Bioware Austin.. damm more Dragons.. or Lightsabers?

[Triforcer]

To hit this point ahead of the crowd:

If everyone is a Jedi, is anyone really a Jedi?  We'll have the "Follows of Ithor" Jedi (healers),  Viipad Specialists (tank), Saber Throwers (range) and Double-bladers (melee DPS), and their evil counterparts!  If all classes are Jedis, and they are just the standard roles reskinned, I don't know how thrilling it will be.

[UnSub]

To hit this point ahead of the crowd:

If everyone is a Jedi, is anyone really a Jedi?  We'll have the "Follows of Ithor" Jedi (healers),  Viipad Specialists (tank), Saber Throwers (range) and Double-bladers (melee DPS), and their evil counterparts!  If all classes are Jedis, and they are just the standard roles reskinned, I don't know how thrilling it will be.

Ahh, but you'll be a Jedi grinding out lightsaber skills against whomp rats. Then mutant whomp rats. Then golden whomp rats.

[Ghambit]

To hit this point ahead of the crowd:

If everyone is a Jedi, is anyone really a Jedi?  We'll have the "Follows of Ithor" Jedi (healers),  Viipad Specialists (tank), Saber Throwers (range) and Double-bladers (melee DPS), and their evil counterparts!  If all classes are Jedis, and they are just the standard roles reskinned, I don't know how thrilling it will be.

This point has been made over and over and over again, and it simply leads to the dark side - pre CU SWG.  :)
But I digress...  perhaps the solution to the issue you made is to simply make the servers extremely small and/or heavily instanced/sharded.  This gives the illusion of being the preverbial diamond in the rough (kinda like it does playing AoC these days... lonely).  This is a delicate balance they're trying to find here and I dont envy their task...  make it an open world and you can get people clumped together and make them feel "un-jedilike."  Make the servers too large and no matter what you do the Jedis will be spawn camping droidikas.

With all the people whining about making an RPG instead of an MMORPG, I'm coming to the conclusion that HOPEFULLY KOTORO will be more of a "shared-RPG" experience.  A large, vast gamespace with a low server cap and a heavily creative, complex, difficult storyline.  If they wanted to get fancy they could separate servers by character level rather than zone (i.e. as the newbs leave Curisant contract multiple lvl/zone servers into smaller ones) or design the zones to ecompass ALL levels rather than just the typical conveyor belt.   When the majority of the playerbase reaches endgame, they'll find themselves embroiled in a galactic war where vast numbers are important.  (in those days, Jedis actually WERE a dime a dozen)

Dont forget the whole reason behind developing a game during that time period in the SW verse though, and that's to be able to justify having a million Jedi running around.

[HaemishM]

It's Guild Wars/Fury-style instanced arenas set in the KOTOR timeline. 

Or it's NWN style co-op multiplayer tacked onto a single-player game.   

[Venkman]

If everyone is a Jedi, is anyone really a Jedi?  We'll have the "Follows of Ithor" Jedi (healers),  Viipad Specialists (tank), Saber Throwers (range) and Double-bladers (melee DPS), and their evil counterparts!  If all classes are Jedis, and they are just the standard roles reskinned, I don't know how thrilling it will be.

This time period is to allow everyone to play a Jedi and lord over the common folk NPCs. For game purposes, Jedi aren't special because they're unique, but rather because of what they can do (Force and lightsaber). It's easy to over intellectualize Jedi, which is what went wrong with SWG. But the reality is much more base.

[LC]

How much longer do we have to wait to be disappointed?

[Lantyssa]

If everyone is a Jedi, is anyone really a Jedi?  We'll have the "Follows of Ithor" Jedi (healers),  Viipad Specialists (tank), Saber Throwers (range) and Double-bladers (melee DPS), and their evil counterparts!  If all classes are Jedis, and they are just the standard roles reskinned, I don't know how thrilling it will be.

I don't care about being a Jedi one way or the other.  It's a hokey religion that I can't even get into RPing.  I just want a glowy purple sword.

Glowy purple swords ROCK!

Now if I can be a droid or a jawa with a purple glowy sword...

[Soln]

bioware announcement 2pm PDT.  Le whee.   

[Ghambit]

If everyone is a Jedi, is anyone really a Jedi?  We'll have the "Follows of Ithor" Jedi (healers),  Viipad Specialists (tank), Saber Throwers (range) and Double-bladers (melee DPS), and their evil counterparts!  If all classes are Jedis, and they are just the standard roles reskinned, I don't know how thrilling it will be.

I don't care about being a Jedi one way or the other.  It's a hokey religion that I can't even get into RPing.  I just want a glowy purple sword.

Glowy purple swords ROCK!

Now if I can be a droid or a jawa with a purple glowy sword...

