Daniel Erickson: Well, we kind of showed that in there. When you saw the piece on Hutta, one of the things you might have noticed is that the main room where his people were that he was going in and out of, there was a visible barrier there.

We can’t go into how it all works, but we didn’t want to separate the player base. We definitely are not a… there have been some MMOs that are basically instanced games with common areas. We didn’t want to go there.

http://www.mmogamer.com/06/11/2009/a-new-hope-for-mmos

There's a cool ignore feature here ya know? Works great on people  you feel are trolling you.

Also thx for posting the article, I missed that one. xD

Nobody cares about trying. If they fail to avoid the business corner-cut known as instances I know a huge amount of people who will once again skip on this game.

Instances are bullshit and gamers need to show their feelings by not buying games with it.

Originally posted by Netzoko

Nobody cares about trying. If they fail to avoid the business corner-cut known as instances I know a huge amount of people who will once again skip on this game.

Instances are bullshit and gamers need to show their feelings by not buying games with it.

I believe instances are in many cases better if used correctly, and I know many others who would agree with me.  Its just the over-implementation of instances that ruins mmo's, which is precisely what the dev stated he wished to avoid.

Originally posted by Netzoko

Nobody cares about trying. If they fail to avoid the business corner-cut known as instances I know a huge amount of people who will once again skip on this game.

Instances are bullshit and gamers need to show their feelings by not buying games with it.

Yeah because everyone enjoys standing inline like at a themepark to wait to kill boss X. Everyone loves trying to send tells to the AFK camper(s) to ask them if you can have a turn like in the Geo caves, or Lord Nyax. Everybody likes when a group of punk asses steamroll thru and kill steal your mob you needed to finish the quest. Or agueing over who's turn it is to kill the dood on Mustafar so you can fisnish that lame quest.  Look, we all liked that old crappy system because it allowed people the ability to grief someone, I did it sometimes myself when people pissed me off, but it is lame and I can understand why some content would need to be instanced.

Good grief... if I just here the word STORY one more time...

The part where they said the bigger part is not instanced was good to hear. Still, I just can not imagine how a MMO can avoid the "kill 20 rats" type of quest, how it can be SO heroic. Really.

"Plus, there’s activities to do like for example, if you’re going to help the Smuggler, and you’re a Jedi-I can’t talk about the specific Jedi class, but there will be Jedi-there’ll be activities for that Jedi to do while the Smuggler is doing his quest, that will help him out."

Like WHAT? Call me dumb, but I cant imagine. Stand on the sideline as Cheerleader? Why is he so mysterious "help him out"? Fight alongside? Fight alone with something that helps? WHAT?

"They were people who liked the D&D combat, you know, and especially on their second playthrough they were like “Groooaaaaaan.”

And we’ve always known that those people have to be comfortable there, as well. If they want to form guilds, and have groups, and go after the best loot, and run around together… we have to make all of that available, we never want to take that away from them."

Good news. I like story, but all the time.

"Absolutely not. One of the things that we’ve always talked about, because the end-game is incredibly important to a lot of MMO players, if that’s your game, great. (great for EA's pocket purse...) That’s going to be there waiting for you."

Also good, I sorta feared once through the story it would be over. But how can a story driven MMO have an endgame??

I love that part about the more action combat. I mean its no FPS, but the dull EQ-pace (or WOW pace either) just got way too boring for me these days. A good interview I must say. Some interesting new facettes. Not that I am EVER going into the beta with all the rants and the "gay Jedi" ruckus, haha.  >:D

Well, the storyline is likely akin to Guild Wars. As you progress, you unlock further areas and content, which can then build upon your required storyline-status to create the illusion of storyline in normal quests (for example, you have to destroy a battleship before you ever are allowed to reach Planet X. When you reach Planet X, you get a quest : Kill 10 enemy troopers who escaped with a drop pod from the Battleship you destroyed recently, which gives you a slightly more immersed feeling, and allows Bioware to claim its all part of the storyline and doesnt need to be instanced... cause frankly, its just a better-packaged "Kill 10 Rats")

Then when the story is over, you can travel through the entire, or most of it, area the storyline took place in and just run around without story, until the next Patch or Expansion tacks on more, or starts a new one.

