The Old Republic

[misrossk]

The Old Republic is the rumored name for the new Bioware SW MMO. Its also rumored to obviously take place in the Kotor setting so that leaves alot of open space for the devs to work with. This is a golden idea by a very creative person on the Bioware forums about how the MMO should run.

 

 

 

Quote: Posted 08/10/08 02:09 (GMT) by dsteve3

 

What kind of character do you want to play? Do you want to schmooze? Or tinker? Or explore?

 

Everyone is going to have to fight on occassion. I would suggest hit-and-run be the standard; slaughtering mobs should be unheard-of.

 

So no 'tanks-dps-AoE-CC-healers'. Everyone should have a real-world identity.

 

Reputation is a far, far better point-based system then levels. Look at the real world and think about reputation. Want a promotion? Want to get into the exclusive club? Want to do the fancy stuff? What's your rep and with whom?

 

I don't like 'classes' because anyone who has studied anthropology will tell you that Castes are a greater reality. Sometimes societies de-evolve into structures where individuals are labelled by their birth-right. Modern day MMOs are too chicken to use that.

 

So it boils down to what you want to do. I suspect most people will by 'hybirds'.

 

Schmooz: hang out with others in your immediate proximity and convince them to go your way. I think there is more potential here if we really look at the big history of the Star Wars galaxy. Control of the Galactic Senate is not as hard as it may seem; at least for a short while.

 

Tinker: make components, graduate to an understanding of parts then assemblies until you get that you can take apart the whole ship and know where every piece goes. Then, once you have mastered that, you can design ... "Science!" (Magnus Pike)

 

Explorer: thousands of systems means an intricate web of space routes. Whats the fastest way between here and there? Don't go to some website to find out, hire an explorer! Whats happenning out in that wierd trinary-star system that is sooo hard to navigate? Hire an explorer to find out! The info will be very valuable.

 

Remember; the schmoozers can only schmooz with those that are nearby. They need explorers to carry them around to convince others in other places (thousands of worlds...). The explorers will need tinkers to keep the machines running. Every thing breaks, and every breakdown means replacement parts. Tinkers need schmoozers to get the best prices/availability/quality.

 

(/quote legendlore)

This guy is on the right track of where the MMO should be. I believe that along with this stuff this guy posted, there should be full customization. SWG at release was heading the right direction for a SW mmo when it comes to skills/classes, but this MMO should go even further when it comes to class customization. Here is an example. There should 100s or even 1000s of seperate skills. These skills should range from being crafting related to social related to combat related. Here are few skills I can think up right now: repairing engines, repairing droids, ship piloting, pistol weapons, rifle weapons, carbine weapons, melee weapons, thrown projectiles, dancing, singing, entertainment, group leading, mobility, social awareness, weaponary control, party control, droid repair, ship repair, ship constuction, structural repair, building structures, droid maintaince(sry for spelling), exploration, leadership, influncal leadership, searching, guidance, weaponary repair, armor smelting, weapon smelting, weaponary control, armor fitting, force control, force sensitvity(maybe), force points etc...

Also, having the basic general attributes would be great as well, such as vitality, strength etc..

I should be able to make a Bounty Hunter who is good at repairing droids and decent at being able to treat people medically. I should be able to make a soldier who is decent at using rifles but not so great at using pistols, and he could be force sensivtive enough to wield it in my normal soldier routines. I should be able to make a character who has enough points in different areas of force sensistivity that I can be considered a jedi. Finally, I should be able to make a Force sensistive character who is great at flying ships and repairing droids who also happens to be good at dancing. I believe that we should be given a certain amount of points to spend on very specific and numerous skill and ablilties. That way, everyone will be very unqiue and everyone would feel different. There should not be any levels or predefined classes with roles like in WoW. Gaining experiance(however you can do it) would be based on what skill you were using to do what you were doing. So, if I repaired a droid, I should be able to put a point in Droid repair or anything that has something to do with droid repair such at droid maintance.

