More Star Wars in The Old Republic please

[Kubernetic]

1) Use more music from the movies

 

Isn't there already quite a bit of music from the movies in the game?

 

2) Use more costume designs from the movies (understated uniforms + pants that are not all nuthuggers)

 

Like which costumes? Han Solo's costume is essentially in the game already. Ben Kenobi's robes are in there in the mix of Jedi robes. Imperial officers are spot-on with Imperial uniforms. Bounty Hunter and Trooper Armor is exquisitely done. About the only costumes missing are Darth Vader (no, you can't, just stop) and Leia's outfits (although the slave girl outfit made it in).

 

3) Make equipment look more like the movies (Ships, Droids, Machinery)

 

Droids look every bit like the canon movie droids. There are some adjustments made since the astromechs and protocol droids are supposed to be 1,000 year old models, but they look every bit Star Wars to me, even as they are.

 

Ships look incredibly well done. Who doesn't see the Falcon when you look at the Smuggler X-5 freighter? Who doesn't see a Corellian Corvette when you look at the Jedi Defender? Who doesn't think of a modified large-scale B-Wing when you look at the BT-7 Thunderclap? Or Slave One when you look at the Mantis? Or Maul's or Vader's ships when looking at the Sith starship? Ships are very well done, if you ask me.

 

I'm not sure what "machinery" means, but blasters, rifles, lightsabers and the like all look right to me. Environments with things like power generators and computer systems all look accurate.

 

4) Jedis need to be more exciting (flips, jumps, etc.)

 

Disagree. Acrobatic flips and jumps were not really core Star Wars concepts. These were very sparingly used throughout the series of movies, amounting to perhaps a few minutes total out of many hours of movies.

 

5) More exotic races that don't have human bodies with an alien head

 

Easy to say, much more difficult to code. We already have species in the game like Ithorians, Talz, Ortolans and others who are not exactly your different forehead aliens. The concepts that they believe humanoid characters are more identifiable and emotionally attachable are valid. Some people may enjoy playing completely alien species, but these would most likely not be the mainstream players. So that means investing lots of developer resources for characters, language, armor fittings, helmet fittings especially and more for a minimal return on investment.

 

I support getting some weird character types in, but I support these actually being in some kind of a paid expansion so they can recoup some of the costs from players who play those extreme species.

 

6) Starfighters

 

I'm not sure what this means. The starfighters in the game already resemble canon ships, including both the standard Imperial and Republic fighters that you're constantly picking off in space combat.

 

7) Use sound effects from the movies. The blasters in this game sound flat and non-iconic.

 

Plenty of these already in game. They don't want the blasters to all sound the same. Lightsabers especially are well done. Space blasters on some models are right out of the movie sound effects, while others have different sounds for variety. I don't think we all want every space blaster on every ship to sound like an X-Wing blaster "blat" sound. I know I don't.

 

Though its milennia before the movies, the tech is really the same, so just make it look more like the Ralph McQuarrie stuff. The old-style look is not consistent through the game. The Agent ship looks like its from the GCW era, but the smuggler ship just looks like crap. Almost all of the speeders in SWTOR look newer than luke's XP-34 (which I don't think was supposed to be 3000 years old). The movie art design, music, and feel could help a lot to deliver more epic atmosphere.

 

I'll have to disagree with almost everything here. I would like to see Luke's speeder in at some point as some kind of an epic drop or mission reward, but that's a minor thing to me.

 

As far as the rest, the art design and music and items all seem great to me, with the exception of the odd endgame Warhammer 40Kish armor. That could use some tweaking because those big spiky shoulders don't look canon to me at all.

 

Otherwise, I think BioWare is to be commended on their artistic efforts. Great job all around, IMHO. I guess we'll have to disagree.

Edited June 2, 2012 by Kubernetic

[federdr]

1. How would you holocall your friends? How would the game be able to have your character speak with his or her own voice, complete with animation, without the devs knowing precisely what you are going to say? That's extremely adaptive tech and I doubt any game has it at all.

 

2. Yes, it would be awesome to have our Jedi be virtually unstoppable to just about everything, taking down entire armies without any help at all. I would find that boring and feel unchallenged. Also, it ruins group play. If you can kill everything all on your own, why bother with a group. Might be cool, but this is an MMO, not a Jedi-centric single player run.

