its STAR WARS

[Mangala]

Stuff from Darth Hater - at Pax East:

4PM Q&A with Daniel Erickson and James Ohlen

Will a Day/Night cycle be in the game?
DE: No. It was a technical decision. Scenes look better if lighting is consistent.
JO: multiple worlds present in game with different # of suns/moons, so it became too difficult to make it work.

What was your favorite class to design?
JO: Sith Warrior because Darth Vader is fun.
DE: Jedi Consular because I like being the thinking man.

Do implant slots change appearance?
JO: No, but you can customize your appearance.
DE: Lots of invisible slots

How is terrain interactive and protective?
JO:The Cover mechanic is crucial. You can destroy objects like barrels in the Taral V flashpoint. Worlds feel alive - shuttles flying by, etc.
DE: Objects block blaster shots and break line of sight.

To what extent is it balanced for PvP?
JO: PVP has been discussed since 2006. We have been very careful with it. Different approach to the classes. Star Wars approach, then group role, then, pvp.

Is planetary travel like rail shooters?
DE: Use of Galaxy Map to engage in space combat is to enter specific space missions, otherwise you just jump to lightspeed to travel

Ground transports?
DE: There are taxis on origin worlds and large spaces which it would be convenient to not have to walk through.

Is there a way to repair your ship while in-combat?
JO: No, you can upgrade the ship.
DE: It is really hard to repair a starship while its flying.

How will you feel heroic in a large guild of heroes?
DE: You've got big stuff to tackle. When you go to destroy the Death Star you take Biggs and the other guys. Its STAR WARS.

How will you combat tank shortage?
JO: You can specialize AC's so you it'll be easier to form parties.
DE: As trooper, its fun to ranged tank. Explosives make folks fly through the air!

Interactive dialogue - How much is there of it in the game?
DE: All of the features are in. It's present in game. If you lose roll, you still get your points for your intentions.

Equipment repair gold sink?
JO: Repairs and mounts are gold sinks.

Are there rewards for going one way or another alignment-wise?
DE: Yes, I was really evil as a Sith Inquisitor but then there was a pair of gloves that was light-only that I wanted. Kim Vaal was NOT happy with me.
JO: Faction-switching was talked about but it was passed on for story reasons. Three factions were also considered but it would have been too expensive.

Non-combat aesthetics like pets?
JO: Not talking about it but will have something. The Return of the Jedi Slave Leia Outfit is in the game in some form.
DE: It's important for social aspects.

Does player manufacturing have a place in the game economy?
DE: Crafting is a passion of mine. We're not EVE. We're loot based, but we're past WoW, more complex and a lot of social of interaction. To get gear, you'll either be pounding end game or gathering a network of crafters.
James Ohlen mentioned that he thinks MMORPGs will be more RPG than MMO in the next decade.

How much is instanced?
JO: The game is not linear single-player. Alderaan is 7-8 World of Warcraft Zones in size. Phasing is used, but it is not everywhere.
DE: Phasing is used to ensure pivotal plot points are immersive. No lines to fight bosses. Everything to Cloud City an example - Luke goes off to fight Vader alone. (cloud city not mentioned as in game, only as example)
Developer made comment about $15 per month fee to compete with a game like World of Warcraft.
James Ohlen mentioned that player retention in SWTOR is based on elder game content and re-rolling


5PM Q&A with Jessica Sliwinski, Hall Hood, and Daniel Erickson

If you go dark side, can you avoid facial disfiguration?
DE: Why did you go darkside? Customization is optional.

How did you balance the Trooper so it doesn't get owned by the Sith (force users)?
HH: The smuggler is so well written that he projects aura that pushes sith away (joke).
DE: You are playing as the best of the best. Jango fett and Obi Wan can go toe to toe. At one point all the Jedi were wiped out by troopers. Testing key in balance process.

