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Senty
VeteranXX
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1 - 09-07-2010, 01:45
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Reposting from the swtor forums as well as a quote from the devs on no non-humany player characters.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielErickson View Post
Hey Folks,

Sorry for the confusion. Booth chat is, let's be clear, not an official information release. What you got was one line of an extended conversation that was had between me and one of the players at the booth. We started talking about what made a hero in Star Wars and then, once that was clear, there were some jokes about what the romances would look like had we gone for the toybox approach of letting you play anything in the action figure line. That's the part of the conversation the quote came from.

The first part was merely a repetition of something we've said before. Namely that lead characters in an RPG must be something the player can relate to. There has never been a movie or major Star Wars series with a complete freak job as the lead and that's because dramatically it doesn't work. We don't understand what it means to be a giant lizard or a droid or a walking ball of jelly. We love the weird characters but they are always the sidekicks, not the emotional connection in the movie. To do an RPG that way every NPC you ran into would have to react to you depending on their own cultural bias and the entire "into the strange" adventure that is Star Wars would be lost as you would be the strangest thing in the room. People would constantly be asking you for information about your weird species and their emotional content that the vast majority of players simply wouldn't have and their ability to really BE this character would be nil.

So whether it***8217;s Dragon Age, Mass Effect or The Old Republic, PCs are near enough to humans for us to crawl into their skin. They have generally understandable facial expressions, they don't look ludicrous speaking the basic language, they can interact with the rest of the galaxy without a constant "what the heck?" reaction from the NPCs. The freaks, the droids, the weird that we get to know and learn about--that's where our companions come in.

It's okay to turn to your companions and say "What are you supposed to be?" It's not okay to look in the mirror and say that.

In the future I can see a day where we would do a Trandoshan or Wookiee type story but it would have to be just that. Not a simple graphic swap where now your smuggler is a giant lizard man and nobody notices but a full class story where you learn what it means to be this strange alien and deal with the rest of the galaxy and their reactions. For the present, however, our heroes are our projections of self, headed into a galaxy of wonders and adventures.

I know that this isn't what some people want but I hope it helps them understand that game design isn't simply throwing random features into a game because they seem cool. You have to have a goal, a final holistic ideal that you're trying to hit. The Old Republic is, and always has been, about starring in your own version of a Star Wars movie. Not playing a background character from scene 5, not about living a humdrum day to day existence in the Star Wars worlds (there are no refreshers--sorry!) and not about pulling out the extended action figure line and getting to use it as virtual costume party. None of these are, by themselves, bad goals and could absolutely be fun in a very different sort of game. But in TOR they would work directly against what we were trying to achieve.

So did we limit species choice for romances? No. Did we limit them for our goal of bringing cinematic storytelling and the dream of living the Star Wars movies to the MMO space? Absolutely.

Hope that helps!

Daniel




STAR WARS: The Old Republic - Unofficial PAX (Prime) 2010 Thread, Part 3
Quote:
Originally Posted by GamewizX View Post
Due to the popularity and support of my last compilation thread for Gamescom, I've decided that I would do another thread for the upcoming PAX convention! Except this time it will include everything from videos, to interviews, to random bits of information scattered across the internet. Obviously I can't do it all, so I will definitely need help in this. If you find a piece of information not listed, please link it in this thread and I will add it to this OP as soon as possible. Also, when you link the video/article PLEASE also give a short description as to what it is.

Some may be wondering why I'm making this thread a week early... well, truthfully for a couple reasons: I wanted to make sure I got the ball rolling first (because we all know how people love to start unofficial threads then never update them...), and because I wanted to get some feedback as to what you guys think will happen at PAX, what your hopes are, etc. No harm in getting some early discussion in about the last major convention of the year!

Let's hope for some amazing information coming out of PAX, the last big convention (hopefully) before The Old Republic is finally launched!





PAX (Prime) 2010

September 3rd - 5th





Friday, September 3rd

Interviews:
  • Updated 9/3 8:15pm Darth Hater's written interview with Blaine Christine. LINK

Gameplay:

Misc:
  • Updated 9/3 8:50am Friday Update: Official update on Space Combat in the Old Republic. LINK
  • Updated 9/3 11:10am Confirmed from Darth Hater: LINK
    • All classes except the two Jedi ones are playable at low level.
    • Sith Warrior was a human female with cybernetics on face.
    • /dance didn't work.
    • When you speak to a questgiver and enter a dialog cutscene, other people do see your character's body standing there.
  • Updated 9/4 1:30pm Additional screenshots now in the link. Information from askajedi.com LINK
    • They***8217;ve definitely heard the ***8220;feedback***8221; on the Jedi Wizard. My take is that there is more info coming in this regard.
    • Companions aren***8217;t going to make players gods above those who choose to play without them, but also players won***8217;t necessarily be able to ***8220;spec***8221; their character to make up for lost companion stats, if they choose to play without one.
    • Advanced Class choice has been relegated to ***8220;still in development***8221; ***8211; meaning, very much on the fence as if it will be permanent or not. But the Advanced Class choice you make seems to be the role are likely to be playing.