 

3. Yes, it would be awesome if our Jedi and Sith could jump all over the place at will. It would also be game breaking. Jedi jumping all over the place is only iconic for Eps I, II and III. I think Luke jumps once in Empire and once in Return. The lack of constantly leaping Jedi isn't a really good example of what doesn't make this Star Warsy.

 

4. Fights with either my Warrior or Knight are always jumpy affairs. Yes, there are level playing fields, but there are also complex ones in this game, where it is possible to do all sorts of things with jumping.

 

All of your complaints seem to be with the Jedi and Sith classes and not with the game.

 

I'm not saying overpowered character I meant what they said: 12 heroes hitting one enemy is not heroic at all.

Holocalling could be just a visual thing for chatting, or something more complex like the facial tracking tech EverQuest 2 is getting.

I'm not asking for huge jumps into the air, but let me at least make an acrobatic jump or something like that. If this was considered from the start all the planets could have been designed to support it.

I used the jedi classes as an example, Bounty hunters for instance, could use jetpacks to jump and prevent falling damage.

[Zannis]

Disagree. Acrobatic flips and jumps were not really core Star Wars concepts. These were very sparingly used throughout the series of movies, amounting to perhaps a few minutes total out of many hours of movies.

 

You and I must have been watching different movies. Using just the original trilogy, you've got instances of Luke doing some pretty cool acrobatic feats after he truly becomes a Jedi in episode 6. The only other 2 force users are Ben and Vader. An old man and a cripple in a robot suit.

 

But I suppose jumping off a sand ship's plank, doing a 180, grabbing the board, springing back up and doing somersault flips and catching a lightsaber that had been launched 30 feet in the air by R2 had NOTHING to do with Luke's force powers. Nothing at all.

 

Taking it to the later trilogy, Eps 1-3, the amount of force driven acrobatics is insane. The Jedi from the films apparently like to free fall from various heights and land untouched every time. Yoda is nothing but a ball of acrobatic leaps and jumps when he fights.

 

I suppose all of it was natural, non force driven ability.

Edited June 2, 2012 by Zannis

[Caspian_Rho]

You have no understanding of how the TOR soundtrack works. This Empire is NOT Palpatine's Empire, thus, they don't use Palpatine's Imperial March, and instead they went and wrote their own motifs and and themes resulting in a soundtrack with over eight hours of original music rather than most Star Wars games which lazily rip their music straight from the Star Wars soundtrack discs.

 

That maybe so but they ARE CLEARLY using the Droid army themes in the game in certain parts where it shouldn't be... the point was if they can see fit to use that (wrongly) then they can use proper faction themes regardless if it's Palpatines Imps or Willy Wonkas Imps..

[Caspian_Rho]

 

Ships look incredibly well done. Who doesn't see the Falcon when you look at the Smuggler X-5 freighter? Who doesn't see a Corellian Corvette when you look at the Jedi Defender? Who doesn't think of a modified large-scale B-Wing when you look at the BT-7 Thunderclap? Or Slave One when you look at the Mantis? Or Maul's or Vader's ships when looking at the Sith starship? Ships are very well done, if you ask me.

 

 

What I see is bad design, those designs are there as far as I see to try to force some familiarity with them to appease a paying public. Take the XS light for example. Are you telling me Corellian Engineering Corporation existed 3000k years before The prequels and producing a design VERY close to the YT-1300?? And infact the only time a ship design came close was the YT-1200, again accepted association of the central character one would imagine (Shadows of the Empire). Then apply that same mentality to the rest of the line-up.

 

All of the class ships are just plain lazily designed, I feel they just had the one mantra, make it look like associated person's ship so people will buy it. Commence Kit bashing ships like tie-fighters, slave 1 etc. And lack of design is most apparent in the spy ship where they tried to go for a blackbird like design because they couldn't design something a little more unique.

 

If we look at the ships around the Golden age of the Sith (1k years before taking the Neblon Ranger as an example, or even Master Arca's), TOR ships should bare more resemblence to these than ones 3k years in the future, lack of logical continuity leads to confusion and ruins immersion thus the game world. As it stands the current designs (including several land based ones even clothing) look like a precursor to the Clone Wars era. I use to love Old Republic Era in the graphic novels. I was hoping for an extension through this MMO... that was until I heard BW were doing it!

