Will Bioware bring playable races that doesn't look like colored humans?

[Neoeve]

Well 80% play humans here - or cyborgs, which are apparently humans as well - because there are very few interesting alternatives you don't need a huge legacy unlock for.

 

Look at any other MMO with the mobs of goblins and taurens and elves and wolf-people and whatever the heck they come up with that are all running around for a contrast. Sure, humans are probably usually going to have an edge, all else being equal, but the diversity is important.

 

that sir, is the key, everyone runing around all looking the same is quite sad, sure you can have a blue face or a couple of horns but besides that, after all the armor you get, you will look like everybody else even if you wear a diferent social wear.

Becouse after all, everyone is humanized, you wont see "little people" or really big ugly looking guys, WoW is the perfect example of this, you can really be what you want and look the way you want.

[MentalCase]

that sir, is the key, everyone runing around all looking the same is quite sad, sure you can have a blue face or a couple of horns but besides that, after all the armor you get, you will look like everybody else even if you wear a diferent social wear.

Becouse after all, everyone is humanized, you wont see "little people" or really big ugly looking guys, WoW is the perfect example of this, you can really be what you want and look the way you want.

 

Agreed completely. I didn't play SWG for very long but I was immediately drawn to the Ithorians and Wookies because they were so NON human. Even races like Twi'leks and Zabrak are what I would consider near-human. That was one thing SWG really did get right.

[nartiuslightlord]

Muun is my choice if they ever add anything other then the thundercat guys. darth plagueis was Muun and was just pure win.

 

Wookies would never work but jawas could work, but they're just rats with cloaks and never spoke basic. cathar is just a bad choice. nikto would have been a better choice or Kaleesh. so many better choices then cathars it boggles how they would choose that. were is the poll the devs ran in and out of game asking about what our favorite races would be?

 

I wanna see the number 1 pick cathar. you don't pick a race thats third or 5th on this imginary list and hope those of us are ecited about it. logic would be that at least number two most wanted race would be the one they would have gone with and save the number 1 most wanted for the xpac.

 

but oh well back to the game..

[Sarfux]

things that walk upright have arms, legs, heads, shoulders, torsos, etc are called humanoids

 

Togruta are humanoids, along with Rodians, Togruta, and Neimodians. A humanoid is "something with an appearence resembling a human being" which are ALL species in games. Unless you want something like Celegians, which are all knowing VERY powerful force users which are not humanoids because...well..they are floating brains.

Edited June 11, 2012 by Sarfux

[Darth_Halford]

that sir, is the key, everyone runing around all looking the same is quite sad, sure you can have a blue face or a couple of horns but besides that, after all the armor you get, you will look like everybody else even if you wear a diferent social wear.

Becouse after all, everyone is humanized, you wont see "little people" or really big ugly looking guys, WoW is the perfect example of this, you can really be what you want and look the way you want.

 

Key differance being that a species choice in WoW (and basically any other MMO or RPG) is purely an excercise of preferences in aesthetics with some (minor) variations in stats or abilities, while TOR wants there to be something more substantial to it.

 

Should an Ithorian Trooper (heaven forbid they ever allow it) act the same as a Human, or be treated the same by others? No way. Things like that are what is stopping alot of the species choices.

[Darth_Halford]

Muun is my choice if they ever add anything other then the thundercat guys. darth plagueis was Muun and was just pure win.

 

Wookies would never work but jawas could work, but they're just rats with cloaks and never spoke basic. cathar is just a bad choice. nikto would have been a better choice or Kaleesh. so many better choices then cathars it boggles how they would choose that. were is the poll the devs ran in and out of game asking about what our favorite races would be?

 

I wanna see the number 1 pick cathar. you don't pick a race thats third or 5th on this imginary list and hope those of us are ecited about it. logic would be that at least number two most wanted race would be the one they would have gone with and save the number 1 most wanted for the xpac.

 

but oh well back to the game..

 

The most popular pick by the fans does not always translate to the best choice by the developers.

 

the "Jawa Trade Language" is very rare outside of the homeworld of Tattooine. That everyone who interacts with your character should know it would be rather disruptive of that immersion.

Nikto are a slave species to the Hutts, and as such it would be difficult to explain them working for either the Republic or the Empire without a major correction to the default backstory.

Kaleesh (that I'm aware of) have not been discovered yet by the gallaxy at large. Neither have the Cereans, the Gungans, Ewoks, or several others.

[Bluerodian]

Key differance being that a species choice in WoW (and basically any other MMO or RPG) is purely an excercise of preferences in aesthetics with some (minor) variations in stats or abilities, while TOR wants there to be something more substantial to it.

 

Should an Ithorian Trooper (heaven forbid they ever allow it) act the same as a Human, or be treated the same by others? No way. Things like that are what is stopping alot of the species choices.

 

And once more I ask, why would there be a need for them to be treated any different above what it already put in the game for other non-humans? Just because most Ithorians are pacifists doesn't mean all of them are.

