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

[AnimalMotherr]

All human races is going to be a major downfall if not corrected. This is a sci-fi universe. One great aspect of sci-fi is that we get to see so many different species.

 

I would make a bet that if Cathars were released they would become the highest population. Humans are boring, and all we have now are humans with different skin colors. There is no diversity. its *********** boring.

[vingmotor]

yea totally agree with OP. its star wars for frekking sake !!

[Vlaxitov]

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.

 

How about we just eliminate the least played class, then do it again, then again, untill we have one class that the majority likes to play. Wouldn't that be the cost effective way to go? Can't we get rid of some of the existing lesser played races as it is?

 

Minority races and classes in game still add value. Your argument is that animations, models, and textures shouldn't be added to games for the sake of being "cost effective" aka "cheap." I don't think cutting corners is a virtue and I'm not trying to play cheaply made games.

[Katahn]

Any race can work Republic-side for anything and Empire side for Bounty Hunters and Sith Inquisitors without even having to bend or twist anything lore-wise. Empire-side agents being any kind of non-human could easily work too: they'd be less suspicious as deep cover agents. The only place this breaks down is for Sith Warriors and then only because the class story starts off with a lot of "you are true sith and the hope to save the order" stuff.

 

Human-like (or close enough) aliens that I think could readily be added: togruta, cathar, nautolan, weequay.

 

Not human but just need to be added anyway: wookie, trandoshan, rodian.

[grezgorz]

Help me SWTOR paid expansion, you're my only hope.

[yoomazir]

Help me SWTOR paid expansion, you're my only hope.

 

HA! Probably...

[Blistrich]

Truth is we will never have cool races in this game, because BW will not create special armor models for aliens with strange, interesting bodies like the Ithorians. There may be no limit to the human imagination, but here at SWTOR, the limit is how much effort the devs feel like putting in... and they don't feel like putting any effort into this.

 

Yes, they should be providing the opportunity to play as fascinating species from all across the universe, but why bother when you can just toss in different colored humans and put together a single armor list for them? I mean, we have no imaginations and lowered expectations anyway, so who gives a crap?

 

I'm very disappointed with this Mickey Mouse aspect of the game.

Edited May 15, 2012 by Blistrich

[_Zhatan_]

Dude, you still think this is a star wars game?

This is a lightsaber game , is something different.

 

Remove space ships, aliens and action from star wars and what you get? SWTOR

[Blistrich]

Remove space ships, aliens and action from star wars and what you get? SWTOR

This made me giggle.

[Illyean]

cant imagine seeing non humanoid playable species at all, they would need a new art model for gear and potentially a completely new gear model as stats and armor are based on gear NOT a character. I accept that an armor rating is appropriate for gear, but my cunning is nothing to do with the style of boots I wear

 

I think we might see playable Wook's, Trando's and Boths at some point, maybe others

[Gammawaves]

Truth is we will never have cool races in this game, because BW will not create special armor models for aliens with strange, interesting bodies like the Ithorians. There may be no limit to the human imagination, but here at SWTOR, the limit is how much effort the devs feel like putting in... and they don't feel like putting any effort into this.

 

Yes, they should be providing the opportunity to play as fascinating species from all across the universe, but why bother when you can just toss in different colored humans and put together a single armor list for them? I mean, we have no imaginations and lowered expectations anyway, so who gives a crap?

 

I'm very disappointed with this Mickey Mouse aspect of the game.

 

yeah its what Ive come to accept as well. The fact that we will never get cool looking exoctic aliens as playable species, no wookies, no rodians, no ithorians, ect.

It doesnt matter how many expansion packs they release, the fact is that this game just isnt designed to play exotic aliens, the story line, the dialogue voice acting, romance options, gear, its all built around playing humans and different colored skin humans.

This game is not about us creating our own characters and making our own story, this is biowares game and we are characters in Biowares story which isnt designed for cool looking exotic aliens. The interviews with the developers are clear that they dont intend aliens to play a star role in their story. Just have to accept the game for what it is.