Endgame isnt going to be story-driven. The levelling process will be.

Originally posted by Netzoko

Nobody cares about trying. If they fail to avoid the business corner-cut known as instances I know a huge amount of people who will once again skip on this game.

Instances are bullshit and gamers need to show their feelings by not buying games with it.

LOL ... and the most successful MMORPG of all time have all the instance dungeons and raids.

I would take a instance dungeon any day any time compared to camping with 50 other people in line.

Originally posted by tillamook

Everybody likes when a group of punk asses steamroll thru and kill steal your mob you needed to finish the quest. Or agueing over who's turn it is to kill the dood on Mustafar so you can fisnish that lame quest.  Look, we all liked that old crappy system because it allowed people the ability to grief someone, I did it sometimes myself when people pissed me off, but it is lame and I can understand why some content would need to be instanced.

What you mean is killsteal. I cannot understand why would any p2p mmo still using this feature ( Aion). Its lame. It could easily be solve by tagging the mob, aka wat other mmo have done.

Personally i hate instances to the degree of AoC, War and EQ2. Too much instances for me.  So if its anything like, im out.

Do it like what WoW have done, that way in dungeons no group can take away your raid boss too....

Instances are the only way to really manage game play and prevent alot of really dumb problems most non instance games have.

No one likes being ganked while fighting a boss, thats why raid instances were developed, WoW was a developement of looking at all the problems EQ had in making a game so elitest that it made every one that wasn't in the in crowd unable to play endgame. Non instances would be great if they actually could do it with out the Tagging system which just promotes classes with instant ranged abilities from tagging mobs first.

The masses have spoken, they like their games fun and with instances. Sorry all the games you apparently like died in the 90s.

Originally posted by Punkre

 

The masses have spoken, they like their games fun and with instances. Sorry all the games you apparently like died in the 90s.

What, so you mean we're never getting a Beneath a Steel Sky 2? Argh! (But as I'm writing this, I suddenly remembered they were actually talking of such a project so, who knows?)

Indeed culturally very few things ever die, and if a style of work is truly loved, you can bet it's going to come back at one time or another. It may not go mianstream again, but it's gonna be there for its fans - or, at least I hope so.  The Monkey Island games I loved so much are coming back, aren't they? :)

On topic: I'm OK with instances as long as they're used smartly and sparingly. The new mainstream MMO motto seems to be big and inclusive as opposed to tight and exclusive, so it's no surprise big companies are going to try and balance story with power gamers; large open PVP with personal, customized PVE; and perhaps grindability with casual play.  

Originally posted by NecroHelium

Daniel Erickson: Well, we kind of showed that in there. When you saw the piece on Hutta, one of the things you might have noticed is that the main room where his people were that he was going in and out of, there was a visible barrier there.

We can’t go into how it all works, but we didn’t want to separate the player base. We definitely are not a… Guildwars?, AOC?  there have been some MMOs that are basically instanced games with common areas. We didn’t want to go there.

 

http://www.mmogamer.com/06/11/2009/a-new-hope-for-mmos

This is very hopeful news. We might just be able to overrun unsuspecting jedi's with landspeeders then.

If you read the interview he meant that Jedi will be able to do thing to advance his own goals, not just the smuggler's while on his quests.

I'd personally love to see how they move away from the 'kill 10 rats' theory of questing, but like they dais, if you've played a Bioware rpg, you get the idea of what's in store.

Unless you discover some brand new MMORPG mechanics, there is no better ( or other) way to prevent spawn camping, kill stealing, unwanted pvp griefing, etc.

The danger is that a world that is too instanced doesn't feel massive. I'm looking at you, AoC and DDO. People don't want to feel like rats in a cage going from one instance box to another.

Originally posted by abbaba

 

Unless you discover some brand new MMORPG mechanics, there is no better ( or other) way to prevent spawn camping, kill stealing, unwanted pvp griefing, etc.

Why would anybody want to prevent those? ^_^

The danger is that a world that is too instanced doesn't feel massive. I'm looking at you, AoC and DDO. People don't want to feel like rats in a cage going from one instance box to another.

Very much agree there.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by abbaba

 

Unless you discover some brand new MMORPG mechanics, there is no better ( or other) way to prevent spawn camping, kill stealing, unwanted pvp griefing, etc.

