Republic Closed Beta Media Event



BioWare recently held a closed beta event for the press involving Republic Classes. With the embargo now over, the press sites that took part can discuss details involving general gameplay, storyline, Companions, Crew Skills, worlds, quests, NPCs, Flashpoints and PVP Warzones. In an effort to make all of the information easy to find, this post will serve as a roundup of all of the coverage from the press sites that attended.

A full listing as well as highlights from the individual articles is available after the jump.
Coverage





Highlights


More than Alderaan, Huttball makes every single class feel valuable. It also never feels like a stalemate, which is something other capture-the-flag modes almost always boil down to. Huttball is a mode that, come launch, I will be playing a lot.

The game opened up a lot more once I left Ord Mantell (where I only saw other Troopers and Smugglers) and made my way to Coruscant. Before arriving on Coruscant, I traveled to the Carrick space station in the midst of the Republic fleet. This is the Republic social hub shown off during the TOR main panel at New York Comic-Con last week. The station is indeed filled with vendors, a cantina, class and crafting trainers, and a jump off point to launch Flashpoints. It was a pretty neat spot, but felt sort of inorganic. It almost felt like a bit of a shopping mall in space. Everything is neatly placed and organized in an intelligent and convenient fashion, which is great for gameplay purposes but really not much else.

As if that wasn't enough, the Trooper can swap between different firing modes. Called 'Cells', only one of these modes can be active at a time to give the Trooper added bonuses to all blaster shots. I favored the Plasma Cell over the Armor Piercing Cell, because it added a percent chance to ignite targets for a short while, inflicting damage over time. It also lets me use High Impact Bolt, a single high damage shot only usable against targets taking damage over time or who were incapacitated.

You'll be traveling on foot until you ding 25, and I spent a good four hours or so just getting to level 7 (all without straying far from the very obvious beaten path between one quest hub and the next

In conversation they (companions) are less active and more reactive. Depending on which dialogue choices you make during a conversation sequence, your companion may gain or lose "Affection."

The story (as much as I saw) is every bit as good as I'd hoped. Whether I was smack talking across the bleak wastes of Ord Mantell on my prissy smuggler or pontificating as a holier-than-thou Jedi Consular over the wooded paths of Tython, SWTOR pulled me into its world like no other MMO has pulled me before.

Once you have a crafting skill, items that you can theoretically craft -- say, lightsabers and bracers for Force users as an Artificer -- can be "Reverse Engineered."...This is significant because you can break down items you create, and each self-created item you Reverse Engineer has a chance to teach you a recipe to create a better version of that item...It makes item-crafting somewhat of a slot machine, and gives you a reason to craft the same item a dozen times that isn't strictly for skill-ups, sell back to vendors or put on the Auction House

Comments

  • Kaiser's avatar
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    #68 Kaiser Posted 10/21/2011 4:58:23 AM
    I know many, many friends who have had the same sentiment. One was two weeks off his 6-month renewal and is now no longer going to continue it.
  • sleepr's avatar
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    #23 sleepr Posted 10/20/2011 6:08:25 PM
    Gamereactor (English) with video in the end of the preview, you guys should watch it.

    http://www.gamereactor.eu/previews/9133/Hands-on: Star Wars: The Old Republic/?sid=65dc8936eff6d7afd4bea0b15445f1e5
  • flem1's avatar
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    #75 flem1 Posted 10/21/2011 7:25:20 AM
    That guy apparently didn't read his press kit telling him he could only talk about Republic during this phase. ;)
  • WalterPeck's avatar
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    #22 WalterPeck Posted 10/20/2011 6:06:03 PM
    If I hear one more sandboxer complain about TOR not being a sandbox despite the fact it has been repeatedly stated it is NOT a sandbox I think I will power vomit into that person's mouth.
  • DarthSerious's avatar
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    #29 DarthSerious Posted 10/20/2011 6:52:23 PM
    Thats the problem with using labels. Once swtor tries to fit a category its either thempark or a sandbox, and can't be something in between. Even, though these labels are useful to explain what swtor is, and it is a bit of a sandbox with a themepark mmo.