Edited May 15, 2012 by Gammawaves

[codyr]

yeah its what Ive come to accept as well. The fact that we will never get cool looking exoctic aliens as playable species, no wookies, no rodians, no ithorians, ect.

It doesnt matter how many expansion packs they release, the fact is that this game just isnt designed to play exotic aliens, the story line, the dialogue voice acting, romance options, gear, its all built around playing humans and different colored skin humans.

This game is not about us creating our own characters and making our own story, this is biowares game and we are characters in Biowares story which isnt designed for cool looking exotic aliens. The interviews with the developers are clear that they dont intend aliens to play a star role in their story. Just have to accept the game for what it is.

 

i think the issue with Rodians is more the lack of expressivity in their faces than anything else. this probably applies also to the Nautolians. Bioware is very proud of their story cutscenes and they don't really want to throw in playable species that will look like hand-puppets when they talk. and species that don't speak basic (like wookies) are just right out.

 

Togruta i think will eventually be available, once they figure out how to make them look different from one another.

[yoomazir]

I recently watched a bunch of SW stuff lately, you know, to get in the mood with this game,and I was thinking, in addition of races, I think it would be pretty sweet if we had the chance to play as an "independent" droid. Edited May 16, 2012 by yoomazir

[Annedromeda]

I recently watched a bunch of SW stuff lately, you know, to get in the mood with this game,and I was thinking, in addition of races, I think it would be pretty sweet if we had the chance to play as an "independent" droid.

 

I think that's a great idea! It would take some really creative writing for the story line, but they wouldn't have to hire someone to do voice over, unless they made the droid of protocol style; and that would seem silly since many people are chomping at the bit for something other than humanoid.

[Diet-Hutt]

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.

 

Forget Rodians and Wookies for now.

 

Can people relate to a Cathar? Togruta?

I can.

 

I've seen them in the games as companions and NPC's and they wear different gear and speak Basic.

My Cathar companion can wear helmets.

 

How hard can it be to add them as a playable race?

 

The creation feature could be used to make some very colorful and unique characters besides a green human with black squares on the cheeks or a bald pale human with jewelry.

 

This seems like a weak excuse, but if they keep following it they will continue to lose.

 

I don't think the people that want to play species like that are in the minority at all.

 

- DH

Edited May 16, 2012 by Diet-Hutt

[ACE-GIRL]

Forget Rodians and Wookies for now.

 

Can people relate to a Cathar? Togruta?

I can.

 

I've seen them in the games as companions and NPC's and they wear different gear and speak Basic.

My Cathar companion can wear helmets.

 

How hard can it be to add them as a playable race?

 

The creation feature could be used to make some very colorful and unique characters besides a green human with black squares on the cheeks or a bald pale human with jewelry.

 

This seems like a weak excuse, but if they keep following it they will continue to lose.

 

I don't think the people that want to play species like that are in the minority at all.

 

- DH

 

Well i think if there were more diverse mechanics, i would love to pvp a HUTT Vs a human Vs. a wookie and/or Jawa, when that pvp game is released I will play it, until then im done with mmos

[ACE-GIRL]

Well i think if there were more diverse mechanics, i would love to pvp a HUTT Vs a human Vs. a wookie and/or Jawa, when that pvp game is released I will play it, until then im done with mmos

 

OOh and i forgot real space battles pvp style and Walkers, but swtor pvp is *yawn* boring

[Balthazod]

I totally agree where are the aliens the excuse that it takes too much work is rubbish its Star Wars not Human Wars and its set in the past when there would be more aliens before the humans could have time to enslave eat or poison them.

[IBJammin]

All of this talk about facial expressions....

 

Does your character's expressions ever change that much? Have you seen fear, surprise, joy.... anything? I may have to pay greater attention but I'm not seeing a whole lot of diversity in my toons.

[Dyvid]

Nope because you keep asking for it.

[Kourage]

Frankly, that's what a difference in race is.

