newsfeed: Space Combat May Be On Rails

[Miltiades]

But, hey, I get to fly in an invisible tunnel piloting Slave I... 3000 years before it was even developed.

What'd you expect? We already knew we would get to fly a Tie Fighter and X-Wing 3000 years before anyone had ever seen one. Besides, after we got Boba Fett, Clone Troopers and Darth Vader in TOR, this shouldn't surprise you.

[adamqd]

Boba Fett, Clone Troopers and Darth Vader in TOR, this shouldn't surprise you.

 

Lol, I'm actually warming up to tOR, but this^^ is so definitely true hehe

[SW01]

Personally, I haven't been fond at all of the notion of limiting certain species to crtain classes, now it seems to be the case for ships as well? Granted it is not perhaps as bad as the former, but...

 

The designs really aren't surprising. That the Ebon Hawk type is not more similar to the Millenium Falcon is a shock.

[darthfergie]

The designs really aren't surprising. That the Ebon Hawk type is not more similar to the Millenium Falcon is a shock.

 

I point you back to Tommycat's post:

"As for the ships, Those were guesses by the magazine, not the actual ships. Except the Sith and Jedi ones."

 

The article itself has a whole ton of speculation in it that probably did more to misinform than to help.

[dswtor]

I dont think its going to be on rails. i think its just going to be semi instanced space. eventually they probably will have free roam space.

[darthfergie]

I dont think its going to be on rails. i think its just going to be semi instanced space. eventually they probably will have free roam space.

 

Hopefully if they take the user backlash into account we'll get free roam space. Forums all over the place haven't been too friendly to their announcement it would be a tunnel shooter.

 

Bioware has been pretty interested in listening to their users so far and that early announcement was a good testing of the waters. They've pretty much received the mandate that a tunnel shooter isn't good enough. We shall see.

[Tommycat]

I'm actually more disappointed that it's single player. One of the best things about JTL was being able to work as a team to take things out. Figuring out tactics to take out a corvette solo was great, but getting a group together to enter Deep Space and "patrolling" the area was awesome.

 

Though I really would prefer free roaming... I like the choice of saying "Whoops I didn't bring enough firepower... Lemme run outta range, and take em on one at a time."

[Alexrd]

Yep, it's on rails.

[Rinku]

So we are getting a glorified star fox..........

 

If you look closely you see most of the ships, which are not that creative....

[darthfergie]

Yep.

 

It looks slick, but you can definitely tell it's star fox style rails.

 

However as much as I like my star fox, one of my favorite things to do on Star Fox 64 was the practice mode that was 360 degree free flight.

[adamqd]

I dont want to bring up SWG again lol, but the thing that made Space (And in fact ground) boring to me was that there was like 1,000,000 sq light-years of Space... and 14 Players, it was mind-numbingly boring, like real life, but boring. Sometimes you just gotta let game designers show you the hot spots

[Alexrd]

I think the problem is that they not only show you the hot spots, but they force you to be on the freeway.

[TKA-001]

I dont want to bring up SWG again lol, but the thing that made Space (And in fact ground) boring to me was that there was like 1,000,000 sq light-years of Space... and 14 Players, it was mind-numbingly boring, like real life, but boring. Sometimes you just gotta let game designers show you the hot spots

SWG's space combat was hideously bad for reasons completely unrelated to it being "off the rails".

[adamqd]

I disagree, the ships, the level of detail, POB's, were great, there was just nothing of any interest to do in a vast sand box.. Now putting it on Rails will not necessarily solve all problems SWG had with space, but it will have to be better than SWG.

 

and by the way, please explain what was so bad and unrelated to being "Off the rails", or are you just happy being of the opinion that I'm wrong lol

[Alexrd]

I disagree, the ships, the level of detail, POB's, were great, there was just nothing of any interest to do in a vast sand box..

 

This. Space is one of the best things SWG has, and the only big problem is the lack of people on those huge maps.

[Rinku]

Yep.

 

It looks slick, but you can definitely tell it's star fox style rails.

 

However as much as I like my star fox, one of my favorite things to do on Star Fox 64 was the practice mode that was 360 degree free flight.

 

Don't get me wrong I like Star Fox, but if I want Star Fox style space combat I will play Star Fox. Now maybe this will be a bit more complex, but from the video I am not expecting much.