 

 

Nebulon Ranger link: http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/sciencefiction/star-wars-other/2720/view/nebulon_ranger/

 

Master Arca's ship: http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/sciencefiction/star-wars-other/2719/view/master_aracs_ship/

Edited June 2, 2012 by Caspian_Rho

[mattgyver]

Isn't there already quite a bit of music from the movies in the game?

 

There is some, it's mainly only noticeable on Tatooine. When the John Williams music comes up it's great, then the TOR stuff comes back and it's not as good.

Like which costumes? Han Solo's costume is essentially in the game already. Ben Kenobi's robes are in there in the mix of Jedi robes. Jedis need more of the tunic outfits rather than the robes. Imperial officers are spot-on with Imperial uniforms. Bounty Hunter and Trooper Armor is exquisitely done. About the only costumes missing are Darth Vader (no, you can't, just stop) and Leia's outfits (although the slave girl outfit made it in).

 

Han didn't wear a scarf. Ben's robes are not in the game, the layer under the robes are not kimono-like and the butt sticks out because of the belt. Consulars have something closer. Imperial Uniforms look good. The Heavy armor in the game is all good (no complaint there). The Padme outfit for females would be good (the white one). Adding clothing that looks understated would be fantastic: Luke's Bespin Fatigues, Something like the Rebel Troopers outfits on the Tantive IV, or the Hoth clothing but in different colors. There have been a lot of complaints about the game not feeling Satr Wars enough throughout a lot of game sites. The look of the characters is a main culprit.

 

 

Ships look incredibly well done. Who doesn't see the Falcon when you look at the Smuggler X-5 freighter? Who doesn't see a Corellian Corvette when you look at the Jedi Defender? Who doesn't think of a modified large-scale B-Wing when you look at the BT-7 Thunderclap? Or Slave One when you look at the Mantis? Or Maul's or Vader's ships when looking at the Sith starship? Ships are very well done, if you ask me.

 

You can see the mitochondrial DNA of the Falcon in that smuggler ship, but the design is insulting. It's like they drew the back first and realized it was looking too sleek, so they put the top of the building across the parking lot on the front for the bridge. The landing gear on some of the ships looks like it was meant to support 50x the weight of the craft, which makes them look more like buildings than ships.

I'm not sure what "machinery" means, but blasters, rifles, lightsabers and the like all look right to me. Environments with things like power generators and computer systems all look accurate.

 

Look at Mos Eisley in the movies versus Anchorhead in the game.

 

Disagree. Acrobatic flips and jumps were not really core Star Wars concepts. These were very sparingly used throughout the series of movies, amounting to perhaps a few minutes total out of many hours of movies.

 

They weren't over used, but what would the movie be without those moves?

 

 

Easy to say, much more difficult to code. We already have species in the game like Ithorians, Talz, Ortolans and others who are not exactly your different forehead aliens. The concepts that they believe humanoid characters are more identifiable and emotionally attachable are valid. Some people may enjoy playing completely alien species, but these would most likely not be the mainstream players. So that means investing lots of developer resources for characters, language, armor fittings, helmet fittings especially and more for a minimal return on investment.

 

I support getting some weird character types in, but I support these actually being in some kind of a paid expansion so they can recoup some of the costs from players who play those extreme species.

 

I would pay for them. But they need to be in the background more, in space ports, etc.

I'm not sure what this means. The starfighters in the game already resemble canon ships, including both the standard Imperial and Republic fighters that you're constantly picking off in space combat.

 

They do look good, but we can't own one.

Plenty of these already in game. They don't want the blasters to all sound the same. Lightsabers especially are well done. Space blasters on some models are right out of the movie sound effects, while others have different sounds for variety. I don't think we all want every space blaster on every ship to sound like an X-Wing blaster "blat" sound. I know I don't.

 

The sounds are related to the specials rather than the weapon. The sounds do not have the punch that the movie weapons have. A firefight should sound like a firefight.

[Darth_Halford]

They weren't over used, but what would the movie be without those moves?

About a minute shorter, that's all.

 

 

They do look good, but we can't own one.