Saturday, September 4th

Interviews:
  • Updated 9/4 9:18pm 2inQ video interview with Dallas Dickinson. LINK


Gameplay:
  • Updated 9/4 9:10am Screenshot of Character selection screen. Possibly 8 character slots per realm? LINK
  • Updated 9/4 9:10am Screenshot overlooking Ord Mantell. LINK
  • Updated 9/4 6:30pm Video trailer: Mysteries of Knights of the Old Republic LINK
    • Revan constructed a complex with mysterious cargo inside.
    • Higher lvl play with advanced armor for all classes.
    • 1:20 Sith Warrior has voice modulator due to mask on face.
    • Revan***8217;s rebirth? Possibly not dead?
    • HK shown at the end.
    • Advanced Classes shown (speculation):
      • Sith Inquisitor - Sith Assassin
      • Sith Warrior - Sith Juggernaut
      • Imperial Agent - Sniper
      • Bounty Hunter - Mercenary
    • Updated 9/5 11:00am Jediarchiveonline.com's breakdown of the video. LINK

Misc:
  • Updated 9/3 8:30am Tune in for a liveblog of the special reveal at 5:00pm! Thanks to TOROCAST! LINK
  • Also tune in to the livestreams located at the top of the post as they might be livestreaming the announcement.
  • Updated 9/4 11:10am Photos of TOR Booth. LINK
  • Updated 9/4 12:25pm CazNeerg - Info from Daniel Erickson
    • Confirmed that Purebloods are Warrior only. No pureblood Inquisitors. Period.
    • Stated his opinion that people who preferred KOTOR 1 will likely feel more at home with the Jedi Knight story, and people who preferred KOTOR 2 will likely feel more at home with the Jedi Consular story.
    • For force sensitive classes, the flavor of morality choices will differ, but from a substantive standpoint, sparing lives will always be "light," and taking them (via conversation options) will be dark.
    • Twi'lek avatars currently have major graphical issues with Bounty Hunter jetpacks, so unless they figure out a way to fix the problem that maintains the iconic Bounty Hunter look, we won't be seeing Twi'lek as an option for that class.
  • Updated 9/4 6:40pm Live blog from Darth Hater. LINK
    5:00 - Panel starts
    5:01 - The Force Unleashed II trailer
    5:05 - Talking about The Force Unleashed II
    5:09 - Starting The Force Unleashed II Live Demo
    5:13 - Still TFU2 Demo
    5:14 - TFU2 demo ends
    5:17 - TFU2 portion over
    5:18 - Dallas & Blaine on the stage; boilerplate SWTOR intro
    5:20 - HOPE trailer
    5:25 - Talking about the pillars
    5:27 - Leading into demo
    5:28 - False demo start. Penalty! 5yds.
    5:33 - Introduces a rep each from TORSyndicate, TOROCast, and OUR VERY OWN SADO to play the game
    5:38 - Technical difficulties with getting the demo started
    5:39 - Show footage of Jedi on Tython; you forge lightsaber on Tython
    5:40 - Trooper & Smuggler talk; war makes for strange bed fellows. Showed Dirty Kick.
    5:41 - Talking about Coruscant
    5:45 - Showing a mission about slave collars. Showing the choices of a four player Republic group making light side choices.
    5:47 - Showing a different mission of a Sith group on Dromund Kaas. Lord Graphin (sp?) mentioned -- break into his compound and steal plans for turrets.
    5:48 - Exploring Darth Revan's complex.
    5:50 - Talking about the struggle on Alderaan, good vs. evil.
    5:57 - Showcase Showdown - showing PVP
    6:01 - Sado on Trooper /dance
    6:04 - Showed Darth Revan helmet & HK 47 on screen.
    6:05 - Q&A with Daniel Erickson
    6:07 - Lightsabers will be offered in a broad spectrum of colors.
    6:08 - If you choose a light side option in multiplayer dialog, you get light side points regardless of group decision outcome.
    6:10 - Called space combat a "tube shooter" highlighting movie moments.
    6:11 - Question about using Force lightning as a Jedi
    6:12 - Explaining faction vs. morality
    6:15 - Panel ends
  • Updated 9/4 6:50pm Live blog from TOROcast.
    4:47 TOROcast: What's up everybody its Samm from TOROcast. Coming to you live from the SWTOR event at PAX Prime 2010
    4:47 TOROcast: Lots of screaming going on right now with the fans.
    4:49 TOROcast: We'll post the pax video once its live.
    4:51 TOROcast: We'll see how this goes, Brandon was supposed to be running this but... well you'll just have to wait and find out!
    4:58 TOROcast: Link to the live feed when its active!!! PAX 2010, Ustream.TV: Watch the live feed from the PAX Main Theatre!.
    5:01 TOROcast: Ahh the lights have dimmed, much excitement.
    5:03 TOROcast: PAX is in charge of the live feed.
    5:05 TOROcast: Lucas Arts is showing their trailer for Force Unleashed 2 right now.
    5:08 TOROcast: Game play of FU2
    5:17 TOROcast: Dallas and Blaine have entered the stage!!!
    5:18 TOROcast: We're recording the video with a camera, and will get that video up as soon as we can.
    5:19 TOROcast: They are showing the Hope trailer for everyone!
    5:24 TOROcast: We'll try to be as descriptive as possible, with our posts.
    5:25 TOROcast: Dallas and Blaine return to the stage.
    5:25 TOROcast: SWTOR has story, and is the first ever fully voiced MMO.
    5:26 TOROcast: Heroic action packed visceral Star Wars combat.
    5:26 TOROcast: "Have you heard us say that at all, that choice and story drives the game" Dallas Dickinson
    5:27 TOROcast: We are seeing a Zabrak Trooper Commando
    5:28 TOROcast: Twil'ek Smuggler - Gunslinger - Duel Wielding blasters.
    5:29 TOROcast: Jedi consular healing, and Jedi duel wielding for damage.
    5:29 TOROcast: This is the setup for the latest flash point that the press was able to see at E3.
    5:29 TOROcast: Both jedi were human
    5:30 TOROcast: Force leap for the Jedi Knight.
    5:31 TOROcast: Intense healing from the Wizard
    5:32 TOROcast: Flash point has ended.
    5:32 TOROcast: And now for the big surprise.
    5:32 TOROcast: 3 community members going to stage.
    5:33 TOROcast: TOR-Syndicate, Darth Hater, and our very own Brandon Miletta.
    5:34 TOROcast: LOL A sing-a-long.
    5:35 TOROcast: They are prepping the game for our special guests to play.
    5:38 TOROcast: Showing all 8 classes "heroic progression"
    5:38 TOROcast: We are getting to see the jedi consular's opening for the first time.
    5:41 TOROcast: They are now showing the creation of your first lightsaber as a Jedi Consular. While a monster climes the cliffs.
    5:42 TOROcast: It looks sexy, and it was a video, did not seem to be crafting.
    5:42 TOROcast: Now we are seeing the smuggler/trooper starting areas.
    5:43 TOROcast: All 4 republic classes will end up on the Coruscant. It seems to be hinting that is where the classes go AFTER their opening planet.
    5:44 TOROcast: Flashpoint of all 4 classes together. Well right now its a conversation.
    5:44 TOROcast: Emphasis on the Zabrak Trooper.
    5:46 TOROcast: New flashpoint, this is the first I have seen anything here. Nothing major, just clips of combat with the 4 classes, as well as clips of conversations.
    5:46 TOROcast: And now we get to see the empire side.
    5:48 TOROcast: The 4 imperial classes seem to have their meet up point on Dromuund Kaas.
    5:49 TOROcast: The looks of the classes the empire classes look much cooler than the Republic. Dark hoods, dark clothing.
    5:50 TOROcast: Not a republic hater by any means. Trooper ftw!
    5:51 TOROcast: We're now seeing some crazy looking new armors. Sith Warrior, Inquisitor, Agent, and Bounty Hunter.
    5:51 TOROcast: Informed to pay close attention to a name from the past.
    5:52 TOROcast: Mention of Revan in the game.
    5:52 TOROcast: Imperial agent's armor looks a lot like the resistance forces on Hoth.
    5:53 TOROcast: "After all these years we'll finally learn what Revan's discovered"
    5:53 TOROcast: The trooper gear is looking sick.
    5:54 TOROcast: We're getting to see PVP
    5:56 TOROcast: Two different battles going on to the middle grounds.
    5:56 TOROcast: O M G!!! They cut the video off.
    5:57 TOROcast: The surprise is here. Time to watch Brandon die.
    5:58 TOROcast: Trooper fail!
    5:59 TOROcast: Brandon is playing the Jedi.
    5:59 TOROcast: And doing GREAT!!! No Deaths.
    6:00 TOROcast: Flash point is over, they all survived.
    6:01 TOROcast: Consular was a BioWare employee healing.
    6:01 TOROcast: The first battle empire vs republic is on Alderaan.
    6:02 TOROcast: yes guilds yes raids yes crafting.
    6:02 TOROcast: They are still staying vague on all those things.
    6:03 TOROcast: 1 more thing to share!
    6:03 TOROcast: Revans mask!
    6:03 TOROcast: "What was Revan's final fate!"
    AND HK47!!!!
    6:04 TOROcast: QA With Daniel Erickson
    6:05 TOROcast: Ten Minutes left.
    6:06 TOROcast: Different color lightsabers? More unusual colors?
    There is a broad spectrum, no final plans, still in development.
    6:07 TOROcast: Cross class stuff "bounty hunters" using sabers?
    NO!
    6:08 TOROcast: Multiplayer Conversations will it affect me if I lose the vote?
    YES! If you choose to not kill the captain and your friend offs the captain you still get your lightside point.
    6:09 TOROcast: Playing friends will affect your game. "Careful who you play with"
    6:10 TOROcast: Is space combat a rail shooter?
    It is a "Tube Shooter"


