SWTOR

[Lakov_Sanite]

How much would you like to bet that

Full character story = Tortage

[Lucas]

How much would you like to bet that

Full character story = Tortage

Yeah, for now:

"Origin"/Starting planets - Similar to Origin stories from Dragon Age. Exploration/gameplay is heavily on "rails".

Tython - Jedi Knight/Consular
Ord Mantell - Smuggler/Trooper
Hutta - Imperial Agent/Bounty Hunter
Korriban - Sith Warrior/Inquisitor

Then you probably move to other worlds where you can explore more freely, more "social" options and suchlike. James Olhen also mentioned that the "normal" worlds are much much bigger than the "origin" ones. At the same time, there are the PVP Worlds/Warzones.

[Stabs]

I'm looking forward to the nerd tears.

After SWG can there really be many of those left for this IP?

Are you kidding? There's over 30 years worth of rose-tinted nostalgia, goo-goo eyed hero worship and Leia in steel bikini masturbatory fantasies waiting to be splooged out onto the Internet over this IP.

An amusing aspect is that some of those tears will come from old school SWG fans who will make up a small vocal minority demanding incessantly that the game be made over into pre-NGE Galaxies because completely changing the gameplay and style of a MMO halfway through really w.... oh wait!

[Rasix]

I think I've heard them say that the full character story is soloable.  Nonentity already said that there are two types of quests; your personal story quests and general quest you group up to do.  You can group for your personal quests but you fully control them.

I kinda like how you don't know how it's going to end up with a group of people you're playing with randomly.  It makes the game a bit more exciting I think.

Personally, I don't find it exciting, just possibly annoying.  If general quests have some aspect of player dialogue choice affecting the outcome, I'll likely be doing them alone.  If I can.. I assume I'll be able to.  Heh, there's no telling how many awesome mistakes Bioware Austin can make here.  

Failed Shadowbane designer: "Didn't people hate this group quest shit in WoW?"  
Failed UO designer: "Yah, but this is Star Wars, they'll love it here."
 
edit: Watching some of these interviews... how in the monkey fucking universe is this releasing in 2Q11?

[Draegan]

How much would you like to bet that

Full character story = Tortage

Watch the Darth Hater interview with one of the story guys.  He said that there is story from level 1 to max and it's different for each class.  Assuming he's not lying an all..

Edit to add:
What will really kill the dream of everyone is the global chat for each planet because you know it'll devolve into Barrens Chat.  All the fanboys are jizzing in their pants about living and playing in the SW universe until a 14 year old broadcasts "Siths suck 8========}" 100x a minute.

[Nonentity]

All the fanboys are jizzing in their pants about living and playing in the SW universe until a 14 year old broadcasts "omg sith are awesome 8========} dood i have two lightsabers" 100x a minute.

FIFY

[Arthur_Parker]

Star Wars: The Old Republic E3 hands on

This new?  Sorry not really paid attention to this thread.

[Fordel]

It's only mildly regurgitated.

[UnSub]

There are 16 different main story arcs - one for each class. I'm assuming some variation within each story based on player actions, but the end point for every class story has to be similar - dark side or light side, you still end up in front of the Emperor / Jedi Council because that is where your class ends up.

The dice roll thing for group dialogue is fantastic. Especially since, to date, the max team size appears to be 4. That's gameplay with a minimum 25% chance of griefing in PUGs.

One thing I noticed: have there been any SWOR multiplayer videos that show PCs and companions? Watching them, it seems like in multiplayer your companions may disappear. Not a huge thing, necessarily, but it certainly limits the importance of companions just to the single player game (and probably saves a heap of VO work).

As I've said, I think BioWare do story fine but their gameplay systems often have huge gaping holes / exploits. In a singleplayer that doesn't matter so much, but multiplayer is going to blow those holes wide open.

[Fordel]

A bunch of the interviews have the devs saying the companions will be present at all times. So a group of four will end up with 8 people due to everyone having 1 sidekick or whatever.

[Velorath]

The dice roll thing for group dialogue is fantastic. Especially since, to date, the max team size appears to be 4. That's gameplay with a minimum 25% chance of griefing in PUGs.

