I wonder if companions will need to be unique in groups. Say you and your friend are each sith warriors and start a group, it would be weird to see two of the same companion running around. They might force you to take someone other than your friend.
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited November 2010
They're not gonna do that. At worst, they'll be called something generic like "Twi'Lek Companion" or somesuch when in a group with an identical companion.
Having all Companions target healers is going to be a big one probably. They'll have to have some kind of companion cool down or something so killing a companion actually means something. Bringing all DPS companions and having them all target one healer at a time will probably make a pretty interesting strategy.
This is going to be one of those multiplayer situations where anyone coming in with any semblance of teamwork will sweep the floor with any team playing lone wolf.
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited November 2010
Also, the companion is the one thing that I'm absolutely dreading about TOR. I have grown to hate pet classes after playing a Hunter in WoW for so long, and in TOR every class is gonna be a pet class. I can't wait for the first time that stupid fucking AI drone gets me killed because it fucks up somehow.
Also, the companion is the one thing that I'm absolutely dreading about TOR. I have grown to hate pet classes after playing a Hunter in WoW for so long, and in TOR every class is gonna be a pet class. I can't wait for the first time that stupid fucking AI drone gets me killed because it fucks up somehow.
I hope it shouts 'Leroy Jenkins' when it does.
But on a more important note.
Can i turn my lightsaber on and off with the press of a key, or will my pc turn it on and off automatically when I enter / leave combat?
Dirtmuncher on
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duraxWho watches the watchdogs?Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
From the PAX demo reports the light saber turns on and off automatically.
While no off/on key has been mentioned, there are going to be emotes that let you do tricks with your weapon as well (e.g. /dance, /intimidate etc)
Suffice to say that if SWTOR manages to make a zone that is like that, or even improves on oldschool AV, they'll have my money so hard.
This, so hard. I like open world feeling PvP... I like having a big ass battle that takes for ever as you push back enemy lines.
Just thinking about a battle like that while playing a class with cover mechanics... I need a new pair of pants.
On top of that, think of the tactical possibilities with companions. Each potential move in a battleground could have a companion flanking or acting as a diversion.
And there goes another pair of pants. The PvP in this game better live up to its potential or I'm going to be one sad panda.
Hah, as long as they aren't a give away for people in stealth.
I really, really doubt you can bring companions into pvp. It's why I also doubt there will be open (non-instanced) pvp unless the "pvp planets" also refuse you bringing companions.
I expect them to act, combat-wise, like hirelings from the first guild wars. You can use them all over in PvE, even in groups with other real players, just not in pvp at all.
I really, really doubt you can bring companions into pvp. It's why I also doubt there will be open (non-instanced) pvp unless the "pvp planets" also refuse you bringing companions.
I expect them to act, combat-wise, like hirelings from the first guild wars. You can use them all over in PvE, even in groups with other real players, just not in pvp at all.
That's my guess anyways.
Well, I thought the same thing about companions and pvp, but the Darth Hater dissection of the Warzone video shows them in there.
If it's 8v8 but they're allowing companions, why are there only ten characters? There should be sixteen. I doubt only two people went into PvP with companions, so it seems more likely those are just regular NPCs.
Agent Cooper on
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
Maybe if you go into it with 8 they fill up the extra slots with the companions of the highest level character or something. edit: Sorry I misread you there. Just noticed you said 8 by 8.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Yeah, that's my thought as well, the companions might be placeholders if not enough people joined, though that obviously depends on how scoring works (objective vs. kill count, as bots make kill count suck).
The credit cost of the crafting stuff has me kind of curious.
I wonder if you'll be able to use up all those missions or if they'll be randomly generated. I also wonder how they're going to alter those costs depending on what the community does with the game economy.
I don't get the comedy in those meme internet strip things but that companion looks like he takes his job seriously. That or his face is so fat that his muscles can't move it.
CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
The descriptions for those locations they send your companion to are stupid. Why would you send your companion to a warzone to gather droid bits? Who chemically bombed that well known city? Why would a Jedi send his helper to loot a devastated colony that needs all the stuff it can salvage to rebuild after that natural disaster? Who leaves a bunch of useful, probably valuable stuff in a cave for your nameless informant to find for you? Pirates?
