Anyone in the know can tell me how far back TOR is set?

[Greyhaws]

I gathered its way before the films - its just if its thousands of years why is the tech pretty much the same or better than in the films?

 

Only thing I can see in TOR that's worse than the movies is that speeders go at a fast walking pace instead of actually at speed.

[Andrellma]

Roughly 3650 BBY, give or take a few years depending on where you are in the story. It takes place during the end of the Cold War, and start of the Galactic War.

[the_kof]

I think that the tech is similar for one of two reasons:

 

1. The tech was at a limit and could not be improved

 

OR

 

2. So that we could play a game in an environment that we are familiar with and represents Star Wars.

[DarthDymond]

I gathered its way before the films - its just if its thousands of years why is the tech pretty much the same or better than in the films?

 

Only thing I can see in TOR that's worse than the movies is that speeders go at a fast walking pace instead of actually at speed.

The game starts 3,643 years before Episode IV: A New Hope.

 

As has been said, the real reason that technology looks the same is that, as a Star Wars game, they want it to have a strong Star Wars "feel" and a lot of that comes from the design and aesthetics.

 

If you check out the old Tales of the Jedi comics, many of which are set about 40 years before the first Knights of the Old Republic game, you'll see an attempt to make the universe look like it is set thousands of years prior to the movies. That aesthetic got... mixed reviews to put it kindly, and BioWare (starting with KOTOR) made the decision to go for a more traditional Star Wars look, even though it was set in that same era. That design decision has carried on through to TOR.

 

Even with that as the actual reason, there are a few in-universe justifications for why it would be that way, the three I like best:

 

1) Technology is measured against itself - what constitutes a powerful blaster is measured against how powerful the available shields are. What count's a fast ship is measured against what the average ship speed is. Put a New Hope era Star Destroyer up against a TOR era Harrower Dreadnaught and the Star Destroyer could take it out the Dreadnaught in a single volley while the Harrower's blasters would hardly affect the Star Destroyer's shields at all. Ignoring how similar the aesthetics are in Star Wars, you could compare it to a real-world match-up between a 1400s Chinese Treasure Ship (purported 450ft long) to a modern Daring-class Destroyer (500 ft long).

 

2) Technological Plateau - until the younger races happen to figure out something akin to Rakata Teleporters, there just isn't anywhere else for tech to go, and that takes a quantum leap in development which just hasn't happened.

 

3) Dark Ages - A Republic Dark Age is part of the (Legends) continuity, and while I don't think any sources have gone into depth over what technological knowledge was lost or stagnated, it and other similar Dark Ages could account for a lack of progress.

Edited August 18, 2014 by DarthDymond

[rosumparat]

I gathered its way before the films - its just if its thousands of years why is the tech pretty much the same or better than in the films?

 

Only thing I can see in TOR that's worse than the movies is that speeders go at a fast walking pace instead of actually at speed.

 

I agree. a Speeder bike has a maximum speed up to 500 km/h and a maximum altitude of 25 meters. In this game none of those are implemented. Why call them speeders in the first place? Only the area transport speeders are faster than any speeder mount, yet they're limited to a linear path. Since any speeder is considered to be a "flying mount" why can't they implement free flight like in WoW for example.

[Darth_Krushya]

Yes, SWTOR takes place between 3,600 years and 3,500 years before Palpatine's Empire and 300 years after the events in Knights of the Old Republic. The discrepancy between 3600 and 3500 years could be explained by the decades long war mentioned heavily in this game prior to the current events your characters play in.

 

I have also been thinking of why technology does not change much in the centuries and millennia of galactic history. There are some advances in star ships and super weapons like the Death Stars but, I can only guess that some tech does not need to change if it is effective enough.

[Wolfninjajedi]

There are changes if you actually dig around. Edited August 30, 2014 by Wolfninjajedi