It's only griefing if you're operating under the assumption that one choice is better than the other.  On the other hand, if I still get light side points for choosing the good option, even if the guy that choose the evil option won the dice roll, and if rewards for completing the quest are the same either way, then the only difference is how the story plays out.

[LK]

I can't wait to see the work and effort required to add new classes to the game.

[Sheepherder]

This is a game that, to be really appreciated, you need to group with WUA.

[Draegan]

This is a game that, to be really appreciated, you need to group with WUA.

!!!!

[Ashamanchill]

Man is this game looking feeble. I'm glad I'm not a Star Wars fan. To see the franchise put through the wringer like it has been would be embarassing. It wouldn't shock me, if to balance things, Bioware ends up giving Storm Troopers the Force, and Lucas Arts ends up declaring it canon.

[Draegan]

Heh.

[Pezzle]

"George Lucas notes that in his early conceptions of the saga, lightsabers were commonplace weapons throughout the galaxy, but that he later decided that they should be limited to the Jedi. "

So now we will simply have Jedi be commonplace!  Brilliant!

[LK]

Vader was one busy motherfucker, training all them Jedi, being involved in every major and minor character's personal story arc, co-running a galactic empire.

It feels like he's got hundreds of years of activities crammed into that small period between Ep. 3 and 4.

[Soln]

we should gear up Bat Country the WUA Edition

or WUA Country the Bat'ning

[Morat20]

Vader was one busy motherfucker, training all them Jedi, being involved in every major and minor character's personal story arc, co-running a galactic empire.

In SWG, he lived on Corellia. There was a queue to visit him. Luckily, he pawned us all off on Admiral Thrawn, who I believe was ALSO on Corellia. Which was strange, since he was also off in the Outer Rims.

But thank God Jabba never ran out of rats to have us kill. :)

[Lantyssa]

They were on Naboo, with the Emperor.

[Morat20]

They were on Naboo, with the Emperor.

Corellia, Naboo, they're practically the same planet.

[Lantyssa]

Nah.  Naboo was green plains and swamp with Gungans everywhere.  Corella was golden plains, the triple plateaus, and sandy beaches.  The wildlife on Corellia was more 'normal' and varied, consisting of krahbu, razor cats, splice hounds, spats and a wide variety of interesting NPC factions.  The architecture was more of a Modern design.

Naboo's closest counterpart was whatever it's moon was, with Yavin IV or Endor being the next closest in similarity.  Most similar to Corellia was Talus.

[UnSub]

The dice roll thing for group dialogue is fantastic. Especially since, to date, the max team size appears to be 4. That's gameplay with a minimum 25% chance of griefing in PUGs.

It's only griefing if you're operating under the assumption that one choice is better than the other.  On the other hand, if I still get light side points for choosing the good option, even if the guy that choose the evil option won the dice roll, and if rewards for completing the quest are the same either way, then the only difference is how the story plays out.

You're right - it does depend on the outcome. Characters may get force points for good / bad intentions regardless of actual outcome. But if BioWare wants to harp on about having a great player story, there will be players who will get annoyed that they don't have total control on a team (especially if it sees their character doing actions they don't want).

[caladein]

That's really the point for me.

If story is important enough to let other characters decide it for me, you may as well let my party decide other, "equally important", things like what kind of gear I'm using.

[UnSub]

I'll make the point that there is no good solution here, as storytelling doesn't work in a group setting unless everyone completely trusts everyone else and know when to follow as well as lead.

MMO PUGs on the other hand are more like:

[Velorath]

You're right - it does depend on the outcome. Characters may get force points for good / bad intentions regardless of actual outcome. But if BioWare wants to harp on about having a great player story, there will be players who will get annoyed that they don't have total control on a team (especially if it sees their character doing actions they don't want).

First off, to make a distinction here, there are plenty of stories in games (and pretty much any story in any other form of media) where you don't get to choose how the story unfolds, so when you say that Bioware is harping on great player story, where you're really thinking there's a conflict is in regards to players' choice.

Personally if I team up with some Bounty Hunter I don't know, and while I'm trying to reprimand the ship's captain for disobeying orders and he pulls out pistol and shoots the guy, I don't really think the detracts from the story at all and I certainly wouldn't call it greifing.  It's two or more people playing their characters, and sometimes those people might have conflicting goals or viewpoints.  In a lot of ways, that's more of a story than everybody just blindly following my lead.

