Bioware has plans to add 500 worlds in TOR by the year 2025!

SWKOTOR: That.

While it is Beta: The ****just doesn't sit that well with me.

Jynxzor

I haven't been in touch with TOR news for a while but...what's going on here?

The interface is alarmingly similar to WoW's. Also, if it weren't for the player character and that four legged thing, I would have sweared that looks exactly like Desolace.

I haven't been in touch with TOR news for a while but...what's going on here?

The interface is alarmingly similar to WoW's. Also, if it weren't for the player character and that four legged thing, I would have sweared that looks exactly like Desolace.

Mograine

That basically sums up the game...

SW:TOR basically has two "modes" of focus.

On one hand it repeatedly attempts to be a singleplayer game. But, since it is an MMO, it doesn't do it as well as real single player RPGs.

On the other hand it spends the entire rest of its time trying to be WoW with a Star Wars skin.

It isn't a bad game, it just isn't anything special.

It isn't a bad game, it just isn't anything special.

KingsMessenger

[QUOTE="KingsMessenger"]

It isn't a bad game, it just isn't anything special.

skrat_01

What makes this game stand out is the single player elements, problem is those elements may end up discouraging community interaction, which is a terrible design chioce when making an mmo. MMOs and MUDs were pretty much built up as games with community interaction in mind.

Edit: DarkLink beat me to it

Jynxzor

My UI is a bit more cluttered, but as you can see the similarities are as clear as daylight.

The black box in the lower left corner from my screenshot is moved in the upper left corner in TOR. It's the chat. Also, the circular minimap in my screenshot is to the upper right corner, while in the TOR screenshot it's in the lower right corner. Notice that my lower right corner is an add-on, and so are the action bars. The quest progress placement aswell as the button layout are...more than similar.

Also, the menu bar at the top of the screen in the TOR screenshot does not appear in mine because I only use hotkeys, it should belong in the lower right corner, below the Recount box.

(Now that I look at it, why the hell do I have 2 BoP buttons, 2 Righteous Fury buttons, 2 HoS buttons and 2 Divine Shield buttons? Time to clean up...).

The difference in the environment is also minimal, WoW's looks more curvaceous and has a longer draw distance.

BioWare, oh you!

On the contrary the special stuff is all that relates back to it being singleplayer like. The voice acting, production values, branching narrative etc. But you're right, in regard to it being a massive multiplayer game, in the grand scheme of things this is completely against the grain of community interaction, and making that fundamental. Really is two modes of focus, and games like FireFall are actually doing something interesting with community interaction.skrat_01

Those single player features are the reason I am very skeptical towards TOR. Voice acting just does not belong in a WoW-like MMO, it completely breaks the pace people is used to.

Branching narratives is also a major eyebrow rising thing. I don't know how the factions will work (as I said, I haven't been much in touch with TOR) so I won't declare an absolute negative, but that idea risks of splitting the userbase. Say two friends want to quest together but have to keep splitting up, that'd be a major letdown for many imo.

If the game lasts into 2025.

[QUOTE="skrat_01"]On the contrary the special stuff is all that relates back to it being singleplayer like. The voice acting, production values, branching narrative etc. But you're right, in regard to it being a massive multiplayer game, in the grand scheme of things this is completely against the grain of community interaction, and making that fundamental. Really is two modes of focus, and games like FireFall are actually doing something interesting with community interaction.Mograine

Those single player features are the reason I am very skeptical towards TOR. Voice acting just does not belong in a WoW-like MMO, it completely breaks the pace people is used to.

Branching narratives is also a major eyebrow rising thing. I don't know how the factions will work (as I said, I haven't been much in touch with TOR) so I won't declare an absolute negative, but that idea risks of splitting the userbase. Say two friends want to quest together but have to keep splitting up, that'd be a major letdown for many imo.

There will be 2 factions, Sith Empire and Galactic Republic.

There will be alignments as well, so you can have a light sided sith, or a dark jedi. There may be more branching choices as well and each class will have a different story, or so I hear, so yeah, friends who play different classes will have to choose whose story to progress.