Are dialogue options always the same for flashpoints?
DE: Dialogue not randomized, but it does branch so there are multiple ways to play the conversation. Group content tends to be more wild because of that.
HH: Every conversation has 3 choices, so branching will take multiple playthroughs to discover.
JS: Gender/race effects dialogue options and results.

What single player writing challenges carry over into SWTOR?
DE: Everything is about making things smaller and more heroic. Trooper is winning the war, smuggler is out for himself. There's a secret threat that only the consular knows about.

Similar to Mass Effect, how do cinematics play out based on different gender/species combos?
JS: Cinematics will change based on your character choices.
DE: Cinematics can be rare. There is a great cinematic for trooper who saves people and then shakes them down for money. When you go to Hoth as a Chiss, your experience is very different.

How is personal story balanced against multiplayer?
DE: Origin world starts your personal story. After that, world arc starts up with interruptions for personal story advances. 10-15% on class stuff in later game. You can bring other classes on class story stuff.
JS: NPC's will react to your exploits.

The more light/dark you are, how does that change player interactions?
DE: Players can't sense alignment. In kotor, you got Dark Side points for being snarky, which I didn't like. In tor, your actions are what count. Eventually, the jedi council will notice.
HH: Hey, you saved that planet but you killed a lot of people.
DE: There will be restrictions on your late game choices based on your early choices.
Daniel Erickson mentioned that flashpoints replayable, but everything else is play as it is.

Player bounties?
DE: No

Is there story involvement in space combat?
DE: We consider it alternative gameplay, you never HAVE to do it but you will learn more by doing it.

Is it a trap?
DE: Yes, it is always a trap.

Who shot first?
DE: Han! Han Han Han.

Han sooooo didnt shoot first - Ive freeze framed that scene and still think it was the other dude.

No companions in end game raids and flashpoints (Update: "said they pulled companions from endgame raids and flashpoints. He was very specific. Not Warzones. He only mentioned PvE content.")

No clown armor. You equip different color armor. There is an optional "colormatch" that will even out color.

Added world boss to Nar Shaddaa
World boss will take "more than a full group to take down."

Companion romance arcs are very diverse with "dozens of arcs"
Some are classic romances while others are bad relationship with one even cheating on you "after romancing her you will come back to your ship and see a guy leaving it."
Smugglers have the most romance arcs
IAs have the most sexual options (related IA to James Bond)

No non-contextual holidays. (no Christmas, no Thanksgiving, etc.) Only Star Wars holidays.

Phasing question. There is no full zone phasing. Only room phasing to keep groups together.

You return to origin world after you get high level. It inspires low levels to see high levels.

Ranged classes have snares and melee abilities to even the playing field with melee.

Will a threat meter be integrated? Not currently but we plan to add more functions before and after launch.

All origin worlds are off limits to opposing faction.

We are not adding a sidekick system because it ruins story but we may consider a mentor system to let friends play together some time in the future.

Will you support third party add ons? "We can't talk about that right now."

Open world PvP will be talked about soonish.

Flashpoints are spaced out evenly from leaving origin to max level.

Why make a tunnel shooter over space sim? That would be an astoundingly vast undertaking for a team already making one of the biggest games ever.

Will morality alter skills? It will have an impact but it will not cripple a Sith Inquisitor if you go light side or hurt a Trooper who goes Dark.

FAP FAP FAP

With guild pre-launch, can you change servers after launch?
David Bass: Check the guild FAQ. You'll have warning.
DE: No answer from David!

Can you declare war on other guilds?
JO: Maybe after release.

Missed question
JO: Accessibility important. Beginning tutorial in depth. Social games provide opportunity to collaborate.
DE: Story is universal, everyone can get that. TOR is easier to pick up than Dragon Age.

Player housing/guild halls?
JO: Guild capital ship highly requested. Maybe at release, if not soon after.
DE: Ships replace housing for us. No one hangs at Leia's house. Probably won't make it into release.

