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Star Wars: The Old Republic Previews: Space Combat Preview
With just a few short days until Early Access, we're taking a look at space combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic in this latest preview. Do a barrel roll, and then leave a comment or two below!
By Michael Bitton on December 09, 2011
With just a couple of days before Early Access, I imagine that most of you reading this have either tried space combat for yourself or have seen it in the many videos available online. But just in case, today we’ll be taking a look at space, and more specifically, space combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Before you can start doing barrel rolls, you’ll have to acquire your ship, and this doesn’t occur until around level 16 or 17 or so. Depending on your class, you’ll receive your ship in a variety of different ways, but all classes will receive their ship at the same point, coinciding with the completion of their capital world story content (Coruscant or Dromund Kaas). Ships in SW:TOR serve as your home base; your Ebon Hawk, basically. You can interact with companions on your ship, manage your bank (cargo hold), initiate important story cutscenes, and of course, do space combat.
Once you acquire and get acclimated with your ship, you can begin taking space combat missions from a terminal just behind your Captain’s Chair. Your first interaction with this terminal will feature full voiced over dialogue similar to any of the game’s other quests, and this dialogue basically sets up why you’d be flying in space combat missions in the first place, but once you’ve cleared this part you’ll be treated to standard MMO-style quest text boxes when acquiring future missions.
There is a quest progression to space combat content and each mission is full of explosive action and dramatic setpieces similar to the scenes found in the films. Many, if not all of the missions are repeatable, though there may be a cooldown involved in repeating some particular quests. Space combat is a fairly viable way of accruing experience and credits as well. I managed to almost gain a full level just going through the first round of missions available to me. You won’t be instantly able to complete all the missions once you receive your ship, however. Later missions are tuned in such a way that you’ll want your ship to be upgraded a certain amount, and each tier of upgrades is gated by player level requirements.
Speaking of upgrades, you can upgrade your ship, but only statistically. Like your own character, your ship has its own character sheet complete with a robust number of slots that can be fitted with upgrades. These upgrades can range anywhere from increased missile packages to EMP emitters. Your ship will always look the same (inside and out) however, so if you’re expecting some sort of visual progression, you’ll be disappointed here. Upgrades can be purchased from appropriate vendors using credits, though some of the more powerful upgrades require Fleet Commendations, essentially tokens earned via the completion of space combat quests. In addition to upgrades for your ship, you can also earn special titles and spend Fleet Commendations on a fully modifiable pilot suit.
Space combat itself is a fairly simple affair. If you’ve played games like StarFox, or more recently, the family-friendly MMO Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, you’ll be right at home. Basically, the experience is on rails (though there are supposedly forked areas of the missions where you can choose to go down different paths). Movement is controlled via mouse and keyboard, though movement is basically limited to side to side as well as up and down the screen. Combat is as simple as clicking your mouse and pressing space to do a barrel roll in order to avoid enemy fire. Left clicking fires your lasers, while right clicking fires your missiles. There is a four slot hotbar available as well, and this space is reserved for using certain upgrades you can acquire for your ship later in the game, such as the ability to divert power away from your lasers to shields, or vice-versa.
All things considered, space combat is a fun, but shallow experience. It basically amounts to nothing more than a minigame, and for a Star Wars game, this is a bit of a disappointment. There isn’t a whole lot ‘MMO’ about what BioWare has done with space combat; it’s limited to singleplayer, and doesn’t really tie into the rest of the game beyond a few trinkets and titles. A fun distraction, but this writer certainly hopes BioWare will do more with the feature post-launch. The possibilities are as limitless as space itself.
I personally think that their space experience is a big slap in the face. I'd rather nothing at all than this.
I found it a fun little arcade type "getaway", really nothing more. Hope they do some major work in this part of the game.
I think it will be a fun diversion and I'm looking forward to giving it a go. From the sounds of it, all of it is optional, so those that don't like it won't be forced to participate.
i t hink they should scrap space and redo it as a total sandbox thing. allow people to customize their ship inside with furniture and stuff... allow guests, etc. you know... basically, housing
plus a feature to have your ship come pick you up in the wild any time, rather than have to run back to a hangar far away.
I have to agree with you on this, I feel they missed an opportunity to make this very impressive. But I feel it was thrown in as an after thought and because had they really made a good job of this it would of thrown the release date back at least another 12 months or so and they don't have that option as they bound to be under pressure to make money hence the crap we are left with in space...I'm sure if enough people complain about it then they will be forced to do something with it and the people who have early access need to voice their concerns early with this to get them to either respond or move on it.
I WILL BE BANGING THE DRUM FOR SURE!!
In principle this does annoy me. It could have been so much more. Not to mention I *have* been waiting for an X3 sort of MMO gameplay for a long time, and with the scale of production Bioware is capable of, we could have had some quality space sim gameplay here. Such a pity.
On the other hand, I have to admit I did enjoy it as a diversion in the beta. I guess it's taken me to the old days, like 80s to early 90s, to the original Star Wars arcade space combat game and Rebel Assault, so some part of me was giddy with nostalgia. :)
For once I agree with the review on Space Combat. I have to say that Space Combat is nothing more then an after-thought in SWTOR. While it can eat up some time and yes it can provide some rewards, it also gets very boring very quickly and has little challenge to it. Given that you really only have a few choices you can make (and flying is not one of them) it becomes a repetitive side game at best.
One major improvement they could have made would have been to at least design in a freedom of movement to the whole thing. Currently, you follow a pre-set path in which you are given a variety of missions. Those missions can be to ensure the safety or that a ship is not destroyed to killing "X" number of targets....be they ships, turrets or hangars. You can only accomplish this while you "fly" a pre-set path. The only "movement" you have is minor to target objectives that fall within that path. This means that if you miss that one mission critical item or items, there is little chance you will see it again and thus fail. Some mission paths do take you over the same "ground" more then once, but here again you can't choose when or how many times.
Bottom line, space combat in SWTOR is more like a roller-coaster in space. You can ride many times, but eventually it just gets repetitive.
Right , talk about the worst part of the game, space combat cira 1990 console games. Trying to sugar coat their design is a complete waste of time. It is what it is. Even SWG space combat was light years beyond what they are offering in this game.
Oh and lightspeed was always popular in SWG, people still played SWG for years after NGE just to play the space portion as they fortunately did not change that part.
Star Wars is just NOT Star Wars without decent space combat. Hence ground play can never make up for the damaged design.
There are entire games based on space combat (EVE) and people wanted a full MMO base and indepth space combat game tied into one? SWTOR would have to had spent maybe another year in development to achieve this to my best guess. The space combat is overly simple and offers no real game breaking points and it can also be a fun little time sink if you are not so stuck on it not being a full game in it's own right.
SWTOR didn't have to put in space combat the game without it would stand up perfectly fine. What is a real slap in the face is Bioware hearing the depend and trying to give the community something instead of nothing only to be stoned for their efforts.
Remember this day when Bioware doesn't listen to player requests and ask yourself why.
It's a TUNNEL shooter. With a rail shooter, you can't smash into an asteroid and lose half your HP. In this game, you can, and one collision is usually enough to keep you from completing the mission.
It's a fun little distraction. The XP is a nice bonus and can easily make up for the XP you don't get if you don't complete the Kill X mob bonus quests. Commendation rewards are pretty weak, though, IMO.
I'd have preferred an updated, FASTER MOVING JtL. But for what it is, it's fun.