  • Updated 9/4 7:05pm On racial selection: Daniel Erickson said in the booth earlier today that, "If you can't imagine it making out with Princess Leia, you probably won't be able to play it."






Sunday, September 5th

Interviews:
  • Updated 9/5 9:35am Saturday special event Q&A section
  • Updated 9/5 5:00pm Video interview with Daniel Erickson LINK


Gameplay:
  • Updated 9/5 9:25am TOROcast - Coverage of Special Event


Misc:
  • Updated 9/5 6:50am Darth Hater - Hate On! LINK






Aftermath...

Interviews:
  • Updated 9/6 8:30am TORSyndicate video interview with Daniel Erickson LINK
    • They are aware of community's response to Jedi Wizard. Will talk about soon.
    • More planet reveals to come.
    • There will be an Auction House.
    • There game is about the "film" and "heroic" experience, not about the "shopkeeper experience".
  • Updated 9/6 9:00am mmorpg.com's written interview with Daniel Erickson LINK
  • Updated 9/6 9:05am Ask a Jedi's Audio Q&A with Daniel Erickson and Blaine Christine. LINK
  • Updated 9/7 5:45pm TOROcast's video interview with Blaine Christine. LINK
  • Updated 9/8 8:00am Sarcastic Gamer's video interview with Daniel Erickson. LINK
  • Updated 9/8 1:00pm KOTORmmo's video interview with Daniel Erickson. LINK
  • Updated 9/16 7:30am Front Towards Gamer's video interview with Daniel Erickson. LINK
  • Updated 9/16 7:30am G4TV's video interview with Daniel Erickson. LINK
  • Updated 9/16 7:30am G4TV - All access with Dark Horse Comics (SWTOR starts at around 1:10). LINK
  • Updated 9/20 8:00am Lorehound - Video interview with Blaine Christine LINK


Gameplay:
  • Updated 9/16 7:30am G4TV - Coverage of Saturday's event


Misc:
  • Updated 9/8 3:10pm TOROcast's breakdown of player stats. LINK
    • Strength
      ---- Melee Damage
      ---- Glance Absorption
    • Agility
      ---- Ranged Damage
      ---- Ranged Critical
    • Endurance
      ---- Health
      ---- Health Regeneration
    • Cunning
      ---- Tech Damage
      ---- Tech Critical
    • Willpower
      ---- Elemental Damage Reduction
      ---- Internal Damage Reduction
    • Presence
      ---- Healing
      ---- Companion Health
      ---- Companion Damage






[QUOTE=GamewizX;4137992][COLOR="LemonChiffon"]
Player Impressions


Updated 9/3 4:40pm Thread on darthhater.com forums. IveDefected impressions of character creator. LINK
  • Some head dress options
  • Facial scars
  • Cybernetic bits
  • Goggles
  • Skin markings and color
  • Various body types (possibly 5 variants)
  • Slider System

Updated 9/3 8:00pm TheDarkKnight's personal impressions on TOR.