[Blondesolid]

 

Should an Ithorian Trooper (heaven forbid they ever allow it) act the same as a Human, or be treated the same by others? No way. Things like that are what is stopping alot of the species choices.

 

If that was the case, they wouldn't have added race unlocks in legacy. Example... those 17 sith pure blood consulars, and knights standing there by the gtn, on the republic fleet.

[Forgon]

The most popular pick by the fans does not always translate to the best choice by the developers.

 

the "Jawa Trade Language" is very rare outside of the homeworld of Tattooine. That everyone who interacts with your character should know it would be rather disruptive of that immersion.

Nikto are a slave species to the Hutts, and as such it would be difficult to explain them working for either the Republic or the Empire without a major correction to the default backstory.

Kaleesh (that I'm aware of) have not been discovered yet by the gallaxy at large. Neither have the Cereans, the Gungans, Ewoks, or several others.

 

The language thing is the only thing that really bugs me and that is with most/all languages, even Rakata. Only Soa makes sense (he is talking in your mind, never physically).

 

Nikto are not a "slave" species to the Hutts. There are tons of Nikto pirates, servants, and other members of different orders who did not end up being enslaved by the Hutts or used as bodyguards. As a race, Nikto have just as much individuality as any other galactic race.

 

Kaleesh have a few references to existing before this timeline, I believe, so yes they were widely known to the galaxy at large, especially if there were Sith members among their species.

 

As far as I know, there are no Cerean, Gungan, or Ewok races in-game as none of their respective planets have been discovered and it is not as easy to shoe-horn into the lore as it is the Chiss.

 

Just wanted to point out a few flaws in your statements.

[Shai-Huluud]

I do love the game but not having playable Wookies at launch in a Star Wars game is a pretty big fail especially as they have a Wookie companion and clothing/armour options for him.

[MentalCase]

If that was the case, they wouldn't have added race unlocks in legacy. Example... those 17 sith pure blood consulars, and knights standing there by the gtn, on the republic fleet.

 

^ This... if any race/class combination doesn't make sense, this is the one. Sith Pureblood Jedi? Really?

[atschai]

Hooray for playable robots!

[Zerixkun]

furry humans, yeah boy!

[StoogeW]

Clearly the problem here is voice art related not character modelling.

 

I reckon hearing alien gibberish is cool at first but after a few hours it will mos likely become annoying for most people.

 

Well, I just spacebar through any of the Alien gibberish so I can totally understand why Bioware would do this.

 

No reason why we can't have Nautolan and Togruta ASAP

Edited June 11, 2012 by StoogeW

[Astralll]

I will bet an entire capital ship that in 3 years we will have wookies or trandoshans to play as main characters. Something along those lines. The game is going to evolve immensely as long as Lucas Arts allows it to continue.

[MetalHed]

I'll be honest, I played Star Wars Galaxies for like 1 month (the game was like 10 bucks with 1 month free) and there was something I really enjoyed: Playing as an Ithorian bounty hunter.

 

So I started playing this game like 1 week ago and I was kinda disappointed to see that the only playables races basically look like your average human with flashy colors and "alien" appendices.

There is also something else that kinda felt awkward to me, there aren't enough alien npcs wandering around, the whole game feels kinda "humans in space only" .

 

I haven't followed much what Bioware has in stock for the future, but I would really like to think they will bring a little more fantasy content instead of the 90% human population/10% "alien" races in this game lorewise, along with having the possibility of having an ithorian bounty hunter

 

Anyway, that was just my 2 cents, overall I'm having fun with this game, not the ultimate mmorpg, but fun nontheless.

 

Agreed...just check my sig, I miss my Wookiee Jedi .

 

Also can't tell you how many times I've seen human NPC's standing around "doing something", so I take a closer look only to notice IDENTICAL HUMAN NPC'S standing next to eachother...really. Minor annoyance but...C'mon!!

[Aharx]

I too played "SWG" since launch. I loved the fact that a player could play pretty much any race that they wanted to. Wookiee, Ithorian, Rodian, you name it. They were not simply all humanoid races.

 

I love "SW:TOR". I've played this game since launch too. I don't really have any complaints about it to be honest aside from a few of small things.

 

1. Appearance tab. Where is it? Why is it so hard to implement something so simple? Let us wear what we want.

2. Speeders. I cannot ride a mount until I am half way levelled to cap? Really? I am pretty sure in most MMOs that I have played I was able to use a mount pretty much right at the start (with some exceptions... none quite like this though). Even level 15 would be better then level 25. The Government of the "SW:TOR" galaxy trusts me to fly around the planets at the speed of light in a star ship but I cannot drive to work? I have to walk? Really? lol.

3. Races. This one is simple. Gives players other options besides humanoid races. The sad part is that they put them in the game as NPCs. Why not allow players to play as any race they want? It's not like there are benefits to playing a particular race in this game anyways. I always play as a human so I don't really care personally... but it would make alot of people happier if they could choose, say, a Wookiee over a Human. Or an Ithorian over a Chiss. Chiss... that's a hard one. Human + Blue Paint= Ava... oops, Chiss.