I think that the space combat in TOR leaves a lot to be desired, if you compare it to something like EVE or really any other fully fledged space game, but it's really a very minor and optional part of the game. Your ship is far more important currently as simply a "house", a means to travel around, and as a base place to have interactions with your companion.
Ultimately, I think what they were really trying to achieve is a way to round out the cinematic experience they are trying to create in TOR, which is why they keep referencing the movies when they talk about design choices. They wanted the game to play like one of the movies as much as possible, and in the movies, space battles are all about explosions and fighters swooping past big ships and asteroids with gun fire all over the place. That's pretty much what the mini-game delivers. You play it as if you are watching one of the movies, and by limiting the vastness of space and directing the player, they can keep the action fast and furious.
Is that a good design choice? Not so sure really. But, I think it is a valid choice, and I think they are trying to make something people will enjoy. If people hate it, no doubt they will expand on it, because I believe Bioware wants to create a fun game.
So you´re asking for a¨copy and paste¨ of the swg space combat?. No. in swtor atm is just a minigame, but is really fun and a great way to make some extra credits and earn experience, and even when is a rail shooter like starfox, is full of action and it looks like a starwars movie. And we will some improvements in the space combat in the future, Pvp?, Multiplayer missions?, Guildships?, the game is not even out, poeple need to learn to be patient and some point.
Certainly more could have been done with space combat...but as someone who has read a few books and seen all the movies.... I dont think its a big part of the space opera that is Star Wars. The initial game is fine imo. It leaves something for them to expand into further down the road as well...
Never cared much for space part of Star Wars anyways. Even in the movies it wasn't a major part like say Star trek.
there's also a preview here
http://torwars.com/2011/12/08/space-combat-video-balosar-outpost/
As someone who loves rail shooters like Panzer Dragoon and Star Fox I really really like it. Although I don't really care about the longevity of this game because I think I won't be able to play it longer than 2 months. I could see in the long run people wanting something much deeper.
The whole "own spaceship" is also just thrown in.
Your spaceship is nothing more than an empty shell to transport you from Planet A to Planet B and a storage locker (aka personal bank).
When I was in the Beta weekend two weeks ago and finally got my spaceship, I was all excited! ..........till I entered it, walked around .......and discovered it offered absolutely NOTHING! /sigh
So I agree too! I really hope they going to work on this Big Time!
from my play in beta, I found some of the space combat like the bombing runs in Warcraft. I was really hopeing we could freely fly around space or the planets.
It is an amusing past time when you need a break from questing, but nowhere near as good as it could've been if they'd gone the JTL/Xwing route.
expansion 1 :)
I will be subscribing to both SWTOR and Eve Online.
I think it's good that Eve Online is getting some serious competition at last - I think CCP became complacent from 2006 until recently.
Meh. I loved Starfox, my mates and I even pooled our money and bought a Super Famicon cartidge adaptor and a Japanese copy of the game so we could play it six months early. It was a game that was just that freaking cool.
However that was 1993. Seeing the same kind of game (with admittedly better graphics), just tacked on top of a massive Star Wars MMO is a bit insulting. More so when the space mini game doesn't even have the depth of space combat in a game like Star Wars Battlefront II, a five year old SW FPS game.
To be fair, brilliant open space combat was not one of the things Bioware promised to deliver. They could have given players ground based combat only. In reflection after first hand experiance with the space mini game myself, I'm not entirely sure such a move would have been a bad thing. Better to keep players hoping for something good in the future rather than annoying them with a very weak space experiance today.
I feel Bioware have delivered quite well on the features they promised. But again, unforutnately they have wrapped so much of the game design resources around the (in my book excellent) VO content, that SWTOR seems to resemble a Hyena. A strong powerful front end, with a puny afterthought hindquaters. And if said afterthought hindquaters has a rectum, I'm sad to say the space mini game is it.
I'd rather they spent their time making the bulk of the game with a degree of quality and space combat an afterthought to be improved later than have split their time and failed with both.
There's only so many hours in a day.
That being said I would have liked it to have been a little more open and feel a bit more like "my ship" but the rails make it feel like star wars.
Its not bad, ut it could be alot better.
1. the can give you a wider rail boundary
2. make the animation movements better.
3. Intergrate it with Flashpoints or operations.
What people are asking for here is a game within a game, I see a lot of comparisons between TOR space combat and SWG/JTL, but yet people are failing to mention that JTL was a full on expansion. A whole new box dedicated to space combat not a content patch, but a whole freaking box. People need to get over themselves and except it for what it is, just be lucky it's not like the space mini game in KoTOR, or better yet that there is space combat at all.
Look STO it has a fully fledged space experience and yet it is lacking in the ground combat department. ST revolves mostly around space and space exploration yet people complain about the lack of a ground game. When devs do these types of games it's hard to build them on two fronts, because time and resources are limited. MMO players in today's games demand to much, they want everything all at one time.
You people need to realize that there will be patches and there will be expansions, this I want it now mentality needs to stop. Apparently space combat wasnt that big of deal for the general testers or the weekend testers, because I didn't see any complains in game or on the beta boards regarding it.
How fickle the memory is. SWG never released with fully fleshed space combat. It was an expansion. So why are people making comparisons with SWG? and who says Bioware won't flesh it out with an expansion or two in future?
The comparison would be more reasonable if SWG released with full fledged space content.
I havent played the space and i wont play it untill im just bored out of my mind, but i do hope BW takes it off rails one day, but even then i dont really like the graphics of things like asteriods.
What's grinding people's gears, is that TOR's space experience feels slapped on; an afterthought.
Waiting to release space as an expansion like SWG did would have been fine with most of us.
At least then we'd know BW was focusing all of their attention on that particular feature and would (hopefully) deliver something a lot more fun and compelling than what we see now.
It boggles the mind that BW thinks what they created is fun, and that people would enjoy it.
I would have preferred them to be honest and just say "Look, we want to create a fully fleshed out space experience, but right now, we just don't have the time or resources to deliver that, so we're going to wait post-launch."
Not my memory. First off Star Wars Galaxies launched lacking MANY promised at launch features, mounts, player cities, CLASSES THAT FREAKING WORKED. In contrast, Bioware seems to have delivered on every promise they made. And I agree space combat was not a promised launch feature. And as much as I like to bash the quality of SWG, even I have to admit that when they did roll out the Jump to Lightspeed expansion, they did a pretty damn good job. If SOE could do that, imigine what a company like Bioware could do with a full fleged space expansion.
Anyone here who says that Bioware failed on their promise to bring a full fledged space game at launch is an idiot as they never promised that. We all know that. None of that has anything to do with most of people's complaints about SWTORs mini game, on rails, space shooter. We are simply criticising what feature they did add. It is entirely possible to hold a negative opinion of the space on rails game without it only being sour grapes because Bioware didn't add an entire space game. Please stop trying to confuse the issue.
I really don't understand why they basically ingored such a vital part of the Star Wars universe. I mean Star Wars is all about space. I was expecting to actually be able to travel in space to different planets and things like that. Actually have PvP in space too and it feels like they only remembered it at the last second and gave us a crappy version of something that could have been amazing.
It took me a few times messing around with it to see everything it is and isn't. For what it's worth, I really like it as it is although my interest in it will heavily depend upon how often they add new missions to it. The original 3 missions that I saw are going to get old real quick.