As of now there's also no point in doing so. It's still only going to be your "home away from home" that only you get to see and access.

Not to create a slippery slope, but giving the option to own different ships that you can't do anything with will beg the question from gamers of "So what? What's next?"

Edited June 2, 2012 by Darth_Halford

[mattgyver]

About a minute shorter, that's all.

 

What other edits to the movies would you suggest to get rid of expectations in MMO users?

As of now there's also no point in doing so. It's still only going to be your "home away from home" that only you get to see and access.

Not to create a slippery slope, but giving the option to own different ships that you can't do anything with will beg the question from gamers of "So what? What's next?"

 

That question is unavoidable

[Auck]

2. Yes, it would be awesome to have our Jedi be virtually unstoppable to just about everything, taking down entire armies without any help at all. I would find that boring and feel unchallenged. Also, it ruins group play. If you can kill everything all on your own, why bother with a group. Might be cool, but this is an MMO, not a Jedi-centric single player run.

 

All of your complaints seem to be with the Jedi and Sith classes and not with the game.

 

I disagree. The amount of enemies could be multiplied by 10. An example for you...

 

You and three others (jedi or not) enter an Empire base when the alarms start to go crazy. Suddenly droids and large cannons activate to destroy you. The cannons are on a upper ring overlooking the entrance, so one member proceeds up there and takes them out while the droids try to stop him. On the floor droids rush a pair of heroes from every side (I'm talking hundreds) and they must keep them off; each lightsaber swing tears through multiple enemies and blaster flurries eliminate entire groups. Below them the final member of the group must proceed to the basement to deactivate the generators to turn off the bases defenses while killing the technicians and soldiers in charge of maintaining the base. Each member racks up 100+ kills in a situation that seems impossible. You destroy the base and feel completely heroic.

 

This is very different from the "one group at a time" method the game currently uses.

[federdr]

I disagree. The amount of enemies could be multiplied by 10. An example for you...

 

You and three others (jedi or not) enter an Empire base when the alarms start to go crazy. Suddenly droids and large cannons activate to destroy you. The cannons are on a upper ring overlooking the entrance, so one member proceeds up there and takes them out while the droids try to stop him. On the floor droids rush a pair of heroes from every side (I'm talking hundreds) and they must keep them off; each lightsaber swing tears through multiple enemies and blaster flurries eliminate entire groups. Below them the final member of the group must proceed to the basement to deactivate the generators to turn off the bases defenses while killing the technicians and soldiers in charge of maintaining the base. Each member racks up 100+ kills in a situation that seems impossible. You destroy the base and feel completely heroic.

 

This is very different from the "one group at a time" method the game currently uses.

 

this is exactly how the game should be...

[Darth_Halford]

What other edits to the movies would you suggest to get rid of expectations in MMO users?

I'm not suggesting any edits at all.

Let's keep in mind Matt that the Star Wars movies have absolutly nothing involving "Exploration", yet MMO users still have the expectation that it's somehow supposed to be in a Star Wars MMO.

 

People will create their own expectations of things regardless of facts or common sense. That said, if someone's expectation is unrealistic, it's not the fault of the subject.

[Darth_Halford]

how do you type the sound of the air leaving a ballon rapidly? Not the squealy sound but the flatulent one. I want to type that right <here>

 

I believe the phrase for that is "motorboating"

[xorcist]

I think it is a problem where there was not a closer relationship with Lucas Arts & no involvement with Skywalker sound to name a few things. It appears as though Bioware tried to recreate a Star Wars environment on their own without the masters of Star Wars games. Edited June 3, 2012 by xorcist

[Kane_Ren]

I think some people either have no idea, or a warped one at least of what star wars is. If the prequels hadnt been made (and a lot of the eu junk the same), nobody would be complaining about how this game is not 'star wars'

[tolaf]

How about simple lvl 50 gear.

The stuff in the cinematic trailers looked star wars, and that was just robes with some body armor.

Why can't the higher lvl gear be simple robes with some simple armor here and there?

[eclipce]

more Star Warsy, huh

 

- Remove everything that is related to Rakata, EVERYTHING! (srsly.. yet another boring atlantis concept)

- Remove everything that is related to Esh-Kha, EVERYTIHNG! (srsly.. did Star Wars really need Minotaurs?)