Edited June 11, 2012 by Aharx

[dsapp]

I too played "SWG" since launch. I loved the fact that a player could play pretty much any race that they wanted to. Wookiee, Ithorian, Rodian, you name it. They were not simply all humanoid races.

 

I love "SW:TOR". I've played this game since launch too. I don't really have any complaints about it to be honest aside from a few of small things.

 

1. Appearance tab. Where is it? Why is it so hard to implement something so simple? Let us wear what we want.

2. Speeders. I cannot ride a mount until I am half way levelled to cap? Really? I am pretty sure in most MMOs that I have played I was able to use a mount pretty much right at the start (with some exceptions... none quite like this though). Even level 15 would be better then level 25. The Government of the "SW:TOR" galaxy trusts me to fly around the planets at the speed of light in a star ship but I cannot drive to work? I have to walk? Really? lol.

3. Races. This one is simple. Gives players other options besides humanoid races. The sad part is that they put them in the game as NPCs. Why not allow players to play as any race they want? It's not like there are benefits to playing a particular race in this game anyways. I always play as a human so I don't really care personally... but it would make alot of people happier if they could choose, say, a Wookiee over a Human. Or an Ithorian over a Chiss. Chiss... that's a hard one. Human + Blue Paint= Ava... oops, Chiss.

 

Actually, in WoW, you had to wait until level 40 to get your first mount. This was years ago. They changed it to help get regular folks up to speed faster when it came to leveling since they had 2 expansions out already. As for the appearance tab.....it would kind of get rid of the point to having orange armor. Not saying I agree or disagree, just laying out that point.

[Darth_Halford]

Nikto are not a "slave" species to the Hutts. There are tons of Nikto pirates, servants, and other members of different orders who did not end up being enslaved by the Hutts or used as bodyguards. As a race, Nikto have just as much individuality as any other galactic race.

I know of at least one reference book that states that they are.

 

Widely recognized as a slave species of the Hutts, the Nikto have served their

masters since before the founding of the Old Republic, proving to be cunning

warriors in the Hutts' battle with the legendary conqueror Xim the Despot.

 

The wookiepedia article about the species also confirms it.

[Darth_Halford]

And once more I ask, why would there be a need for them to be treated any different above what it already put in the game for other non-humans? Just because most Ithorians are pacifists doesn't mean all of them are.

 

Because either A) the story doesn't consider all of the other players that make the same choice as you, making you well outside the social norms (which people don't react well to), or B) It does consider other players, meaning you are within the norm for the game but going against what the norm is for the species in the overall franchise.

[vincent-]

People who want to play exotic species is a minority, yet the work required to make all the gear and animations work on a single exotic specie simply outweighs the benefit. The majority of players prefer humanoid-species whom they can more easily relate with, as such more work is done of those species.

 

Had BioWare introduced species, chances are those species will have: 1. awkward animations, 2. nearly all the gear in the game do not show up, or only show up in a very limited number of forms, 3. no proper VO, only alien gibberish. Only in such circumstances can the amount of work be justified. Yet if that had happened then I'm certain there will be even more complaints. As a result BioWare chose the safer option of not introducing those species as playable characters at all.

 

Played a game hell of a lot older than this with aliens with their own F!@#@ armor don't you dare think that developers can be this stupid!

 

You know it doesn't matter seeing as they're not willing to take risks which shows. The results will always be the same, they might as well have made this into a 8+ kids game or just have done kotor 3 my sub will end and nothing so far has convinced me this is worth my time.

 

The old crappy saying you can't please everyone yet making that your first motto is a sure way of saying we don't care.

[Temeluchus]

The reasoning behind exotic playable alien species seems to be less about armor looks and types for specific exotic alien species and more about the companion romances and voice acting.

 

There are a few dev quotes out there stating that exotic species just don't fit with romances and the voice acting, for example a Wookiee or Trandoshan won't/can't mate with a human and lets be honest, listening to the same repetive grunts or hisses in the voice acting will drive you crazy from levels 1-50.

 

For the foreseeable future I only see near-human or Humanoid type species being introduced as playable.

 

Those of you citing SWG or WoW as an example of exotic species working with different armor types and they like, that's nice and all and yes, the devs could do it; but SWG/WoW did not have voice acting nor companion interactions and romances. Apples and Oranges.

[Darth_Halford]

You know it doesn't matter seeing as they're not willing to take risks which shows.

 

Right, because they didn't take a huge risk with a 200 Million Dollar budget, or trying to do something that had never been done before in the genre...

[Cerdo_hormiguero]

Right, because they didn't take a huge risk with a 200 Million Dollar budget, or trying to do something that had never been done before in the genre...

 

Umm, what "risks" are you suggesting they took? Making quest text into voiced-over cut scenes? That is hardly a risk, it's merely an improvement on basic MMOs. Moreover, the result of VO has largely been over-investment in leveling content at the cost of endgame, something that is undeniably hurting the game.

[Captain_Zone]

I could picture Leia kissing a Wookiee.....