 

As stated earlier, I don't think that a character in this new MMO should be defined as a "class". It should be your choice of what skills/abilities you want your character to have. If this is the way it is done, having jedi as a "starting" class would no longer be a problem, since the specific skills and abilities for a "jedi-like class" would be seperate from each other and would require a combination of seperate specific skills in order to even consider happening. Of course, since the skills are specific and seperate, it would take time before you could reach that "state"(for lack of a better word, NO CLASSES). Also, since the skills are so specific and unique, you could make your "state" different from everyone else. For example you could have a character who is good and controling the force (lots of possible force powers to choose from), but cannot use it very effectivly (could mean not having alot of force points to use a force power), or having a character who is good and using the force effectivly and also being skilled with using a pistol.(includes pistol specifics such as pistol accuracy). All of the skills and abilities should not be defined by a class. And NONE OF IT SHOULD BE DEFINED BY A LEVEL. Please please please, do not add levels into this game. SWG's "levelless" enviorment made it feel like we were actually in the Star Wars Universe. Skills should ALL be UNIQUE and SPECFIC, because this is what most MMO players want: to be different from everyone else. Star Wars Galaxies was going in the right direction of what I am talking about. Although it had classes, they could still be combined with other classes like having a Rifleman/Medic, or Pistoleer/Squadleader. My idea is going futher beyond SWG's ideas and making things even more unique for players. I know its very unsusal, but MMO players like complexity in a MMO, if it is done right. People love WoW because its full of content, from beginning to end. WoW has classes with defined rolls, without any real unique feeling to it. Your just like the other druid in your group only you can cast spells better than he can. Make this VERY unqiue. Bioware, lots of players worldwide are looking to you right now to save them from the horror of SWG and streamline, cookiecutter MMOs like WoW. We all have faith in you, and you have never let us down. This entire community has created a 24 page thread discussing your new MMO, Bioware. Your pretty much (for most) our last hope for a great MMO.

[Yar-El]

Whatever happened to the whole surprise idea? A game is a form of entertainment. It's purpose is to allow people the satisfaction of having fun. Why all the expectations?

[Endorenna]

Personally, I like having classes. However, I think it'd be great to be able to have--say--two different classes on the same character. Then my Sith Lord could heal herself and her friends and STILL own everything with her lightning!

[Sir Vougalot]

I don't know. Being called The Old Republic doesn't mean it necessarily has to take place around the time of KOTOR (though it probably will). The "Old Republic" era spans 24,000 years, from 25,000 to 1,000 BBY, so there's lots of room there. It'd be cool if the stories from this game took place all throughout that enormous timeline, though I doubt that will happen.

[SD Nihil]

By MMO do you mean massive multiplayer online? As in World of Warcraft type MMO? So not a KOTOR3? I am interested if they plan to upgrade the engine for the game. Because the KOTOR 1 and 2 games were done to where they could run on the last gen xbox console. So last gen quality. I'm interested to see if they plan to make the game of current gen quality and technology.

[mattig89ch]

yup, thats exactly what he means. Like WOW this will be an mmo. I know i'm not going to get it, its just not worth it.

[Obi-Wan Bologna]

So anybody really know much about it? Will it be on the 360 as well as PC? That might be cool. Any info on it would be appreciated.

 

 

I'm back, and hopefully not leaving again.

[Chevron 7 locke]

It will most likely only be released for the PC, i'm not positive but call it a hunch

[Obi-Wan Bologna]

All I know is I hope they put it on the 360 cause I don't have much of a computer to play it on. So unless they put it on the 360, I won't be able to enjoy it.

[Yar-El]

I know I read this online; however, I would only take it as rumor. SWTOR is currently only for pc; nevertheless, they are not 100% locking out other consoles. They are not looking into that avenue as of yet.

[Rev7]

^

As far as I know, MMOs are played on the PC....

[Da_man]

I believe Shadow run was a MMORPG that was on the PS3, X360, and PC. And were all interconnected. However, I believe some of the designers said that they were sticking with just a PC version.

[Ztalker]

Nope, Shadowrun was an online shooter. It miserably failed, because PC users had too buy a X-box live account in order to play the game to the fullest (i.e. search for friends etc).

 

On a side note, X-Box and PC-gamers COULD fight eachother in the game.

 

PS: WoW has gotten achievements in it's latest patch. Maybe it's a sign for the future? WoW isn't graphically heavy, so it CAN run on a 360. The only problem is you'd need to wire up a keyboard and you need some new payment method for the X-Box users.

[Blix]

FFXI was made for the PS2, 360, and PC, although it's an MMORPG (still Massively Multiplayer Online).