May 5, 2011

Posted by | 2 Comments

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

Read More
Apr 15, 2011

Posted by | 12 Comments

New Warzone Revealed? The Voidstar + Extended Release Into 2012?

German MMO gaming magazine buffed.de has pubished a short preview of The Old Republic in their latest issue, and in the process revealed a new Warzone: The Voidstar

While the piece is understandably entirely in German, our friend Google helps us out on the translation surrounding The Voidstar:

War zones, these are the PvP battle-fields translated in The Old Republic. Long-Up was only one known and that the civil war on Alderaan (more on page 18), but now Bioware still the PvP battlefield”The Voidstar” announced interred, which will provide a Conquestmode. More will follow as we lead designer told PvP month, Gabe.

It seems this may have been some information learned at the recent London press event, as we know Gabe Amatangelo was in attendance.

Part of the translation seems to indicate a “conquest” formatted Warzone.

A potentially more disturbing Google translation would be about the release date:

Star Wars license to the top dog WoW defy? This is the central question as to which moves the community. Expected to achieve appears the sci-fi MMO in the second half of 2011 and no later than early 2012.

Clearly a rough translation… but 2012 is clear. Does that mean that the game will possibly not ship until early next year? We may have almost a year to go, if true.

via DarthHater.com

 

Read More
Dec 15, 2010

Posted by | 5 Comments

Jedi Classes – Hands-On Roundup!

Although Ask A Jedi was unable to be a part of all of the hands-on festivities that surrounded the EA Winter Showcase, we want to be able to bring you all of the great coverage that is breaking today around the web!

Is there one we missed somewhere? Let us know in the comments below, and we’ll add it to the list!

Read More
Nov 5, 2010

Posted by | 0 Comments

Friday Update: EA Winter Showcase Edition – Warzones

Today’s Friday update for the official Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, as suspected, ties in with the reveals we’re learning about from the EA Winter Showcase in the UK.

BioWare has released a 2-minute long gameplay video of the Alderaan Warzone! To say this was a long time coming would be an understatement, and no doubt has pleased many TOR fans!

High in the mountains, both sides fight for control of Alderaan’s massive planetary defense cannon—a weapon powerful enough to devastate an enemy’s fleet and ensure domination over the planet’s skies.

Click here to watch the warzone video, and check out the screen shots below!

Don’t forget to follow all of our EA Winter Showcase coverage here.

Read More
Nov 5, 2010

Posted by | 0 Comments

EA Winter Showcase: Crafting and PvP Warzones

The wraps on the EA Winter Showcase have just been lifted, and it looks like TOR fans are going to get some info they’ve long been waiting for!  GameSpot has posted their impressions on Crafting and PvP Warzones.

On Crafting:

As Christine puts it, more or less, it doesn’t make sense for a badass Darth Vader-like Sith to skin womp rats for a new pair of boots in between conquering worlds. And, so, the coherent fictional basis for crafting is the crew skills system. “You are the hero,” says Christine. “You make your crew work for you.”

So it looks like your companions will be your crafters… this has been speculated on before and it looks like it’s true.

On Warzones:

In warzones, player immersion is kept intact with what Amatangelo calls “a visceral coat of paint” to dress up the points-based progress and other game-y elements considered immersion breaking.

There’s a 3 minute video interview with Gabe Amatangelo, Lead PvP Designer at BioWare. It contains quite a bit of info regarding the Alderaan Warzone… be sure to check it out!

We’ll have more in-depth coverage throughout the day, as we break down the details being released from the various media outlets in attendance.

Coverage around the web:

SWTOR.com – Warzones Trailer
Ask A Jedi: Friday Update: EA Winter Showcase Edition: Warzones
GameSpot – Impressions: Warzones and Crafting (video included)
Darth Hater – Details on SWTOR Warzones and Crafting Revealed

Read More