SWTOR

[Megrim]

I'm guessing that teh shiney for epix lightsabers is going to be weird coloured crystals? Or are we going to end up with light-katanas, light-zweihanders and light-sword-chucks (yo)?

I always got the impression that they were going down that path with the prequel movies. 
"Okay, in the first one, Maul's got a lightsaber, except it's like... a double lightsaber!"
"And then in the second one, Annakin gets two at once, dual lightsaber action!"
"And then in the third one, they get... um, like... four lightsabers?  I dunno, I'll have to work on that one."

You could always go the Kreia route and just mind control three at a time. I always thought it looked particularly classy to just have a Jedi standing there while the sabers freefloated around them.

[Sky]

WTB Grievous armor.

[Shatter]

WTB Grievous arms

Fixed

[Lucas]

Community Event, with possibility to play TOR (Origin Worlds only, any class/any faction), on April 5th in London, inside the HMV store at the Trocadero. Go here for more details (it's a bit long; strange timeframe and format anyway, it was quite sudden and unexpected).

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=288378

[Sheepherder]

Anyway, speaking of gear appearance and SWTOR (as we were a few pages back), I'm guessing that teh shiney for epix lightsabers is going to be weird coloured crystals? Or are we going to end up with light-katanas, light-zweihanders and light-sword-chucks (yo)?

Lightsabres playing techno music that pulse to the beat.

Or, it menaces with spikes of laser. :dwarf:

[Ratman_tf]

While we're on the topic:  Absolutely all the armor in WoW looks ridiculous and unrealistic. stupid and unappealing  I'm not sure why we should expect it to be otherwise.

Don't make me do that again.

Having done the strikethrough, I will say that the lower tier stuff, like the Defias set, isn't terribly dumb. Just Blizzard's idea of Epic seems to be synonymous wth Retarted.

[CmdrSlack]

While we're on the topic:  Absolutely all the armor in WoW looks ridiculous and unrealistic. stupid and unappealing  I'm not sure why we should expect it to be otherwise.

Don't make me do that again.

Having done the strikethrough, I will say that the lower tier stuff, like the Defias set, isn't terribly dumb. Just Blizzard's idea of Epic seems to be synonymous wth Retarted.

So it has been tarted twice? Or is that only for female models?

[Kageru]

Some of the Blizzard amor looks retarded. And I guess they love the shoulders because they're highly visible and relatively free of clipping issues.

On reflection though SWTOR would probably have been fine with clothing being cosmetic. The genre pretty much assumes that a solid blaster or light-saber hit is crippling so mobility, rather than some pointlessly small armored panels, actually makes sense and allows people to play dress ups. And collecting clothing sets that don't have tier progression avoids mudflation.

But the answer is equally obvious. This is going to be a traditional gear progression Diku.

[Fordel]

This is where I rattle on about all the armor and personal shielding available in Starwars that can stop a blaster bolt or lightsaber, right? 

[Kageru]

If you like. But if it wasn't in the movies I will join the public mass and think you're a star-wars nerd and ignore you.

I don't remember armor doing a whole heap for the stormtroopers, and a magic sword that cut cut through anything even less so.

[Kail]

This is where I rattle on about all the armor and personal shielding available in Starwars that can stop a blaster bolt or lightsaber, right? 

I would be totally on board with personal shielding, given the fact that it's almost invisible (save for maybe a belt pack or something).

Body armor, I'm less enthusiastic about.  Especially if we're playing Imperials.  I don't care how many blaster bolts these things can absorb, I refuse to endorse any armor if I can walk around in a full suit of the stuff and still get my ass handed to me by Wicket.

[Velorath]

If you like. But if it wasn't in the movies I will join the public mass and think you're a star-wars nerd and ignore you.

Normally I'd be with you on that, but in this case we're talking about a game that's part of a series that's set a few thousand years before the movies, firmly in Expanded Universe territory.

[Kageru]

So, you mean compared to the movies it's a historical re-enactment? Or is there something in the canon to explain why the world is technologically stagnant?

[Velorath]

So, you mean compared to the movies it's a historical re-enactment? Or is there something in the canon to explain why the world is technologically stagnant?

I couldn't tell you if there's an explanation why technology hasn't advanced much in the 4000 years or so between KotoR 1 and Episode 1.  I know fuck-all about SW lore in the gap between the Tales of the Jedi comics + KotoR, and the movies and to be honest I don't even remember a lot of the lore from the games.

[Chimpy]

I can walk around in a full suit of the stuff and still get my ass handed to me by Wicket.

Oh man, that just made my entire day (which has barely started). Thank you, good sir.

[Shatter]

So, you mean compared to the movies it's a historical re-enactment? Or is there something in the canon to explain why the world is technologically stagnant?

I couldn't tell you if there's an explanation why technology hasn't advanced much in the 4000 years or so between KotoR 1 and Episode 1.  I know fuck-all about SW lore in the gap between the Tales of the Jedi comics + KotoR, and the movies and to be honest I don't even remember a lot of the lore from the games.

Lore doesnt matter in SWTOR, you get a lightsaber...go F sh*t up

[Mnemon]

I'm guessing that teh shiney for epix lightsabers is going to be weird coloured crystals? Or are we going to end up with light-katanas, light-zweihanders and light-sword-chucks (yo)?

