This week's Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday Update is the Advanced Classes Update Developer Blog by Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller. The update includes a deep dive from Georg Zoeller on the Advanced Classes in general, talent trees, abilities, and a few interesting tidbits from the testing program. Developer Blogs normally are not huge updates but this one is definitely not a normal Developer Blog.
Two choice quotes from the update:
Georg Zoeller
Jedi Shadow (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)
Sith Assassin (Roles: Close - Mid Range Damage Dealing, Tanking)
Plenty more is covered in the Advanced Classes Update. Be sure to check it out and let us know your feedback on it in the comment section of this post. The Official DevTracker post follows after the jump.
Alyson Bridge
Georg Zoeller returns with more details about the Advanced Class system.Hello there, I'm Georg Zoeller, and I'm Principal Lead Combat Designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic. In my previous developer blog, I introduced you to the Advanced Classes Game System in the game. In today's blog I'm going to explain how the system has evolved over the last few months based on iteration, gameplay testing and focus groups.
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Posted 4/11/2011 9:12:14 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/11/2011 11:30:20 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/11/2011 3:07:40 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/11/2011 6:13:03 PM- "ninja" - the acrobatic melee type;
- "Robin Hood" - the sharpshooting ranged type;
I'd say, these represent eastern and respectively western view of "a classic rogue" and they offer very different gameplay. I guess, the Assassin AC will emulate "ninja" style and the Gunslinger/Sniper AC will emulate "Robin Hood" style. The choice is yours.:)
It seems, Marauders are, basically, half "ninja" + half "warrior". A hybrid. For some people they will be "light warriors", for other "heavy rogues" - matter of personal perspective.
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Posted 4/11/2011 3:48:34 PMSo yes, there are three different ACs that will give you some Stealth capability. However, I think the one that most fits your vision of a "traditional Rogue" will be the Sith Assassin.
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Posted 4/11/2011 5:43:56 PMBioware has really impressed me lately by showing how the trinity and class roles we are used to can really be changed to create new opportunities. The problem with games like Warhammer Online is that they were too closely tied to what had come before. Like it or not, WoW pretty much perfected what had come before -- the only way to make a game that doesn't just completely feel like a reskinned WoW is to make the classes really feel new.
Other games have figured out different ways to do this -- Champions Online with open power sets you can combine, Rift with inherent multiclassing within larger roles. Old Republic seems to be doing this as well, by presenting us with roles and classes we can immediately identify, but then changing those classes significantly through the ACs and the trees available in each. I'm loving what i'm seeing so far, hopefully Bioware delivers on all this potential. Also, can only hope they never go the route of WoW and lock you into a particular tree based on your first decision -- that has killed that game for me.
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Posted 4/11/2011 3:30:46 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/11/2011 7:41:16 AMThis, coupled with acrobatic or quasi-stealth mechanics to keep aggro could create a tanking class that would still make sense as a "shadowy" class. I have no idea how they're doin' it, but just throwin' this out there.
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Posted 4/9/2011 9:25:22 PMDirect and to the point, with quality information.
He is the 'Carfax' at BW, imo.
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Posted 4/9/2011 8:37:39 PMTo people who still don't get the association between different film characters and the classes/AC's -- just think of it as archetypal figures that represent the philosophy of the class. Han Solo is a film character, and cannot be neatly slotted into a class in a video game that is balanced around playing with other people. But he serves as the prototypical smuggler (alongside Calrissian) for players to consider as they choose a class.
In the same way, Darth Maul serves as an archetype for the concept of the Assassin AC. If the Assassin plays as a lightly armored, stealthy, acrobatic type of lightsaber warrior (having not played the game I can't say) then the model of that from the films is certainly Maul. Vader is not lithe and acrobatic, perhaps somewhat as Anakin, but even then he was more forceful and less assassin-y. Darth Vader is not a Sith Warrior and Darth Sidious is not a Sith Inquisitor. They are film characters that provide archetypes for how characters in a game can be built to resemble them in various ways.
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Posted 4/10/2011 12:02:49 AMUnfortunate.
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Posted 4/10/2011 2:02:56 AMYou can't avoid it, a lot of people will play the game hoping to play a character like their favorite film characters. If you can honestly say your favorite characters from the films have had no impact on what classes you might want to play in game, then you're a better man than i. While i certainly will want to play characters more based on the role and playstyle i prefer, the fact that I have always loved Darth Vader certainly helps me decide to play a Sith Warrior. But i also know I prefer melee to ranged and i enjoy tanking.
Those of us on here make decisions based on information we have due to our obsessive love for a game that is not even out yet. There are a lot of players who are not currently following the game this closely, and for them it's easy to see "Oh i can play a character like Han Solo" or "I want to be Boba Fett, i'll be a bounty hunter!"
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Posted 4/10/2011 10:19:55 PMThey have done a bit of it with their main NPC characters (like Malgus and Satele)--I just wish they'd go more off of what they have created that's new.
I'm sure this will become more the case in the future as we get to know the game, and era, better. But for now, it'll be, "Hey look--you can play a character who's like (so-and-so)," instead of, "Hey, look--you can play this cool character who's great at (this-and-that)."
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Posted 4/9/2011 11:33:31 AM"But but but.. On WoW, they do it this way!" Well keep playing wow then.. I'll be on TOR deciding on what kind of Inquisitor I want.
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Posted 4/8/2011 11:58:25 PM