Character customization?
DE: I've never run into my twin in game. There are close-ups in conversations. NPC's have their own models so you won't twin an NPC.

Can healers be badass?
JO: Yes. Even Sith Warrior as tank has visceral action. When you are in group as healer you have blaster. Star wars tropes trump MMO's tropes.

Release date?
Bass: Game testing ongoing, release in 2011.
JO: 1k player cohorts have tested.

System specs?
JO: Can't talk about it yet. We need to appeal to lower end machines which is why it is stylized realism.

Will DX10 or Win7 be required?
DE: No! You don't need to go shopping.

Missed question
JO: Death penalty less harsh than other MMO's. Combat more challenging so you might die more than other games. Want to avoid rage quits.
DE: Don't want you to sleepwalk through the game. James didn't want people eating bread and sitting around while playing.

Reid: Why doesn't Oteg talk like Yoda?
DE: Because he isn't 900 years old. Lucas approves everything.

Reid: Explain day/night cycle more?
JO: Position of sun is fixed. We wanted a whole bunch of distinct looking worlds. Would require too many programmers.
DE: Having day/night would make things look significantly worse.

Reid: Will instances have day/night?
DE: Instances and phasing have variety, you'll go places that are at different times.

How large is each world?
JO: Alderaan is 7-8 wow zones. Origins smaller.
DE: As game goes on worlds get bigger. Alderaan has houses and castles that take up space.

Will you need to raid for badass gear?
DE: Top gear has 3 options - multiplayer end game, pvp, or crafting. But you're not in bantha hide early, you look badass throughout.
Reid: We're working on armor progression vids for other classes.

Balancing class combat?
JO: In other games, you have mostly swords or magic. In our game we needed an eye on making it look good when a melee class engages with blaster class. Jango goes toe to toe with jedi. Troopers in tor don't die to ewoks. Troopers can call air strikes, rocket launchers, grenades. SWTOR has unique classes.
DE: Kotor has vibroblades, not our game. Not badass enough. (Clarification: He was referring to players using them in SWTOR)

Are there features for competitive/hardcore players?
JO: Leveling content is valuable. We value the hardcore, but we also value our 1-X content.
DE: We don't let the super hardcore dictate content that they won't value.

Missed question
JO: We have a lot of different player types. We have activities for everyone. If you're not into raids, there's other stuff. There will be something endgame for people who love BioWare story.
DE: We will have amazing PVP stuff soon that could change the game world. World bosses are tough.

Is crafting like WoW where you need to collaborate with others for mats?
DE: The best stuff will require social collaboration for mats.

Closing comments -
JO: Spread the message that our game has all of the MMO systems, giant worlds. We're building a game that everyone will love that has BioWare story in it.
DE: If you liked/disliked the game, say so. For people who rant, ask "have you played it?" Post on the forums, give us feedback.

[Mangala]

Lucas approves everything.

PLEASE KEEP THIS STUPID FUCKER AWAY FROM IT.

[Kurtt]

I hereby name this weekend, the weekend of 'Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!'

That's all I've done for the past 48 hours tbh...

[Caradir]

I hereby name this weekend, the weekend of 'Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!'

That's all I've done for the past 48 hours tbh...

me too although i did fit in time for a wank.

[Keggi]

I hereby name this weekend, the weekend of 'Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!'

That's all I've done for the past 48 hours tbh...

me too although i did fit in time for a wank.

only one well thats just plain lazy

[Mangala]

I hereby name this weekend, the weekend of 'Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!'

That's all I've done for the past 48 hours tbh...

Certainly has been revealing.

We can only hope its the start of a huge media blitz and eventually beta revelations. (Ive decided that I'm going to avoid trying to play the beta for this, I want it to be fresh for me) then a successful, smooth as Rift, release.

[Kurtt]

Nice video of Jedi starting world and quests here. Guy playing it is a nub, but meh:

http://www.askajedi.com/2011/03/13/pax-east-2011-tython-is-beautiful/

[Chug]

me too although i did fit in time for a wank.

