Future playable species

[RioNHale]

Nice post and in a perfect world that would hold true, unfortunately what you think about species and if they should be playable or not doesn't apply to the game. Google some of the many quotes out there from devs about their criteria for playable species.

 

These quotes from Daniel Erickson help out(to be fair it is from PAX East '10):

 

"Namely that lead characters in an RPG must be something the player can relate to. There has never been a movie or major Star Wars series with a complete freak job as the lead and that’s because dramatically it doesn’t work. We don’t understand what it means to be a giant lizard or a droid or a walking ball of jelly. We love the weird characters but they are always the sidekicks, not the emotional connection in the movie. To do an RPG that way every NPC you ran into would have to react to you depending on their own cultural bias and the entire “into the strange” adventure that is Star Wars would be lost as you would be the strangest thing in the room. People would constantly be asking you for information about your weird species and their emotional content that the vast majority of players simply wouldn’t have and their ability to really BE this character would be nil."

 

 

 

"It’s okay to turn to your companions and say “What are you supposed to be?” It’s not okay to look in the mirror and say that."

 

Now to be completely fair to your point of view, he did open the door a crack to playing as the "crazy looking"species but it looks like the conditions on it are pretty tough to overcome currently and in the near future:

 

"In the future I can see a day where we would do a Trandoshan or Wookiee type story but it would have to be just that. Not a simple graphic swap where now your smuggler is a giant lizard man and nobody notices but a full class story where you learn what it means to be this strange alien and deal with the rest of the galaxy and their reactions. For the present, however, our heroes are our projections of self, headed into a galaxy of wonders and adventures."

 

So the door isn't completely shut on any of the species in the SWU becoming playable, for the time being it looks to be limited to humanoid or near human type species.

 

Just a little side note: just because you subscribe to the game doesn't mean BW is forced to cave to your demands, break lore and allow you a playable Sith Lord Wookiee or whatever you and others want to see. Sure, they'd be smart to take the "temperature" of their subscribers,see what they want to see in the game and implement it if feasible( look up Wall of Crazy) or a good idea but they aren't going to bow to everyone's wishes simply because they subscribe. It doesn't work that way.

 

 

 

This guy seems to be too pretentious imo. Making a successful mmo and limiting yousrself from the get go by saying "were currently not exploring the more unique and interesting species that star wars has to offer, the species the fans want to play, because of dramatic effect" is a tremendous flaw, and one of the reasons why this games popularity is dropping speedily.

 

A major part of any MMo is variety, bioware is treating this too much like a single player game, and being too linear, too predictable, the long term invester isnt interested with the limitations this guys suggesting are being enforced.

 

And what the hell is he on about with this line: "Not a simple graphic swap where now your smuggler is a giant lizard man and nobody notices but a full class story where you learn what it means to be this strange alien"

Seriously? YOU DONT NEED TO CHANGE THE PRIMARY ELEMENTS OF THE STORY JUST COS OF THE SPECIES!

I mean are people going to question the pure blood sith smuggler when 1.2 unlocks species? hell no, cos it dosent matter.

 

Trandoshans and Wookies are humanoid, they are bipedals who communicate with other species in the game fine, it shouldnt be that big of a deal to include them as playable, there are species that you shouldnt be able to play as such as hutts, because mechanically they wouldnt work at all being 10 foot tall slugs who sit on their asses all day... if they have asses that is!

 

Star wars is a universe packed with so many species that are accepted in all varieties and unquestioned, players want to play wookiee smugglers or bounty hunters and bioware should give the fans what they want.

 

The fans would have fantasmagasms playing evil wookie sith lords <3

 

 

And when we talk about vioce acting and story needing to be the primary element to create emotional attachement, my kotor charactar revan only nodded his head and looked side to side as I selected text waiting for the npc's reaction, and I was more attached to him than any of the swtor characters ive seen created.

