example, or that there won't be any content to keep things interesting once you finish your class story.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: Heres a bunch of relevant information and videos. starting with Developer Blogs.

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20091106_002

Here Drew Karpyshyn, the guy who wrote the Darth Bane trilogy along with some Mass Effect novels, talks about writing the story for the Jedi Knight class.

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20091001_001

This one from Neill Pollner, discussing the story of the Sith Warrior class.

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20090605_002

This one from Damien Schubert regarding the trooper class.

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20090605_002

Here Hall Hood discusses the Smuggler.

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20090605_002

Alexander Freed talking about the Imperial Agent.

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20101217-1

Daniel Erickson on the Bounty Hunter.

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20090605_002

Rebbeca Harwick talks about the Sith Inquisitor.

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20090605_002

Joanna Berry on the Jedi Consular.

http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/timeline

This here is a series of timeline videos in which Jedi Master Gnost Durral looks back on the history of the conflict between Jedi and Sith and theorises as to how its led to the events of The Old Republic.

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110114

This news article goes into the details of how player starships are created, using the Imperial Agent as an example. (For those who didn't know, each player character gets their own starship.)

http://www.swtor.com/info/systems/space-combat

Some information in space combat.

http://www.swtor.com/info/systems/companions

Some information on companion characters.

http://www.swtor.com/info/systems/crew-skills

Description of crew skills and the role they play.

http://www.swtor.com/info/story/setting

The basic information on the story and setting of TOR.

http://www.swtor.com/media/webcomics

This page is where the two TOR related webcomics can be located.

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20101217-1

Here is some basic info on the upcoming novel "Decieved" along with a sample chapter. For those wondering "Decieved" revolves largely around Darth Malgus, the Sith Lord who messed up the jedi temple in the Decieved trailer.

 

[Cthulhu]

It'll probably be fun while your character's class story lasts, but after that, I'm not sure. Each and every MMO I've played had a main gameplay aspect involving wasting as much time as possible, and unless Bioware has re-invented the MMO genre as a whole, I'm pretty sure this game will, at one point, become a giant grindfest of repetitive boring gameplay.

 

[Lord Noctis]

New cinematic trailer.

 

[Joe]

Looks amazing.

Tis a shame no more gameplay was shown but nonetheless it was done well.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Fixed your link to embed the video.

Super awesome trailer, though I'm wondering how she blocked his stab with her hand. She's obviously got an amazingly powerful Force Push, but is this a new power, or just some version of that? I'm inclined to think it's new, because the blade is actually cracking and flaking something off from around it's top section.

X

 

[Lord Noctis]

Fixed your link to embed the video.

Super awesome trailer, though I'm wondering how she blocked his stab with her hand. She's obviously got an amazingly powerful Force Push, but is this a new power, or just some version of that? I'm inclined to think it's new, because the blade is actually cracking and flaking something off from around it's top section.

X

What is going with that saber anyway. I've never seen a saber crackle like that.

BTW, how do you embed the video?

 

[Ghost X]

Love the action scenes, as per usual. Won't buy the game, as per usual

 

[Max Payne]

Trailer was better than the last 3 movies combined. Have no further interest. Game won't play anything like that.

 

[Cthulhu]

It's because light sabers themselves are pretty lame. It's when you do cool things with them and make them sparkle and shit that makes them cool.

This is also why The Force Unleashed had visual effects for the Force powers, since waving a hand and watching someone fly just isn't impressive enough anymore in this day and age.

Same goes for the newish movies. Simple mano a mano sword fights were no longer impressive, so they added double-bladed sabers, Yoda, four-armed Sith robots, etc.

I'm pretty sure that, if Lucas still lives in fifteen years, he'll make another triology with fucking Jesi. Light sabers will be the Light of God, emanating from the Force Point of the Groin, where all a Jesi's energies converge and build up over 32 years of not using it. Jesi can also only be killed by being spiked to a cross.

Of course, the One Jesi to Rule them All falls for a dumb broad and fucks everything up. Sithtan wins, everything's fucked.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

What is going with that saber anyway. I've never seen a saber crackle like that.