 

- re-design all the fantasy-ish gear/looks on both rep and imp side.

- re-design all the fantasy-ish force powers (visuals), jedi in particular (it feels like fantasy )

 

- a proper 3d space sim

- Star Warsy mini-games

 

did i mention more Sci-Fi.. oh, well SCI-FI

 

edit: forgot about the Voss... yet another.. you know what I'm about to say..

Edited June 3, 2012 by eclipce

[federdr]

I think some people either have no idea, or a warped one at least of what star wars is. If the prequels hadnt been made (and a lot of the eu junk the same), nobody would be complaining about how this game is not 'star wars'

 

The things is the prequels ARE Star Wars, not only episodes IV-V-VI, the six of them.

[Bielduwyn]

Yeah, sorry, no, I've read fanfics that felt more Star Warsy than the prequel trilogy did.

[Darth_Halford]

How about simple lvl 50 gear.

The stuff in the cinematic trailers looked star wars, and that was just robes with some body armor.

Why can't the higher lvl gear be simple robes with some simple armor here and there?

 

It's to show a certain level of progression in your character. They start wearing the drab, the simple, and the unprotected. As they become better skilled, they also get better equipment, which naturally becomes more complex over time.

[Darth_Halford]

- a proper 3d space sim

- Star Warsy mini-games

 

Because nothing says " more like Star Wars" like doing things that were never actually in the movies, like space exploration.

[Deewe]

well to tell you the truth I agree with the op, there are many things that are very far from star wars. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, I'm playing it and I'll keep on playing it for the time being, but that does not mean I must turn a blind eye to some aspects of the game.

 

A couple of things that come to mind at the moment are:

• we can holocall an npc for a quest but we have to go to a mailbox to read a mail?(I agree about going to collect items though) furthermore, I can't holocall friends? that's one of the most iconic things of starwars.
  
• many jedis hitting one mob,the epicless thing ever. Star wars is all about DUELS, 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 1. Also a hero vs 50 - 100 enemies not the other way around.
  
• my jedi suffers damage from falling 10 feets?
  
• my jedi can jump only a couple of feets high?
  
• fights in star wars are agile, with jumps, acrobatics and most of the time they take place in different levels not in a plane field, for example Obi Wan and Qui Gon fight vs Darth Maul.
  

 

I agree that we have to have in mind it's an mmo but I think that the MMO mold was followed way too much. I also agree that this things are even miscelaneous for some people and I respect that as well, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

#1: We should also be able to browse the GTN with our datapads, like we can browse eBay with a smart phone. Also why can't we have a glactic wide UPS system, picking up and delivering package from/to our homes (space ships)

#2:

#3: And you take damage from falling from 6 feet on your speeder

#4: You can't either use jetpacks to go up or land safely and your hovering speeder will stop like hitting a wall on the first 1 feet rock you encounter.

#5: Force users have to slowly walk from one mob to the other with boulders tied to their feet when the force jump is on cool down. Doesn't feel heroic at all

 

Plus 1 here. Although you missed out loads of things.

 

1. Where's the dense forest type world??
   
2. Cyborg as a species?? definitely the biggest non-Star Wars feature put in the game.
   
3. No single man fighters?
   
4. There are more people on Hoth and Tatooine than Coruscant
   
5. Tatooine is meant to be an inhospitable world as is Hoth, where's all the atmospere and ambience
   
6. Earthly taxi designs?? really?? are you kidding me?
   
7. The Imperials may have british accents, but they aren't the space Cray brothers.. Snatch in space Star wars was never.
   
8. Star Wars, people had conversations on the ship without having to take off
   
9. Bounty Hunters do not all look like Boba Fett and they use any weapon tool that the job requires.
   
10. Classic Star Wars is black and white between the good and bad. Not the sadistic, swindling, corrupted way the Republic is portrayed in game.
    

 

There are way too many things that don't make this feel like Star Wars. And just because they're so effing bad... but the PvP/PvE gear is effing hideous, it would look like **** in any game. For the fact they're selling this turd as Star Wars makes me want to rip their hands off and never design Star Wars again.... themepark is meant to have themes, where's the themes?? where's the Smug Tatooine themed costume?? or the Jedi Hoth themed costume?? Themeparks have different rides not the same ride the whole way through the park.