I just wanked and fit in time for a squeeeeeee

[Mangala]

The last time we spoke to James Ohlen, Star Wars: The Old Republic Creative Director, it was back at last summer's Gamescom in Germany. He granted us an opportunity to catch up with him at PAX East, and we discussed a bunch of topics ranging from Game Testing and Space Combat to Advanced Classes... and blowing up Alderaan.

In the Taral V Flashpoint, we're seeing a lot of multiplayer combat and the multiplayer dialog system, which is kind of a hallmark that you are trying to do. What is the focus on Taral V at PAX specifically this year?

James Ohlen: We wanted to show the community that we are going to have multiplayer dungeon-like content. We're calling them Flashpoints, but they're basically the equivalent to what you would call dungeons in other MMOs. They are repeatable four-mans that are about an hour long and require teamwork to be able to beat. The one thing that we're bringing to them that no other game has is the story component. As you saw, there are a lot of story moments in the game that really make it more immersive. They make it feel more like Star Wars. I think you get into the story and your character more than you would in a dungeon from another game.

One of the unique things about the setup is that it is a Republic Flashpoint and you have it set up so the Smuggler is the main healer for the group, and the Consular is throwing rocks and beating things up with telekinesis. Making sure that all the healers are viable is something that you are showing here. We also heard that because of game testing the Bounty Hunter and the Trooper are now getting healing trees. Are all these trees comparable? Could a Bounty Hunter come in and do the same thing the Smuggler is doing in Taral V in regards to being the main healer in a Flashpoint?

Yeah. We are always adjusting the game with play test feedback. We want people to easily be able to get a healer into their group because one of the problems with forming a group is making sure you have the right balance and if there aren't enough healers, then you're going to wait a long time before you can get into a Flashpoint. And that is not very fun.

We wanted to make sure that you get that healer as soon as you want to. We're looking at making the Trooper and Bounty Hunter to be able to spec into a healer. It will probably stay that way until ship, but you never know. We're doing lots of balance changes and modifications as we continue to balance the game and get feedback, which will probably continue until after we launch the game. We probably won't make any big changes like taking a class from being a healer to not being a healer. But yeah, we're always tweaking things.

Another one of those tweaks is with the single lightsaber for DPS for the Sith Warrior and the Jedi Knight, making viable DPS roles with the single lightsabers for those who are doing it. Are there any other things from testing that you didn't see coming, or things that fans are crying out for?

In terms of combat balance? Not really. We get lots of feedback but usually it is a bug; particularly with game balance around certain areas, or the game being too difficult or too easy. Like one of our last cohorts were finding the game was just not challenging enough so we had to do a significant balance change across the whole game and it made a big impact.

Now our origin worlds are far too difficult, which isn't good for the beginner player so we're going to make modifications there. We actually have a lot of telemetry we're able to track. We're able to track what all of our players are doing, when they die, when they quit the game, where they're killing, and where they're earning experience points. We're able to look at that data and make adjustments really quickly, so it is super useful.

We also heard that in your dialogue system, you are tracking metrics on when people are pausing to see how long they're taking to make decisions and things like that to really work on the dialogue. So you are getting ton of information from the testers?

We keep on getting more and more information as the testing groups get larger. We had two groups of a thousand players on a shard and that got us a lot of information because it was a lot more people playing together. We were able to see a population that was not indicative of the final game, but it was closer to it because the populations were so much bigger than just a couple hundred. We're able to use that to make a lot of adjustments; it also validated a lot design decisions we made months earlier. The game really gets a lot better every single month. It is pretty impressive. The developer teams are getting faster at making changes and making adjustments to feedback. Two years ago it would take so long to see a change in the game, but now you see changes every month.

One of the changes we saw was a new video for the space combat. They actually demoed it for us here at PAX yesterday and they're going to do it again today. They told us about the big graphic overhauls and you can totally see really good graphic passes on it. Is there anything about space combat or the changes in space that you'd like to mention or talk about?