Corehealer on
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
The descriptions for those locations they send your companion to are stupid. Why would you send your companion to a warzone to gather droid bits? Who chemically bombed that well known city? Why would a Jedi send his helper to loot a devastated colony that needs all the stuff it can salvage to rebuild after that natural disaster? Who leaves a bunch of useful, probably valuable stuff in a cave for your nameless informant to find for you? Pirates?
Well for the looting bit... they did say those missions could give dark side points!
Those missions do look very darkside-ish. Perhaps different companions offer different descriptions. Also. I'd call them generic. Not exactly stupid. I'd like a little more detail as well, but you can't expect a work of art out of 2 or 3 sentences. They also have to be careful with what they say cause of all us starwars nerds.
Well, the class used in the video was a Sith Bounty Hunter. Perhaps the Republic ones have nicer scavenging misions.
Candy Island is overrun with bunnies and fairy dust. Go there and gather any excess the natives can spare.
Decoy on
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited November 2010
The whole thing seems similar to the Assassin's Guild business from the new Assassin's Creed, except you apparently can't send more than one minions on a mission.
reVerse on
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
The whole thing seems similar to the Assassin's Guild business from the new Assassin's Creed, except you apparently can't send more than one minions on a mission.
That's probably for balancing reasons. Can't have everyone sending their 6+ companions at max level to farm stuff overnight and then curbstomp the market with a flood of goods the next day.
Corehealer on
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
The whole thing seems similar to the Assassin's Guild business from the new Assassin's Creed, except you apparently can't send more than one minions on a mission.
That's probably for balancing reasons. Can't have everyone sending their 6+ companions at max level to farm stuff overnight and then curbstomp the market with a flood of goods the next day.
Well, what if they send all their dudes out on separate missions?
reVerse on
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
The whole thing seems similar to the Assassin's Guild business from the new Assassin's Creed, except you apparently can't send more than one minions on a mission.
That's probably for balancing reasons. Can't have everyone sending their 6+ companions at max level to farm stuff overnight and then curbstomp the market with a flood of goods the next day.
Well, what if they send all their dudes out on separate missions?
Depends on what they are getting out of the missions. Diplomacy can't cause inflation, for example.
Darth Hater has an interview with Daniel Erickson explaining crafting:
Part 1:
DH: Can the companions of two players from the opposite faction fight over a node?
Daniel Erickson: Your companions are actually controlled by your own aggro stuff. So if you weren't aggroed to another player, they would not. It would be first come, first serve... obviously, if you sent your companion to go grab something and then you saw that thing was no longer available.
One of the things you probably noticed about the companions is that they are directly controllable as well. You don't have to directly control them. You could say, "Attack their companion." You could get a pretty good drop on their companion if they were down scrabbling in the dirt and you used your companion's big nasty attack ability -- his big cooldown -- against them. You could assume that yeah, you could keep somebody busy, knock off their companion, and then go for the node if you're battle crafting.
DH: Will players also have the option to gather materials from nodes without using their active companion?
DE: Absolutely. You can always do it yourself. In fact, if there are multiple nodes you are trying to hit, then that could be a really disciplined way of doing it. Anything you have a gathering skill for, you can do yourself or you can send your companion to do it.
DH: You referred to Treasure Hunting rewards as a "random number generator" result. What would you say to those that are discouraged by the random number generator usage?
DE: There are lots of things in the game that are not that way, but our loot system is always working in that way. Drops are random by their very nature, and Treasure Hunting is an extension of that.
DH: You mentioned Vette excels at Treasure Hunting. Are companions restricted in what they are able to do regardless of what they excel at, or will they be able to do everything?
DE: All companions can do all skills that you know. You're the one who has the Crew Skills on your character, so you say, "I learned these Crew Skills." You can assign anyone to it. Companions have bonuses to them, but those bonuses aren't so large that they would ever restrict you. The balance is... we don't ever want you to say, "I don't want to take Vette out today" because that would be too much of a blow to my Crew Skills game.
We need to make sure the bonuses are enough to be impactful but not enough to make it nonviable to use somebody else for the same thing. Just because you have Vette on your team doing Treasure Hunting doesn't mean you will feel like "oh, I have to leave her home because I wouldn't want to send Companion B out to Treasure Hunt."