I definitely wouldn't mind if they scrapped the whole thing and eventually came out with a full space expansion like SWG's Jump to Lightspeed, or the X-wing vs. Tie Fighter series of old. I just don't think they should have made that their focus or delay the game until they did have a working model like that. Bioware has frequently designed little mini games in their RPGs as a nice break from story and questing, and this fits perfect in to that design. I just hope this isn't how they leave it for the next year or more. It really needs more to it, either with more missions or more depth and relatively soon like within a couple months to keep it worth playing. Even if this is their first MMO, they are veterans in the gaming industry and I have to believe they know this already, but we shall see.
I found it appalling, how it survived past Alpha Testing is a mystery to me, SWTOR would be better off with this mini game just removed. BioWare should feel embarrassed that they included something this poor.
I've always believed that their deafening silence on space combat for so long during development meant that they didn't plan to include it and then had a last minute change of mind. Features bolted on at the last minute have always turned out to be terrible in every MMO and this one is no exception.
Despite all that, and after having already tested SWTOR for a month and four days I still intend to be there as soon as early access opens for me.
Whether someone enjoys it or not is pure personal preference, so it shouldn't be all that hard to understand that some players will like it and some won't. If you like on-rails shooters like Starfox, or other minigame distractions from the main content as BW typically has in all their RPGs, then it works. For everyone else, they should be considering a revamp in an expansion that will make space combat more appealing. With all the people clamoring for it, I'm sure it's under consideration.
I think this needs to be the first major overhaul or addition to the game post release. No waiting 2 years or more like SWG did with JTL. Space is a very important part of Star Wars and should reflect that in an mmorpg. Keep the on rails game for mini game purposes, but add a whole new open "world" space game in the next year with visual progression on ships, pilot classes, loot, story, etc. So much potential, don't waste it Bioware.
I found it to be the perfect stepping stone into a larger world, a world that is just getting started. The future looks bright to me...
I actually LIKE the idea of minigames in my MMOs, when they thematically align (which this does). It would be great to ALSO have a separate full-featured space exploration/trade/combat system in the future, but I don't see having the current iteration as a negative at all. In fact, offering an alternate way to play the game for periods of time, earning XP and credits, makes me EXTREMELY happy when you want to play your MMO but don't want to do the "usual grind" of kill quests and comparable.
Just because BW did not deliver what YOU (directed to reader who is bitter over this) wanted it to be doesn't mean it isn't a positive addition to the game (especially on launch).
That said, ability to customize the ship model/appearance is critical in the future, and a social aspect (multiplayer - competitive or co-operative) would go a long way here.
I was upset about space on rails when i first heard about it ,but noww, i dont really care. the rest of the game is enough for me right now and wouldnt care if they removed it completley.
not everything is going to be the way you like it. do you like the game? yes or no? then play or not but useless complaining does nothing but get high post counts.
Reminds me of a couple , one is going back to school and the other is trying to hold the other down so they can be as unhappy as them with them.
Space combat is treated like KOTOR. It is a side game. Not much to see, or talk about.
I hope they add a real space combat game as Jump to Lightspeed was. JTL was the only reason I went back to SWG in the later years. A real space game will draw crowds of it's own to TOR. Pilot communities were strong in SWG.
Ship interior is nice. More player ship options are needed. I do like the fact you have a "home".
Don't cry the sky is falling though with this minor side game space combat. Look at other Bioware games like Mass Effect, and Knights of the Old Republic. Bioware has never been known for a space sim game designer.
If enough request a real space side, Bioware might listen.
I enjoyed the space combat when I played it. So I can't wait to play it some more.
I hated the JTL expansion for SWG. The combat AI only did 1 type of manuever. Space bombs in PvP? Really? Same mission over and over just in a different order. So annoying and boring. Even enemy AI's lasers tracked you down like they were heat seeking missiles. I'm sorry, but I don't want anything like JTL for SWTOR. I loved the XWing/TIE series, but JTL was bad.
I agree that the space combat can definitely be expanded. I don't agree with people who say it was an afterthought. You don't design and spend the kind of money on mere afterthoughts. It clearly was designed not to be an indepth part of the game. I would imagine that it will make for a good expansion. For now, I will enjoy it for what it is. A simple break from the more indepth portions of the game.
The game is fantastic, the space part is a complete let down though, SWG had it right.
People, lol.
1. It's a minigame, lol. This mmo is NOT intended to be "Xwing vs Tie Fighter". If someone thought that, they haven't been reading enough. The game is about STORY, just like the vast majority of Star Wars films. If you want sandboxy Star Wars space combat, here ya go:
2. Nothing says that this space combat is "locked" and this is how it remains forever. Since there are different missions already within the current Space combat, that shows they Bioware can easily either add more missions (to give more variety) or possibly tweak the combat so it is more free-flowing instead of rails.
People getting upset over a beta-launched feature that will probably be changed several times over in the coming years that wasn't even the main focus.. not surprising.
Did you have to go and post a picture of X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and rub it in? :)
Ah, good times.
In case it hasn't been mentioned yet, after I completed a round of beta testing earlier in the year, one of the follow-up questionnaires specifically addressed space combat. The jist of the survey was to determine if, after testing the game for a month and playing the space combat, was space combat adequate, did it need to be modified but left in at launch, or did it need to be removed for launch in order for a more substantial overhaul? I think this line of questioning gives some possible insight into what will happen with space combat. If BW ships a SW game without space combat, they will catch all kinds of trash. THerefore, it is quite possible that space combat, in its current launch state, will see considerable modification post launch, as it should.
Hate it all you want, I thought it was a lot of fun and a nice break from normal MMOing.
Bioware needs to grab the SWG space team while they can. Even NGE haters will tell you that the space content in SWG is some of the best, if not the best, in the business.
The complete inability to personalize your ship (let alone pick the ship you wanted) was what disappointed me. I've never really been that into arcade/flight-sim stuff, but it's pretty sad when the disaster that is Star Trek Online vastly outshines your game in terms of ship customization. I hope that's something they not only can add, but will add (they've apparently stated that "they'd like to" at some point post-launch). Right now, it just feels like "Here's your mobile box 1.07; enjoy!"
I guess it's a better form of housing than some MMOs have, but only due to the fact that some MMOs don't have housing at all. "At least it's something" isn't really much of a tag line for commercials. The game has its strong points, but ships and space aren't among them right now.
For what it is, its actually quite fun, other than the need to constantly be clicking. Hopefully they will expand on space combat sometime in the future.
Meh, it's not great, but it's not horrible, and it does give a shitload of XP, so it can provide a little break from the quest grind that is worth your while. Still, I hope they do spruce it up a bit in post-launch updates.
Given the low budget and Dev time for the entire STO game, it would seem that it would not have too difficult to take the rails off the TOR space game, and still come in on time and low cost.
Even simply having a Jump2LightSpeed 2.0 would have been better, imo.
STO has a very small budget and was designed in less than 2 years. Given the resources available to BW for TOR, they could have basically replicated the 'free flight zone system' that STO basically uses, and improved the space experience 10x, imo.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Star Trek? and what is the first thing comes to mind when you think about Star Wars? not even gonna answer that.
It is not about money it is about priority and if you have been following this game, time and time again Bioware has mentioned that there priority is to to expand on ground content first and space content later on.
Ofcourse Cryptic has better space game because.... duh... it is Star Trek. Do you know how many months later and after how many tweaks they got ground combat right in Star trek online? Space combat is as much priority for Bioware as ground combat was for Cryptic.
