SWTOR

[Paelos]

Also, I think people (like myself) play while doing other things. How much are we actually playing when we have the game going, the TV with a football game on, and getting up to make dinner at the same time?

You lose time in the estimates I imagine.

[FieryBalrog]

If there is a voiced Giggity option this is a must buy.

On a more serious note, I hope the crafting works out.  Resource grinding has always killed crafting for me.  A system where my crew gets most everything I need automagically?  Yes please.  A system like that would still allow for rare drop or encounter specific items to be incorporated.  Anyway, here is to hoping.

What's the fun part of crafting then?

However, I doubt this is going to be a really involved crafting system with multiple interdependencies and player-made housing etc. because from some accounts they added crafting after fans requested it. It may just be a fun side-activity.

The number of potential companions sounds insane. More than 5? I had the idea that it was going to be around 2.

[Zetor]

Guild Wars had like eleventy billion NPC heroes, too (though they didn't have dialogues/etc). Only one of them can accompany you in SWTOR for the actual fighting, so it's more of a make-everyone-a-pet-class thing... I think that may actually work out decently.

[Bunk]

I like the idea that you "assign" your other companions to do something while you are away. Bioware's always had an issue with giving you a massive crew, most of which spend the entire plot hiding in the hanger somewhere. I mean, did anyone intentionally ever even talk to Bao Dur after he was recruited?

[Sky]

Bao Dur was awesome.

I'd say I'm about a 15/hr a week gamer, maybe slightly more if playing something really awesome like ME2. Part of why I don't play mmos, they're just too time-intensive and I don't have the time to play them and get actual work done (also why I usually play in winter months and cancel in spring).

[Lucas]

It's "Fan Friday" over at Swtor.com; among other things, a small Community Q&A, with Daniel Erickson answering the questions:

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20101119-0

[Reg]

Oh rats. I was depending on uninterruptible quest text to filter out the retards.

[Lucas]

New entries in the "Inhabitants" section of the Holonet (with nice screenshots too):

- Sith Pureblood (playable species)
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/inhabitants/sith-pureblood

- Terentatek and Vine Cat (creatures)
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/inhabitants/terentatek
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/inhabitants/vine-cat

- S3-F5 and M3-M1 (droids)
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/inhabitants/s3-f5-inclement-condition-probe
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/inhabitants/m3-m1-medical-droid

[Sjofn]

I like the idea that you "assign" your other companions to do something while you are away. Bioware's always had an issue with giving you a massive crew, most of which spend the entire plot hiding in the hanger somewhere. I mean, did anyone intentionally ever even talk to Bao Dur after he was recruited?

His voice was hot, so yes, but he certainly wasn't interesting in the least.

[FatuousTwat]

New Dev Diary!

[ajax34i]

ROFL

[Merusk]

It'd be funny if it weren't, apparently, pretty damn true. 

[UnSub]

New Dev Diary!

That was fantastic.

[Kageru]

Far too much win... great stuff.

Would love to know the beta status on this title. If they are 3 months out and still doing "limited testing" it's well on track for the train-crash. Sounds like that is indeed what they are doing, what a surprise.

[Velorath]

It's more than three months out.

[Reg]

I guess it's possible they might decide to self destruct by releasing an unfinished, unpolished product that nobody likes. Even having seen the example of FFXIV.

[Draegan]

I assume the target is still "Spring 2011", which is essentially Q2 assuming no delays.

[Shatter]

lol that was great

[Lucas]

A closer look at Crew Skills (official update)

[Paelos]

The crew skills thing sounds positive for the most part. I'll highlight a few items I noted that I think represent the good and bad of the process:

The Old Republic there are multiple ways to gather resources. Not only can you gather resources yourself, but companion characters in the field can be ordered to take care of the task. Companions stationed on your ship can also be sent on gathering missions, freeing you and your active companion up for action. Gathering missions will even continue while you’re offline – the ultimate in efficiency!

Players can issue crafting orders to up to five companions at a time, and each companion can add up to five crafting tasks to their queue...Your companions all have different skills and personalities, and their strengths carry over into the Crew Skills system...Companion traits in Crew Skills are designed to be story-appropriate and meaningful, but the bonuses aren’t designed to be so extreme that you’ll feel you only have one companion choice for a given task.

This is a good idea, imo. I see a node, I hit it. I have a free companion on a mission, I send them out to gather. I log off, I set my companions to work. It's seemless, and it offers you possibilities for all facets of your time in and out of game. The real question is how will the game handle the resource gathering. Is it random? Is it pulling nodes off the world when I unleash my companions? I seriously doubt that we would see companions stealing our nodes right in front of us, so I'm guessing that the afk version is pulling from a different "off-world" pool. However, I think they underestimate the "bonuses" thing. MMOG players do not disregard small bonuses to anything.