 

 

The subs will determine the success of failure of the game, the more people unsubing, the more likely the devs are to cave into the demands of the playerbase and what we want. They state so often in developer videos that they are always listening to their fans, this is one of those thing sthey should take notice of.

Edited April 6, 2012 by RioNHale

[Captain_Zone]

Defintely want Cathar, here. My list always has them at the top. Right after Cathar are...

 

2. Jawa

3. Nautolan

4. Togruta

5 Chagrian

 

Those are my top five. Yes, I STILL want a Jawa Sith Warrior. Nobody sees it coming from a Jawa!

[Lithy]

There are some alien species that would be simple to add, like Zeltrons.

 

Then there are others that only need a full set of hi-res animations (If that, they may have them already) Togruta and Nautolans. They will probably add togruta in some expansion further along.

 

I want to see Zeltron's, and Torgruta I think would take a bit longer... there's only 4-6 diffrent looks in game, and that includes both genders.

 

And what the hell is he on about with this line: "Not a simple graphic swap where now your smuggler is a giant lizard man and nobody notices but a full class story where you learn what it means to be this strange alien"

Seriously? YOU DONT NEED TO CHANGE THE PRIMARY ELEMENTS OF THE STORY JUST COS OF THE SPECIES!

I mean are people going to question the pure blood sith smuggler when 1.2 unlocks species? hell no, cos it dosent matter.

 

 

True, Chewie was technicly a wookie smuggler. a Bosk is a pretty well know trandoshan Bounty Hunter

Edited April 6, 2012 by Lithy

[Marlel]

I would absolutely love to play as a nautolan

[Hyde_v]

Playable wookies would be pretty awesome.

 

Roooowaaaar. Roowr. Rough! We've got to go to Kassik (sp?) at some point.

[Mizaki]

im not sure if anyone has mentioned this but i would really love to see gungans has a playable species in the game, mostly coz i would love to see the gungan underwater home world ever since i saw it in episode 1 i loved the way it looked.

[geulsae]

Don't you guys realize this is BW's ace in the hole?

When they see subscription drop rapidly they will announce an expansion with new playable exotic species.

That will definitely lure old players back plus the new ones.

Every MMO does the new race/species expansion.

[CerilSkye]

I want to play a Bith.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bith

[Captain_Lurker]

Personally I would like to see more playable races and agree with some that the Legacy system should have added more rarer races to players. The only thing I would comment on is that as has been stated not all of the races speak common (Wookies), typically speak with a "accent" (Mon Calamari), or have such a odd physiology that it would make some of the interaction difficult. I would also think some races might be excluded due to not being a playable race that would be expected not to be "heroic" or "exemplary" (like Jawas or Ugnaughts, but work out nice as a companion). As for races that would be nice to see? Definately Cathar but Weequay, Kel Dor, Mon Calamari (maybe one without the speech "accent"), and the Nautolans. I cant think of the race right now but the squirel-like race on Corellia would be funny...

[Wrightshire]

I would love to play a Duros, Cad Bane is one of my favourite characters of all time and I've love to go around as a Smuggler or Bounty Hunter (although the Bounty Hunters are more Fett-like).

[dbushi]

Ok, new to this game, but not new to forums. IMO if, and this is a big IF BioWare decides to release new species the top pics for me are:

 

Cathar

Togruta

Pantoran

Kel Dor

 

I feel that these are good first round picks because they keep in line with the prerequisite that BioWare wants their main characters to continue to be able to speak basic. Also the Togruta and Pantorans are a species with human faces, and the Cathar and Kel Dor are exotic without being ridiculous. I feel that this would be a good place to start before flooding the game with species of extreme origins. Note: Although the few Kel Dor that are present in the game speak their native language of the same name it is noted that they are able to speak Basic as well (Source: Star Wars Roleplaying Game Ultimate Alien Anthology). Also I think, but am not sure, that the Pantorans originated from the same book as a species that is rarely if ever mentioned, the Omwati. And, I played a Kel Dor in the Star Wars Jedi Academy game way back when and enjoyed it. I dont think his being TOO alien took me out of the story for any longer than to create the character.