Agreed, it's pretty worthless to compare STO space combat to TOR space combat. Aside from the fact that the Star Trek series is predominantly set in open space, whereas Star Wars takes place predominantly on planets (land), it's a silly comparison to make because Bioware had to give their actual ground gameplay priority over the space gameplay. Anyone claiming they had the money and resources to push both out in fully fleshed out states is completely delusional. No Sci-Fi MMO has ever been able to do this, and it's not a matter of money. It's a matter of TIME. You have to priortize one thing over the other, unless you plan on the game being in development for 7-8 years. Bioware will have time once the game is launched to further enhance their space combat if that is what the players want. Hell, even SWG, who had a pretty substantial budget and released the game with shit for actual content, didn't have a space aspect at launch.
Yeah, but now you are talking about creating a whole second game/game system. They would have to spend nearly as much time and money as in the ground part of the mmo. Would people want to wait 2 more years for game to release? Financially it wouldn't make much sense. Either add the extra employees (increase costs) to get it released at set date, or releas years later as dev crew would have to work on both (increased costs). And what would they gain? Doubtful it would double subs, while nearly double the cost. It might've paid off in the long run helping retain subs as there would be twice as much to do in game, so they had to make a business decision. Hopefully they take the time to do the space in the way you suggest, as it would be pretty kick-ass.
agree 100 percent. Its dumbed down for kids game, just like wow. And the game is already doomed IMHO, because that 6mil grew up after the past years and want something more now..
I doubt you even know 100 forget 6 million players to know exactly what they are looking for in MMO genre.
Who really cares, its an optional part of the game. 'Fluff' if you will. It may get better it may not. SWG didnt launch with space comba,t it got added later.. same thing may happen int he future for TOR.. default combat may stay as a rail game, an x-pac may include everything the dreamers are asking for... but again.. who cares.
Glad to see so much excitement, timacek. Really makes everyone else feel good that is spending all there time and efford into making SWTOR an enjoyable place.
I played space combat in beta of course, also coming from a bit of eve, JTL and starfox and xwing not being a huge fan of space combat I hope Bioware can make a space combat that makes even the most space hating person like playing. That would be a acheivement but even so one of the replys on this thread stated that since this game is star wars they should put more emphesis on space. That scared me, I can only imagine having a great space game and crappy ground game, that would sux 10X more so im thanksfull at where it stands in that perspective.
Some of you posters just don't get it, it is Star Wars, it is all about space and to put a 1990's rendition of a space shooter in the game to represent that facet of the game is a trajedy by itself.
So what we end up with is Wow in a star wars setting. If that is enough for you fine, but many of us were hoping for more considering it is about 10 years post SWG and the tools for making MMO's are lightyears beyond what the original SWG team had available to them. Attempting to relate the initial SWG offering to today is absurd, that design team was very limited in what tools it had to work with.
Making excuses for Bioware, especially considering how much money they invested in this title, is ridiculous. You can't just throw money at a project and expect it to be great, you have to also have a very knowledgable design team with a good plan, neither of which were evident in the design of this game. Someone on the design team finally realized that the actual theme of the game was space and they had to throw something together quickly. They would have been far better off just saying it would come later in an expansion.
This game should never get more than an 8 because they blew off the main theme of the game.
Yet again, another personal opinion stated as fact.
You don't like it then don't play it. It really is as simple as that.
Maybe at some point there add a proper space aspect to the game , they've got plenty of time and so much room to grow
"space combat"... not going to touch it with a 10-foot pole.
If i want cheap arcade games (and this one is pretty bad, even for arcade standards) i can always play 1 of the 2$ arcade games ii have in my steam account.
But honeslty... who cares, this game has the best questing experience ever made, and that's why we want to play it.
By the same logic, if you dont like someone's opinion you dont have to read it. That doesn't mean they aren't entitled to it.
Your opinion is bias towards how you think it should be though. This isnt an indie developer catering to a niche crowd. Bioware just cant get all off course cause some people think something should be different. There are thousands upon thousands of content areas in this game, deadlines push a developer like this along with goals in certain aspects of the game.
Your claim to all of a sudden after years in the making to all of a sudden start to persecute Bioware and SWTOR on not having things the way you think is ridiculous. Where are your posts shouting out years ago about this? Do you got links? The game is days away from release and you act as if everything is tossy turny.
This is 100% false. You obviously aren't very familiar with the Star Wars IP. It's a Sci-Fi setting, not a space setting. And yes, there is a difference.
I would love if there was more to the space combat. But this is an entirely different game than STO, and it's an entirely different setting. Unless they wanted to stay in developement for another year or two, you concentrate on the main emphasis, which in Star Wars, is LAND-BASED GAMEPLAY. Then you can buff up the space part of the game in later updates or expansions.
Hell, SWG didn't even release with space combat. I suppose SoE was wrong too, huh? Tell that to all the pre-nge folks.
Really? Have you ever watched a Star Wars Movie? The first three movies were all about space and combat it it. I wish Lucas never made the last three as they were a definite step down. So don't attempt to lecture us about the Star Wars IP, it is a definite space setting a good percentage of the time.
Nuh huh... nope.
Think of it this way, hypothetically Bioware is going to revolutionize the way we play space combat. There going to invent some new next gen space combat that is going to make everything before it look like pong. Have faith in bioware, there not going to disapoint, the force is on there side.
It will reinvigorate the game and another 5 million people will flock to the game and everything will be aces again.
Umm I dont have blind faith in anything lol especially a for profit gaming company.
I have to ask, honestly have you people played KOTOR? That game had NO space combat. We're lucky they decided to include some form into this installment. I'm sorry alot of you are still dwelling on SWG, but this game is not SWG, nor does it claim to be. Take it for what it is, or find another game.
I felt that space in SWG was boring after a while. It was fun at the start, getting quests, gaining xp, buying a new ship and components but unless you actually had some friends/guildies coming along, it was pretty much a singleplayer experience and became a boring grind pretty fast for only a stronger ship to fly. In all the years I've played (joined shortly after that *** NGE hit) I've never seen any pvp in space. BioWare will have to (and hopefully can) do it better to keep it interesting for me but until then I'll go with what they made right now.
About 15% of Star Wars happen in space...rest is all on different planets.
Star Trek is about Space ships Star Wars is about lightsabers!
Jedis/sith has always been main attraction of Star Wars.
and for the record, Ive been regular on these forums since 2004 and to date I haven't seen Ozmodan admit to ever have liked one single MMO.
What you said is defiently truth, but it wasnt until the newer Star Wars series came out that thats ALL the Focus was on was JEdis. Before it was on everyone, the bounty hunters, the smugglers, the whole universe was involved, its not the fans fault that lucas wantedto put JEDI under a micro-scope with the newer series and thus has spawned all this shit.
All TOR is to me is the culmination of years of pissed off OLDER star Wars fans competeting with the newer generation, whose majoirty is obviously less imaginitive because of the shit LUCAS spoon-fed them, if anything peoeple should hate LUCAS because all hes done is contniue to do what hes always been good at, being a business man.
LUCAS did create something he loved with the first Star Wars, but now its become a joke, and it sucks for alot of people, because theres so many that can see beyond this marketing and all this other bullshit and see the truth, but sadlly their voices are droned out by the idiots who will always go "BUT I WANNA PLAY WIT MY LIGHSABER!"