Originally Posted by TheDarkKnight
Hi all,

On show: Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Smuggler, BH, Trooper and Imperial Agent.
I played each class three times at about 15mins ago.


After spending the last 8 hours just at the TOR booth at PAX getting to play the six available classes, no Jedi, I have to say that this game is just too much FUN!. I have now changed my main from Sith Inquisitor to Trooper and I am really happy with what I have seen/played today.

Yes there are minor bugs but what do you expect for a game still 6+ months from release. I could not see anything game stopping wrong with TOR. But what I would say is that the state the game is in now is better than most of the MMOs I have played from release in the last few years. What we were shown was again only level 2, I did level several times on various characters during my play.

My overal experience was first and formost fun, so much so that I hung around all day and just kept on playing and playing and playing.

The graphics look sharp, the VO was excellent (but PAX is loud so had issues hearing at times), the combat was far faster then any MMO I have played before. Its not like WoW where you can start a fight go and make a coffee and come back. If you do that in TOR your dead.

No PvP was avaialble to play neither were any Flashpoints but to be honest I did not care. If I could have set up camp and kept on playing I would have been a happy camper.

The setup that was shown at PAX seems very much that of Gamescom except more terminals to play at and hardly any queuing.

The general impression I got from people around playing, including many that have never played an MMO, was that they just wanted to keep playing.... Its looking good!


Anyway Saturday I may take a look around the rest of PAX becuase I am sure there are other things to see.

Before I entered PAX I was a 6/10... I am now an 8.5/10.

NOTE: We were told that the version we were using has already been superceeded by a more textured version back in Austin. Also the running animations seem to have improved but the BH and Trooper running, with a gun, still needs slightly tweaking in my opinion.


There was nothing really new to tell that was not already mentioned at Gamescom. Hopefully tommorow at the main show we will get something juicy.


* Its the most fun MMO I have played to date.
* Combat is a lot faster than I was expecting. I tried other MMOs while I was at PAX and they felt slow in comparison (Could not get to play GW2)
* Given the current level of polish of the game it is in a better state now than some games I have played at release.
* I could not give an acurate evaluation of the VO or SFX becuase its was very noisy around the booth and even with headphones at max it was hard to hear.
* The game was easy to just pick up and play, it felt very natural.
* Each class was different even if they are based on a mirrored class system. For example playing the Smuggler to a Imperial Agent. They are both cover based classes but the IA was more DPS than the Smuggler than was more CC.
* There are some bugs and issues in game, to be expected, but they were not a distraction from the playing experience.
* I am not a melee class person but I could quiet easily play all these classes and have fun.
* I did find and use several point to point (taxi) mounts. Korriban and Hutta.
* I managed to get to level 4 and aquire the impale ability for the Sith Warrior. It requires quiet a few ability points to use.
* Given that the versions we were playing on were not set to the highest graphics setting, I checked the options, the graphics looked good. It was mentioned that there is already a newer texture version back at Austin.
* I spent a fair time just wandering around to see what was on the planet. I would estimate that most starting areas are, too just a WoW reference, about the size of Westfall. But thats not including the vertical aspects of the game such as caves etc.
* The mobs did hide and run away but its was not always consistant. I think some tweaking of the AI will be needed, but again this was all set up for Demo purpose so certain things may have toned down.



Updated 9/3 8:40pm Sarin_Sunrider's personal impressions on TOR.

Originally Posted by Sarin_Sunnrider
Just got back to my place after being at PAX all day, i played the smuggler twice, the sith inquisitor, and the BH. Obviously we are only playing level 2 characters so my opinion is only on a VERY small portion of the game. But its true, the combat feels like very polished wow combat to me. The swords clash, the cover is cool, but in the end, your hitting your hot keys and running around waiting for cool downs. Its very fun but they didnt reinvent the wheel combat wise so lets all just get over that.

The dialogue and convo system is great, I plan to have a smuggler as my main and i felt like a hans solo esque dashing rogue and it was awesome. This part of the game is really fun with the mass effect style convo system.

I ran into the guys from DH and gave a little interview for their pod cast, so watch out for that! If anyone has any questions about my hands on time, throw em at me!



Updated 9/3 8:50pm CazNeerg's personal impressions on TOR.

Originally Posted by CazNeerg
Impressions based on build available at PAX:

All classes are level 2. Smuggler and Agent start off at Neutral on the alignment scale. Warrior and Inquisitor start off at "Dark II," which appears to be *very* slightly below the center of the scale.

Dialogue choices do not follow the traditional BioWare approach of "good" choice always on top and "bad" choice always on bottom.

The game was very smooth, and in an hour total of play time (4 classes) I only had one crash, and even the crash was smooth. No freeze and then crash, just blinked and was at the desktop.

Cover was fun for both Agent and Smuggler, but the Agent's Snipe seems substantially more effective than the Smuggler's charged blast.

The statistics I can remember are Strength, Agility, and Presence. Strength and Agility affected things the way they generally do, and if I recall correctly, Presence adds to the health and damage of companions. Some other stats are Vitality and Cunning. Cunning gives bonuses to "Tech Damage."