[mr_asa]

I want to be a Jawa Bounty Hunter... So frickin bad!

[Jegergryte]

One of my all time favourites are the Gand, such a cool culture and notion of the development of the self and other social psychological issues makes them very fun for pen and paper based rpgs... but mainly, they look really cool!

 

Additionally Id like to see a Devaronian smuggler running about.

 

Other favourites are Sullustans and Noghri, both of which would be really nice to see kicking behinds around the galaxy

Edited April 24, 2012 by Jegergryte
typo

[Izorii]

I really hope Bioware add in new species. My top list would be

Gran

Kel'dor

Mon Cal

[Costello]

I recall long long ago the Devs saying if players want it we will add it.

 

Now in a way the legacy system then opened up the species selection as a sort of band aid to the problem, so are they listening and we will see more species or are we all waisting our time by hoping that more species (that don't just look like green, blue, grey or blind humans) will be added to the game?

 

Cause this really seems like something that has a lot of support and would add to the game while I can't see it having a negative effect on anyone. Given that adding more species would add to the color and flavor of the gaming experience something that was very true to star wars where you went into a cantina or flat slugs palace and it was full of aliens of which no one batted an eye.

[LordoftheNight]

We need the following races to be added as playable.

 

Togruta

Trandoshan

Mon Calamari

Cathar

Kaleesh

Kel Dor

Gand (And make them short again! Like Zuckuss!)

Rodian

Selkath (Maybe)

Duros (I'd remake my BH just for this race, I could be the Cad Bane of TOR.)

And Taung and Gen'dai... ok those two are a personal dream that I know can never be true.

Edited April 25, 2012 by LordoftheNight

[Andronicos]

The classes im hoping get added some day are:

 

Zeltrons - C'mon they are just purple humans! they perfect for how the PC races work

Togruta - They just need some work done on the physics of their head things

Arkanians - Some arkanians have been shown to have five fingers instead of 3 so it should be easy enough!

[alricka]

Personally, all I want is Togruta and Nautolan and I'll be content forever.

 

And if they add new species, I dare to think that Togruta have a very good chance. Nautolan... not so much, sadly.

 

But as a whole, I think that the poor diversity is a flaw in the process of character creation. I hope they remedy that and give us at least one or two species that are more interesting and Star Wars-y than the current *instert random color here* humans.

Though in any case, I'm not hoping that it will happen anytime soon. Maybe by the time they release an expansion.

[NasherUK]

Thing is now they have opened up the ability to have any race as any class, some races just do not fit some classes or the voice that goes with them.

 

E.g. a trandoshan or rodian wouldn't fit ANY of the voice acting or half the classes, they would have to pay for new voice actors. With EA laying people off that's just not going to happen. Either that or have the generic alien babble you get when you speak to some of those races during cutscenes.

Edited April 25, 2012 by NasherUK

[Costello]

Arguments about voice not fitting or being appropriate seem moot now that they have opened up pure-blood sith Jedi and realistically any Sith Warrior that isn't a human or pure blood. The reason for the SWs quick rise is that he is there to stop a half blood the invisible rot from becoming Baras apprentice. Makes no sense if they aren't in any way human.

 

So they should open up the species options available. Now I'm sure there are people at EA and BW that are asking what they could have done differently, what choices they made that might have been better done differently. Species is one I am sure they have considered and it is one of they could fix quickly and easily. Far more than the graphical choice or space or gameplay. So adding more species seem to be a good option.

 

And when they do look at the species I hope they look at the more unique ones like Gran and Trandoshian etc.

[DarthWeevil]

Ive never played world of warcraft but im well aware of the variety of characters in it, yoda I guess would be the equivelant of a dwarf-type (speaking character height/design wise) why would it be so hard to put them as playable characters?

