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[antonz]

Another new Beta leak was posted. Just a shot of a bindpoint aka cloning terminal though another good view of UI and you can see a companion UI addition.

 

[Darklord]

It's part of the universe, with having majority of the galaxy charted, and alien species coexisting and sharing technology, the universe has come to a point where not many advances happen. Generally technology improves over the years, becomes efficient, etc, but few major breakthroughs really happen.

Wasn't the original(not the game) KotoR universe really primitive? Then Bioware came along and used it as a reboot pretty much.

 

[CzarTim]

BioWare wanted an era all to themselves, but that was still Star Wars.

I just try not to think about it (like the prequels.)

 

[antonz]

Realistically( I know its not real) the original Old Republic era was a bit of stretch. If you have a Galactic Government your technology is a hell of alot more advanced then some of what was originally being shown.

The biggest difference in the Old Republic era and the Movie era is the fact time has gone by and the Galaxy is mostly fully explored and colonized versus partially conquered Galaxy.

If you can create technology to travel a Galaxy in days or even weeks it makes no sense for the people to seem like primitive nobodies

 

[DrBo42]

I need to get into this damn beta.

 

[CzarTim]

I need to get into this damn beta.

Me first.

 

[a176]

Sith Sorcerer :lol

 

[Weenerz]

I'd pay to get into this beta.

 

[antonz]

Sith Sorcerer :lol

For the most part the Advanced Class Sith Sorceror is a pretty accurate name though they could have went with a less fantasy based name.

Sith Sorceror seems to be like a Shadow Priest in that they are damage dealer and can do some healing.

 

[BananaBomb]

Wow the art is starting to look excellent. Looking forward to WoW having some serious competition!

 

[Safe Bet]

Me first.

I find your refusal to allow me first place in line... disappointing.

/force choke

Sith Sorceror seems to be like a Shadow Priest in that they are damage dealer and can do some healing.

Although...

I agree the class title leaves something to be desired.

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

lord, 2011 is going to be so antisocial for me

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

I don't even see how they compare

They don't. Not even in the slightest.

That being said, the wait just keeps getting harder and harder. ;(

 

[BattleMonkey]

Wasn't the original(not the game) KotoR universe really primitive? Then Bioware came along and used it as a reboot pretty much.

Yes the original idea of the old republic set around 3000 years past by Dark Horse comics was a more primitive looking universe, though it was full of most of the usual star wars technology like ships, lasers, droids, lightsabers, etc. It was largely more visually designed to look like a different time period. The universe itself wasn't really primitive at all though there were more planets in the universe that had not undergone such techonlogical growths yet as much as the core systems. The main story of the comic series for example takes place on a more primitive planet away from the likes of Coruscant, and through many other backwater planets that feature much less civilization.

When Bioware came along and did KOTOR 1 they decided to skip about 45 years from the comic books and visually changed things because they wanted KOTOR to resemble the Star Wars universe. They were afraid customers would be scared away by a Star Wars game that didn't look and sound like the movies. Course there is the really old stuff that goes back 5,000 years that the video games haven't touched, but that the Old Republic site does cover which does acknowledge the more archaic visual designs of the time, but still the technology was very much star wars.

Course fluff wise they claim that after the great hyperspace war and the mandalorian war soon aftwards, that the galaxy underwent a golden age per say of advancement and growth in the republic which lead to the more modern look.

 

[Shrennin]

The released info definitely shows that the game is shaping up to be something special. I figured it would be, simply because almost all BioWare games are at least good (if not great) barring that one Sonic game for DS.

 

[antonz]

I find your refusal to allow me first place in line... disappointing.

/force choke

Although...

I agree the class title leaves something to be desired.

Sith Sorceror is going to be my primary class for sure. Gotta play me some Palpatine inspired class

 

[JonnyBrad]

Wasn't the original(not the game) KotoR universe really primitive? Then Bioware came along and used it as a reboot pretty much.

You mean stuff from Tales of the Jedi comics?

 

[darthbob]

Although...

I agree the class title leaves something to be desired.

You recall that they (Bioware) originally wanted to name the Jedi equivalent, Jedi Wizard.

:lol oh lawdy

 

[Safe Bet]

Gotta play me some Palpatine inspired class

 

[antonz]

 

[BattleMonkey]

You recall that they (Bioware) originally wanted to name the Jedi equivalent, Jedi Wizard.

:lol oh lawdy

Yea looking at their charts, they have been scraping as much as they can from the various rpg books and fluff for naming classes and specializations on trees, but kind are stuck with lot or redundant names or using more fantasy elements. Don't really see issue so much as SW is primarily a fantasy set in space, but yea the Jedi Wizard was something that had to go :lol

 

[Safe Bet]

Don't really see issue so much as SW is primarily a fantasy set in space..

I believe Space Cowboy is the genre name but I could be wrong..

PS

:lol @ antonz post

Robot Chicken has single-handily saved the Palpatine character.