What's Firefall doing? Aside from looking sweet?DarkLink77

[QUOTE="skrat_01"]On the contrary the special stuff is all that relates back to it being singleplayer like. The voice acting, production values, branching narrative etc. But you're right, in regard to it being a massive multiplayer game, in the grand scheme of things this is completely against the grain of community interaction, and making that fundamental. Really is two modes of focus, and games like FireFall are actually doing something interesting with community interaction.Mograine

Those single player features are the reason I am very skeptical towards TOR. Voice acting just does not belong in a WoW-like MMO, it completely breaks the pace people is used to.

Branching narratives is also a major eyebrow rising thing. I don't know how the factions will work (as I said, I haven't been much in touch with TOR) so I won't declare an absolute negative, but that idea risks of splitting the userbase. Say two friends want to quest together but have to keep splitting up, that'd be a major letdown for many imo.

[QUOTE="Jynxzor"]

SWKOTOR: That.

While it is Beta: The ****just doesn't sit that well with me.

Mograine

I haven't been in touch with TOR news for a while but...what's going on here?

The interface is alarmingly similar to WoW's. Also, if it weren't for the player character and that four legged thing, I would have sweared that looks exactly like Desolace.

the UI looks nothing like WoW, from skin, to color, to placement :|

People are grasping for straws to bash this game, it's getting bashed from almost everyone on false pretenses - most of which who have no played it. Having played the beta for 3 months, I'm fairly certain most of those people will be eating their own words. It wont be a mega 9.5+ game, but it's just highly improbable that it will get under an 8.5 (even Rifts, a much much inferior game, got an 8.5)

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"]What's Firefall doing? Aside from looking sweet?skrat_01

the UI looks nothing like WoW, from skin, to color, to placement :|

People are grasping for straws to bash this game, it's getting bashed from almost everyone on false pretenses. Having played the beta, I'm fairly certain most of those people will be eating their own words. It wont be a mega 9.5+ game, but it's just improbable that it will get under an 8.5.

Jankarcop

Then again, every MMO ui looks very simmilar, just different skins, there's really not much room to make them too different.

[QUOTE="skrat_01"]On the contrary the special stuff is all that relates back to it being singleplayer like. The voice acting, production values, branching narrative etc. But you're right, in regard to it being a massive multiplayer game, in the grand scheme of things this is completely against the grain of community interaction, and making that fundamental. Really is two modes of focus, and games like FireFall are actually doing something interesting with community interaction.Mograine

Those single player features are the reason I am very skeptical towards TOR. Voice acting just does not belong in a WoW-like MMO, it completely breaks the pace people is used to.

Branching narratives is also a major eyebrow rising thing. I don't know how the factions will work (as I said, I haven't been much in touch with TOR) so I won't declare an absolute negative, but that idea risks of splitting the userbase. Say two friends want to quest together but have to keep splitting up, that'd be a major letdown for many imo.

I understand that the single-player stuff is what makes the game unique, but I just feel like not only does it go against the grain of what an MMO needs to be doing(community interaction), but that the content that is there, even judged separate from the game as an MMO, just isn't as good as it would be if the game wasn't an MMO. I just feel like although there is voice-acting, it is just voice-acting to hand you the same fetch quests that people have been complaining about for the past 7 years... There are exceptions, but every MMO has exceptions. It is just not a good blend. It comes across like BioWare's team didn't want to make an MMO but was given a design mandate from on high that they had to do it, so they just did their best with it and tried to make the game that they wanted... However, it just doesn't work that well. As I said, the game is by no means bad. The things that it does are done effectively, but when it is trying to do things that just honestly aren't that interesting, I have a hard time caring. The saddest part is that EA and BioWare are betting EVERYTHING on this game. The developer budget is absolutely insane and the marketing budget is going to be even more insane... I think that they will probably do decently well, and they may even be successful, but it will be with a game that just isn't remarkable. I don't know of anyone who has played both GW2 and SW:TOR who is legitimately more excited about TOR... And that is a problem.

That's the one thing that I like about ToR, is the va. The worst part of WoW is the story telling.. well, after all the leveling/grinding, and the whole, reading your quest, is boring, no immersion.