Why would anybody want to prevent those? ^_^

The danger is that a world that is too instanced doesn't feel massive. I'm looking at you, AoC and DDO. People don't want to feel like rats in a cage going from one instance box to another.

Very much agree there.

 

/signed

I didnt like that about AoC or DDO a bit.

In my opinion, all the nuisances that come from a non-instanced game outweigh the downfalls of a heavy instanced game. Until someone finds a good middle ground, I prefer the latter.

I think it’s a psychological issue for some. I think if a game is good enough and draws you in, the fact that you are separated from other players for a short time will have less of an impact. Also the fact that you don’t see it happen, via loading screen. If the game flows, it makes it easier to go along with it. After all it is a game, not real life.

Public areas are not going away from MMOs. Just because some companies did it differently, does not mean everyone will. There will always be those players in the bar or cantina who talk about college finals coming up, or about how their GF and them are breaking up irl. I don’t see BioWare putting a stop to that by limiting public areas, if anything they will just add better tools for those who wish to block it out. So for those of you who enjoy listening to that, you’ll be able to, those who want to block it out, can do so easily.

If I wanna go outside the Hutt Palace and blast some critters, or cut down the NPC loitering outside looking to try and rip me off, I can. Wide open public areas are gonna make up the majority of what you see in TOR. Thought they may look like a painting, the hills you see in the distance in the screenshots, you can go there.
 

Note the Radar towers in the distance? (scroll over)

That was a good interview.

-It confirmed raids

-Evolving endgame content

and there is something fishy about Sith/Jedi classes, something unexpected I think.

Originally posted by Cody1174

That was a good interview.

-It confirmed raids

-Evolving endgame content

and there is something fishy about Sith/Jedi classes, something unexpected I think.

Yeah, I'm getting that as well. I don't wanna say unlock, but something about why they aren't saying anything about it. I wonder if it's a random roll?

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by Cody1174

That was a good interview.

-It confirmed raids

-Evolving endgame content

and there is something fishy about Sith/Jedi classes, something unexpected I think.

 

Yeah, I'm getting that as well. I don't wanna say unlock, but something about why they aren't saying anything about it. I wonder if it's a random roll?

My guess is the sith and jedi classes are in fact the same class, you just choose which side to align with at the beginning.  In the faq section of their main page they specifically say you start allied with a particular side depending what class you are... then they say "At least for now."  I think the possibility of not only being able to go dark and light side, but maybe even alliance switches is quite possible.

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by Cody1174

That was a good interview.

-It confirmed raids

-Evolving endgame content

and there is something fishy about Sith/Jedi classes, something unexpected I think.

 

Yeah, I'm getting that as well. I don't wanna say unlock, but something about why they aren't saying anything about it. I wonder if it's a random roll?

Why did the word "Deathknight" come to my mind here :S

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by Cody1174

That was a good interview.

-It confirmed raids

-Evolving endgame content

and there is something fishy about Sith/Jedi classes, something unexpected I think.

 

Yeah, I'm getting that as well. I don't wanna say unlock, but something about why they aren't saying anything about it. I wonder if it's a random roll?

Personally, I think it'll be a sort of "Force Sensitive" Class on both sides where you then have your allegiance. 

Anyone else notice that the HoloNet has "Factions" and "Allegiance" as two seperate topics? Goes hand in hand with them saying you can be a "good" Jedi on the Sith side and a Dark Jedi on the republic side etc. 

Makes me wonder if other factions will be introduced.

Originally posted by Caldicot

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by Cody1174

That was a good interview.

-It confirmed raids

-Evolving endgame content

and there is something fishy about Sith/Jedi classes, something unexpected I think.

 

Yeah, I'm getting that as well. I don't wanna say unlock, but something about why they aren't saying anything about it. I wonder if it's a random roll?

 

Why did the word "Deathknight" come to my mind here :S

Again people jump to conclusions based off of a poorly worded sentence.  Wait and see, quit the speculation people.

 I already read that but it's nice of you to post it here.

I think it's one of the best interviews as it gives the clear message there will be story but 2 main designers are big fans of RAIDS and are kind of achievers players.

So from that article you can guess they are doing their best to have content for most kind of players.

Now wait and see for the non combat part.