Posted by Lethality | 5 Comments

Rich Vogel & James Ohlen Talk To MMORPG.com

MMORPG.com was at the recently held Syndcon and had a chance to speak with BioWare’s James Ohlen and Rich Vogel. It seems when you least expect it, you get little gold nuggets of information.

First, there were some comments that add interest to the whole “appearance tab” discussion that revolves around being able to wear armor you want to wear because of how it looks, not because if the stats it has:

On the one hand, there’s the diversity of looks so achievement is visible, on the other, the mod system will allow players who wish to, adhere to an iconic look from level one to 50. Yes, you can totally look like Obiwan Kenobi, with the humble un-dyed linen garb and brown wool cloak look. Crafting will also allow players to change the color of their blaster blasts and light sabers.

Blizzard recently introduced an armor-skinning feature for World of Warcraft, and many TOR players have shown interest.

Next we have some more concrete information on if morality alignment affects your character’s outward appearance, as it once was rumored:

Whether you go light or dark is a personal decision. It is not visible by players or NPCs. No one will sense that you are a goody-two-shoes Sith and attack you. Any path you decide to go is viable. A total scum-bag Sith won’t get you any better equipment than a neutral or light-side one, just different equipment.

Finally, there seems to be some companion-related news in the not-too-distant future at PAX:

There was more to the Companion system that I asked about, but they were saving it for a big reveal at PAX Prime in a couple of weeks. Will you be there?

The entire interview is well worth a read, and it seems that there may be some great news coming up when PAX Prime starts next Friday!

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Posted by Lethality | 18 Comments

James Ohlen Interview At Ten Ton Hammer [UPDATED]

Ten Ton Hammer has just dropped a brand new interview with Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Director James Ohlen. The game was done during Syndcon which took place since San Diego Comic-Con, so Ohlen was able to elaborate on some of the items revealed during that show, such as companions.

There are some tidbits in there, but one segment adds some confusion to the current stance on cross-faction communication, which had been remarked previously as being allowed in local area chat:

Ten Ton Hammer: We are also curious about the banking system. Will players be able to share items between their own characters through the bank on the same server, or even across factions so long as it’s on the same account?

James Ohlen: Currently no, you have to do it the old fashioned way through the mailbox, but only if they’re the same faction. There are multiple reasons why we don’t want the different factions to communicate with each other.

We had the big argument that this isn’t like Horde and Alliance, we all speak Galactic Standard so we should just allow it. So we actually did allow it for a little while. The argument against it was that, what happens is people start saying inappropriate things to the other side. That’s just the way it is when you’re on a different side and you gank each other, people tend to say inappropriate things.

So we thought that maybe it won’t be so bad, but then when we started doing testing with external people, and then we’d look at the chat logs and say, OK, that’s gone. And it wasn’t the swear words that were bad, let’s just say that lots of inappropriate things get said. Usually our testers are more mature, and if this is what was happening with them, imagine what will happen when we go out into the wild.

We just wanted to get rid of that, so that’s another reason why you can’t mail your incredibly dirty messages to members of the opposite faction. The unfortunate thing is that’s just human nature. Suddenly Empire players would start sending horrific messages – and I mean horrific – so that’s what we want to avoid.

Ten Ton Hammer: How does that translate to something like a PvP environment then? Is it a case where you’ll only see chat from other players of your own faction, and don’t see the other faction’s chat at all?

James Ohlen: You won’t see the other faction’s chat at all, so they can’t chat with you and you can’t chat with them.

We’re not sure how to interpret this yet, but we’ll try and get some clarification. What, dear AAJ readers, do you make of it?

[UPDATE] Georg Zoeller took to the forums today to clear up any confusion resulting from this interview with James Ohlen. In a nutshell, nothing changed:

Nothing has changed since San Diego Comic Con.

As discussed at SDCC, the decision was made to separate the general chat channels by faction. However, this decision ONLY affects the planet-wide chat channels such as “General Chat.” If you’re standing next to another player (local chat), you can talk to them regardless of what faction you’re part of. 

Click here to read his full post.

Head over to Ten Ton Hammer for the entire interview.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted by ReDDoT | 16 Comments

Blue Milk & Cereal: Will You Miss Day/Night Cycles In TOR?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

In many ways, an MMO strives to simulate the real world. To a lot of folks, immersion is one of the most important factors in their enjoyment of the game. If something breaks that immersion, the game can become less and less appealing to a player. There are many aspects and layers to this immersion, but without a doubt one of the biggest contributors is the atmosphere of the game. The mood of the environment can be heavily influenced by the lighting in the game, and in many games over the years, developers have used a day and night cycle to help create that atmosphere. However, in Star Wars: The Old Republic, we already know that the day and night cycles will not be present:

Will a Day/Night cycle be in the game?
Daniel Erickson: No. It was a technical decision. Scenes look better if lighting is consistent.
James Ohlen: multiple worlds present in game with different # of suns/moons, so it became too difficult to make it work.

Keep in mind, this does not mean we will not see day and night in-game – in fact the developers have confirmed we will. All it means is that we will not see them dynamically changing at the same location/planet. The SW:TOR community has an ongoing thread about this matter, as well as a poll, that’s currently sitting at approximately 34% of people being unsatisfied with such a design decision.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of this, but I can definitely see BioWare’s stance. Given that the story element of the game is so important, they need to be able to more tightly control the way a player experiences it.  Anyway, time will show if BioWare made a good decision in this area of the game.

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Posted by Lethality | 3 Comments

SWTOR FTW Weekly: PAX, Consulars And Other Big Things

It’s time once again to kick back, relax, and review the week in TOR in style, courtesy of FTW Broadcasting!

This week we learn about BioWare’a plans for PAX later this month, plus get our look at the long-awaited Jedi Consular class video. Also, just what “one more big thing” might Game Diector James Ohlen be talking about?

All that and more in this edition of SWTOR FTW Weekly!

 

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Posted by Lethality | 2 Comments

SDCC 2011: James Ohlen Newsarama Interview – “One More Big Thing”

There’s bound to always be a straggler article or interview that crops up after a major convention, and today we got that from Newsarama in the form of an interview with Game Director, James Ohlen that was done during San Diego Comic-Con last month.

It’s a fairly general interview that meanders over topics like release date and quality but there was at least one quote worth pulling:

Newsarama: Obviously you can’t reveal all the secrets yet, and you’ll be releasing a steady stream of information until launch. Do you feel like you’ve held anything really big back, a ‘best for last’ sort of thing?

James Ohlen: We have some pretty exciting announcements that will be coming. I don’t think there’s anything on the level of PvP, Warzones, space battles or anything like that. Well, there’s one thing that might be at that level. Depends on what you like about the game, but it’s pretty exciting. Obviously I can’t go more into that, PR will kill me.

So, there you go. I wonder what Mr. Ohlen is holding back? There’s only a few more conventions suitable for a big reveal in the release window… stay tuned!

You can read the entire piece over at Newsarama.

 

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