[WindupAtheist]

we should gear up Bat Country the WUA Edition

or WUA Country the Bat'ning

Hey, hey, hold up. Last time there was a Star Wars MMO, I decided well before release that it was going to be lame and never played it. Also, if I did play this one, hardcore Sith RP guild or GTFO.

[Lucas]

Personally if I team up with some Bounty Hunter I don't know, and while I'm trying to reprimand the ship's captain for disobeying orders and he pulls out pistol and shoots the guy, I don't really think the detracts from the story at all and I certainly wouldn't call it greifing.  It's two or more people playing their characters, and sometimes those people might have conflicting goals or viewpoints.  In a lot of ways, that's more of a story than everybody just blindly following my lead.

Yes, problem is that afterwards, the BH who pulled out the pistol, when asked why he did so by you or someone else, will probably say something like: "But duuudeeee, haven't you read Torhead.com? The item you receive for killing the captain is waay better!!!"  

[Velorath]

Personally if I team up with some Bounty Hunter I don't know, and while I'm trying to reprimand the ship's captain for disobeying orders and he pulls out pistol and shoots the guy, I don't really think the detracts from the story at all and I certainly wouldn't call it greifing.  It's two or more people playing their characters, and sometimes those people might have conflicting goals or viewpoints.  In a lot of ways, that's more of a story than everybody just blindly following my lead.

Yes, problem is that afterwards, the BH who pulled out the pistol, when asked why he did so by you or someone else, will probably say something like: "But duuudeeee, haven't you read Torhead.com? The item you receive for killing the captain is waay better!!!"  

Which again operates under the assumption that rewards vary depending on which option occurs.  I'm not sure if they've said one way or the other if that's the case.

[Lucas]

Personally if I team up with some Bounty Hunter I don't know, and while I'm trying to reprimand the ship's captain for disobeying orders and he pulls out pistol and shoots the guy, I don't really think the detracts from the story at all and I certainly wouldn't call it greifing.  It's two or more people playing their characters, and sometimes those people might have conflicting goals or viewpoints.  In a lot of ways, that's more of a story than everybody just blindly following my lead.

Yes, problem is that afterwards, the BH who pulled out the pistol, when asked why he did so by you or someone else, will probably say something like: "But duuudeeee, haven't you read Torhead.com? The item you receive for killing the captain is waay better!!!"  

Which again operates under the assumption that rewards vary depending on which option occurs.  I'm not sure if they've said one way or the other if that's the case.

Hehe, yes of course, but I was just pointing out that sometimes, sure, you can suspend your disbelief the way you described above, but then the wonderful, variegated MMOG crowd will wake us up :P

Well, regarding the reward itself, I think that, when it comes  to items, they will be class specific, so at the end of a key battle, you and the members of your group won't receive the same thing (not talking about generic sidequests, but about storyline ones you decide to undertake with other people).

[Stabs]

The reward system will work like the story system. At the end of the mission you get a list like this:

a) Glowy Lightsabre of awesome.
b) A slightly rusted garden trowel
c) A pitchfork

Each party member then picks which reward you will receive and a dice is rolled to see which of those choices comes to pass. Happy rolling!

[Lantyssa]

In a pen-and-paper game, the first to speak up often determines the responses of the NPCs.  This isn't all that different in concept.  If all it affects is story progression, I'm fine with that.

Where it will get annoying is if you are trying to see the alternate path due to branching story lines, or it gates you for rewards, or any other instance where it affects more than the story.  They haven't spoken up about that.  And in an MMO setting I'm sure there are ways this can be horribly abused that I'm not considering.

[Murgos]

A decision without consequences isn't a decision. 

A decision where you have no influence over the outcome also isn't a decision.

So having all 'group' choices be the same outcome is pretty much a deal breaker for immersion or emotional investment.

[Ratman_tf]

A decision without consequences isn't a decision. 

A decision where you have no influence over the outcome also isn't a decision.

So having all 'group' choices be the same outcome is pretty much a deal breaker for immersion or emotional investment.

I think my apprehension is that despite all this hype, the big storyline stuff in TOR is going to boil down to a very elaborate "Complete Quest! OK!" popup.