Star Wars A New Hope: Starts with the in space capture of Princes Leia's friggate. Ends with the epic space battle to destroy the Deathstar.
The Empire Strikes Back: The Escape from Hoth which while not an epic, at least not on screen, space battle, does bring us quite a bit of space action in the crew of the Millenium Falcon, trying to escape the Empire's battle fleet.
Return of the Jedi: Culminates with the Battle of Endor. A massive ground offensive plus an epic space battle to destroy Deathstar II.
The Phantom Menace: Starts with Naboo being blockaded by the Trade Federation IN SPACE, ends with a rather campy space battle where young Anakin helps destroy aforementioned Trade Federation Blockade.
Attack of the Clones. Relatively space action free, with one small scene involving Obi Wans trip to Genosha.
Revenge of the Sith: Starts with the epic space battle against the Separatists fleet.
So while I disagree with Oz that the core of the Star Wars story revolves around space (because the story actually revolves around the characters, a large part of the series's charm), there is still a hell of a lot of it shown in the core films. So making a Star Wars based game not involving space is going to raise a big ol red question mark to many fans.
None of which actually matters as the discussion at hand is about the individual poster's opinions about the quality of the mini space game Bioware DID add. Personally I feel it is rubbish. NOT because it isn't a full fledged space game, but because it is a crap mini game little better than similar tunnel shooter arcade games almost twenty years old.
Tbh, I found it quite boring. Maybe some ppl like this, thats ok, but for me it was just lame.
15% of Star Wars was in space. Okay...
Do you mean to tell us that space isn't important? If this is the case, then why do we have COUNTLESS Star Wars SPACE ONLY games, COUNTLESS Star Wars Rogue Squadron novels, COUNTLESS Star Wars Space Ships & Toys, COUNTLESS Star Wars Space Legos etc.
SPACE in Star Wars is a GIGANTIC PART OF THE LORE. It deserves more than this excuse of an arcade game. It's insulting.
Eh, space combat in game is exactly as it is in the movies for the 'hero characters'. This includes battling while on ships/ stations that are also engaged in battle.
Played one space encounter. Bored to tears. Never sought out another.
Seriously though, if you've played SWTORs single player prequels, you'd know Bioware gave SWTOR space battles a GENEROUS treatment.
Kotor 1 had one portion where you got to man a turret on a space ship but thats it.
all in all the complaints here reeks of same ol "Baww its not SWG2" arghlebarghle.
I don't agree with much of what you post about SW:TOR but i do agree about the space combat. Space combat is a needed part of Star Wars but its not worth having in the game if it is not done well for launch.
I have said from the start if it's not like xwing or tie fighter don't bother putting in game. I also know this would not be possible at launch as it's like making two games. I was hoping they would do something like tie fighter post launch. With what they added they may not do anything now. It's the most disappointing thing for TOR.
Space combat is a nice getaway from questing and is a good fun minigame for when you want to do something else.....however it could be so much more.
In the long run, id like to see 3d flyable space, allowing you to travel between planets, discover new moons, get into pve and pvp battles but that will take a long time if it ever happens
In the short term, they should introduce visual upgrades on ships - having the coolest looking ship is the same as having the coolest looking gear - everyone wants it. It will allow a better sense of progression when doing space combat too. Another easy win would be random space battles (maybe shorter than the standard ones?) when you hyperspace travel to different planets - so you would always have the risk of being attacked, dropping out of hyperspace and having to fend off attacker. Similar to in Freelancer.
I really liked the space combat missions. Reminded me of Star Fox. But I'm not playing this game to play a flight sim, its just a fun diversion.
As other posters have said, they can add more fleshed out open-roaming flight missions later, or even space PvP. This was something thrown together during beta by an outsourced developer, that is a lot of fun and adds character and value to the game.
You havent lost anything that was promised, you gained a fun minigame....
it wouldn't suprise me if the first expansion they changed how space combat works. Right now it's more of a mini-game than a feature. Don't get me wrong, I still have it, but it could be a whole lot better...and yeah it's alot like starfox, which isn't a bad thing, but I wanted something more.
Wow, great job totally ignoring everything that happened in between.
Tell me something... what MMO has actually delivered anything new in the last ten years? In fact, they have slowly been removing what most considered to be features.
At least this game TRIES to do something different. You just don't like what its offering. Stop acting like your opinion is the be all end all of gaming.
Heh, Star Wars had a big impact when it hit the cinemas... that kind of realism in space battles were unprecedented, heck, these guys changed the concept of Space Battles with their inovations.
A buttload of years after that, they are ok with grafting a 15 year old game in their prized product? ...and why Starfox??? Why not that old classic of our younger days, Asteroids and even Space Invaders, with a new skin??? :p
They should have said was "The Space part of the Star Wars universe is so Epic that we can't possibly do at this time without the full focus of the development team, and instead of releasing some Insulting bit of code (read STO), we decided to pospone for a future expansion". That official confirmation would have settled a bit more the disgruntled crowds... for a time...
Space combat inb TOR is awesome! I think it's great they added an arcade-style action shooter within an mmo. The graphics and sounds are great, and the style of combat fits Star Wars perfectly. I just hope more developers add fun side games like this into mmos to break up the inevitable mmo duldrums we all fall into.
The only thing I hope Bioware does with space combat is add more varied missions.
Wow... people have no appreciation, simply expectation - and it's getting ridiculous.
Full-fledged space combat was never promised as a launch feature in this game. It still may very well happen in a future expansion. This is a nice extra that BW threw in. Last I checked, you don't HAVE to even PLAY the space combat. Take it for what it is.
"OMG -- they didn't make two entire game worlds in one... what a bunch of losers!"
Yeah right. I for one APPRECIATE the extra work in all the little distractions and extra features BW gave us. One day they may expand the concept. They may not. Who cares.
And for the love of god... I played SWG for years. It was a steaming pile of crap at launch. Everybody needs to take of the rose colored nostalgia glasses. The playerbase was in constant decline, the fansites were full of flaming. If the game was that great, there never would have even been a CU, or an NGE for that matter. Their concept failed and they tried desperately to fix it with the CU and with the NGE, ultimately destroying what little they had left. JTL was a full-blown expansion. It was NOT a launch feature.
BW has laid the groundwork for incredible growth, and given us a lot for our money. Space combat is just another FEATURE (meaning you don't have to play it). Since when do people hate extra options so much?
There is something we are all forgetting here. It's not how much time was spent in space in the movies, it's how pivotal to the storylines the space battles were. In SWTOR, a player could decide to never touch the space mini game, and guess what, it wouldn't affect the overall story. THIS is a problem for this IP that has both ground and space aspects that always were a major part of the plotlines.
That shouldnt be hard. I'm pretty sure they're available. :)
I dont mind the mini game space thingy. It was fun for what it was. I hope they expand on space not to a be anything go anywhere space but maybe a big more freedom within there situations
Add some pvp and do some story based space missions. Allow players more then one path to take to the objetive.
Im not looking for even like mechanics in this game . i dont wanna be able to go anywhere and set up mining colonies thats not really star wars to me
That said a bit more freedom within the situations and more story based space content woudl be amazing especially if they added a pilot class .
"So while I disagree with Oz that the core of the Star Wars story revolves around space (because the story actually revolves around the characters, a large part of the series's charm), there is still a hell of a lot of it shown in the core films. So making a Star Wars based game not involving space is going to raise a big ol red question mark to many fans."