From talking to BW staff, I learned that in the current phase of testing, only levels 1-7 are available.

That's all I can remember at the moment, other that the voice acting and story being fantastic even early on.

EDIT:

Oh, and skill trees don't become available at all until you pick your advanced class.



Updated 9/4 8:20am Danthis' personal impressions on TOR.

Originally Posted by Danthis
I watched, but didn't get a chance to play at the demo booth. I just peeked in to find the booth, which was harder than you might expect, tucked away into the corner like that.

Impressions:

> Environment - The level of detail is ridiculous and easily the best I've seen in an MMO. It could use more ambient sounds, critters and such. But even w/o (I'm sure more will be added later) those extras, it's still the best I can remember. The color schemes and palette choices were great.

Nal Hutta looks pretty nasty. There was an area near the cantina that I would not want to be near for fear of encountering scumbags.

> Graphics looked good. They were crisp and clear. The 'stylized realism' thing was great. It seems to strike the perfect compromise w/ one caveat: The character faces are a little flat. They need more going on.

> Animations: Mixed bag. The combat anims look really good. The anims by the creatures/enemies were more nuanced than animations that I can remember seeing in other games. However, the run anim by the character, obviously important bcuz you'll be seeing it all the time, was stiff and uninspired. They all need work. The character's left arm needs to be doing SOMETHING.

The whole time I was thinking to myself that the anims needed to be 'amped.' They seemed like they just got out of bed and haven't had their evil coffee yet.

It *is* pretty cool how ur character turns their head at things in the environment.

> Interface: Great. Easy to use and mostly forgotten. The font choices worked out well for evertyhing.

> Classes: The IA has a sweet stock strike ala the trooper but Bourne ish. The BH has the most in your face abilities so far.

> Races: There is a female Chiss IA that is really strange looking, those red eyes are creepy.

> Glitches: A few. I saw a BH running around w/o his pistol bcuz it disappeared on him. Some enemy guys popped into the ceiling after being shot.

Anywho, I'll see more tmrw. Today I just cruised by and had a look.




Updated 9/4 8:50am Pagan's personal impressions on TOR. LINK




Updated 9/4 11:50am Sarin_Sunrider's personal impressions on TOR. Possible player speeders?

Originally Posted by Sarin_Sunnrider
I played the smuggler twice yesterday, the planet is huge! I did not come across any invisible walls at all. I did leave the noob starting area and run to the what i assumed was one of the main cities on the planet, I tried to get on a speeder from a taxi location but i didnt know any connecting points. I then asked a dev if we would get our own speeders and he said he couldnt comment. I then told the same dev "Blink twice if we get our own speeders" and he looked at me, and blinked HARD twice. haha true story!




Updated 9/4 1:20pm IveDefected personal impressions on TOR. LINK




Updated 9/5 7:00am AnshaeNomodi's personal impressions on TOR.

Originally Posted by AnshaeNomodi
Boys and girls, it's time for another episode of "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". Here are my impressions of what went down at the PAX presentation (you don't have to agree or even read this):

I'll start off not-so-nice and finish pleasant out of respect for the massive amount of work that BioWare Austin is no doubt performing on this project.

The Ugly: E3 is the huge convention for the press pretty much since they stopped allowing average Joe's access a couple years back. Comic-Con is more about comics, TV shows, and movies than it is about games, so we'll let that one slide. PAX is THE gamer convention for the Western Hemisphere. As a whole, I feel that BioWare and LucasArts let us down. There wasn't a whole lot of new information about the game, at all. A lot of it is the same things that have been regurgitated for the past six months (and, in the case of the Story, the whole time the public has known about the game). PAX 2009 was your time to introduce the game, people. If there are noobs who HAVEN'T heard about your game, then they can look up everything they need to know here. Literally, there are thousands that were in attendance and online waiting eagerly for a big reveal. Give us something new, gorram it!

The Bad: If I start talking about the space combat, I'll go ranting on until Doomsday. Seriously, IT SUCKS. Scrap the "Tube Shooter" and go back to the drawing board to give us an Aracade Shooter, like "Rogue Squadron" from the consoles, at least! I do not want to emulate a 10-year-old "button masher", constantly clicking my mouse every time I want to shoot something with my turbolasers. That being simply stated, let's move on. WHY DID YOU STOP THE PVP VIDEO??!! That is one of the major things many rabid fans have been salivating, Pavlovian style, for months to catch a glimpse of! Sure, you've stated there will be PvP and even mentioned Alderaan as the first planet we'll be able to do so. I really could care less about whether the animations are finished or not. Slap the "work in progress" disclaimer up and call it a day. Also, for the record, rerecord the VO for HK-47. It is so lame I can't even think straight.

The Good: Revan info? He's coming back?? Sweetness! You just made my fangirl heart squee with glee! Lightsaber building in video? Awesomeness! I've been waiting for some hint of that for some time. Also, a chance to get a deeper glimpse at the Jedi Consular is a nice change of pace, being my main class and all. I'm also very glad you stated there would be different, customizable lightsaber colors. Speculation: there will probably be the basics like blue (Jedi Guardian), yellow (Jedi Sentinel), green (Jedi Consular), and red (all Sith) as one would naturally assume. I just hope that I'll get my violet crystal (purple blade) early rather than late in the game. The high-lvl Empire faction armors looked really nice, too.

All-in-all, I really believe the failure here at PAX Prime 2010 was the fault of LucasArts and their marketing team, not BioWare. So, crafting is in the game, show us some implementation. Show us more of the MMO aspects, such as social interaction and what can be done when it's known there are other people in the world. There could have been a lot more meat in this presentation, considering it's really the last one the fans get to engage in until launch. The Force Unleashed II could have been slated to have its own separate presentation and leave this a TOR-only event.




Updated 9/5 9:30am ModernZombie's personal impressions on TOR.