Inconsistancy

500 worlds full of content? Impossible. 500 worlds of planet scanning? Possible.Jynxzor

Too bad theres no world scanning

[QUOTE="Inconsistancy"]

That's the one thing that I like about ToR, is the va. The worst part of WoW is the story telling.. well, after all the leveling/grinding, and the whole, reading your quest, is boring, no immersion.

Jynxzor

Or they will just drop it after the game releases and end up with a game that has a bunch of non-voice quests...

[QUOTE="Jynxzor"][QUOTE="Inconsistancy"]

That's the one thing that I like about ToR, is the va. The worst part of WoW is the story telling.. well, after all the leveling/grinding, and the whole, reading your quest, is boring, no immersion.

KingsMessenger

Or they will just drop it after the game releases and end up with a game that has a bunch of non-voice quests...

the UI looks nothing like WoW, from skin, to color, to placement :|

People are grasping for straws to bash this game, it's getting bashed from almost everyone on false pretenses - most of which who have no played it. Having played the beta for 3 months, I'm fairly certain most of those people will be eating their own words. It wont be a mega 9.5+ game, but it's just highly improbable that it will get under an 8.5 (even Rifts, a much much inferior game, got an 8.5)

Jankarcop

Um no, I'm not bashing the game at all, I'm just skeptical about it. And the UI looks like a flippin' copypaste. Look at the comparison with my screenshot :|

Imo it depends, for me the VA would be great, questlines in WoW struggled to feel like they had aim and importance with their presentation, and I imagine they will be skippable. Really depends how they nail plotlines and sidequests. But yeah there's a big barrier there between singleplayer experiences and social interaction, at worst I can see it turning out like AoC where one is completely removed from another.skrat_01

How does the quest-giving system works? Small cutscenes like all the other BioWare games or quest text and voiceover like the Death Knight starting quests in WoW?

[QUOTE="Jynxzor"]

KingsMessenger

Or they will just drop it after the game releases and end up with a game that has a bunch of non-voice quests...

Missions coming out in a month or so, can't wait.

Well according to Wikipedia there is 460 planets in the Star Wars universe, so somehow Bioware is going to make 40 more.

If WoW is anything to go by, this will be terrible, socially. It sucked when there weren't many people in an old zone. The community would be split way too much with 500 worlds, even if they were small.

How is this thread going? Guess I'll post this again: The 500 world comment was a joke made at Comic-Con to play to the crowd. It was not a serious comment in any way.

[QUOTE="Inconsistancy"]

That's the one thing that I like about ToR, is the va. The worst part of WoW is the story telling.. well, after all the leveling/grinding, and the whole, reading your quest, is boring, no immersion.

Jynxzor

well i actually saw this interview the other day. and the guy was obviously kidding around when he said 500 worlds by 2025. his quote was taken completely out of context. im 99.9999999% sure that the guy was joking.

well i actually saw this interview the other day. and the guy was obviously kidding around when he said 500 worlds by 2025. his quote was taken completely out of context. im 99.9999999% sure that the guy was joking.

tikki25x

Sort of...

I don't think he was exactly kidding, but he was kind of just illustrating the extent of their plans to expand the game going forward with a bit of exaggeration....

[QUOTE="tikki25x"]

well i actually saw this interview the other day. and the guy was obviously kidding around when he said 500 worlds by 2025. his quote was taken completely out of context. im 99.9999999% sure that the guy was joking.

KingsMessenger

Sort of...

I don't think he was exactly kidding, but he was kind of just illustrating the extent of their plans to expand the game going forward with a bit of exaggeration....

The game would hit a point to where it would reach it's limits in terms of disc space you can take up, again that would be nowhere near 500 worlds unless you want a seperate PC to play your MMO on. Then again if all the worlds are as ugly and the textures stay so low rez then maybe they could make a few hundreds zones without eating up too much HD space.Jynxzor

1TB of voice acting sound files!!! Also, newflash 2020: "BioWare Has Spent Over $1 Billion on Voice Over Work For SW:TOR"