DH:Is every passive companion at your disposal able to do crafting all at the same time or are restricted to a maximum number?
DE: To be clear, you can have up to five companions working on a crafting table. You can have up to five companions working on different crafts, and have other companions out on mission skills or doing something else like missions for gathering. Crafting limits at five, but Crew Skills you could have everyone going at once because crafting for us is one third of Crew Skills. But you can have one companion out who will trail around and follow you in the world.
DH: By including an offline component to crafting, will new players six plus months out be at a disadvantage or will there be a system in place to deflate the time values of old content like in other MMOs?
DE: I don't think the parallels really make sense because it is the same thing for any crafting system you have in any game -- crafting takes time. In ours, crafting an individual item takes even more time than in most games so you can do it offline. At the same time, you can be online and ignoring it. But you have to remember your companion is doing it and you're not doing it. So there really is not a difference in the person who shows up day one as a new player, who obviously can't craft what you can craft because you were doing it for six months. You are going to know far more recipes and far more skills -- you are going to be way down the line. They are going to be at the very first beginning levels of it.
And part 2:
DH: How do you the player craft in Star Wars: The Old Republic? Are there recipes you loot or you learn from other people in the galaxy?
Daniel Erickson: The beginning stuff you do when you learn a crafting skill... you get a number of recipes. There are also recipes that you can discover out in the world. There are recipes that are very rare. One of the important overall goals that we haven't talked about Crew Skills is that there will be "go to" people. You will be able to craft items that are the top tier of things in the game. It is going to be very possible that there are only one or two people on the server who know how to craft specific things. There is a whole lot of discovery involved.
The Crew Skills system is a place for everyone -- whoever wants to play can come play. The missions system is super accessible, and even if you aren't into crafting, you can play with those. People who want to be a master at crafting -- and really want to be those who are the go to people on the servers -- they are going to put a ton of work into it. We're not going to talk quite yet about how you get some of these recipes but suffice to say, they will be in demand as crafters and it will not be something you can casually do.
DH: Does your character learn recipes for multiple uses, or do you consume them each time?
DE: The general approach is that once you learn a recipe, you know it. There may be exceptions.
DH: Are crafting items relative to the environment you are in, such as a difference of items between Korriban and Hoth?
DE: Crafting for an environmentally specific location I think is going to be more about the resources available. You aren't going to look for some boots that are particularly sand-resistant for Korriban. But there are going to resources that are going to be available to you because you are on Korriban that might not be available elsewhere. You might end up tailoring what you are exploring and learning to craft based on what is readily available so that you can do it faster.
DH: Is there still some personalization you can do to the items you create?
DE: The items you create are by their very nature personalized, so we definitely maker's mark everything. As crafters go further and further into their art, they will start to learn things that other crafters do not know. Eventually, the hope is that you develop sort of a specialization and a concept of the things that you craft. And that is probably going to adjust very much by which skill pairings you decided to grab. To give sort of a hint, there are mission skills that may help out crafters more because you have more of a chance going and getting specific things or specific recipes -- they are going to help the whole piece. At the top level, for the people who are really, really pushing the Crew Skills... everyone is going to get fairly unique with it.
DH: What do the question marks beneath each Crew Skills grouping represent?
DE: Obviously, we can't tell you all of them but they do break down into far more discrete chunks than just Armor and Weapons.
DH: You mentioned discovery before in relation to how sometimes it is going to take longer to get something and only one or two people on the server will have it. What was the challenge in creating such a system without turning it into a big grind?
DE: One of the things is really having the system just have depth. There are two ways you can do exclusivity, and one is with variety. I'll give you a total random example: if you have a thousand versions of something that all have different concepts behind them; when you get to a certain place, people are only getting one and you create exclusivity.
The other way is to say you only have two of these and it takes 40 hours of monotonous, horrific work to do them. I hope people see at this point that is never our philosophy. We never go down the route of "well, let's just make sure the only people who get to do it are people who hate fun." That is never going to be the way that we take to become the best of something.
Basically, if you're into crafting, it'll be a pretty big deal.