 

It would be hard mainly because GL has stated he will never reveal the race Yoda is part of. To allow them to be playable would require expansion and background on the race and their nature, which would, in itself completely destroy the mystery that contributes to making yYoda such a great character. I hope against hope they never make that race playable. Keep them in their role of rare, awesome wise old alien mystics.

 

As for aliens who don't speak basic.. I fail to see the problem. We already have subtitles for aliens who don't speak basic, yet every player in the game understands precisely what they are saying. As such it would be fairly easy to have Rodians, Sullustans, and other unusual races compeltely voiced in their native tongue as player characters.

[Izorii]

I would like to see every species people have listed here, but somehow I doubt we wil see Jawa, Ewok or species like them, they just are not "Heroic enough" although what could be more heroic than the little guy standing up against the Evil Empire

 

Most species could be added through Legacy with little to no problem. I just hope it gets done before everyone who wants to play something alien drifts off to other MMO's

Edited April 27, 2012 by Izorii

[DaveMallonee]

I think the best compromise between the current state of the game and the desire to play more exotic races like Wookies or Transdoshans would be to eventually implement specific racial class stories for those races in a future expansion. While it is technically true that Chewbacca is a Wookie smuggler it is also most accurate to describe him as Han Solo's companion- their relationship has always seemed like one of the direct inspirations for the whole companion concept to me. And one thing to remember is that while watching the original trilogy might give you the impression that Chewie was just another smuggler making his way across the universe there's a reason we did not see any other wookies in the OT and we only saw wookies once in the PT and that was when we their homeworld, from what lore I have read they don't generally see a lot of benefit to leaving their jungle planet unless they ow a life debt or someone enslaves them. So while it would be awesome to play as a Wookie Sith Marauder even w/o George's edict of no more force sensitive wookies (which I think is the reason Hanharr in KOTOR 2 was not force sensitive and trainable) it would still have to be a story about a Wookie Sith Marauder, not the current Sith Marauder storyline played as a wookie. Being a Wookie really would change everything else in the story. Just imagine how much different Empire would be if Han was a wookie. Or if Luke was. Or how different the prequels would be if Qui Gon, Obi Wan, Jango, Maul, Dooku, or Anakin were. It might matter a little less with some of them (I think Qui Gon or Dooku could be a wookie and it would only change the story for the better because I disagree with the idea that wookie jedi are not awesome) but if any one of those characters were a wookie it would profoundly change the story to the point.

 

another example is in the development of force unleashed. One of the original concepts they developed was a game centered around a wookie rebel agent based on the theory that the wookie strength and rage would provide them options for super heroic fighting abilities the player could unlock during the game. the development of this concept is documented in the book about the making of the first game. Eventually it was abandoned, primarily due to feedback from George Lucas that a wookie protagonist was problematic because there was such a disconnect between the human player and the wookie character he was playing and how well the player could project himself into the character and experience the story from their perspective. Sound familiar?

 

All that aside if Bioware announced tomorrow or any day after it that a future expansion would feature Kashyyk as an endgame battleground in the war between the Republic and Empire with a full planet quest for each class to participate in as they work towards hitting the new level cap I would be ecstatic. And if it also included a Wookie racial class who would treat Kashyyk as their starting area and then go out in the universe to align with the faction of their choice through the options in their story I would be almost as excited to play that story as I am to play the other 8 they already gave me. Because practical considerations aside I played a Wookie once in the tabletop D6 Star Wars RPG when I was in college and the possibility of playing something even close to that in this format would be very cool. Very very cool.

 

Races that are more or less different colored humans. like the Chiss we already have and Zeltrons or Nagai or whatever should be easy. I was actually suprised that I couldn't just play a human and manipulate their skin tone enough to make them look like a Zeltron. It's just different shades of magenta and red. Hopefully that sort of thing can be done in a content update.