Did you miss that part of my post? Its obvious that you did. I simply highlighted the moments in the films in which S P A C E played an important part in the story lines to explain that while S P A C E was N O T the core of the Star Wars films as the C H A R A C T E R S and the interaction between them W A S, S P A C E was still an important backdrop to the story that played out. So it is not surprising or irrational for fans to place such importantce on the S P A C E element of Star Wars that they would hope to see it in an MMO set in a Star Wars universe. Savvy?
I don't know some of my best Star Wars game memories is Rebel assault which seems rather similar to what we have here so I'm quite happy. Honestly I can't help but think a sandbox in space feature would be way out of place in this game especially since you really can't put too much content in the void of space.. Some would love it most would think it not so great and an annoying way to get from planet to planet. Now what they could have done is do an x-wing vs tie fighter sort of sim for scenarios but again what they gave us doesn't seem all that bad.
i actually agree. That said id love to have story based space missions and pvp space scenarios. I d love to have situations like in the movies where u have more then one track u can take to actually complete the mission.
Id love tos ee a space based flashpoint where u and yoru team have to take down an ememy flotilla or something like that it woudl be so cool
That said space combat in the movies made up 10 pct of them if that. In episode 4 for instance u had the part where they got brought into the death star , then u had them taken the death star out but the tst of that was based on space stations or on rebel bases , or on ship travelling
episode 5 u had han hiding out in a asteroid feild and traveling to planets like dagaobah
episode 6 u had them taken out the second death star. That said most of that was based even on luke on the death star and han and his team taken out a sheild generator on yavin.
so space wasnt as huge a part of star wars in the origional trilogy as many think or even the prequels.
IGN: I was also curious about space combat and how that might evolve. How are the later game missions different from the early game ones and will they ever become sort of a multiplayer experience?
James Ohlen: We're going to continue to add missions. That's another thing that actually surprised us. While we knew that because we weren't doing a freeform X-wing versus Tie Fighter-style space game that we were going to get backlash, that didn't surprise us and obviously we got that feedback a long time ago. We've been working really hard to continue to improve the space game that we have and it's definitely become more popular with our fans with each [beta] iteration. The very last test we had it scored higher than it's ever scored before. I don't think it's going to win over people who want X-wing versus Tie Fighter but I do think people are going to find that it's very evocative of Star Wars and it's a fun activity when you want to take a break from questing. You can go to your own starship and involve yourself in some very awesome Rogue Squadron-y space combat. I can say that we do have a special project going on right now in regards to the space game that will expand the space game in a significant way, but that's not something that's coming right away.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1214438p1.html
id actually read this. Like i said i dont want a free form space game but story based missions would be awesoem as well as story based pvp battles with a bit mroe freedom then current space game
I actually like the space game right now its fun but i wouldnt mind the other things as well.
What he`s not saying is there's an overwhelming majority of testers that do find the space combat is lame.
He's not lying though, going from 5% players who like it to 6.5% is indeed a proof that it's becoming more popular.
Just brace for impact at launch guys.
Even they may not admit or commit to it, I am sure that SWTOR will have awesome combat come the first expansion.
I truely believe that they have no choice but to make a great space experience to retain many players, and lets face it, as fun and as it is to do stuff on the ground , like many when I think SW, I think of a great space combat experience.
I really do hope the do come up with a nice , face paced and thrilling space combat system , with many things to do and accomplish.
If they do manage to sell 2 million copies like it seems they will, and manage to retain a million of these people, lets hope that its enough ca$h for them to get a good team together to make the space combat what it needs to be for a SW title.
You know what I do not understand is why they didn't go with a more free-roaming space game(the Hero Engine can easily support it) and do space missions like you had in games like the Battlefront Series. Some of those were amazing fun ,especially when you had to fly to another space ship, land in their hanger, get out, perform a mission in the otehr ship and then get off before it exploded or was shot from the skies. That would have made this games space combat 100 times more engrossing and better. As it is now the space game in this MMO is like a coin operated arcade game...the only difference is you don't need to deposit a quarter in the slot.
" It basically amounts to nothing more than a minigame, and for a Star Wars game, this is a bit of a disappointment..."
Understatement of the decade. Putting a single player railshooter in as the space component of a AAA, 100mill+ dollar MMO that was 5+ years in the making is CRIMINAL.
I keep thinking of Paragus' refence to "Do a barrel roll!"
Just curious, would you (or anyone else can throw there 2 cents in) prefer no space at launch, if it's not being done with the proper effort and scope, and it released a year later as an expansion, done right. It is just not realistic to expect the effort, time and money they put into the planetside story and a full-fledged space game released together. So is the popular thought on this-wait on space exp so it can be done better and not bother with a mini-game version?
As 90% of the devs behind JTL are on the TOR team hopefully we will see a more free form version of space in the future for the mere price of £39.99 SIGH!!!
As far as it goes, the whole "tunnel flying" is annoying but it's a great jumping off point and a fun diversion when you need a break from side missions. I'll bet the next major update after launch will include a space update of some kind.
i think most peeps have it right ... i feel they put in space combat to say " hey look, we got space
combat" and really.. its a iphone game. and it doesn't fit..
if you want mini games then add pazaak, poker what ever..but i think most would agree that we want more out of space combat. and would have been alright to wait for it.
the fear is that most feel that this may be it.. "Here is your space combat, Have fun "
And like myself im hoping its NOT.
has bioware said anything about redoing space combat ? or did they did they say they were gonna add more rail quests in case you have time to burn?
Yes ground combat lacking in Sto but that is about to change now they working hard now to get good ground combat to now it has a new ground targeting system. And Bioware really need a good space combat as well. sorry for my bad English
It was announced as a minigame, so get over it those of you who are raving on its parade. There is opportunity for expansion of the space combat features later. This is an MMO people, and there is more then enough stuff to worry about, since its a freakking huge game! Would you rather have waited 12-18 more months for a game that has allready taken more then enough time to be completed?
"Bottom line, space combat in SWTOR is more like a roller-coaster in space. You can ride many times, but eventually it just gets repetitive."
Never get married!
Clearly there are whole elements of the game that were rather pertunctoraly done. 24/7 persistent realm vs realm conflict being another feature that has recieved minimal attention.If the company were smart they would lay out their area of emphasis in the first 6 months post launch to assuage the concerns of some like myself...who won't be buying what I've see so far.
i sent in a survey report telling bioware they need to make the space combat more open world.
WoW has on rails mini games like this, nothing wrong with them and they open up an area of the Star Wars universe, being part of the ships.
I have got so frustrated with people saying they think the space combat is terrible. I played it and I liked it. I liked it becasue it was simple, easy, and a good reason to relax when you have had enough of the game for a while.
They could have added card games, chess, or whatever (which from what I understand will be added in teh future), but the reality is that many people can go and play that on their apple/android phone or switch to a quick java game for 5 minutes. What has been done is to introduce a very uncommon type of minigame in order to tempt those people who play games to relax, EA doesn't want you going and buying an iphone game (unless it is an EA iphone game), they want you spending time in SWTOR. So they give you something to help you actually play SWTOR without going to those java games.
The reality is that most people who play games do so to relax... shocking, but true. Ask the billion dollar games like Angry Birds, farmville, and Mafiawars... poeple like a shork break from thier lives, not an action packed raid or grinding materials.
LOL relax and space combat are two words that should never be in the same sentence.
