Tag: TOR
Over at Darth Hater I’ve dropped in a new article about the most recent Imperial Agent class reveal, talking about some thoughts on the class and how the lack of strong lore is actually a positive, not a negative.
You can check it out here – be sure to comment there!
Bioware’s been on a bit of a tear lately with Star Wars: The Old Republic, as the RPG developer revealed the latest class for TOR, the Imperial Agent, a week after their announcement of the Jedi Knight. With this reveal, there now only remain two more classes to show off to complete their picture of TOR careers.
While there was some initial cloudiness regarding Bioware’s philosophy on balancing two sides, now that most of the careers have been shown we’re starting to see a bit more of that come to light. The picture that I’m seeing so far, honestly, is uplifting to me as a player. Here’s some of the key points:
While I’m sure some people are feeling a bit fearful that Bioware isn’t traveling a path that is well-trodden when it comes to their careers, I’m personally feeling excited for the potential class dynamic that will be occurring as a result of these philosophies. I’m a traditional support class player, but with two classes left I can’t help but wonder if Bioware is going to force me out of my healing shell and make all the careers healing self-sufficient, meaning I’ll be making my choices based on what feels right to play rather than what is practical. I can’t say that’s a bad thing, and I’m looking forward to what Bioware will be doing in the future to flesh out their chosen careers.
Smugglers – the only folks who could probably get away with romancing a Jedi without getting their hands (or worse) cut off for it.
That’s what today’s developer blog for TOR talks about when it tries to typify the Smuggler class and how it is conceptually tied to the game as a whole. The Smuggler, apparently, is a class that makes their own choices, is agile enough mentally and physically to survive in a world full of dangerous (and more powerful) figures, and is out to make a buck and have fun doing it.
I find smartass behavior and mischevious scoundrels terribly attractive, which may explain the people I hang around and the women I’ve dated. So it is that the Smuggler’s description, which borrows a lot from Han Solo and Lando Calrissian but adds some flavor of its own, is certainly a tempting class to play, if not to group with.
Details are a bit sparse – from the blog article, some of the specifics are things which we know about already – you’ll have the element of surprise, you’ll be able to use cover in order to heighten your effectiveness in battle, and the best of your companions will probably be a bit of muscle to help you out of the worst of the worst smuggling situations. There is, however, a few other nuggets to glean – the fact that the amoral nature of the Smuggler class means you can be a heartless, cunning mercenary or a whipsmart, kindly profiteer, for example, plays directly into TOR’s moral choice system. There’s also the passage about “unorthodox combat moves”, which makes you wonder that to eliminate the vast advantage a Jedi or Sith might have, you’ll be able to pull off certain tricks that’ll confuse even the best of Force users, exclusive to the Smuggler class.
The appeal of Smugglers “shooting first” aside, the article itself reveals a curious way of marketing the class on the part of Bioware. They’re clearly aware that the Jedi and Sith classes, using “the best conversation-stoppers in the galaxy”, are going to be extremely popular. The article was a way to create appeal for standing out among those who might for the most part be drawn to being Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader, instead showing how even someone who uses the Force might have trouble against a well-trained Smuggler. Jedi romancing aside, the text has a ton of other examples about how Smugglers are not just able to deal with and come out on top of their more powerful foes, but also be unique, flashy, and most of all, be a sarcastic scoundrel about it. I have to say, knowing and understanding that Jedi and Sith are going to be hugely popular, and writing your article to subtly address those things, is a good move by Bioware. This, of course, wrapping everything in with the immersion and story factor of the character that is the Smuggler.
If you haven’t checked out the dev blog post yet, be sure to give a read, because even if you don’t want to be Han Solo, being able to crack a joke even as an Imperial Star Destroyer is about to ram your ship does have its good side.
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Syp over at Bio Break had something to say about the possibility of playable Droids in Star Wars: The Old Republic, hoping against hope that everyone’s favorite robots would, ironcally, be actually playable by humans.
There are a couple of arguments against droids being an actual race, but perhaps the largest one would be the actual role of droids in the Star Wars Universe. Sadly, they’re mostly tools – tools that can talk and have a sort of programmed personality, but tools nonetheless. They’re usually seen in service to, well, “meatbags” as HK-47 will tell you, and even in the movies themselves they are relegated more to a supporting, sometimes comedic role (see: C3PO). So on one respect you might not expect them to shine brightly enough to be a race all on their own. Heck, you might not say that they are even a “race”, per se, but more of an entity.