And here's a video of it for you non reading types:
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited November 2010
This mmo looks great, but I have a question. Is the whole point of the Sith in the game "Ha Ha! We are evil! We destroy things, we conquer worlds!!" or is there any neutral aspects to them. I'm saying are the Sith completely evil or are there qualities to them like "We think the Republic is corrupt".
Kadoken on
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited November 2010
The Sith aren't all evil and it is an OUTRAGE!!!
Well, at least according to the official forums it is.
Posts
3DS FC: 5086-1134-6451
Shiny Code: 3837
This is going to be one of those multiplayer situations where anyone coming in with any semblance of teamwork will sweep the floor with any team playing lone wolf.
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
I hope it shouts 'Leroy Jenkins' when it does.
But on a more important note.
Can i turn my lightsaber on and off with the press of a key, or will my pc turn it on and off automatically when I enter / leave combat?
While no off/on key has been mentioned, there are going to be emotes that let you do tricks with your weapon as well (e.g. /dance, /intimidate etc)
I really, really doubt you can bring companions into pvp. It's why I also doubt there will be open (non-instanced) pvp unless the "pvp planets" also refuse you bringing companions.
I expect them to act, combat-wise, like hirelings from the first guild wars. You can use them all over in PvE, even in groups with other real players, just not in pvp at all.
That's my guess anyways.
Well, I thought the same thing about companions and pvp, but the Darth Hater dissection of the Warzone video shows them in there.
For instance...
Starting area
In the zone
So who knows.
I wonder if you'll be able to use up all those missions or if they'll be randomly generated. I also wonder how they're going to alter those costs depending on what the community does with the game economy.
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
Well for the looting bit... they did say those missions could give dark side points!
Candy Island is overrun with bunnies and fairy dust. Go there and gather any excess the natives can spare.
That's probably for balancing reasons. Can't have everyone sending their 6+ companions at max level to farm stuff overnight and then curbstomp the market with a flood of goods the next day.
Well, what if they send all their dudes out on separate missions?
Depends on what they are getting out of the missions. Diplomacy can't cause inflation, for example.
I chuckled. I saw it more as a joke about sending a minion into a Chernobyl type situation. And the guy's like "... shit."
DH: Can the companions of two players from the opposite faction fight over a node?
Daniel Erickson: Your companions are actually controlled by your own aggro stuff. So if you weren't aggroed to another player, they would not. It would be first come, first serve... obviously, if you sent your companion to go grab something and then you saw that thing was no longer available.
One of the things you probably noticed about the companions is that they are directly controllable as well. You don't have to directly control them. You could say, "Attack their companion." You could get a pretty good drop on their companion if they were down scrabbling in the dirt and you used your companion's big nasty attack ability -- his big cooldown -- against them. You could assume that yeah, you could keep somebody busy, knock off their companion, and then go for the node if you're battle crafting.
DH: Will players also have the option to gather materials from nodes without using their active companion?
DE: Absolutely. You can always do it yourself. In fact, if there are multiple nodes you are trying to hit, then that could be a really disciplined way of doing it. Anything you have a gathering skill for, you can do yourself or you can send your companion to do it.
DH: You referred to Treasure Hunting rewards as a "random number generator" result. What would you say to those that are discouraged by the random number generator usage?
DE: There are lots of things in the game that are not that way, but our loot system is always working in that way. Drops are random by their very nature, and Treasure Hunting is an extension of that.
DH: You mentioned Vette excels at Treasure Hunting. Are companions restricted in what they are able to do regardless of what they excel at, or will they be able to do everything?
DE: All companions can do all skills that you know. You're the one who has the Crew Skills on your character, so you say, "I learned these Crew Skills." You can assign anyone to it. Companions have bonuses to them, but those bonuses aren't so large that they would ever restrict you. The balance is... we don't ever want you to say, "I don't want to take Vette out today" because that would be too much of a blow to my Crew Skills game.
We need to make sure the bonuses are enough to be impactful but not enough to make it nonviable to use somebody else for the same thing. Just because you have Vette on your team doing Treasure Hunting doesn't mean you will feel like "oh, I have to leave her home because I wouldn't want to send Companion B out to Treasure Hunt."
DH:Is every passive companion at your disposal able to do crafting all at the same time or are restricted to a maximum number?