Space combat is integral to Star Wars having one w/o the other is just wrong.Smugglers that can't smuggle Bounty Hunters that can't hunt.
Lame...
LOL I know 'm the minority but I loved it!
You are not the minority. How many loved it or hate..the real data is with Bioware. On forums those who complain always seem to be the loudest.
I think the space combat is merely something to do when you're bored and need a break from the regular game. I also think it's filler for a possible future "open space" expansion that EA/Bioware can dedicate more time to. I can understand what they did. You can't have star wars without spaceships, but at the same time they had to get their ground game down first. Give it time folks, give it time.
i'm actually pretty happy aboutt he current space combat, and they have said they are working on making it better.
IMO it does what its supposed to do, gives you the feeling of being part of a star wars movie/book/game whatever, in the EU books,movies and games they pretty much never says oh lets go out explore the universe..... its more like of lets fly to that planet, lets fight that imp start destroyer, shoot down that deathstar, and IMO that is exactly the feeling i get from playing the space combat.
sure in the future i would love to see the open space/explore/smuggle/bountyhunt whatever that most people want, but for what it is i think the on rail game does what its supposed to.
^This to the "T"^
Everyone is forgetting they spent 140m on this for that price yes there should be two complete top tier games my god thats the budget for 2 blockbuster titles.
I do love the game but I definately question where and how the money and development time was spent.
Thats just crazy. Its a bonus and a welcome escape from those times when u want to do somthing diffrent. Thats like saying you dont want an ice cream cone because they added sprinkles. The sprinkles just make it more fun. More content for your buck.
All the bashing is nuts. This is really fun and has a lot more depth then people are saying, Has every mission type you could want and done in a way you feel like you are in a movie. Its fast and fun. They took as old style gaming system and made it current. I think the devs can do a lot with this.
I actually liked space combat as it is - just a little minigame to pass time. Of course it's nothing special but as a minigame it's all right.
^ +1
^^^^^ This this this.
I am guessing that higherups at EA told the BW devs to add some kind of space combat at behest of the marketing dept.
If you go look at sites that sell TOR it has tagged 'epic space combat!' - this is pure marketing because really..is it epic space combat? i do not think so but someone somewhere might and so it adds to the draw of the sale.
Personally i would love even a ripoff of STO spacecombat and maybe further down the line it will get changed although as pointed out space was less of the focus in star wars than interaction on planets between the cast members..star wars is fantasy in a technologicaly advanced galaxy not futuristic sci-fi really - 'a long time ago in a galaxy far far away...' (i prolly quoted that wrong lol but oh well).
JTL was a game that could have almost stood on its own, it had its own feature set missions, quests, rewards, upgrade paths, not to mention unparralled freedom, I rememeber one of the first things I did after installing JTL, was running an role play mission for a friend and his guild, playing the part of space pirate. The controls and systems handled the same as the X-wing vs series. I was able to travel between systems in minutes, find the target, and begin a pvp duel with my friend playing escort, while strafing the special edition transport to provide added atmosphere. I rememeber smiling to myself as the onboard ship computer relayed the message, calcualting the jump to lightspeed in big letters across my screen. Afterwards the folks on the transport said it all felt very real, they could see the fight from the observation deck of the transport, and my strafing runs on their ship they could see and hear. That should tell you that the ground game and space game where far from separate instances. Had the other pilot had enough experience and skill boxes the party could have actually been killed on the transport.
Speaking as a die hard starwars fan, the more I read on SWTOR the more I feel its just missed the boat.
And yes I am a crazy old fool and more than likely I will get you all killed.
Read... you mean you haven't tried it. Which makes that opinion effectively uninformed and meaningless.
Just a suggestion, before you start believing the fear mongering haters, why don't you actually TRY it.
Two months from now when your all bored with nothing to do in game the same people praising it will be on here crying about it...
No, I won't. Because I'm not a child.
Right man, there is no need to answer on stupid post like that. Probably he likes only games like tetris
They absolutely have created WOW in space. Voiceovers are nice, but that time and money would have been better spent on real space combat.
I also don't believe that BW will ever make a huge overhaul of Space combat, just as Turbine had no desire to improve PvMP in LOTRO. Both are tacked on late in the game to quiet some of the dissenters. BW will be focused on end game raiding and PvP content. Improving space combat will take away from the ability to give the WOW in space content.
In the end, I think BW has taken the best approach profitability wise. Just don't expect them to drastically improve space combat anytime in the next two years.
The space combat they included goes with the game they made perfectly. It is exactly as I would have expected and it is exactly like every other Star wars RPG game I've ever played.
An open space combat Star Wars game does not make any sense at all, it wouldn't be star wars any more. Star wars is about people taking action and doing things, the space aspect of it is a very small aspect.
Space is like a road in Star Wars, and Bioware doesn't make space games, they make character developmet games.
It would literally detract from the gameplay experience if they had made their space combat like Wing Commander or Microsoft Flight Sim.
Panzer General 2 Xcom Omikron XvsT are what I like not my fault most new games can't hold a candle to the older ones.And yes I like Tetris and Bejewelled god forbid if a game actually needs you to use brainpower.
Got to agree, it ain't just empty, it is plain ugly. The outside of the ships looks okay but the inside is like something out of a very old game. It makes the spaceships from SWG look refined and complex. An ancient game.
Hell, some of the housing (which is what it really is) in EQ2 looks more impressive. And so far I haven't seen any options to customize it.
The whole travel thing itself is also insane. Never seen a MMO where moving between major areas takes so long with all the walking through your hangar and space dock, all empty endless spaces.
Then again, this is Bioware, the inventor of pod races and turrets shooters in RPG's
Maybe you have not been reading the thread it is a rail shooter, something you would see in the 90's. They would have been far better off just leaving space out than putting in such a poor excuse of game design. Oh and by the way I tried it and it is NOT fun in any shape or form. Yep it is optional, but still why even put something like this in a AAA game.
I have said it before and I will say it again, SWTOR is a perfect example of a design staff out of control. A good team could have spent a third of what they spent and made a better game.
So much for the myth of Bioware, this game will forever tarnish their aura.
I found it fun for what it was, actually. I ended up doing all of the space missions and getting the bonuses on each one as I progressed, upgraded my ship.. and while I wasn't really happy with the choices, I still completed them all and enjoyed my time playing them -- though its not something I would repeat more than a few times until I received the bonuses.
The game overall is very good, the team built exactly what they needed to - content - which is where the money went. You could have spent less and had less development time, and not tried as much or tested for as long, but we've ended up with a very polished product.... one of which we haven't seen of this magnitude.... well.... ever.
People seem to complain about how the space combat is a slap in the face and it pretty much is an afterthought and then compare it to SWG JTL. All I can say is move along, at least it was a thought, SWG came with zero space, ZERO. At least they gave us somthing, somthing no matter how crappy is still better than nothing, lol.
DOOM, DOOM, I tell you DOOM
just summing up your post for the other people that don't want to read all that.....