 

 

Stuff that's inbetween like Cathar and Togruta or Nautolians are probably in the pipe for a future expansion.

 

I'll just keep dreaming on that Wookie racial class thing....

[RioNHale]

It would be hard mainly because GL has stated he will never reveal the race Yoda is part of. To allow them to be playable would require expansion and background on the race and their nature, which would, in itself completely destroy the mystery that contributes to making yYoda such a great character. I hope against hope they never make that race playable. Keep them in their role of rare, awesome wise old alien mystics.

 

As for aliens who don't speak basic.. I fail to see the problem. We already have subtitles for aliens who don't speak basic, yet every player in the game understands precisely what they are saying. As such it would be fairly easy to have Rodians, Sullustans, and other unusual races compeltely voiced in their native tongue as player characters.

 

No it really wouldnt require a background expansion about the species, when you start swtor as say, a jedi knight, you get about 3 lines of dialogue none commenting on your species.

 

"Hi-I beat all my masters bla bla bla.

Flesh Raiders? bla bla bla.

Ok autobots rollout bla bla bla."

 

Start game.

 

It wouldnt require excess reveal and research about the species, thus keeping your mystery factor about the origin of this species. It would remain unquestioned. You start on Typhon like any other species and begin your journey through levelling your character.

 

I couldnt give 2 ***** about "master oteg-the-pooh", within the Taral V/Maelstorm prison storyline, I didnt care about his species origins nor his backstory, but I would have loved the experience to play as that character because he was the same race/body type/nostalgia feel of yoda.

 

Im tired of people stating in absolutes "xxx will never happen" in a franchise where GL keeps changing the origional movies every 10 years, who knows maybe yoda will have an orange afro to update star wars for the year 2022.

[Onmensch]

This guy seems to be too pretentious imo. Making a successful mmo and limiting yousrself from the get go by saying "were currently not exploring the more unique and interesting species that star wars has to offer, the species the fans want to play, because of dramatic effect" is a tremendous flaw, and one of the reasons why this games popularity is dropping speedily.

 

A major part of any MMo is variety, bioware is treating this too much like a single player game, and being too linear, too predictable, the long term invester isnt interested with the limitations this guys suggesting are being enforced.

 

And what the hell is he on about with this line: "Not a simple graphic swap where now your smuggler is a giant lizard man and nobody notices but a full class story where you learn what it means to be this strange alien"

Seriously? YOU DONT NEED TO CHANGE THE PRIMARY ELEMENTS OF THE STORY JUST COS OF THE SPECIES!

I mean are people going to question the pure blood sith smuggler when 1.2 unlocks species? hell no, cos it dosent matter.

 

Trandoshans and Wookies are humanoid, they are bipedals who communicate with other species in the game fine, it shouldnt be that big of a deal to include them as playable, there are species that you shouldnt be able to play as such as hutts, because mechanically they wouldnt work at all being 10 foot tall slugs who sit on their asses all day... if they have asses that is!

 

Star wars is a universe packed with so many species that are accepted in all varieties and unquestioned, players want to play wookiee smugglers or bounty hunters and bioware should give the fans what they want.

 

The fans would have fantasmagasms playing evil wookie sith lords <3

 

 

And when we talk about vioce acting and story needing to be the primary element to create emotional attachement, my kotor charactar revan only nodded his head and looked side to side as I selected text waiting for the npc's reaction, and I was more attached to him than any of the swtor characters ive seen created.

 

 

The subs will determine the success of failure of the game, the more people unsubing, the more likely the devs are to cave into the demands of the playerbase and what we want. They state so often in developer videos that they are always listening to their fans, this is one of those thing sthey should take notice of.

 

Exactly! Sorry just had to quote and say exactly.

It's just weird that they want to leave out the really interesting species. Nobody cares you're a big giant lizzard or a small man in brown robes. It's just cool to play!