Personally I find TOR era more interesting, probably mostly because Lucas hasn't done anything to it. And also largely because Jedi is what I consider most important in a SW game, and the movie era just doesn't allow for any.
At the heart of every SW game all I see is Tech. Old Republic games just don't have the tech we spent the entire trilogy seeing, so I can't connect to it. I seriously can't name a single ship or gun in TOR that didn't make me roll my eyes. Don't get me started on the armor. Nothing says "Elite Kill Troops" like walking mirrors.
I agree. I understand the problem of setting an MMO in the Episode IV-VI era- everyone wants to play a Jedi, but the setting doesn't really allow for it without totally raping the canon.
But, setting a SW game in TOR era scrubs out almost all the iconic stuff like the ships, Storm Troopers, the Death Star etc. It becomes a generic sci-fi setting where some of the players have laser-swords.
Also, the NPC's in game are going to be unfamiliar to the vast majority of people who like SW, but haven't delved into the extended universe. Potentially interacting with Han Solo is cool. Interacting with Corellian Smuggler Blankety-Blank? Not so much.
On the other hand, setting a ST MMO in the near-future of the canon continuity allows the players access to a familiar universe with familiar locations (DS9, Star Fleet Academy, the Klingon homeworld, the Mirror Universe etc.), familiar ships and familiar alien races while giving the game creators the ability to tell their own stories.
I'm fairly tumescent about the prospects of STO. Of course, I've been burned lately by several MMO's that lured me into their vans with the promise of candy, only to find out that the van only contained tears.
Modern Man on
Aetian Jupiter - 41 Gunslinger - The Old Republic
Rigorous Scholarship
My chief concern with STO is the amount of content available at launch for the Klingon faction and how Klingons will be represented in general. I'm the type of person who prefers to play the less populated faction choice. In SWG I sided with the Rebels because almost everyone went Empire. In WoW I went Horde because the greater population picked Night Elf (Alliance) at the launch of the game. So it is very likely I'll be going with Klingon.
But from what I've heard so far, it sounds like at least for the time being, the Klingons must be unlocked before you can even play as them. And on top of that, in that preview article that talks about the quest chains which they dubbed "Episodes" and how the launch version of the game will contain 3 "seasons" worth of "espisodes," I have a very strong hunch that all 3 season are Federation.
Basically, right now nothing that I have read gives me any reason to be optimistic about the Klingons at all. It sounds like they are gonna be an empty husk of a faction at launch and exist almost solely for some sort of pvp content.
The Klingons definitely advance through pvp rather than episodic content. That has been stated by Cryptic IIRC.
There are four "seasons", each containing over a dozen "episodes", which in turn contain any number of quests. Those don't include the procedural content. I think patches/expansions will definitely flesh everything out, but launch will be 90% Feds.
The Klingons definitely advance through pvp rather than episodic content. That has been stated by Cryptic IIRC.
There are four "seasons", each containing over a dozen "episodes", which in turn contain any number of quests. Those don't include the procedural content. I think patches/expansions will definitely flesh everything out, but launch will be 90% Feds.
I'm assuming the long-term plan for STO involves adding other factions? Romulans seem like a no-brainer, plus maybe the Cardassians as a fourth potential faction down the road.
Modern Man on
Aetian Jupiter - 41 Gunslinger - The Old Republic
Rigorous Scholarship
The Klingons definitely advance through pvp rather than episodic content. That has been stated by Cryptic IIRC.
There are four "seasons", each containing over a dozen "episodes", which in turn contain any number of quests. Those don't include the procedural content. I think patches/expansions will definitely flesh everything out, but launch will be 90% Feds.
I'm assuming the long-term plan for STO involves adding other factions? Romulans seem like a no-brainer, plus maybe the Cardassians as a fourth potential faction down the road.
Yeah, I believe Cryptic has stated that they have plans to add both Romulans and I think they said Dominion. And there was also talk of a neutral free-lance faction as well, although this is less likely.