 

[TLDR] Bioware need to go back to Star Wars school.

#1: Soon, when speeders will go faster than turtles on steroids

#2: Cyborg as speices was a bad call, especiall since most of the cybernetics are not even well done

#3: Space ships are in fact mobilehome

#4: Yup Tatooine and Hoth does not feel desertic at all it's a clutter of mobs, NPC buildings. These planets needs a redo or a renaming

#5: We should need special equipment and vehicles on both planets.

#6: The taxi looks like from the 5th Element and police cars from Syndicate Wars

#7: I lol'd

#8: Limiting BH to pistols due to animation budget is a miss

#9: Seems to me a lead writer had a dent against the Republic

 

 

1) Use more music from the movies

2) Use more costume designs from the movies (understated uniforms + pants that are not all nuthuggers)

3) Make equipment look more like the movies (Ships, Droids, Machinery)

4) Jedis need to be more exciting (flips, jumps, etc.)

5) More exotic races that don't have human bodies with an alien head

6) Starfighters

7) Use sound effects from the movies. The blasters in this game sound flat and non-iconic.

 

Though its milennia before the movies, the tech is really the same, so just make it look more like the Ralph McQuarrie stuff. The old-style look is not consistent through the game. The Agent ship looks like its from the GCW era, but the smuggler ship just looks like crap. Almost all of the speeders in SWTOR look newer than luke's XP-34 (which I don't think was supposed to be 3000 years old). The movie art design, music, and feel could help a lot to deliver more epic atmosphere.

#1: TOR music does not feels like SW to my ears but more like some serie B bad copy.

#2: As they had a hard time making SW music, yes please

#3: And remove all force jump, jetpacks jumps and whip from all NPC and companions. So once you have the skill on your character you will feel special and powerful

#5: The budget went into V.O. story

#6: First we need a decent X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter like free roaming space sim.

#7: Some are nice some are really weird.

 

 

more Star Warsy, huh

 

- Remove everything that is related to Rakata, EVERYTHING! (srsly.. yet another boring atlantis concept)

- Remove everything that is related to Esh-Kha, EVERYTIHNG! (srsly.. did Star Wars really need Minotaurs?)

 

- re-design all the fantasy-ish gear/looks on both rep and imp side.

- re-design all the fantasy-ish force powers (visuals), jedi in particular (it feels like fantasy )

 

- a proper 3d space sim

- Star Warsy mini-games

 

did i mention more Sci-Fi.. oh, well SCI-FI

 

edit: forgot about the Voss... yet another.. you know what I'm about to say..

Rakata and Esh-ka... wish I could client side those to remove them.

 

Gear wise, please get rid of the overdone shoulder flaps, spikes and all silly looking non SW gear.

 

Pazaak (they own the source code and graphics), Swoop racing and much much more!

 

 

We also have a few things hurting the lore:

1. Jedi in Huttball
   
2. Some iconic species as Republic
   
3. Crystal colors not reflecting the Jedi user alignment
   
4. Powerful force powers on non force users (Han with choke or force Lightning, seriously?)
   
5. Gadgets on force users (Like Vader, Palpatine, Dark Maul would look epic using a flame thrower)
   

Edited June 4, 2012 by Deewe

[eclipce]

Because nothing says " more like Star Wars" like doing things that were never actually in the movies, like space exploration.

 

hokay.. if you gonna base the entire game by what we see in the movies this came should not even have the Star Wars title? - and a 3d space contains more than just exploration.

[Darth_Halford]

hokay.. if you gonna base the entire game by what we see in the movies this came should not even have the Star Wars title? - and a 3d space contains more than just exploration.

 

I'm not saying base the entire game off of the movies, but if we are trying to get "More Star Wars" in this game, than I would think looking at the movies (And the various bits of KOTOR) would be the best way to reach that goal. A full on space sim is not the way to accomplish anything. You can get all of the missions and scenarios that play out in Star Wars with variations of the Space Combat we have (multiplayer, Battlefront II, etc) without the huge monotany and infrastructure that a space sim requires (putting down auto-move and waiting five minutes to get to the next planet)