Space is obviously a big part of the game; it is called Star Wars. Here is another part where player feedback came in useful. Space is getting a lot of good feedback, but actually getting onto your starship wasn't getting as good feedback as we wanted. It was really just visual; it didn't feel like you were in space when you were getting into your starship.

We put a lot of work behind that: put a lot more cinematic work into it, a lot more visual effects, and sound effects. This latest cohort really impressed people. They are blown away by the changes. Now when you get your starship, you really feel like you got a starship and you're traveling through space. It was polish issues, but the player feedback allowed us to really target what changes we were going to make. And that is what we'll continue to do: get player feedback and make targeted changes to the game

Part of the space demo was the holographic display that the character walks up to and chooses destinations. We were able to see that yesterday with all the different regions mapped out. You click on a region and they've got combat instances and things like that. We actually had people on our Ventrilo server that were bringing out atlases to figure all that out. What went into choosing a graphic overlay like the holographic system to determine where you're going?

We wanted something that was really visually interesting -- that was kind of the core. We didn't want to have a map system that was just a list of planets you picked from. We wanted something that felt very sci-fi and was just pretty to look at. That is what drove having the holographic display. The good thing is we're part of BioWare and we're able to share and learn from the other project teams. Mass Effect is also a sci-fi game. They had a galaxy map that was really cool so we made sure to take lessons from that, and that helped us out. We were able to talk to the guys that built that galaxy map.

We received a lot of media showing off Hoth and Tatooine's large panoramic views of how big everything is. Talking towards not just the scope of story but also the scope of actual environments, what has it been like working in these massive worlds with these large environments and actually keeping players invested and not lost, but also feeling like they can do whatever they want?

James Ohlen: We do have some pretty huge worlds. Alderaan is the equivalent of 7 or 8 of World of Warcraft zones. It is just huge. The world is gigantic and it takes so long to run from one end to the other. Of course you have speeder bikes and landspeeders that you can get across the world a lot faster.

In terms of keeping players on track, we have a really cool map system that indicates where all of your quest objectives are so you can use that to know where to go. We have a lot of different transportation methods in the game (speeders and landspeeders) that can allow you to get from one place to another really quickly. You have your ability to jump back to the starting location in the world if you want to. We made it pretty easy to navigate the gigantic worlds.

We also keep on getting feedback. If we find that many players do not visit an area of the world, then we'll try to figure out why. One of the problems having gigantic worlds is that sometimes the bigger they are, the more difficult they are to develop on.

Here's a funny story: We had a team working on Alderaan, Korriban and a bunch of other worlds. They actually had to go back and do polish tests on Korriban because for two weeks, Alderaan had blown up -- you just couldn't work on it for a little while. We were always making jokes: of all the worlds you blow up, it has to be Alderaan. We managed to figure out what the problem was and now it is fine, but now it is funny that it was Alderaan.

It had to be Alderaan. You go so far as to make the joke in one of the clips, "I'd rather see Alderaan blow up than see it taken over by the Sith. We definitely got the humor there. You also mentioned the ability to get around and transportation. We saw tauntauns all over the place on Hoth. Is the taxi system or the transportation system going to be planet specific? On Hoth do you jump on a tauntaun, or is always a speeder taxi everywhere you go?

Currently, it is going to be speeders and taxis. We have a bunch of different models though. There are quite a few different models of speeders that players are able to use to transport themselves more quickly. In terms of going across Hoth on a tauntaun... no. Currently you're going to be using speeders. We know what happens when you get on a tauntaun: your tauntaun dies and then you get attacked by a wampa and put in a cave. So players don't want that.

Fair enough. We did see a wampa too so I'm sure there are plenty of players that are looking forward to that. We also had a chance to see some origin world stuff here, and we saw a lot of the Jedi's origin world last Fall. You were mentioning balancing on the origin worlds. How has the response been and beyond balance have there been any major tweaks to the origin worlds you didn't see coming? Or about getting people involved and invested in their characters early on?