I always got the impression that they were going down that path with the prequel movies. 
"Okay, in the first one, Maul's got a lightsaber, except it's like... a double lightsaber!"
"And then in the second one, Annakin gets two at once, dual lightsaber action!"
"And then in the third one, they get... um, like... four lightsabers?  I dunno, I'll have to work on that one."

Yup - four. You had Grevious do that twirly whirly lightsaber vortex of death move.

[Sky]

Yup - four. You had Grevious do that twirly whirly lightsaber vortex of death move.

Hey, never would have thought of Grievous.

[Fabricated]

Grevious cracked me up since he was made out as an unstoppable deathgod in the (actually very good) animated series and every appearance is him killing tons of jedi; powerful ones even.

Then he gets bitched completely and killed inside of 20 seconds in the movie.

[Fordel]

So, you mean compared to the movies it's a historical re-enactment? Or is there something in the canon to explain why the world is technologically stagnant?

Same reason why no one ever gets past medieval Europe in most fantasy settings.

[Dark_MadMax]

Same reason why no one ever gets past medieval Europe in most fantasy settings.

Fantasy has  a good excuse - magic serves  all the technology needs one would ever want . So naturally smart people become mages, instead of wasting time inventing crude tools

[Simond]

Counterpoint: Dwarves. Why the typical millenia-old master craftsmandwarf civilisation is 'generic middle-ages' (rather than, say, ICBMs and main battle tanks) really doesn't stand up to fridge logic all that well.

[Fordel]

Except it doesn't because there is almost no exploitation of magical power for the progress of society and civilization, or even just for simple profit. (Unless you are playing Eberron.)

[Lantyssa]

It's because writers' imaginations aren't as wondrous as the magic they imagine populating their worlds.  They're writers, not wizards.

[Surlyboi]

Well, that and the tech level in SW had gotten to the point where there were no more big discoveries. Pretty much, you get to hyper drive and laser swords and you're done.

[ajax34i]

Nah, the "technology had reached its limits" argument doesn't hold in view of all the new weapons that keep being invented, from AoE ion cannons to the various planetary destruction systems.

I agree with the lack of imagination theory.  Consider, for example, that Star Wars has sentience-levels of AI housed in the (small size of the) droids, but there's no Matrix-like entity on any planet.  A lot of the technology is "stuck" that shouldn't be stuck.  The lack of an ongoing race between weapon systems and defense systems, the lack of a Moore's Law, and the absence of military (naval? space?) tactics that put the ships to use in a way that makes sense are disturbing. 

[Fordel]

There was a Droid Planet in one of the Kotor's, or would've been, if it wasn't cut due to time.

[Merusk]

Counterpoint: Dwarves. Why the typical millenia-old master craftsmandwarf civilisation is 'generic middle-ages' (rather than, say, ICBMs and main battle tanks) really doesn't stand up to fridge logic all that well.

The best explanation I've ever seen is the constant state of warfare, strife and instant-death the multiple sentient races cause each other means technology advances at a snails pace at best.   "Your grandfather discovered how to make a steam engine.. then a goblin horde came along and ate him while using the parts to make a bbq."

Star Wars, on the other hand, is all handwaving because it's just a fantasy setting with lasers, spaceships and tentacle-hookers.

[Sjofn]

Same reason why no one ever gets past medieval Europe in most fantasy settings.

Fantasy has  a good excuse - magic serves  all the technology needs one would ever want . So naturally smart people become mages, instead of wasting time inventing crude tools

And when you DO get a setting that goes "hey, I bet we would do shit with the magic to advance the technology" (like EBERRON DOES), you get people whining that setting sucks because omg robots and trains.

[UnSub]

I had a number of responses to points above, but they started "In the prequels" and "In the 'Droids' cartoon" and "In the Star Wars D20 RPG" and I just couldn't go through with it.

[Surlyboi]

Nah, the "technology had reached its limits" argument doesn't hold in view of all the new weapons that keep being invented, from AoE ion cannons to the various planetary destruction systems.

I agree with the lack of imagination theory.  Consider, for example, that Star Wars has sentience-levels of AI housed in the (small size of the) droids, but there's no Matrix-like entity on any planet.  A lot of the technology is "stuck" that shouldn't be stuck.  The lack of an ongoing race between weapon systems and defense systems, the lack of a Moore's Law, and the absence of military (naval? space?) tactics that put the ships to use in a way that makes sense are disturbing. 

Didn't say "reached its limits", just that it slowed down a helluva lot. Trying to apply Moore's law to any civilization other than our own is kinda pointless.

[Ratman_tf]

None of the characters in Star Wars give a fuck how the Hyperdrive works, they only care that it works, and so should you.

[Nevermore]

Wrong!  Chewbacca cares about how hyperdrive works since he's always the one stuck fixing the Falcon. 

[Sjofn]

None of the characters in Star Wars give a fuck how the Hyperdrive works, they only care that it works, and so should you.

Honestly, that's totally realistic, too. I do not REALLY give a shit how, say, how a plane works, I only care that it does.

[Kageru]

Which is a product of specialisation.

If you go into the cockpit of the plane and the pilot is saying, "Look at all those buttons, wonder what they do?" then most people are going to develop an aversion to air flight.