 

[Zinga]

I'll definitely be playing Sith Inquisitor, basically because the idea of pursuing the power of the dark side and unlocking the lost secrets of the sith interests me, not to mention the sort of politicking that will go on with the other sith lords as I vie for greater political power :lol gonna be a hell of a ride that's for sure.

 

[antonz]

New Beta Impressions Leak:
http://leakerz.net/wp/2010/12/26/swtor-another-beta-report/

Questing : 9/10 – The questing is one of the best parts to me. After sooooooo many mmos with gather quests, you get to the point you ignore the story, just click on the quest as fast as possible, then look for markers. With the “engaging” quests, you really feel like you are part of the story. I’ve yet to get bored of the voice overs and the cinematics. Both the class and world quests are a blast to do, even though they have placeholder text and voice overs for a lot of them atm. My biggest fear is that the instant gratification age of gamers will lose patience and in the end it will hurt the game. There is NO way to skip the story. You just have to listen and click buttons when it comes up. I guess if people don’t want to read the story, they can just cycle through the options and choose the light / dark icon and not give a damn about story. I just hope the game doesnt suffer because of it.

Crafting : 8/10 – Its such a relief to not have to not have to sit in one spot crafting for hours. I tell my non active companions to go get material and they do. Its added to my inventory , I get skill ups, etc, all the while I am fighting and continuing on with what im doing. Letting my active companion gather stuff while I fight helps a lot too. It really keeps the game flow going. I have tried them all, but my favorite is Artifice (lets you create color crystals and other modifications for your saber). There arent any glaring weaknesses with crafting, with the exception that its not totally implemented in the build we got to test.

 

[Dresden]

First MMO that I'll play for the solo experience.

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

Sith Sorcerer :lol

"Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader."
- New Hope

Jedi/Sith have always been magicians in a Sci Fi setting, just roll with it.

 

[Yasae]

"Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader."
- New Hope

^One of the few times he's outranked by Moff Tarkin, who tells him to "Stop force choking a bitch."

Questing : 9/10 – The questing is one of the best parts to me. After sooooooo many mmos with gather quests, you get to the point you ignore the story, just click on the quest as fast as possible, then look for markers. With the “engaging” quests, you really feel like you are part of the story. I’ve yet to get bored of the voice overs and the cinematics. Both the class and world quests are a blast to do, even though they have placeholder text and voice overs for a lot of them atm. My biggest fear is that the instant gratification age of gamers will lose patience and in the end it will hurt the game. There is NO way to skip the story. You just have to listen and click buttons when it comes up. I guess if people don’t want to read the story, they can just cycle through the options and choose the light / dark icon and not give a damn about story. I just hope the game doesnt suffer because of it.

It will suffer to some degree. There's options to skip cutscenes in Guild Wars, and you're often outvoted by more experienced players even if you haven't seen it all yet. They're infrequent and certainly less important compared to TOR, but what happens when you've watched the same bit of dialogue ten times over? What happens when a group of people have been through it ten times over?

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

First MMO that I'll play for the solo experience.

this, and I can easily see myself playing every class to endgame fo the first time

 

[CAW]

Another new Beta leak was posted. Just a shot of a bindpoint aka cloning terminal though another good view of UI and you can see a companion UI addition.

I wish someone in the beta with a decent PC (or monitor even) would leak some screen shots. Something a bit higher res and perhaps with some AA on.

 

[Safe Bet]

; )

 

[antonz]

I wish someone in the beta with a decent PC (or monitor even) would leak some screen shots. Something a bit higher res and perhaps with some AA on.

I agree though its possible they have alot of stuff disabled at the moment. I know many graphics related settings in character creation etc are disabled in reports.

 

[antonz]

New leak. This time the first look at a skill tree.

 

[bjaelke]

More Abilities and Disciplines

 

[water_wendi]

Questing : 9/10 – The questing is one of the best parts to me. After sooooooo many mmos with gather quests, you get to the point you ignore the story, just click on the quest as fast as possible, then look for markers. With the “engaging” quests, you really feel like you are part of the story. I’ve yet to get bored of the voice overs and the cinematics. Both the class and world quests are a blast to do, even though they have placeholder text and voice overs for a lot of them atm. My biggest fear is that the instant gratification age of gamers will lose patience and in the end it will hurt the game. There is NO way to skip the story. You just have to listen and click buttons when it comes up. I guess if people don’t want to read the story, they can just cycle through the options and choose the light / dark icon and not give a damn about story. I just hope the game doesnt suffer because of it.

This is what i want to hear/read. Especially after the failure of Cataclysm to make good quest design. MMO quests need to be totally rethought like they are in TOR and not just turds being polished like WoW.

 

[CzarTim]

Yeah, the fact is that TOR is at least trying to make the road to level cap enjoyable. I've never capped a character in WoW 'cause it's so damn boring.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Assume dialogue will play out different for group play, perhaps you can skip in such a case if you have played before, but have to wait if all players don't skip.