Not really. Most of the changes we made have been polish changes. The teams that are on those worlds have been going back; they have the time to really polish them up, and add all the visual features, the gameplay tweaks, and the balance tweaks that make the world so much more fun. You can see it already when you play Korriban compared to two months ago; Korriban is completely different and a much more fun experience. It really feels like the type of polish you'd see in a BioWare console game instead of your typical MMO.

The Advanced Class choice is after you leave the origin world -- at Level 10 is generally what we heard. Is there an official stance on if the Advanced Class is still permanent or is it up in the air?

With the Advanced Classes, obviously we're going to give the players the ability to respec all their trees. Whether or not we give the players the ability to respec their Advanced Classes... that is something that we're going to have to take a look at as we continue to develop the game and probably after we launch the game.

It might be that we don't let players respec their Advanced Class at ship, but then 6 months down the road we do. Or we do allow them to respec the Advanced Class, but at an enormous cost and then we lower that? It is all based on what we see, how we see people playing the game, what players want to see. It is going to be more player-driven. We're not making a game design decision and then say, "This is the way it's got to be." Then all the players are saying, "I really want to try out this other advanced class and I can't so without rerolling character."

Once again, we're talking about the healing added to other classes, and there are PvP specs on some of these classes so all classes can be viable in PvP. You have a lot of flexibility whenever your advanced class choice is made. Is there an instance of that where you can speak to that hybridization and that flexibility? The ability to pick a class and you can be a PvP spec, you can be a DPS spec, or maybe there is a healer spec. Do all the classes have this flexibility in them?

Yeah... pretty well. Even within an advanced class you're able to spec into different roles so each class has a lot of different choices. If you're the Sith Warrior, you can go with the Juggernaut role where you have the heavy armor and you have the single lightsaber. But even then you can spec into a role where you can do more DPS, or you can go with the double lightsabers where you're very much more about the DPS. Though, of course, he can't actually heal. He is not someone you can heal with.

We made sure that they're all PvP viable because obviously you don't want to pick a class or an Advanced Class and then not be able to engage in PvP or in any of our raids or Flashpoints. You need to be able to play the character you chose in any of the game play situations.

There are a lot of people out there that are concerned about picking an Advanced Class, then being like, "Oh no! What did I do?

No, that won't be a problem.

When you're playing the game, what class are you playing now? What story do you really dig? Where is your mind at when you're playing the game personally?

I really like the Sith Warrior because Darth Vader has always been my favorite character, and that is basically based off of Darth Vader. Plus the story of the Sith Warrior is a really good one and it really captures the feel of Darth Vader. You get to punish your companion characters for failing you. That is a lot of fun. You get to be the badass Sith henchman who serves the Empire and crushes the opponents of the Empire. You really feel like you're Darth Vader. In fact, the first plot line for chapter one is...well...I shouldn't reveal it. I'll probably get in trouble with the writers.

We don't want to ruin that for anyone. But it totally gives you that iconic feeling you were going for all along.

Yeah. Even though the Sith Warrior is my favorite, I really like the Sith Inquisitor for the feel it gives. The Bounty Hunter obviously is great. The Imperial Agent and that whole "super spy James Bond except your evil" feel is quite cool. Being a Han Solo... I love Han Solo so the Smuggler is awesome. Jedi Knight... we know, and the telemetry shows this... it is going to have the most players at the beginning. So we spent a lot of time making sure that story is really good. Jedi Consular is amazing and the Trooper is just... you get to be the big tough soldier. Who doesn't want to be a big tough soldier? So I like them all. Even if I have a little bit of a Sith bias.

Thank you very much taking the time to talk to us and we will see you with your Sith Warrior once the game launches and we're all playing it.

Alright! Thanks.