But Droids, in their function, can serve plenty of roles in the Star Wars universe, and as a playable race can introduce a variety of elements in terms of Bioware’s vaunted Story focus. For example, a particular droid might start out serving one master over the course of their story quests, only to change to another. Droids themselves are, even in the role they played in the main films, iconic by their look and behavior. Who out there doesn’t know who R2-D2 is? For a droid that apparently speaks only in beeps and whistles, that’s something.
Bioware’s vast timeline of hundreds of years before the main films also leaves a lot of story to be filled in specifically about droids. It perhaps might not be too much of a stretch to imagine a slice of history in which droids rebelled, or became independent to the point of having a centralized presence on a particular planet. Even though he was a cyborg, General Greivous from Episode II of the movies shows that it isn’t too much of a stretch to have droids with some level of thought to do such things.
Overcoming the barrier in selecting classes, however, might only be done by restricting droids to particular, specific careers (as much as you all might want to see a Droid Bounty Hunter or Jedi/Sith, probably not happening). But here we might just see somewhat of a role that Droids can properly fill, and that is the unknown role of “healer” or “support”. Droids by their very depiction are suited to “utility” and can possibly be tweaked into a class that provides much needed buffs, engineer-like devices, or even medical attention in lieu of the magic of the Force. Being only a droid might seem like a turn-off to many potential players, but to others, it is a chance to play a fairly unique role with a unique, distinct look that won’t span the other classes.
Time will tell if Droids come anywhere near a role that isn’t NPC or Companion in TOR. But like Syp, I’m hopeful that they won’t be just another R2-D2 or C3PO.
Out of all the info that has surfaced about TOR so far (and you can get to Moon Over Endor if you want the full overview from Ayane as usual) the actual TOR Exhaustive Q&A from IGN is probably the best and most comprehensive of the limited information that Bioware is releasing right now about TOR. There’s a ton of info in it, but one of the things I wanted to cherry pick for today’s post was about “companions”, NPC characters who will join you on your journey through the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic:
“IGN: What can you say about companions right now?
Dallas Dickinson: I think what we’ve said thus far (apologies for this being cryptic because we haven’t talked in detail about the companions and how they work), is that if you’ve played BioWare games, you have some sense of how our companions are going to work. They’re going to become party members, they’re going to become people with special contributions to your story or your gameplay and you’re going to be able to make decisions that can influence them and their loyalty that will unlock some content or potentially close down some content for you. It’s going to make your experience unique, so you and I can both play as a smuggler and you will have a completely different experience, at least in part, because of how you treat your companions.”
This is an interesting development because we haven’t really heard this much detail about companion characters before. The thing that immediately comes to mind is how much easier this makes for an individual player to play solo through the campaign of the MMO. Many times the “pet” classes are the ones that have the added benefit of having something NPC-controlled that they direct. This seems to be a massive expansion on that concept, giving everyone the ability to have NPCs, but also bringing in the KOTOR-style consequences of making decisions and their attitude towards you. There’s a certain kind of appeal to having your own sort of crew, and a myriad of possibilities that open up with using your companion characters and your toon to talk to others with companions of their own.
In a sort of Dr. Who-like interaction, your companions will join with you and affect how you progress through the campaign. Considering the depth of the story that Bioware is currently marketing harder than any of their other features, it sure seems that it will be a welcome addition to the overall experience you’re going to be having. Imagine if you have a companion that sticks with you through thick and thin, who might save you or affect the choices available to you when interacting with certain NPCs. Or perhaps you might betray a companion, and ruthlessly close off an opportunity to advance their loyalty to you. With the supposedly constantly branching storyline in front of you, the game experience might change with repeated play, something which will be great for TOR’s longevity.
Companions seem to be the latest in the line of unique additions Bioware is making to their game that they are attempting to transplant from their previous successful single-player RPG franchises. Whether or not is a right or correct strategy will depend on the execution – but it’s no secret that the Companion mechanic has netted huge success in Bioware’s games of the past. MMOs are a different beast, but if this is any indication, this particular beast has more faces than just your own. It’s exciting stuff.
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