Those of you who remember the KOTOR games will also recall that they wern't freeform space either.. and I think Biowares goal was to bring a KOTOR feel to the MMO .. your ship is a story element, not a major side track to the game. You wern't able to freeform fly, decorate, etc in those either. I think space combat at the moment is intended to be a fun diversion and way to get some interesting rewards (Which are purely social for the most part.. title, costume, etc). I'm certain they will be adding more space content in the future as theres tons of room for it, but I don't expect to see free-form flight in the realm of X-wing vs. Tie ever in the game. It wouldnt even fit. If it makes any showing it will be in some form of space PvP but even then I suspect it will be limited. The game is about stories. So expect a certain degree of story telling. Thats the point of tunnel space combat... not that anyone actually listens to the chatter or objectives. Personally I like the space combat.. wish it was a bit more challenging.. you have to suck pretty bad to lose.. but otherwise its a neat little refresher from the ground game.
well all i can say people complainin about space combat have no reason to complain about it yes it is stale and gets boring even the tor devs admitted to it before they added it thats why guess what its optional so people complain shush deal with it dont like it dont play it simple as that more games out there go annoy them with petty complaints or go make your own games since most of ya know more about game development
Nah, SW:TOR's space combat is this way because Gordon Walton (who worked on SWG's JtL expansion) told Bioware when he worked there that Jump to Lightspeed was a bad idea. Hence we get space on rails. Here's to hoping that enough of us letting Bioware know Walton was full of it can get them to change things post launch.
You know what's funny? Everyone I talked to in game, or in real life (including people I let use my account to try it out) pretty much all thought the space combat was pretty cool. It seems only on forums you can find people raging out and complaining about it.
Apparently they already have plans to expand the space part of the game, according to James Ohlen anyway-
"I can say that we do have a special project going on right now in regards to the space game that will expand the space game in a significant way, but that's not something that's coming right away. "
From this interview yesterday http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/121/1214438p1.html
It's fun, at least...
to put things in perspective, if you ever did one of those bombing runs in world of warcraft, that is what swtors space combat is like.
so if you enjoyed that, youll enjoy space combat
I kind of liked it, it's a bit old school but it's a nice getaway from the normal MMO play. I'm sure though that they will come out with a expansion that will be space orientated. I'd be shocked if they didn't. Although as someone else pointed out it would be nice to be able to explore space and to travel to other systems/planets. But one can only hope and keep fingers crossed that it will be addressed in a future expansion!
Something is always better than nothing.
have people really gotten to the point where they are complaining about TOO MUCH content in an MMO? REALLY?!?
how is it bad, in any way, to have more stuff to do in a game..... whether you do it or not. stop being a fucking idiot.
I AM SOO OFFENDED THEY ADDED THIS CONTENT IN GAME! NO MATTER IF SOME MAY LIKE IT AND NO MATTER THAT DOING IT IS 100% OPTIONAL!!!! IT'S STILL OUTRAGEOUS SLAP IN THE FACE!!!
*Goes back to cutting himself*
I would like to nominate this post for dumbist post of the week. its there I dont have to do it some people love it however its a slap in your face? Wtf are you smoking as you said YOU DONT need to do it if you hate it and I personaly really enjoy it infact I am going cybertech as a craft so I can craft the best ship items its that fun. Daily quests for decent exp starfox type fighting its a hell of a mini game within a giant mmorpg and I think its a great starting point and I expect to see space grow as the game grows in future content, but for a starting spot I think they did a great job with what it is.. an optional mini game
You have been getting a lot of big slaps from Bioware lately. This might help ease the pain.
Even a large developer like Bioware has a limit to how much they can push out at once. I think people need to just stop the endless screaming and wailing and learn to be a little more realistic. I know that isn't likely to happen, but a guy can dream.
Maybe down the line for the first expansion they will be able to expand the space thing, but for now I think it is a good place holder and an interesting side game.
To be honest I prefer the ground game over the space one. Give Bioware a chance to get one aspect out. Otherwise we will have to wait another 2 years for them to release since we are waiting for a fully fleshed out space game.
The servers I played on (Tarquinas and Starsider) had very active space events. And...I was talking about the overall look and feel of SWG's space content. With that team and Bioware's writers working together, it would be pretty amazing I would think.
I totally agree with you. I am sure space and crafting will be revisited.
I believe he was being sarcastic...
I think that may be in reference to having other players on your ship, which they have mentioned doing as well. Unless they have already been working on changing the space part of the game, it's a bit too soon for a space revamp.
I just want to add a few things for some of the younger players out there, who feel disappointed with the current state of space combat in SWTOR. Why I presume these are young players? Well, because there are quite a few very good Star Wars games out there, mostly made a decade and more ago, which were successful without having space combat at all, or having a very limited space experience. Here are a few examples:
Dark Forces - basically a Doom clone, but with a lot of twists (like puzzles) and a lot of atmosphere
Jedi Knight & Jedi Outcast - grerat story, if somewhat linear (particularly in Outcast), but probably the best recreation of light sabre fights so far. Jedi Academy improved a lot on fight mechanics (you can get a double-blade lit sabre and a kick!), but the story was poor
Empire at War - great tactical game, where there is space combat, but only from a tactical point of view, you don't get to actually fight with space ships
Knights of the Old Republic - one of the greatest RPG games aroud, not only among SW titles
All these games had none or very limited space combat, but it didn't stop them from being great. I'm sure more can be added to the list, but these stand out, in my view. The point is, yes, space combat is a very important part of the lore, but it's not necessary for a SW game to be great.
Besides, if there was a space simulator, and I mean a realistic one (like in X-wing vs. Tie-fighter), there would be certainly as many people complaining how hard it was to play it, to the point they'd wanted it a lot more simplified. Nothing personal, just saying...
As to the debate about this game being a Crapy mmorpg /space combat game you have missed the point. The game is story driven and to side track from that is BS. I have a problem with people that think that if the game isn't what you personaly have in mind it is flawed or broken, Thats because you want instant self gratification and there is no games that I know of that allows that except some platformers. All of you that are whining because of this and should not buy it or play it. The reason that I say this is because you will never be happy with any game produced. IMHO most of the noise is from misinformed babys that will cry and screem just to be doing so. I hope you all grow up big and stronge because life is full of disapointments. Just a thought from and old fart that is tired of hearing it's all about what I want and nobody esle counts. I have said my piece so get over it!
I know i'm a little late trew the gate on this one but i have played both swtor and swg as well as sto. I have also watched all the startrek shows movies ect, as well as all of the starwars movies.
So I can honestly say that.
1. Star Trek wans't about space at all it was about captain kirk trying to get with alien wemon. Star Trek the next gen was about how Pickard jad more drama on his ship then a soup opera. Star trek voyager was about omg im lost maybe we should have did what that crazy alien wanted in the first place?
2. In the first 3 star wars movies im guessing r2d2 wasnt the one telling the story from begining to end even thou he was the first major charicter it showed? He didnt goto tantoine using a space ship he just magically appeard and was like was up? They never used a space ship to rescue the princess. The Death star was never bombed by luke. Ohh and they never made a 2 hour parody of the first star wars movie that was over 70% in space called SPACE BALLS.
I know im old people, but if you were born after 1990 you probally shouldn't tell true star wars fans what there movies were about. Since you wern't around to watch them. I really do miss the space era. With all these big let downs from the mmo companies its only a matter of time before they goto the other classics and try to make them online.
Farmville=Little house on the prarie online. Sgh.....
Take a leave out of Allods Online and have guild capital ships that can rain down support fire in PVP.
I'm just saying
Rail shooters go back to the early 80's. It's even more archaic!
"Space combat itself is a fairly simple affair. If you’ve played games like StarFox, or more recently, the family-friendly MMO Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, you’ll be right at home."
No. Just plain no.