Originally Posted by ModernZombie
Here is my experience with the Smuggler class at PAX:

While waiting in like I was able to watch every class on the screens running around in 3 of the starting locations for each side. I decided to try out the Twi'lek Smuggler as it seemed like the most interesting gameplay mechanic at an early level. Once the game was reset I found myself in a large hangar met by two Republic soldiers who had urgent business that needed my attention. I skipped most of the dialog as I only had a few minutes to play the game, but the voice acting, animation and mood really set up the feeling of the game and ensured me that I was, in fact, in the Star Wars universe.

I exited the hangar into a small outpost and made my way into an open, rocky area to begin my quest. My immediate impression was just how gorgeous the world looked. The videos and images do not do it justice. To me it almost felt like a top notch graphic novel with a very painted look to add the almost cartoony (not in a bad way) character design. The controls are all very familiar and the movement feels just like anyone who plays WoW would expect. Based on that familiarity it was easy to just jump right in to combat, which I did the second I left the outpost.

The cover component of the Smuggler is just a blast. It felt to me like playing a Rogue where I would run around, stealth and get a jump on my enemies. This class is just like that except that your stealth is diving behind rocks and other environment elements. You take cover by pressing a key on your hotbar and it activates when you are in the vicinity of a piece of cover. You point your character at it, hit the key and you dive into the spot. After that the combat is fluid like modern MMO players expect, the animation is smooth and the targeting system is on par with other games.

I spent my time running around and exploring the area and getting into as many fights as possible. When my time was up I sighed alittle and handed over the machine to the next person and stuck around to watch people play other classes for awhile. To me playing SWTOR was worth the price of admission as it not only put my fears to rest but it made me even more excited for the release of this game. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.

All in all I was very impressed but will break down the pros and cons with two caveats the game still has ALOT of time until release and I am sure alot of my cons have to do with the set up of the demo at the convention and being a demo I was not able to set up my controls or graphics the way I'd prefer. Hope this info also puts some of your fears at rest as well.

PROS

- Fast, familiar combat system. Players from other MMOs will jump right in.
- Gorgeous, detailed environments.
- Top notch voice talent (the little I saw) and an RPG system that feels like Mass Effect.
- Sound design and music really put you in the universe.
- Item descriptions were not cryptic, inventory and character sheet look good.

CONS

- Targeting can be abit twitchy, had some trouble with larger groups.
- HUD is mildly annoying as your tooltips spring up out of the map. Font is too large.
- Game was stuttering quite abit, very laggy. I am sure that was just the demo but it did affect my enjoyment of the experience.
- It isn't out yet.



Updated 9/6 9:00am Keatonman's personal impressions on TOR.

Originally Posted by Keatonman
Hey guys, I'm barely typing this along I've had a total of nine hours of sleep over the weekend, and I may not finish this tonight if I post this tonight there will most likely be several typos and grammar issues which I'll fix tomorrow. But I'll segregate my time into sections so that it's easier to stay on topic. Well let's get into it.

Day 1:

Bounty Hunter:
What can I say about the bounty hunter? Most things that come to mind won't make it past the filter, but I will sum it up in about four words.
The Bounty Hunter sucks.
Okay suited up in my flame suit I'll cut into the details, The Bounty Hunter's story sounds incredible *spoiler alert* Braden and the alien weapons master are killed and you have to go and hunt down in a very western journey of revenge.
*spoiler end*

Here's where the problems cut in, now this issue will only affect a certain population of the Bounty Hunter class, but the female voice actor is ill equipped to handle a story of this epic scale in one particular case she delivered the line "My team, I like the sound of that!" it just made me cringe, it was just handled so awkwardly. Although Steve Blum is handling the Male BH so I'm confident that this problem will go away. The second is subjective and is only a level two character but compared to the other two classes I got to play the BH was dull. Fire gun, shoot missile, flame thrower, vent heating, repeat. This is for a level two character but the other two classes were much more versatile and were FUN I can only assume that the BH just gets more steps in between fire gun and vent heat. I had set my droid to count down fifteen minutes but I gave up my turn with six minutes left on the clock. Nerve wracking, very nerve wracking.

Feeling scared from the Bounty Hunter I decided to go off and enjoy the rest of PAX and mull over what I played.

Day Two:

Smuggler:
I want everyone to be aware that the negativity ends here, the smuggler is fantastic.
The Smuggler is much more humor oriented class ("If I die I want to be buried with my ship.") as if attempting to symbolize this, Bioware made me play as an obese male Twi'lek. The only complaint I have here is that the body type mouth glitched out when trying to sync with the Smuggler's lines, but that can be easily fixed before launch.
To contrast the BH's dull repetitive combat rotation, the Smuggler emphasized thinking on your feet. There was no set way to go about fighting mobs. Should I throw a flash then run to cover risking a miss and getting blasted? Or do I run to cover blast away at them and then run to cover when they attempt to rush me? Bioware really captured the feel of being Han Solo and damn does this erase any worry that worried me with the Bounty Hunter, I enjoyed the combat so much that I had a first while playing an MMO, I stopped questing to kill mobs, not to farm, not for XP, FOR FUN. The story felt very smuggler like. (The Empire has hacked into the Republic's anti-aircraft system, and any ship that attempts to enter or leave is blasted to smithereens.) My phone alarm went off meaning my time was up. Bummer.

Imperial Agent. (I got 45 minutes with this class so their is way more info)
I tried to keep my mind on PAX but the Smuggler kept swirling around in my head, and I knew I had to play one more class before the day was over.
I passed right by the Bounty Hunter booth, bad memories rushed to my head, I couldn't get by quick enough.
The Smuggler line was quite long, there were ten or so people in each Sith line, but one thing caught my eye.
Daniel Erickson, was standing in front of the TOR mural, for those of you who are unaware he is Bioware's lead writer. Strangely he was not surrounded by gaming journalists so I couldn't resist to go up and meet him myself, I walked up shook his and and told him how much I admired his work. Although he was available for questioning I remembered why I was at booth, with many questions I wanted to ask I said farewell and searched the class booths.

