Speculation: Wearing A Path In The Holonet

As we touched on in our previous article, we believe all the developers public statements solidified BioWare's direction of class design. We searched high and low looking for clues, kicked around hypotheses, made charts and graphs, followed several threads in the Character Class section of the Star Wars: The Old Republic official forums and we discovered that the answer to every class two paths were possibly outlined plain as day in the Holonet.
A casual observer might think that this is simply random concept art or maybe examples of tiered gear, but we should accept the fact that every single thing officially released is done so for a very specific marketing reason. For example, if you take a look at the Outfitting section of the Sith Warrior, you see this:

sithwarrior_s>
Progression through story is not without rewards for the Sith Warrior, shown here modeling a series of well earned armor upgrades. Quoted from the official site


We see these images as something very telling: an example of what you may look like prior to choosing one of two paths, what you may look like after picking a pure damage path, and finally what you may look like after picking a support path.

Jake Neri told us that as you progress, you will reach a point where you will pick one of two paths that are very distinct from one another. In the example of the Sith Warrior, it makes sense that you would start out looking like a combination of the two paths in order to get the experience of the core class. If you pick the damage path, then you will wear visually lighter armor, possibly assisted by cybernetics, to dual wield lightsabers in a quick, hack and slash manner. In contrast, if you pick the support path, then you would focus on Darth Vader-like hulking damage mitigation to aid your allies.

We believe that these two paths of damage and support is true for every single class, and the Holonet appears to support this. We found this eerie coincidence repeating in each class Outfitting page. To test our theory, we looked at the Trooper:

trooper_s


Reading descriptions of the trooper concept art allows us to make a few reasonable conclusions. In this image, the base class would be the armor set on the left described as standard issue. Those wanting to play a ranged tank would pick the center concept, noted as being tested for strength and durability, while those wanting to focus more on dealing damage may choose the flexible tactical option seen on the right.

It is possible that BioWare is hiding even more clues in plain sight for months now. We were previously told of tidbits found in other sources, and the Holonet appears to be prime real estate to find more. No matter the path you choose, it appears your look will match your play style.

Comments

  • Remlish's avatar
    Dark Lord
    • Posts: 277
    #75 Remlish Posted 12/16/2009 6:33:41 AM
    Right now im planet hunting, mabey ill uncover something juicy soon ooo :)
  • agerock's avatar
    Spice Runner
    • Posts: 131
    #52 agerock Posted 12/15/2009 7:20:55 PM
    Nem is tudtam, hogy van egy ilyesi oldal magyarul is :o
  • darthuser162's avatar
    Dark Lord
    • Posts: 350
    #50 darthuser162 Posted 12/15/2009 1:45:22 PM
    We only saw a small sample of game play during our hands on time, however, if is a good test of how the end product will be, I wouldn't be worried. Think about prior MMOs you have played. Replace every time you turned in a quest with a short (30 sec - 1 min) cut scene. Now this will add up if they give you the chance to vacuum up quests, but you should always be spending more time in the field then talking to NPCs.
  • FarScholar's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #48 FarScholar Posted 12/15/2009 10:43:26 AM
    Any MMO you’ve played at all, when has the “cloth” armored class been 100% if even 60% melee?

    > Everquest Monks, nuff said =)
  • cwjedi's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 43
    #49 cwjedi Posted 12/15/2009 11:25:36 AM
    What is the only thing worse than a wall of text? Two walls of text in the same comment.

    No, but i read both your comments and i agree with you guys, Macer and Diedare, about the way the other sites and magizines have twisted there infomation given too them too try and pleasure all those reading it. And as far as emlaeh's point of view, i have thought this ever since i saw the trooper's uniforms in one of the first holonet updates.
  • Gorexxar's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 50
    #46 Gorexxar Posted 12/15/2009 7:48:33 AM
    To be honest, I'm not sure that is actually going to happen (Or at least, the way I think you interpreted it). If the path you took had a permanent and largely effecting problem with your class mechanically a lot of people would be demanding "respecs" for balancing. Traveling along in a mission and you find two choices, each leading to a different 'armor' or specialty you would have to pause and think and pray you chose the 'right' one that fits you forevermore.
    However, if you mean gear evolves and changes picture as you level and how you put in "points" into a specialization tree... What will be of the hybids?
  • emlaeh's avatar
    Dark Councilor
    • Posts: 995
    #51 emlaeh Posted 12/15/2009 4:12:43 PM
    This is stated multiple times in many interviews: choosing one of the two paths (damage and support) is a permanent choice you make in the game. But the specialization trees within each path are flexible and you can easily move points around in there.

