By now, folks who've been following the game have had a chance to take in the latest Developer Dispatch from BioWare on the making of the planet Coruscant. Like many others, I was impressed at the six minutes of explanation detailing how the developers plan on making Coruscant meet the expectations of the players who are eager to get their hands on it and experience what it has to offer. The Coruscant presentation brings up an interesting point regarding the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and how large and massive Bioware plans to make the various areas of the game.
Don't get me wrong - I think the multi-level society BioWare is putting on Coruscant is a great thing and it will give players a chance to explore tons of architecture as they go through the game's story. However, Coruscant is simply one planet among the many we will see in The Old Republic. With an entire galaxy in front of us to potentially travel to, how many places will be too few? How many will be too much?
It's impossible to know how large of a subscriber base Star Wars: The Old Republic will ultimately retain, but this is something that must be considered when creating and establishing areas like Coruscant. Other MMOs out there have taken a bit of a hit for having too many areas, or instancing copies of the same area, which results in spreading the population too thin. It's an interesting balance, as BioWare must establish enough areas in the game to give the players a feeling of a "massive" world, but still be designed intelligently so as not to silo the community into segments that mess with the feeling of "multiplayer".
It appears that BioWare is aware that The Old Republic, with an established IP like Star Wars, needs to have areas reflective of the epic experience they want players to have. If Coruscant is any indication, they'll end up meeting expectations and then some. I'm kind of looking forward to future updates, to see how they plan on handling planets with other types of terrain. Still - I'm curious about what others might think about the world of SW:TOR and whether or not its scale should be larger (to create a more epic feeling of the Star Wars universe) or smaller (to encourage greater pockets of players and population density), after all, this is a world many of us will be spending a lot of time in.
Don't get me wrong - I think the multi-level society BioWare is putting on Coruscant is a great thing and it will give players a chance to explore tons of architecture as they go through the game's story. However, Coruscant is simply one planet among the many we will see in The Old Republic. With an entire galaxy in front of us to potentially travel to, how many places will be too few? How many will be too much?
It's impossible to know how large of a subscriber base Star Wars: The Old Republic will ultimately retain, but this is something that must be considered when creating and establishing areas like Coruscant. Other MMOs out there have taken a bit of a hit for having too many areas, or instancing copies of the same area, which results in spreading the population too thin. It's an interesting balance, as BioWare must establish enough areas in the game to give the players a feeling of a "massive" world, but still be designed intelligently so as not to silo the community into segments that mess with the feeling of "multiplayer".
It appears that BioWare is aware that The Old Republic, with an established IP like Star Wars, needs to have areas reflective of the epic experience they want players to have. If Coruscant is any indication, they'll end up meeting expectations and then some. I'm kind of looking forward to future updates, to see how they plan on handling planets with other types of terrain. Still - I'm curious about what others might think about the world of SW:TOR and whether or not its scale should be larger (to create a more epic feeling of the Star Wars universe) or smaller (to encourage greater pockets of players and population density), after all, this is a world many of us will be spending a lot of time in.
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Or Tattooine, Endor, or other wilderness planet; some players would actually become master navigators through endless harsh terrain, know the secret paths...