BTW, how do you embed the video?

I assume it's something to wrap the end that's why it's flaking off, and her hands aren't being impaled.

Click Edit on your post and you'll see exactly how it's done.


X

 

[Lord Noctis]

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/06/19/3663/#comments

Looks like Angry Joe interviewed one of the devs. Some good stuff in here.

 

[Lord Noctis]

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/flashpoint-taral-v

This here trailer briefly depicts one of the games flashpoints. For those who don't know, flashpoints are basicly major turning points in the story where the player/players will have to make important choices that will effect the course of the story from that point on.

Also once I am done with this post I am going to go back and add a shitton of older stuff to my original post.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I know a ton of people who are quite excited about this, but my lack of a capable PC will mean that I won't be playing it. I'm looking forward to info about it, never-the-less.


X

 

[Lord Noctis]

I know a ton of people who are quite excited about this, but my lack of a capable PC will mean that I won't be playing it. I'm looking forward to info about it, never-the-less.


X

In what way is your PC not capable? To my understanding TOR is being designed in such a way that older computers can run it without to much trouble.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

In what way is your PC not capable? To my understanding TOR is being designed in such a way that older computers can run it without to much trouble.

...It's a netbook.


X

 

[Max Payne]

I dunno if I've said this before or not but, why is it Star Wars games always have better directed cinemas than the movies? idgi

 

[Ⓐaron]

Because Lucas is a terrible director. The only ones with good direction are the second and third ones, which not coincidentally, he didn't direct. Although the third one was ruined by two hours of muppetshow.

Though that said, his direction on the first one wasn't terrible. It was certainly a hell of a lot better than his direction on the prequel trilogy.

 

[Joe]

They're fucking with us.

 

[Lord Noctis]

...It's a netbook.


X

Dude, that is horrible.

@thread: I think the directing for ROTS was ok, but yeah, Lucas is generally a much better idea man and story-teller than writer.

 

[Max Payne]

I'm not really talking about writing though. I'm talking about direction.

The cinematography is just better in these trailers as is the camera work, especially during the action scenes, which are all readable and sensible.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I wasn't talking about story etc. He's actually pretty good with stories (although he's terrible with dialogue). He's just not very good at the technical aspects of direction. He's one of the few directors I've seen who didn't manage to get a memorable performance out of Samuel L. Jackson fer chrissakes. (Well I guess it was memorably bad).

 

[Masamune]

Because Lucas is a terrible director. The only ones with good direction are the second and third ones, which not coincidentally, he didn't direct. Although the third one was ruined by two hours of muppetshow.

Though that said, his direction on the first one wasn't terrible. It was certainly a hell of a lot better than his direction on the prequel trilogy.

I've found ROTJ to be the weak link out of the original trilogy.

 

[Max Payne]

I wasn't talking about story etc. He's actually pretty good with stories (although he's terrible with dialogue). He's just not very good at the technical aspects of direction. He's one of the few directors I've seen who didn't manage to get a memorable performance out of Samuel L. Jackson fer chrissakes. (Well I guess it was memorably bad).

I wasn't talking to you bro. That was a response to Noctis.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I've found ROTJ to be the weak link out of the original trilogy.

Overall it is, but that's the fault of the muppetshow, not the direction. The director had to work with what he was given, and he was given a script with a bunch of inane plotless crap. If Lucas had stuck with his original idea of setting the climactic battle on Kashyyyk it could've been possibly the best film in the trilogy.

I wasn't talking to you bro. That was a response to Noctis.

Oh right

 

[Lord Noctis]

I'm not really talking about writing though. I'm talking about direction.

The cinematography is just better in these trailers as is the camera work, especially during the action scenes, which are all readable and sensible.

I agree to an extent. While these trailers are btter in areas, the prequel trilogy, and ROTS in particular, have some pretty stunning stuff. The camera work during Anakin vs. Obi-wan, and the opening space battle were really good. Obi-wan's chase with Jango in the asteroid belt was good as well. As far as the cinematography goes Mustafar and Aldeeran were both real good in ROTS.