The Klingons definitely advance through pvp rather than episodic content. That has been stated by Cryptic IIRC.
There are four "seasons", each containing over a dozen "episodes", which in turn contain any number of quests. Those don't include the procedural content. I think patches/expansions will definitely flesh everything out, but launch will be 90% Feds.
I'm assuming the long-term plan for STO involves adding other factions? Romulans seem like a no-brainer, plus maybe the Cardassians as a fourth potential faction down the road.
Yeah, I believe Cryptic has stated that they have plans to add both Romulans and I think they said Dominion. And there was also talk of a neutral free-lance faction as well, although this is less likely.
A resurgence of the Maquis would seem to fit that description.
The Klingons definitely advance through pvp rather than episodic content. That has been stated by Cryptic IIRC.
There are four "seasons", each containing over a dozen "episodes", which in turn contain any number of quests. Those don't include the procedural content. I think patches/expansions will definitely flesh everything out, but launch will be 90% Feds.
I'm assuming the long-term plan for STO involves adding other factions? Romulans seem like a no-brainer, plus maybe the Cardassians as a fourth potential faction down the road.
Yeah, I believe Cryptic has stated that they have plans to add both Romulans and I think they said Dominion. And there was also talk of a neutral free-lance faction as well, although this is less likely.
A resurgence of the Maquis would seem to fit that description.
Ferengi? Grand Nagus SenorAmor has a nice ring to it.
Never played that. Space Combat looks kinda like Ship Combat in Pirates of the Burning Sea if you've ever played that, with the importance on manuvering and bringing weapons to bear and all. Except that it is in 3D space, Phasers have much larger firing arc, and you have more control over the ship parameters with the ability to transfer power and all.
yeah looks like it's making your ship point the directions your weapons of your choosing fire and repairing the correct shields (forward/back/left/right) as they get weakened before you start taking hull damage
Combat isn't far off from SFC, but it's really more like an arcadey Bridge Commander. No locational damage other than shields, and torpedoes really melt faces if you land one in an unshielded spot. It feels very much like what you'd imagine a real Trek battle would be like, if it didn't have all the dialog and bridge scenes to break it up.
I never got to read that countdown comic for the new StarTrek.
Was the Enterprise-E a close match power-wise to the Narada?
I don't remember everything about it, but I don't think they fought in it. I know that Geordi invented the Jellyfish (Spock's ship), Data's memories had reconstituted themselves and he was captain of the Enterprise-E, the Narada had incorporated Borg tech, and Enterprise-E was very close by when Spock and Nero went through the black hole.
Combat isn't far off from SFC, but it's really more like an arcadey Bridge Commander. No locational damage other than shields, and torpedoes really melt faces if you land one in an unshielded spot. It feels very much like what you'd imagine a real Trek battle would be like, if it didn't have all the dialog and bridge scenes to break it up.
You mean, I can't just target the bridge and kill the shit out of everyone? Dammit. I wanna make their consoles explode and fry their faces off. I also wanna demonstrate why you don't put a skylight on a starship.
Combat isn't far off from SFC, but it's really more like an arcadey Bridge Commander. No locational damage other than shields, and torpedoes really melt faces if you land one in an unshielded spot. It feels very much like what you'd imagine a real Trek battle would be like, if it didn't have all the dialog and bridge scenes to break it up.
You mean, I can't just target the bridge and kill the shit out of everyone? Dammit. I wanna make their consoles explode and fry their faces off. I also wanna demonstrate why you don't put a skylight on a starship.
I wonder if there won't be locational damage really
I mean targeting the engines is a pretty basic tactic
or the bridge. go for the eyes!
There is still abilites that attack a certain part of the ship to disable them, it is just that there is only 1 health bar for the ship itself.
I could verify this. If I had my closed beta invite.