Personally, I'll be terribly disappointed if we cant play droids or at least cybernetically enhanced 'noids.  There's plenty of play-value from being able to be a character like Darth or Grievous.  One would assume droids wont be playable though because obviously they're not force sensitive...  but cyborgs?  hell yah      So you may get your wish...

[WindupAtheist]

IS KOTORO ANNOUNCED YET?!?!?!

[Soln]

no.  patience yung won.  2pm PDT itchees.

[Nerf]

Force unleashed had a force-sensitive drone, but you're probably right with the cyborg shit.

[Lantyssa]

I, personally, could accept having to choose between being able to play and drone and being force sensitive.  Separate the wheat from the chaff.  I'd still like the glowy sword, even if I don't get nifty stuff Jedi use it for, but I could live without that, too.  That's what alts are for.

[TripleDES]

I wonder what the reaction will be if it won't be KOTORO.

[Mrbloodworth]

I wonder what the reaction will be if it won't be KOTORO.

The end of the internet. Apparently.

[TripleDES]

Well, because, I'd very much like it to be Mass Effect Online instead.

[Tige]

I don't care what it is.  I just wish they would tell me what it is so I can wait two years, watch all the hype, play it for a month or two then move on to wait for the next ground breaking, nextgen fun fun fun mmo. 

Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.

[WindupAtheist]

Fuck Mass Effect! Fuck it right in the ear! Fuck all of Bioware's dumbass original properties! Like what the fuck kind of name is Dragon Age? It's like hey, just in case you had any enthusiasm for our project, we're naming it Dragon Age. Yeah, you can go back to sleep now. Why not just name it Painfully Generic RPG while you're at it?

But this is Star Wars, bitches, Star Wars! This is KOTORO! Woo!

At least it had better be...

[Hayduke]

Fuck Mass Effect! Fuck it right in the ear! Fuck all of Bioware's dumbass original properties! Like what the fuck kind of name is Dragon Age? It's like hey, just in case you had any enthusiasm for our project, we're naming it Dragon Age. Yeah, you can go back to sleep now. Why not just name it Painfully Generic RPG while you're at it?

You know raging that Bioware might've gotten old and out of touch after the underwhelming Mass Effect and then posting a jpeg from a washed up cartoon, well... yeah.

[Soln]

we must guild up a Bazooko jedi chorus and run amok crushing dreams

[Velorath]

Well, because, I'd very much like it to be Mass Effect Online instead.

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't need to team up with LucasArts to do a Mass Effect MMO.

[Ghambit]

Anyone else notice that today Spike is running a Star Wars marathon and afterwards doing "Scream 2008? (scifi, horror, fantasy movie awards)"  Not to mention, there's going to be a special Star Wars tribute during the show.  It's no coincidence they're gonna announce the new game today... and I'd look for a further announcement during the awards; probably from Lucas himself (as I believe he'll be there).  Let the gratuitous uber-SW marketing campaign begin!!!!   

[WindupAtheist]

Oh my god, it's gonna be Clone Wars Online. 

[Ghambit]

LiveBlog is up (grab the popcorn):
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3170784

[Bunk]

So I'm just gonna grab a seat over here in the corner of this thread before the shitstorm starts.

Oh, and does anyone else get images of an angry four armed centaur thingy whenever WUA says KOTORO!

[Hayduke]

It's going to be a java-based trading card game based on Pazaak.

[Montague]

So I'm just gonna grab a seat over here in the corner of this thread before the shitstorm starts.

Oh, and does anyone else get images of an angry four armed centaur thingy whenever WUA says KOTORO!

I just wanna see the KOTORO-meter one more time.

[Ghambit]

Here's another liveblog location:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/21/joystiq-live-from-lucasarts-bioware-press-conference/

These are all gonna be text-based obviously right?  If you guys want a preview vid. maybe there will be one tonite during Scream '08.

[Ghambit]

IGN jumped the gun (they're not even inside the theater yet), here it is:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/922/922115p1.html

There ya have it folks.  Thoughts?

[Sjofn]

CAW CAW

Just circling to watch and see if there is a show. I think my favorite "I need to watch this thread" thread was still Watch schild Have Wild Mood Swings in the lead up to the D3 announcement though.

[Soln]

hmm

[Lucas]

also, this might be the website (sorry if it was already mentioned):

http://swtor.bioware.com/

Nothing there at the moment, but keep checking.

[Soln]

no details yet on PvP or combat.  Tons of quests ("give each class its own story arc").

[schild]

Thoughts?

Ugly as balls.

[Lucas]

also, this might be the website (sorry if it was already mentioned):

http://swtor.bioware.com/

Nothing there at the moment, but keep checking.

Actually, here is the website, waiting to be darth mauled by the ravenous crowd:

http://www.swtor.com/