I wish someone in the beta with a decent PC (or monitor even) would leak some screen shots. Something a bit higher res and perhaps with some AA on.

Early betas possibly have lot of graphical options turned off or not available yet. Game is still some months away, the client will probably be upgraded as we get closer to release. The gameplay vids from various events have had much better visuals running than these leaked beta screens, so it's either shitty pc's or just the beta client. The size of the interface compared to other vids/screens seem to indicate that the leaked shots are running at a really shitty low resolution too.

 

[antonz]

More skill tree images for Sith Warrior
http://leakerz.net/wp/2010/12/29/swtor-higher-annahilation-skills/#more-7666

 

[antonz]

New Leak this time more important. Video of Character Creation and Class Selection Screens.
http://leakerz.net/wp/2010/12/31/swtor-character-creation/#more-7675

 

[Door2Dawn]

NOT ENOUGH LEAKS. NEED MOAR

 

[markatisu]

Early betas possibly have lot of graphical options turned off or not available yet. Game is still some months away, the client will probably be upgraded as we get closer to release. The gameplay vids from various events have had much better visuals running than these leaked beta screens, so it's either shitty pc's or just the beta client. The size of the interface compared to other vids/screens seem to indicate that the leaked shots are running at a really shitty low resolution too.

Yeah I would assume the visual options are turned off or disabled so playthrough is more important. I know in Star Trek Online Beta and DC Online Beta that was the case.

And after watching the character creator this game cannot come soon enough.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Cinematics design update up on the site. The 2nd video :lol

So I wonder if at character creation you have options for a specific voice or is it the same voice depending on class and sex you choose? I can't imagine they would have recorded tons of the same lines by different actors just to give you a choice.

 

[Speculator]

yup new friday update:

http://swtor.com/news/blog/20101231
Cinematics blog with two videos (woohoo, my work)

 

[BattleMonkey]

If much of the mission running in the game is full of dialogue and choices like that, then it's going to be one hell of a game. Running missions in EVE and STO right now just keeps reminding me of how boring most MMO missions are. I would love to see once it's released how often they keep up such consistency and not devolve into simple "kill 10x of dudes" missions. Course obviously there will be simple missions in SWTOR, it will just have nice dialogue and cutscenes attached to them.

 

[WillyFive]

Very impressive.

 

[antonz]

I imagine the very cinematic quests are very important story points while the average will just be the usual but of course fully voiced.

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

Cinematics design update up on the site. The 2nd video :lol

So I wonder if at character creation you have options for a specific voice or is it the same voice depending on class and sex you choose? I can't imagine they would have recorded tons of the same lines by different actors just to give you a choice.

I guess it will be the same voice for male/female characters, Bioware can't be THAT maniacal

but hey, you never know. Maybe they just tweak the original voice for different races

 

[antonz]

I guess it will be the same voice for male/female characters, Bioware can't be THAT maniacal

but hey, you never know. Maybe they just tweak the original voice for different races

There is said to be a few hundred voice actors doing work for the game though these are notable names:

Jennifer Hale (voiced Bastila in KOTOR and female Sheppard in Mass Effect) will be voicing Satele Shan(descendant of Revan) and others…
Lance Henriksen (Bishop from Aliens) will voice Master Gnost-Dural.
Raphael Sbarge (voiced Carth Onasi in KOTOR and Kaidan Alenko in Mass Effect) will be voicing “Smuggler Companion”.
John Cygan (voiced Canderous Ordo in KOTOR) will be voicing “Madalorian Companion”.
Kristoffer Tabori (voiced HK-47 in KOTOR) will be voicing HK-47 and “HK Companion Droid“.
Courtenay Taylor (voiced Jack from Mass Effect and Serina A.I. from Halo Wars)
Juliet Landau (voiced the little sisters in Bioshock and played Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire slayer)
Laura Bailey (voiced Jaina Proudmoore and many anime voices such as Dragonball and Full Metal Alchemist)
Catherine Taber (voiced Mission Vao in KOTOR and Padme in the Clone Wars TV series)
Nan McNamara (voiced Anya in Gears of War)
John DiMaggio (voiced Bender in Futurama and Marcus Fenix in Gears of War)
Keith David (voiced Anderson in Mass Effect and the Arbiter in Halo)


Cameo voice actors are rumored to be
Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Claudia Black, Adam Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Seth MacFarlane, Simon Pegg, Samuel L. Jackson, Stephan Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Chris Jericho, and Kevin Smith

 

[Deadly]

Jennifer Hale (voiced Bastila in KOTOR and female Sheppard in Mass Effect) will be voicing Satele Shan(descendant of Revan) and others…

Wait WHAT? Do you mean descendant of Bastila? If not WHAAAT?

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

Wait WHAT? Do you mean descendant of Bastila? If not WHAAAT?

apparently, Bastila had a second lightsaber

badum-tshh

 

[piratepwnsninja]

DAT HAT