From what the video show from PAX and other CONs, this seems to be the case. Each shield arc has its own health bar but the ship hull only has one health bar. I believe abilities will allow you to target subsystems and damaging these subsystems puts a debuff on the ship.
I never got to read that countdown comic for the new StarTrek.
Was the Enterprise-E a close match power-wise to the Narada?
I don't remember everything about it, but I don't think they fought in it. I know that Geordi invented the Jellyfish (Spock's ship), Data's memories had reconstituted themselves and he was captain of the Enterprise-E, the Narada had incorporated Borg tech, and Enterprise-E was very close by when Spock and Nero went through the black hole.
But that's all based on a hazy memory.
If I remember correctly, the Enterprise-E was knocked out of the fight because they were forced to drop their shields for a sec to rescue Worf (who led a group of Klingon ships against the Narada).
I guess there is a kind of locational damage, using debuffs, but it really feels more like debuffs than actual locational damage. For example, in other Trek games, you'd often hit subsystems without targeting them just because they happened to be where your torpedo landed, but STO doesn't have that. Using the "target engines" skill, or whatever, would just provide a 10-second debuff and then disappear entirely. I can't really blame Cryptic for going this route, and there's always room for improvement later.
I can blame them. That's rather silly. Targeting systems (engines, whatever) seems like a pretty core component of Star Trek.
To be fair, battles are often over fast enough that a ten second debuff is sufficient. Besides, the encounters are often set up such that disabling things is not preferable anyway. Klingons and Pirates have already decided to attack you; if they wanted to surrender they would have done it before launching torpedoes in your general direction.
I think 2 to 5 minutes would be the proper time for a fight. Against another capital ship a bit longer.
I always liked the way Bridge Commander handled damage where if your sub-system was damaged you could assign your finite repair crew to work on the sub system.
looks like a battle with an even level ship can take 30s-1m30s. There are little shuttles bigger ships send out at you that go down in a few hits, about 2-5s. Looks like bigger class ships can go down in 2-3m.
That seems a bit fast to me. I mean, I realize on the show and in the movies they have lots of cuts to the bridge and other areas of the ship, but stuff is always happening during those cuts. I mean, a cut to the engineering bay will show Scotty (or other chief engineer) doing something to repair something and stop the ship from going critical. Its not like its a lapse in the battle. I always assume that the battle is still ensuing outside while the camera cuts to the interior.
This is the 25th century. Better technology. Or a space wizard did it. Whichever helps Acolytes of the Sacred Canon (TM) feel better.
I'm sure it will feel and play just fine. Massively had an article out just today praising the awesomeness of the space combat and how he was hungry to play more. In fact, you could say he bit off more than he could Q.
I've never timed it but taking on a bigger class ship certainly feels a lot longer. Long enough that if it were any other setting I'd be bitching about how long it takes to kill a single enemy.
I should've been more specific. A ten second debuff is fine 1v1, but you're rarely 1v1. Most fights take a couple of minutes to finish, or more, depending on how big the enemies are. The Massively article was spot on, the combat is very fun. It's got its limitations, but it's definitely fun and feels reasonably Treky.
So long as something like a Borg Cube takes a significant time to destroy as a team effort.
I think it would be awesome for people coordinating on voice chat, for instance:
"My aft shield is down but I managed to get some damage on port side. It's shields are regenerating on that side. Everyone bank in and concentrate fire! All torpedoes!"
Then you see all the players in the battle swing out wide and take a big diving attack run blasting away with all the phasers and torpedoes they can muster.
Posts
But, setting a SW game in TOR era scrubs out almost all the iconic stuff like the ships, Storm Troopers, the Death Star etc. It becomes a generic sci-fi setting where some of the players have laser-swords.
Also, the NPC's in game are going to be unfamiliar to the vast majority of people who like SW, but haven't delved into the extended universe. Potentially interacting with Han Solo is cool. Interacting with Corellian Smuggler Blankety-Blank? Not so much.
