Taris Developer Dispatch Dissection

Here is Darth Hater's dissection of the latest Developer Dispatch from Star Wars: The Old Republic, which focuses largely on the recently revealed Taris. As in our prior dissections, we will add new content in as we find it, so keep checking back. Feel free to let us know if you notice something we missed, and we will be happy to add it to our dissection with credit. Note: if something is mentioned in a prior dissection, then we do not reiterate it again here. Low bandwidth users should note there are numerous images contained in this article.


The much beloved KOTOR Swoop Bike Racetrack is seen above. For those who are nostalgic about KOTOR, this comes as a welcome surprise.



A seventh menu button is seen for the first time in the shot above, and possibly a level 40 Sith Inquisitor.





This screenshot features a Taris location that is not named. We noticed the seventh menu button seen in James Ohlen's UI is missing from the Level 10 UI.



We get a good look at this 'Sinking City' in the screenshot above, which is featured multiple times throughout the Developer Dispatch video.





Detailed explosion and smoke effects are featured. We think they are noticeably improved compared to the last time we saw them.



The Jedi Knight in this image is attacking the red 'alpha' Rakghoul before the others, which is the same way the Trooper chose to progress a comparable fight. This could suggest that the red or 'alpha' Rakghoul is a buffer or 'pack leader.' Similar to past dissections where multiple ranks of mobs were shown, this is indicative of a player making a primary kill target decision out of a group of mobs.





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The images above feature Republic and Sith faction banners that indicate the claim to these locations. Since Taris is an independent planet, this could confirm our thinking that independent planets might contain PvPvE. Towards the end of the documentary, Drew Karpyshyn mentions that your actions on the planet will affect the planet itself. Also, we tried to decode the Aurebesh on the green sign, and we couldn't reliably decode anything remotely close to a word.



We see our little droid buddy from the official forum's avatar. We did not see a frontal image of the droid's face, but we can confirm it is one of the same droids from the avatar choices.



This is a side by side comparison of James Ohlen's Sith Inquisitor to Scott Carpenter's Level 10 one. Since we already know what the icons represent, and the selection differs between the two shots, we can reasonably conclude James Ohlen's character is a higher level than Scott Carpenter's.

Comments

  • Jamion's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 43
    #45 Jamion Posted 3/12/2010 5:59:26 PM
    From this picture http://darthhater.com/wp-content/uploads/distarisskills.png it looks as if they are the same level just different alignments (light/dark) or different specialization. But the same lvl, both lvl 10.
  • Jamion's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 43
    #44 Jamion Posted 3/6/2010 5:10:32 PM
    Looking at some of these shots of Taris we can get really get a scale for the size of buildings, structures, ships, and the environment in general. We see some NPCs (assumed human sized) in several of the screen shots this gives us a comparison. Its suggests for SS for areas like http://darthhater.com/wp-content/uploads/tarisdis-13.png that don't have a scale comparison that human character would come to just about a third (maybe half) of the flag stands.

    This is really cool IMO, because it shows that they are thinking large scale and BIG for the game. And I like to see that, more for me to explore.
  • Jamion's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 43
    #43 Jamion Posted 3/6/2010 4:44:29 PM
    The text in the top part says "42" and "Toggling Shadows" http://darthhater.com/wp-content/uploads/tarisdis-4.png
  • darthuser693's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 22
    #40 darthuser693 Posted 3/2/2010 12:46:39 AM
    Hi guys. Nice Article, thanks.

    I'm curious, how did you get your images? Did BioWare send you the HD version of this dispatch especially (and before everyone else), or was there some way of getting high quality images from the stream at swtor.com? Its just that I can't see a downloadable version on the official site (though Sean did say it would be up by Monday), or an HD version on YouTube - or anywhere for that matter, and the streaming version is terrible quality.
  • TimSkijwalker's avatar
    Spice Runner
    • Posts: 189
    #41 TimSkijwalker Posted 3/2/2010 7:20:40 AM
    yeah...i was about to ask the same thing... your screenshots look way better than the actual vid it self...
  • darthuser567's avatar
    Spice Runner
    • Posts: 133
    #38 darthuser567 Posted 3/1/2010 8:13:22 AM
    March: The beginning of a new era of new big updates. Stay tuned kiddies...
  • RogueJedi86's avatar
    Dark Councilor
    • Posts: 3,411
    #37 RogueJedi86 Posted 3/1/2010 2:48:44 AM
    In pic 13, on the left side, by there's a black/gray circular object that DH highlighted with an orange box, what's the significance of that highlight? It can't be seen in the other pic of the same spot, so it can't be showing that it's the same place as the other. Is it a vent or something?
  • TimSkijwalker's avatar
    Spice Runner
    • Posts: 189
    #35 TimSkijwalker Posted 2/28/2010 6:59:44 PM
    REALLY HAPPY>>>>YHIS DH CREATION MADE ME EVEN MORE HAPPY
  • Tudana's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #32 Tudana Posted 2/28/2010 1:07:08 PM
    Is it just me or does anyone else think the combat seems as clunky/choppy animation as it did in KOTOR I back in the day? Granted SWTOR dev combat is different and has more bells and whisles to it, but strip all that stuff away and it looks/moves the same to me...meh.

    Sure hope they can clean that up.
  • darthuser120's avatar
    Spice Runner
    • Posts: 165
    #33 darthuser120 Posted 2/28/2010 6:03:28 PM
    Animations are one of the last things to get touched up in an MMO. BioWare is more concerned about getting everything else in before finalizing animations. So do not expect to see the most fluid of combat before the NDA drops on the game.
  • InvaderMig's avatar
    Spice Runner
    • Posts: 154
    #34 InvaderMig Posted 2/28/2010 6:03:46 PM
    Dude, I felt EXACTLY the same way when watching this vid. I was horrified when watching the combat at first glance, but then I noticed that each attack performed was on a different target. I'm hoping the lack of fluidity is due to the fact that there are minor pauses between switching target focus.

    We have yet to see a gameplay vid of a Knight, and part of the reason I'm even considering rolling one is because of the so called acrobatic maneuvers they can perform. I know this is still a work in progress and things will be fined tuned, but I couldn't help but cringe at the stiff, horrific looking Kotoresque style movement. I loved Kotor, but man, they really need to do something about the combat or my sub will be short lived.
  • TimSkijwalker's avatar
    Spice Runner
    • Posts: 189
    #39 TimSkijwalker Posted 3/1/2010 8:07:54 PM
    i read an article or i heard it in one of DH its podcasts and they were really happy about how fluid it already was...
    remember we still have one year to go....if i were you i shouldnt worry about this to much...this shouldnt be to hard to fix..

    my personal concern is planet size...??? how big will one planet be??
  • Lethality's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #42 Lethality Posted 3/2/2010 3:53:38 PM
    Yup, the character animations and combat animations are terrible. BioWare is not known for attention to this and it's starting to concern me a great deal.

    Combat needs to be much more fluid... and they could take a lesson from Blizzard on secondary and tertiary animation.
  • emlaeh's avatar
    Dark Councilor
    • Posts: 995
    #28 emlaeh Posted 2/27/2010 5:36:13 PM
    No, just showing you what the icons are. :)
  • DirectX's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #27 DirectX Posted 2/27/2010 10:22:11 AM
    The skill icon artwork seems to be vastly improving.
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