DE: To be clear, you can have up to five companions working on a crafting table. You can have up to five companions working on different crafts, and have other companions out on mission skills or doing something else like missions for gathering. Crafting limits at five, but Crew Skills you could have everyone going at once because crafting for us is one third of Crew Skills. But you can have one companion out who will trail around and follow you in the world.
DH: By including an offline component to crafting, will new players six plus months out be at a disadvantage or will there be a system in place to deflate the time values of old content like in other MMOs?
DE: I don't think the parallels really make sense because it is the same thing for any crafting system you have in any game -- crafting takes time. In ours, crafting an individual item takes even more time than in most games so you can do it offline. At the same time, you can be online and ignoring it. But you have to remember your companion is doing it and you're not doing it. So there really is not a difference in the person who shows up day one as a new player, who obviously can't craft what you can craft because you were doing it for six months. You are going to know far more recipes and far more skills -- you are going to be way down the line. They are going to be at the very first beginning levels of it.
And part 2:
Daniel Erickson: The beginning stuff you do when you learn a crafting skill... you get a number of recipes. There are also recipes that you can discover out in the world. There are recipes that are very rare. One of the important overall goals that we haven't talked about Crew Skills is that there will be "go to" people. You will be able to craft items that are the top tier of things in the game. It is going to be very possible that there are only one or two people on the server who know how to craft specific things. There is a whole lot of discovery involved.
The Crew Skills system is a place for everyone -- whoever wants to play can come play. The missions system is super accessible, and even if you aren't into crafting, you can play with those. People who want to be a master at crafting -- and really want to be those who are the go to people on the servers -- they are going to put a ton of work into it. We're not going to talk quite yet about how you get some of these recipes but suffice to say, they will be in demand as crafters and it will not be something you can casually do.
DH: Does your character learn recipes for multiple uses, or do you consume them each time?
DE: The general approach is that once you learn a recipe, you know it. There may be exceptions.
DH: Are crafting items relative to the environment you are in, such as a difference of items between Korriban and Hoth?
DE: Crafting for an environmentally specific location I think is going to be more about the resources available. You aren't going to look for some boots that are particularly sand-resistant for Korriban. But there are going to resources that are going to be available to you because you are on Korriban that might not be available elsewhere. You might end up tailoring what you are exploring and learning to craft based on what is readily available so that you can do it faster.
DH: Is there still some personalization you can do to the items you create?
DE: The items you create are by their very nature personalized, so we definitely maker's mark everything. As crafters go further and further into their art, they will start to learn things that other crafters do not know. Eventually, the hope is that you develop sort of a specialization and a concept of the things that you craft. And that is probably going to adjust very much by which skill pairings you decided to grab. To give sort of a hint, there are mission skills that may help out crafters more because you have more of a chance going and getting specific things or specific recipes -- they are going to help the whole piece. At the top level, for the people who are really, really pushing the Crew Skills... everyone is going to get fairly unique with it.
DH: What do the question marks beneath each Crew Skills grouping represent?
DE: Obviously, we can't tell you all of them but they do break down into far more discrete chunks than just Armor and Weapons.
DH: You mentioned discovery before in relation to how sometimes it is going to take longer to get something and only one or two people on the server will have it. What was the challenge in creating such a system without turning it into a big grind?
DE: One of the things is really having the system just have depth. There are two ways you can do exclusivity, and one is with variety. I'll give you a total random example: if you have a thousand versions of something that all have different concepts behind them; when you get to a certain place, people are only getting one and you create exclusivity.
The other way is to say you only have two of these and it takes 40 hours of monotonous, horrific work to do them. I hope people see at this point that is never our philosophy. We never go down the route of "well, let's just make sure the only people who get to do it are people who hate fun." That is never going to be the way that we take to become the best of something.
Basically, if you're into crafting, it'll be a pretty big deal.
And here's a video of it for you non reading types:
Daniel Erickson
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
Yea, I liked it. Garnered a smile.
That'd be bangin'.
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
As long as acouple people got it. ><
I will be very surprised if that is not the case in some form by launch.
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
I hope some Trooper missions involve preventing situations like that.
... And Imperial Agent missions involve making them happen.
http://www.wowarmory.com/wow-remote.xml
Well, at least according to the official forums it is.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.