Darth Hater

There was quite of bit of information in that article if you actually read it. People didn't just read tunnel shooter and went crazy. They read the part about you not being able to control the direction or speed in which your ship moves and they also had the audacity to say "similar to Rogue Squadron". Lack of any sort of multiplayer at launch also put a damper on the excitement for space. I know there are people on the forums who are just raging, but there are also people there with justified disappointment. As I explained in an earlier comment this whole ordeal was very much hyped, and it turned out to be a tunnel shooter with 2-8 minute missions.

As far as weeks later seeing a video that showed much more depth to ground combat, that's laughable. The healer did a slam or two and slashed the enemy when it was about to die. Despite the popular belief on this site, the new vid does not show anything disproving a hard trinity in that particular encounter. If examples are always taken from WoW then that might have some merit. Even in wow I was able to throw in attack on my healing priest when running dungeons, so I don't see how that changes anything. There are many other MMO's where the healer can sneak in a cc or attack here and there like the consular did, that doesn't mean that their role is a hybrid. That was definitely the case in Lotro, and that game had a hard trinity too.

The thing that might really change this dynamic is companions, but we have yet to see them in action. Those 2 videos were not every different from each other, and in no way changed the fact that everyone there "in that particular encounter" had a specific role.

the PC Gamer issue that's chock full of space combat details just came out. Anyone want pictures of the article?

Already linked in comments below

only if they are high res. :p

High res pictures would be nice there are so interesting new ships in the screenshots that I want a better look at.

After reading everything, space combat in TOR is really just a polished version of this http://www.starwars.com/games/playnow/trench_run/

I've had a strange journey. A month and a half ago I didn't care at all about space combat. Then I decided on a whim to play a free month of SWG (I played the game a few months after release, quit before JTL, so it's all new to me...). Much to my surprise I've enjoyed the space combat there. So with the Comic Con announcement I grew rather excited. And then today I learn it's a rail shooter or something like Rogue Squadron and now I'm suddenly deflated. In the end, I have to admit that my reaction is kind of silly, to be disappointed by something I didn't even want 6 weeks ago, something I haven't actually even tried yet, but that's where I am right now.

Hopefully when I do finally get to play the game myself I'll love it, but right now, I don't expect to be all that interested in the minigame. Which in no way tempers my enthusiasm for TOR.

Well, with the wealth of information we received from this article (and there is a ton, really), it seems pretty obvious that Bioware wants to keep our feet on the ground... literally. Most of the gameplay will happen through the ground story. All of their other games are like that, so I'm not to surprised.

To make this "Tunnel Shooter" work they need to make the gameplay just as heart-pounding and epic as the movies are. This needs to have a certain amount of grandeur and a cinematic feel that will make me want to watch and play (since there will be less stuff to play).

They are right. A flight sim might not be an answer for an MMO that wants to feel "as epic as the movies". So how can you incorporate this with enough Flash and Pazazz to make it seem to work with the universe they want to create?

Also- I'm bummed too about no multiplayer or pvp at launch. Seems odd, but oh well.

All true points.

I could honestly care less about space combat. Tunnel, no tunnel, turret, no turret, whatever. this isn't galaxies, eve, black prophecy, or jumpgate. Expecting them to build a whole new platform on top of the massive amounts of content already being put in this game is not only unrealistic at launch, but selfish. Its a simple fact that this game will not cater to everyone and everything. Space battles would be nice yes, and I'm sure massive space combat will eventually make its way into the raid/flashpoint zone, but we're most likely already looking at a 10-15gig initial install. Almost all fleshed out space-based games are 4-8gigs in size. That puts digital downloads @ around 20 gigs (total guesstimate here) + patches. Thats simply unrealistic in the state of the "common gamers" machine specs and average internet speeds. What if you pay by the meg? (Australia, regulated internet countries, etc.) Just to DD the game and install it consumes your entire monthly gig allowance. How is that fair to them? Space and space combat has obviously been a very small part of design philosophy from day one (total lack of news, features, reporting or updates for almost 2 years), so why exactly are people getting their panties in a bunch? Easy: They had unrealistic expectations, and as usual they fell short. Hope for the best, expect the worst. You will never be surprised or disappointed.

Essentially, it is more of a mini-game at this point with a few missions geared towards space. Not too disappointed since it hasn't been hyped and has been labeled as "optional" gameplay experience. Jedi Knight specializations mirror the Sith Warrior, hoping the skill trees has more variety between the two. A Heavy Weapons specialist and "Scout" trooper specialization make sense for the Trooper. I believe the video that focused on the Trooper showed two images of the specialization without directly mentioning they were specializations (the term "path" was used?).

I'll have to disagree with you on the "It hasn't been hyped part". I have no idea what people consider hype, but space was definitely hyped. That whole facebook blitz promising an awesome reveal if they got 150k face book ads. The forums were all a blaze with people begging people to make facebook accounts for fear than they would not meet the quota. Then they made it the major announcement at comic con. Two magazines had articles centered around it, one of which had the cover of their mag based around it. You seriously consider that very little hype? Some games don't even get that much attention and this is just a mini game. Player species didn't get anywhere near as much hype as that. I don't consider any convention reveals with magazine article support to be small in the gaming world.

The fact is that they made a big deal prior to and after the initial reveal leaving people with a cliffhanger at comic con. You may disagree, but if you do please tell me what you consider real hype.

Agreed. They pumped it for much more than it was worth, and so if expectations havent been met, BW are largely to blame. I havent got anything against tunnel shooters, but it does seem a bit tokenic.
Having said that, there is no other way that space combat can work, space being infinite and full of nothingness. Free roaming exploration seems like it would be a bit ambitious, and hard to blend with the ground game (i'm told that some like the way SWG did it-im not familiar with that tho).

You don't have to have open seamless space, that's just unrealistic. However, just as they have these hot spots where you go to fight your solo player 2-8 min missions, they could easily take a space that large and allow to roam freely around it and dog fight with other people. A space battleground for ex. You could easily implement invisible walls in a creative way. Have the area surrounded by Star Destroyers and if you get to close you the edge of the level you get shot down. Just so long as we get a Z-axis and get to actually fly with other people. There's a crazy notion playing with other people in an MMO.

Yes, exactly. I imagined TOR space combat to me like my minds eye view of the information superhighway.

There's dozens of roads/pathways that lead to big spaces/website instances.

I didn't think I'd be able to free-roam from one end of the galaxy to the other & all points in between. I did think that I would be able to follow a hyperspace tunnel to a hotspot & that a hotspot was a vast walled instance space where I could free-fly my spaceship for PvE, PvP & multiplayer missions.

On-rails in a hotspot gameplay never even entered my mind.