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Star Wars: The Old Republic News - Dev Blog: Creating Worlds
Posted by Michael Bitton on May 17, 2010 | 9 comments in our forums
Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson gives us some insight into what went into the development of the planet Voss in this latest developer blog published on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website.
Voss is a world that is mentioned only in the most basic terms in the LucasArts Holocron (a compendium of all things canon and non-canon in Star Wars), and so BioWare has selected it to fully expand on and create as a wholly original world for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Daniel's developer blog goes in-depth on the history and lore they've created for the planet of Voss, as well as the design considerations that went into making it a reality:
Now to be clear, the first thing we do when we decide to add a “new” world to the vast Star Wars mythology is to do our research and see if there is a world that already exists and will fit our needs. Is it the right type of climate? The right place in the galaxy? Does it have next to nothing written about it? Awesome, it’s ours. Over the years hundreds of writers have tossed out names of worlds with a sentence or less to describe them. Why create more clutter when we can add to the depth of what’s there?
Voss is populated by the eponymous and mystical Voss race, who are few in number, and are occasionally privy to future events through infallible visions, as well as the Gormak, who are technological geniuses and serve as a sharp contrast (and mortal enemy) to the mystic Voss.
Read all about Voss and the process of creating worlds in Star Wars: The Old Republic here.
Hmm
Bioware certainly knows how to invent new worlds.
Mass Effect, Buldar's Gate, Neverwinter Nights... I loved in the original ME all the codex entries or whatever it was called explaining the history, the politics, the technology behind it all...
Bringing that to Star Wars is amazing.
I enjoy how much thought they put into everything they do. It's fascinating to get insight into how hard they work at making things right. This sort of process is why I am certain the game will be fantastic and awe inspiring.
I don't care how pretty it looks or whatever other eye-candy they put in. If the worlds still have the same annoying invisible walls and restricted travel paths that Bioware's console games have, I won't bother with the mmo.
My one question is this, can they make worlds where you don't always have to kill something? Or raid? Or PVP?
I agree. I hope that the SWTOR's world are more like SWG's Tattoine, Naboo and Corelia and less like SWG's Mustaphar and Kashyyk
Doubt it, too much freedom for people that can't think for themselves. Wishful thinking, I want SWG type worlds myself sadly it's not happening.
"One of the real things we wanted to show at GDC this year is that our worlds are huge, actually. They are giant, you can explore. They are massive. You can just wander off one direction and go forever." - Daniel Erickson, Darth Hater GDC 2010 DE
Not saying that there isn't going to be invisible walls or restricted paths but thought this give some type of hope for large landscapes.
That would be great if true but we must all be aware that in the basic game development process, the writer and his team, however serious, have about as much influence as a gnat fart in a cathdral. They are used at the beginning to articulate the concept and at the end to visit cons and fairs because they can speak English better than the subhuman programmers and the robotic producers.