[Koyasha]

So far, I haven't seen any specific mention about the products of crafting being restricted to only the crafter, or anything like that, so that's good.  Overall the descriptions seem not-horrible.  So it just may not make me angry to even contemplate wanting to craft something myself.

[Ginaz]

I assume the target is still "Spring 2011", which is essentially Q2 assuming no delays.

If they operate on the same quarterly basis we do with the government (Canada here) then Q2 isn't until the summer.  Q1 starts on 1 April, which is the beginning of the fiscal year, not calendar year.

[Lantyssa]

Disappointing diary.  He described every other crafting system in existence.  "You take gathered, vendor, and rare resources and make an item!"  I'm awed.

[Koyasha]

Yes, but the annoying part - gathering those resources - seems pretty automatic if you just tell your crewmembers to do it.  Maybe.  Hence why I say it may not make me rage at the thought of trying to craft something.

The part that will still probably anger me is the nonsense of raising your skill by producing hundreds of things of increasing difficulty and so on.

[DraconianOne]

The part that will still probably anger me is the nonsense of raising your skill by producing hundreds of things of increasing difficulty and so on.

And the fact that the artifact items for end-game will need a rare resource drop from a raid boss.

[Soln]

The part that will still probably anger me is the nonsense of raising your skill by producing hundreds of things of increasing difficulty and so on.

And the fact that the artifact items for end-game will need a rare resource drop from a raid boss.

krayt pearls, you better believe it 

[Sky]

Yeah, it really sounds like a setup for the raid crap. As someone looking forward to the casual story-heavy voiced content, the amount of 'and then we have this cool stuff for raiders' is getting to be worrisome. I started getting a bad feeling about this right around when they talked about armors for bounty hunter progression, and the raid/uberleet version was cool and the rest of us get to wear a vest.

It's getting so I just hear raid content and a little switch turns off in my brain. I ran into a lot of great guilds in EQ2, but couldn't join any of them because of raid attendance requirements. All the casual guilds seemed filled with tards, and the good players all played regularly. 7pm EST for four hours three nights a week plus weekend day raids? Jiminiy cricket, don't people have jobs/lives/families/other hobbies?

/rant sorry bout that

[Draegan]

I assume the target is still "Spring 2011", which is essentially Q2 assuming no delays.

If they operate on the same quarterly basis we do with the government (Canada here) then Q2 isn't until the summer.  Q1 starts on 1 April, which is the beginning of the fiscal year, not calendar year.

They never mentioned a quarter number, I'm merely referencing the second quarter in a calender year.  April, May, June.

[Malakili]

other hobbies?

I think this is really the big one actually.  Most people average enough leisure time per day to be a raider in a video game, its just that most people don't spend all their leisure time on a single thing (or maybe it isn't consistent enough to be able to schedule it, which is a similar but separate issue).   Gaming is really my only hobby, so even though I'm pretty damned busy, I still get a fair amount of gaming in.


Also I think the family thing could be better phrased as kids.   Thats the one that'll kill your gaming time.

[Paelos]

The part that will still probably anger me is the nonsense of raising your skill by producing hundreds of things of increasing difficulty and so on.

And the fact that the artifact items for end-game will need a rare resource drop from a raid boss.

krayt pearls, you better believe it 

They had better not. 

[Lantyssa]

They already have precedence with prior KotOR games.  Many Star Wars game.  I'd bet money they do.

[Paelos]

They already have precedence with prior KotOR games.  Many Star Wars game.  I'd bet money they do.

Maybe, I'm putting money on rare drops coming from gathered sources as being the main bottlenecks. Cockblocking content from raid drops is pointless since the majority of raiders are getting loot anyway.

[Sky]

Also I think the family thing could be better phrased as kids.   Thats the one that'll kill your gaming time.

No, I meant family. Wife/SO, parents, cousins, siblings, kids, whatever. Like tonight. I have a standing invite to raid friday nights with some friends. Friday night around 7, my mother comes over for weekly dinner, I spend the evening in the kitchen and then we eat and retire to the living room to enjoy a nice crackling fire and some HGTV. And this is a good night, since I can get on around 11pm EST for a few hours because I don't have to work tomorrow. Almost every day is like that, it really puts the kibosh on any 'achievement' in mmo, which sucks because otherwise I actually like the genre for some reason (even grouping, except for the time overhead, again).

[Paelos]

I understand Sky. My guild wanted to do their raiding on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. 

[Rendakor]

Sky, your best recourse is to find a game with a good PUG raiding scene. EQ2's wasn't too bad on Blackburrow, but I haven't played seriously since RoK; WoW is also pretty good assuming you're on a reasonably populated server/faction.