[Nedak]

I disagree, the ships, the level of detail, POB's, were great, there was just nothing of any interest to do in a vast sand box.. Now putting it on Rails will not necessarily solve all problems SWG had with space, but it will have to be better than SWG.

 

and by the way, please explain what was so bad and unrelated to being "Off the rails", or are you just happy being of the opinion that I'm wrong lol

Tell that to the people that play EvE.

[adamqd]

I have no idea what eve is or how it relates to my comments, so I would be hesitant to tell them anything

[Nedak]

You're saying that Sandbox Space games are boring...correct?

[adamqd]

nope, that sand box space games with no content or players are

 

Its like the ground game too, with enough players its bearable, but I reactivated a Toon on swg a couple of days back for the **** of it... There were 2 people in the PVP zone, an AFK entertainer in the "Busiest" cantina... You see, the company rely on us to make the entertainment, thats why I champion Bioware for not leaving everything in our hands, because if theres not 80 people in the same area as you, we still have something to do

[TKA-001]

I disagree, the ships, the level of detail, POB's, were great, there was just nothing of any interest to do in a vast sand box.. Now putting it on Rails will not necessarily solve all problems SWG had with space, but it will have to be better than SWG.

 

and by the way, please explain what was so bad and unrelated to being "Off the rails", or are you just happy being of the opinion that I'm wrong lol

With pleasure lol. Space combat in SWG was a disgraceful drag in all of my experiences in it. Solo missions were painfully slow and unexciting, despite the admittedly lovely graphics. Once I got behind an NPC fighter, it was nothing but slowly flying in a circle, hammering away at its shields for an obscenely long period of time before it finally exploded, and I could repeat until the mission was complete. Even on the few occasions I was able to team up with other guys for these missions, it was the same experience - except larger.

 

It wasn't anything like the X-wing/TIE Fighter series, one of a few game series that epitomizes ideal space combat simulation to date. Xw/Tf enemy AI was intelligent (unlike the slow straight line-flying chumps in Rogue Squadron II and onward), different starships had significantly different capabilities, and combat was fast-paced and fluid. It was surprising to me that SWG wasn't just as good, since as an RPG, it came with the ability to customize your ship and whatnot.

 

Although starships in Galaxies were apparently customizable up to their ears, I never observed that making any real difference. The only thing that seemed to make a difference in who would win at space battles was your level. The main reason enemy fighters took so bloody long for me to kill seemed to be at least half based on the fact that my level of experience in the pilot skill tree was not significantly higher than them. And, as mentioned earlier, combat consisted of very little other than flying around in a circle after something until it dies.

 

Epitomizing the sheer ludicrousness of the whole thing was the time I went with a bunch of guildmates on a little adventure aboard a VT-49 Decimator one of them owned. For the uninformed, a Decimator was one of the largest ships available at that time in the game (and it might still be), bristling with weapon ports, beautifully spacious on the inside, and of course pimped out with custom parts to the max. I was a gunner. We took this warship into one of the space PvP zones (because it makes perfect sense that Rebel and Imperial players can only fight in a certain star system), blew up some AI fighters, and had a good time doing it. You can imagine my excitement when we spotted an enemy player-controlled B-wing enter the area. You can also imagine my Bull**** Meter going off the scale when said B-wing demolished our ship in three shots.

 

As far as I know, space combat in SWG has never had any significant updates since then, except for the addition of prequel-era ships for advertisement purposes and the like. So yeah, SWG's space combat is bad because it's boring, repetitive, and shamelessly unbalanced. Whether it's on rails or not is a different can of meat and potatoes entirely.

[adamqd]

I concur

[Nedak]

nope, that sand box space games with no content or players are

 

Its like the ground game too, with enough players its bearable, but I reactivated a Toon on swg a couple of days back for the **** of it... There were 2 people in the PVP zone, an AFK entertainer in the "Busiest" cantina... You see, the company rely on us to make the entertainment, thats why I champion Bioware for not leaving everything in our hands, because if theres not 80 people in the same area as you, we still have something to do

 

Misread your post! Carry on.

 

[JediAthos]

I'm seeing some love for this type of combat...and that's all well and good, but you'll not be seeing any from me. After seeing the video I like it less than before I saw the video. It reminds me of shooters from ten years ago except in 3D. In my humble opinion Bioware dropped the ball on this one...this type of stuff belongs in the Clone Wars Adventures game..not TOR,

[The-Seraphim]

Omg! its the Lego Star Wars Battle over Coruscant only in high tech graphics!

 

-_-