[Diet-Hutt]

Well i think if there were more diverse mechanics, i would love to pvp a HUTT Vs a human Vs. a wookie and/or Jawa, when that pvp game is released I will play it, until then im done with mmos

 

That would be fun.

 

The main argument against making playable species is they need to be humanoid and speak Basic for the per-recorded dialogue so I was mainly addressing that point.

 

They can start with the species in the game that already can do that.

A lot of them look very unique by comparison to a Cyborg or a green human with a checkerboard tattoo.

 

- DH

[Diet-Hutt]

Frankly, that's what a difference in race is.

 

We're talking unique SPECIES not RACE.

Or does simple skin color separate a Wookie from a Rodian?

 

All we have are the same humanoid models with different skin color.

 

- DH

Edited May 16, 2012 by Diet-Hutt

[otherworlder]

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.

 

Inaccurate.

 

Many, many iconic Star Wars aliens can be found in this game, fully animated, using the exact same builds/animations/gear/weapons as the humanoid player characters, usually without helmets or gloves in cases where this is not practical.

 

These assets already exist.

 

There are Duros, Gamorreans, Gands, Wookiees, Arcona, Rodians, Trandoshans, Ugnaughts, Devaronians, Advosze and the list goes on and on. They animate just like we do, they wear the same gear we do.

 

The only reason we have been given why BW does not allow players in a Star Wars setting to use these races is their vaunted "main class storylines". BW has stated that in their mind, the heroes in Star Wars are the humans or near humans, and the fascinating, bizarre cast of aliens should only be background flavor.

 

Further proof they designed this as a KOTOR game. We're in an MMO folks... not a single player experience. We're not all the main character in this setting, thus it is rather silly that we're all forced into such a narrow vision of the Star Wars universe.

 

Many, many people would love to run around as some of the more visually unique aliens, and would happily sacrifice VOs, stale romance options and such for the chance.

 

Garbled alien VOs would not be an issue either----the unique dialect for these aliens is already in game (again, Wookiee speech, ugnaught speech, Huttese) and I'm willing to bet that a player who wanted to choose one of these aliens would be quite prepared for them to speak as they did in the films. That's not the issue.

 

Those who say these aliens would not be chosen and would be wasted assets... I submit that from an RPer standpoint, you're probably right. A lot of RPers want a species they can relate more readily to (I'm not such an RPer, personally). But RPers are in a very small minority. And those who simply signed on to play in the Star Wars IP (PvE, PvP, whatever) would love to have more options in their gameplay.

 

No reason these already available art assets should be locked away from players. I for one would love to be the only Gamorrean BH on my server, even if my choices in his head design, skin color and build were limited to one option, and his customization came only from gear choices. The diversity in species would still make this unique.

 

TLDR: The wondrous Star Wars setting and its vast panoply of creative aliens goes to waste in this title, just as the OP indicated. There is no earthly reason beyond BW's presumptive, single-player 'vision' that we cannot use these species.

Edited May 16, 2012 by otherworlder

[yoomazir]

All of this talk about facial expressions....

 

Does your character's expressions ever change that much? Have you seen fear, surprise, joy.... anything? I may have to pay greater attention but I'm not seeing a whole lot of diversity in my toons.

 

True enough, besides, I keep the helmet on, so...

 

 

 

..

Further proof they designed this as a KOTOR game. We're in an MMO folks... not a single player experience. We're not all the main character in this setting, thus it is rather silly that we're all forced into such a narrow vision of the Star Wars universe.

...

 

This is the feeling I'm getting now, this game should have been KotOR III, remove the multiplayer of this game and what you get? The long awaited sequel we were all waiting for...

Honestly, I picked a 3 months deal with this game but I'm not really sure that I will continue playing this once it's over.

 

I said in my first post that I did play Star Wars Galaxies for like 1 month, yet I really believe they grasped the whole SW feeling much better than Bioware and this game.

Edited May 16, 2012 by yoomazir