One I did not notice before was available, The Imperial agent only had one person in it and that was the person who was playing it, I slid right behind the man playing and before I knew it a dev was resetting the class so I could get a chance to experience the Star Wars Jack Bauer, I played as a female chiss named taka, first of all I was quite taken with her voice it fits the character really well, as did the Smuggler's. I slid into the Story zone, a private room hidden within the building on Hutta, a table, a few chairs, and a bed resided within the room, nothing too interesting. But one thing caught my eye, an extremely large hologram projector was residing in the corner and my mini map told me it was the start of a quest. I set the clock on my droid and got to work.

A human male hologram appeared and told me of the plan of going undercover as a new person, what it was however was not clear or I don't remember most likely the latter.
The conversation wrapped up and I headed out of the room and into the main lobby there were several people residing in the lobby many of them offering quests, at first I was going to ignore them and focus on the story quest but a few people were huddled around one quest giver in particular and my curiosity got the better of me, I was taken to a cut scene where the other players were removed from view. She told me of how her husband took her son away to the Hutta port because she wants her son to become a sith and her husband was a failed sith student who had escaped from the academy, she said that he was jealous of his potential but I already knew this wasn't the case just from her attitude (great voice actor on this NPC by the way.)

On my way to the port my phone went off fifteen minutes up, annoyed I turned around to give up my turn only to realize that no one was waiting. Groovy.
I continued to the port and met the woman's snitch, who innocently called over the father and his son to talk to me, he was already aware of who I was and told me of what happened when he was a student and how he got out alive. I was then given the option to let him go or kill him. My conscious got the better of me and I let him go and told him I'd tell the mother that I bullied him into going to Korriban.
I headed back to the hold to report to the mother but the story quest was so close that I decided to make a stop and further my story, I approached the household when I noticed someone behind me, I felt extremely annoyed and decided I was lucky enough to get fifteen extra minutes.

When I turned around however, it wasn't another PAX-goer anxious for a go at TOR but it was Daniel Erickson, he had noticed that I was one of the lucky few to go for half an hour without being dethroned from my ever so beloved booth. He wasn't here to kick me out however he asked me what I thought of the class with the extended time I had got. I'll go into a script form for the conversation
This is in no way exact wording but it is still the general gist of the conversation

DE: What do you think of the game and class you have played so far?

Me: It's very WoW-like, but I'm very surprised how a few tweaks here and there can make it entertaining than a chore and feel new.

DE: Yeah, with genre's of games you have a standard that you are expected to follow FPS's are like Call of Duty, RTS's follow Starcraft, and MMO's play like WoW. It's a bit unfair to call things clones when they are falling into the genre they belong.

Me: I've always preferred WoW relative myself.

DE: (laughs) that's a new one.

Me: I never really expected The Imperial Agent to be one of my favorite classes.

DE: That's something we get a lot, The Imperial Agent has always been somewhat of a low interest class but all the people we have talked to who have played it, have always said how much they enjoyed it.

Some idle chit-chat followed afterward but any meaningful insight into the game was done he was called over by another dev or PR exhibitor or something.
I continued into the house and met an alien who's species I did not recognize (Wore a mask, had a long droopy nose, and red eyes) I don't remember much of the conversation besides that I had been given the brief of what I had to do. Despite that I had no idea what I was supposed to do next so I decided to turn in the Korriban student quest. I told the mother I had threatened the father into leaving to Korriban, she commented on his cowardice which in this writer's opinion did not reflect the character.
I went outside and shot up a few gang members, I was encouraged to take cover, I saw no other alternative so I hid behind cover sniped one gang member which killed him one blow and shot the rest until my snipe cooled down. One mob actually succeeded in flanking me and which point I shot and then tried my only unused move: shank.
I jabbed a large knife into the gang member's gut causing him to clutch his stomach and lurch backward and die, the first death I saw that reflected the move I had used. Nice touch.
Unfortunately, an actual Pax attendee had lined up behind me, figuring I had already got almost an hour of game time I gave the man the booth. I overall loved the IA

SWTOR theater:
We were shown Hope, the multi-player demo live, shown the multi-player demo again with three people from the media playing the Jedi Knight, Trooper, and Smuggler (actually wasn't shown till the end technical difficulties the devs tried to kill time by singing The Saga Begins). After we were actually shown a video of a Jedi Knight Miraluka journeying to the caves of Tython and forging her lightsaber, and fighting off a savage beast. Then some cross class game play on courscaut, then some cross class gameplay on Dromund Kaas involving Revan's complex/tomb.
We were then shown "PvP," where the actual PVP was cut off.
They finally got to showing the multi-player noob demo. They succeeded with flying colors, boring.
Then we were shown, Darth Revan's complex/tomb and HK-47 which can be seen on the site already. After which they concluded with Q&A.
Overall I was very angry that they wasted so much time reiterating what we already knew and just overall trying to be a comedy act rather than telling us anything new.

Day 3:
Apparently other people where more enthusiastic about the showing than I was and became so crowded that it became three hours wait minimum for any class, I didn't get to play today. Sadly.


Misc:
I'll update this tomorrow, I'm too tired.
(
I'm like a starving hobo who's been given a bite of a five star meal, I'm a little bit more full than the rest of the pack but at the same time I am hungrier than any of them.



Updated 9/6 9:15am Slave2Pilot's personal impressions on TOR. LINK


Updated 9/6 9:15am Sebastian's personal impressions on TOR. LINK


Updated 9/6 1:20pm raelimar's personal impressions on TOR. LINK


Updated 9/7 8:00am Viper's personal impressions on TOR.