    But the path choice is permanent. Gotta look beyond traditional MMOs for this combat innovation and how it ties into your personal story. ;)
  • DirectX's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #53 DirectX Posted 12/15/2009 8:51:44 PM
    Which interview states that is permanent? Maybe I'm wrong, but I remember one interview suggesting you'll be able to change between the two paths at end-game.
  • DirectX's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #54 DirectX Posted 12/15/2009 8:53:38 PM
    To clarify, there are interviews stating that storyline decisions are permanent. But, I don't believe there are any that say the same about which gameplay path you go down.
  • Gorexxar's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 50
    #56 Gorexxar Posted 12/15/2009 10:06:36 PM
    Yep, as said above. If there was a permanent game choice that effected your character mechanically people would fume. If I were to exaggerate, all the top end guilds could only want people who did X to join their guild because it had the best bonuses out of the lot. Could you imagine what would happen if a lot of people rerolled their character so that they did X in their story... Only to find out that it's been 'balanced' the following week to pointlessness?
    Call it a casual gamer element but I feel in an MMO choices that effects how your character plays should have a "re-do" button.
  • Zenkei's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #57 Zenkei Posted 12/15/2009 10:36:06 PM
    In certain aspects, but other aspects should be permanent.
  • DarthTaturact's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 12
    #58 DarthTaturact Posted 12/15/2009 11:13:33 PM
    the only way i would say this would be a good idea is of the content was alot different for leveling. I dont want to have to do the same quests twice just to go down a different "spec".

    However, Light side and dark side points should be permanent because bioware (correct me if im wrong) said they will have repeatable quests and im sure those quests could give points in those areas. So if later down the road you want to go from light to dark then dark to gray then back to light or dark you could.
  • DarthTaturact's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 12
    #45 DarthTaturact Posted 12/15/2009 5:00:45 AM
    i wouldnt worry so much about spaces available as i would pay more attention to the 1st Galactic timeline entry. a total of 16 maybe a large number to most but if you think about this way it might be closer to being not so farfetch'd. I dont know if we have confirmation on wether or not all jedi and sith wiill start on their own planet but i would say would be safe to assume so and then we have 2 other classes to worry about right. So a total of 3 starting planets per side that already makes 6 total planets needed, now add 1 more for each class to go to next after they are done with their 1st planet. I say one for each because in Kotor you had a total of4-5 (i cant remember along time since my last play through) and thats in one story so i can guess you will bounce form planet to planet in the game as you level up going to higher level areas on each planet as your other classes go around and do the same thing. now if Bioware is true to their word more content than all of their games combined (which i do believe when they say things like that) then 4 planets for all your classes per side to level up on until you are in the home stretch to end game. where you reserve a 2-3 planets for high level pvp and things of that nature. And on the map they show in that 1st time line video they show a total of 16, 8 per side. It may seem to easy but then again it could work really well. pure speculation which is what this article is all about.
  • DarthTaturact's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 12
    #63 DarthTaturact Posted 12/16/2009 12:41:49 AM
    I would like to hear what others think about this theory :) adds to the fun!
  • DarthTaturact's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 12
    #44 DarthTaturact Posted 12/15/2009 4:45:52 AM
    Also there is a reason you can be a Jedi right off. Bioware and LucasArts picks this time period so they can have a mass amount of people with lightsabers which is one of the only reasons i want to play this game. I want to shoot some people with force lightning. Not to mention all these classes look compelling most and i wouldn't be surprised to see alot of bounty hunters as well as Imperial agents are going to be popular aswell look at the art for them and if they look anything like that you bet im going to have an alt :P
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