On the other hand, setting a ST MMO in the near-future of the canon continuity allows the players access to a familiar universe with familiar locations (DS9, Star Fleet Academy, the Klingon homeworld, the Mirror Universe etc.), familiar ships and familiar alien races while giving the game creators the ability to tell their own stories.
I'm fairly tumescent about the prospects of STO. Of course, I've been burned lately by several MMO's that lured me into their vans with the promise of candy, only to find out that the van only contained tears.
Rigorous Scholarship
But from what I've heard so far, it sounds like at least for the time being, the Klingons must be unlocked before you can even play as them. And on top of that, in that preview article that talks about the quest chains which they dubbed "Episodes" and how the launch version of the game will contain 3 "seasons" worth of "espisodes," I have a very strong hunch that all 3 season are Federation.
Basically, right now nothing that I have read gives me any reason to be optimistic about the Klingons at all. It sounds like they are gonna be an empty husk of a faction at launch and exist almost solely for some sort of pvp content.
There are four "seasons", each containing over a dozen "episodes", which in turn contain any number of quests. Those don't include the procedural content. I think patches/expansions will definitely flesh everything out, but launch will be 90% Feds.
Rigorous Scholarship
Yeah, I believe Cryptic has stated that they have plans to add both Romulans and I think they said Dominion. And there was also talk of a neutral free-lance faction as well, although this is less likely.
Rigorous Scholarship
A resurgence of the Maquis would seem to fit that description.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Same here
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
cause if so cool.
Can other players visit your ship?
Ferengi? Grand Nagus SenorAmor has a nice ring to it.
...SFC?
Never played that. Space Combat looks kinda like Ship Combat in Pirates of the Burning Sea if you've ever played that, with the importance on manuvering and bringing weapons to bear and all. Except that it is in 3D space, Phasers have much larger firing arc, and you have more control over the ship parameters with the ability to transfer power and all.
I mean targeting the engines is a pretty basic tactic
or the bridge. go for the eyes!
Was the Enterprise-E a close match power-wise to the Narada?
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
I don't remember everything about it, but I don't think they fought in it. I know that Geordi invented the Jellyfish (Spock's ship), Data's memories had reconstituted themselves and he was captain of the Enterprise-E, the Narada had incorporated Borg tech, and Enterprise-E was very close by when Spock and Nero went through the black hole.
But that's all based on a hazy memory.
There is still abilites that attack a certain part of the ship to disable them, it is just that there is only 1 health bar for the ship itself.
I could verify this. If I had my closed beta invite.
From what the video show from PAX and other CONs, this seems to be the case. Each shield arc has its own health bar but the ship hull only has one health bar. I believe abilities will allow you to target subsystems and damaging these subsystems puts a debuff on the ship.
Also, were is my beta invite from my preorder!
If I remember correctly, the Enterprise-E was knocked out of the fight because they were forced to drop their shields for a sec to rescue Worf (who led a group of Klingon ships against the Narada).
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
To be fair, battles are often over fast enough that a ten second debuff is sufficient. Besides, the encounters are often set up such that disabling things is not preferable anyway. Klingons and Pirates have already decided to attack you; if they wanted to surrender they would have done it before launching torpedoes in your general direction.
I think 2 to 5 minutes would be the proper time for a fight. Against another capital ship a bit longer.
I always liked the way Bridge Commander handled damage where if your sub-system was damaged you could assign your finite repair crew to work on the sub system.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
I'm sure it will feel and play just fine. Massively had an article out just today praising the awesomeness of the space combat and how he was hungry to play more. In fact, you could say he bit off more than he could Q.
I think it would be awesome for people coordinating on voice chat, for instance:
"My aft shield is down but I managed to get some damage on port side. It's shields are regenerating on that side. Everyone bank in and concentrate fire! All torpedoes!"
Then you see all the players in the battle swing out wide and take a big diving attack run blasting away with all the phasers and torpedoes they can muster.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Oh hey look so did mine.