Originally Posted by ViperI
The following is my review that I wrote for my guild's private forums. There may be things that are inaccurate, I was only going off memory after driving home from the convention and it's possible that some details are not entirely accurate. However, take it as my impressions after playing the game for a total of maybe 45 minutes, hardly enough time to get all the details.

Ok, now for the good stuff, yes, I was able to play a demo version of the game. They did not have either Jedi class, so right off the bat, nothing to report on either of those. I was able to play the Trooper, Smuggler and Sith Warrior for about 15 minutes each. The line was pretty long and I did not feel like waiting again to play more sith classes. Each demo was a level 2 character and pretty much starts out with them first entering the game world. I'm not sure what happens at level 1, perhaps a intro tutrorial gets you from level 1 to 2.

Anyways, I'll start with the Smuggler. The name of the game while playing a smuggler is to KNOW YOUR SURROUNDINGS!! SRSLY!! I died 3 times during the Smuggler demo because I pulled agro and wasn't near adequate cover, also forgetting to recharge (heal) between fights didn't help. You don't automatically regen your health, you actually have to push the button and it's a channeled ability so you need some time get full health. Cover is plentiful, it's not like you have to searching for it, but it's highly advisable that you set setup in cover BEFORE you engage enemies. Also, cover is directional, meaning that if you take cover behind a crate, the crate better be between you and the mobs, otherwise it won't do any good. Several times the AI tried to out-flank me. I would engage a group of 3 mobs, two would take cover themselves in front of me and the third would run to flank me and was able to shoot me where cover wasn't protecting me.

Something that disappointed me about cover is that cover is basically just a small buff to avoidance and mitigation, it doens't actually prevent things from hitting you. Apparently, blasters 3000 years prior to the films had the ability to penetrate solid concrete walls. I highly doubt non-cover classes will be able to use objects and the environment to shield themselves, enemy fire will just go right through it. Perhaps this will change between now and release but the demo they're showing now has blasters going through solid objects.

Smugglers had 3 basic attacks, a basic triple shot blaster ability, usable anywhere, a high powered blaster shot that stunned the target and nearby enemies as well as dealing significant damage but could only be used in cover, and a concussive grenade that stunned the target. They also had the groin kick, but I never actually got close enough to an enemy to use it. As a smuggler, you don't want to be in the situation where you have to use the groin kick.

Smuggler's had some good lines too in the opening quests. There is a scene where the smuggler is being informed that his mission might be a bit more dangerous than previously thought. The smuggler's response (at least the one I chose) was basically to say "well, that's why you've got Troopers!"

Speaking of Troopers, you don't have to worry about the situational things that the Smugglers need to be aware of. In fact, I stumbled into a mob of 4 without watching where I was going and still managed to kill them all without breaking a sweat, the smuggler would not have fared nearly as well. Troopers had 3 basic attacks, a triple shot rifle ability, a grenade launcher that stunned and did AE damage and the rifle butt to the face knockdown ability. The grenade launcher required ammo, and you got about 2 grenades to a full load of ammo. Ammo works basically like a mana bar except that instead of a continuous bar, it was small bullet icons, but basically the same thing. You could reload in-combat, but because all skills are on a global cooldown and there is no auto-attack, hitting the reload skill means you're not attacking for the duration of the cooldown. However, getting extra grenade shots more than made up for the momentary pause.

If you're good enough, you can run-n-gun with the Trooper and play it like a third-person shooter, although it is tab targetting, so there's no need to keep precise aim, and I'm not sure how much damage you actually avoid by straffing instead of just standing still and cycling through all your abilities. Even if it doesn't make a huge difference, playing run-n-gun is certainly more fun than just standing there. The Trooper's recharage ability (out of combat heal) also reloads your grenade rounds, so it's a good idea to use it as often as possible between combat even if you don't take a lot of damage.

Also, witty lines are not just for the Smuggler, if you want to be the alpha-male-***-hole kind of Trooper that just loves to piss people off, you're in luck. At one point, some sergaent told me I'd probably move faster if I dropped the attitude. I laughed out loud, literally, and people in line were looking at me like I was losing it.

The last class I played was the Sith warrior. To be perfectly honest, the Sith Warrior plays like any typical melee class in a fantasy MMO. They had a basic, double swipe saber attack that adds to your rage meter, a big strike power hit that decreased your rage meter and a force jump attack. The jump attack does not have super long range, so it's not like you're going to have Sith Warriors covering a full room with a single leap, so PvP shouldn't be too bad. It's basically similar range to the average ranged attack.

So that's basically it. Like I said, I only went for today and so I didn't have tons of time to cover the entire exhibit hall. I spent most of my time waiting in line to play SWTOR. Next year I'm going to have to make sure to order tickets earlier. Last year I sat in on several panels and those are really cool. The exhibit hall is always crowded and you can spend a lot of time waiting in line to play a popular demo (for example, Dragon Age demos are an all-day affair).

I would highly recommend that anyone who is a serious gamer of any genre or has an interest in the industry as a whole to mark your calendars for next year's convention. There is also a smaller version held in Boston in the spring time, but the one in Seattle is a much larger show. I will probably make it a habit of going every year. I've gone the past two years in a row purely for SWTOR, but the overall experience is fun and worth it even if SWTOR isn't there. I will say though, that if you're not interested in gaming beyond SWTOR and maybe WoW, that it may not be that much interest to you. You kinda have to be an all-around gamer and interested in following the new, upcoming releases.





Out of space for the rest just read them in the original post at http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=197869
 
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<3 thanks for the compilation Senty

Chewing at the bit to try this baby out :f
 
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Thanks a lot for Senty! )) I'll enjoy it.
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