FSS 2011: Player Vs. Player In The Old Republic

Day two of the Fan Site Summit started off with a bang, as Gabe Amatangelo, BioWare Lead PvP Designer gave a presentation on player versus player gameplay in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The talk mostly covered Warzones, although some of the features were talked about in the context of working anywhere and everywhere – open world or otherwise.

Below are some of the highlights of the talk, which will most certainly provide some more fodder to fuel the forums:

• Each Advanced Class is absolutely recognized as a full class and as such have the flexibility of 3 skill trees and multiple possible “specs.”
• The difference in PvP gear and PvE gear should only produce about a 10% advantage in PvP – in other words, something that can be overcome by skilled play.
• In Warzones, there will be a “Bolster” ability applied that will bring everyone in the battle to within 20% of each other. So it will be possible to play with friends regardless of level.
• Tanks have a purpose! Through and ability called Guard, they can mitigate the incoming damage by 50% on an ally within 15 meters by redirecting some of it to themselves. This also works in open-world PvP situations, but not on NPCs/PvE content.
• Another ability for tank-specced characters (the name of which is intelligible on my notes) allows for a sort of AoE “taunt” that soaks up damage from allies within a 15 meter radius.
• A Resolve Bar is added to your character’s UI that essentially visualizes diminishing returns. It shows when your character would be immune to further crowd control such as stuns.
• There will be PvP zones on PvE servers, apparently other than Warzones. No more detail was given.
• There are some FPS influences like Badges that provide benefits and foster good play. Think “You’re Unstoppable!”
• Similarly, there were “power-ups” available throughout the zone.
• Valor is essentially a separate PvP experience progression bar (although it seems you get regular experience points from PvP as well.)
• There are many Valor Ranks along the way.
• Valor tokens are received as well, to function as currency where applicable
• Commendation system where you can nominate another player in the Warzone for good play. They’re then rewarded accordingly.
• The scoreboard has more detail due to the expanded effectiveness of multiple roles in the battle

In addition to those highlights, Gabe also revealed a new Warzone: The Voidstar.  The Voidstar is apparently a derelict starship that has technology that both the Empire and Republic would like to get their hands on. It was described as being a conquest-style battle, meaning that one team attacks and one team defends, and then the roles are reversed later in the battle. We saw a few screenshots, and it definitely has a different than the Alderaan Civil War, since it’s on board a massive ship.

Even though we didn’t get to learn anything about open-world PvP, it seems that the vision for the Warzones to integrate with the story as well as provide varied gameplay experiences will pay off. Combined with the style of the PvP combat itself, it has the makings of a pretty epic system… and this is coming from someone who isn’t traditionally a PvPer!

There will undoubtedly be some more in-depth and technical posts from some of the other fan site writers who may be more PvP focused, and we’ll keep a list of those and links to them right here as well.

Other Sites with Updates so far:

Darth Hater

TORWars

Corellian Run Radio

TORTalk

Gamona

MMORPG.com