    The open world, and open world pvp counts as a sand box element. The large server, and online community counts as well. Also a crafting system, with an auction house counts as a sand box elemnet. However, it is not a sand box game nor is it completely a themepark mmo.

    Imo, if they put player housing and tie open world pvp to player housing in some way, then that would be a true hybrid sand box themepark mmo. All its missing is player housing with a sand box theme to fit that category.

    I think the only reason why people are raging against the notion that swtor is not a sand box is because of the lack of open world pvp, which according to story does not start till later, and gets a planet dedicated to that for end game as well.

    So there is no point in getting angry over labels. These raging people could be SWG players looking for the same sand box element that they had before, and are dissapointed by the lack of it not meeting thier expectations of being the same. Not sure if they are trolling though, since swtor even when compared to SWG is much better, but that's my own subjective preference.
  • Doorofnight's avatar
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    #31 Doorofnight Posted 10/20/2011 6:56:53 PM
    they've also confirmed that on pvp servers you can run into people of the opposite side and fight them so while there are areas that are dedicated to world pvp and you get rewards for doing it, you can go around killing opposing people too if you are on a pvp server.

    Also, there is already player housing, namely your personal ship. Hopefully someday they will add spaceship pvp.
  • Socrates's avatar
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    #57 Socrates Posted 10/21/2011 2:16:32 AM
    But if somebody destroys your ship, then you are homeless. I do not like that idea at all.
  • Kaiser's avatar
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    #69 Kaiser Posted 10/21/2011 4:59:05 AM
    Uh... what? Nobody can destroy your ship...
  • Doorofnight's avatar
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    #70 Doorofnight Posted 10/21/2011 5:42:52 AM
    I know, we are talking about the future possibility of having spaceship PVP, and since the ship is your ingame house, that could be, story speaking, a little tricky(then again so is dying in a warzone, so whatevs)
  • DarthSerious's avatar
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    #71 DarthSerious Posted 10/21/2011 6:09:07 AM
    The pvp situation in swtor sounds good. I can't wait to see more details on it, or better yet get my hands experience when the game launches.

    I have nothing against the way is swtor is set up.

    The idea of player housing was an example of an uneccesary sand box element to make it more sand box than themepark. However I prefer the themepark foundation such as a good story and allowing progression within that story without griefing.

    I know that spaceships count as player housing and that is awesome, and I am grateful for that added bonus. I am in no way arguing that swtor needs sandbox housing but only that it could have that unecessary addition since the themepark element is the focus of the game and the sand box would be end game if it were ever a feature and imo swtor end game is great. I like the idea of an end game world pvp planet.
  • Kaiser's avatar
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    #72 Kaiser Posted 10/21/2011 6:16:42 AM
    But... why would that destroy your ship permanently? If someone kills you in PvP, do you die permanently? It's silly to think they'd do this.
  • DarthSerious's avatar
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    #74 DarthSerious Posted 10/21/2011 6:51:35 AM
    It's one of things you make up an excuse for or have a mechanic that makes sense. Either when we lose our ship and nothing happens, and we enjoy that mechanic making up reasons for selves, 'how come?', if we want to.

    Or we live because there is an escape pod that got to a secure spot and we pay a large sum of money for the lost ship, or we don't but still escape. Paying would be more realistic and may have other mechanic how the money payed puts more buffs on the map for everyone for example.
  • Socrates's avatar
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    #79 Socrates Posted 10/21/2011 2:37:35 PM
    It was a joke.
  • theunwarshed's avatar
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    #86 theunwarshed Posted 10/22/2011 8:38:50 PM
    i agree that a game that can incorporate the "guided experience" into the early game of an mmo, while teaching the player to evolve into a sandbox "elder game" would be ideal. as things stand, i just don't know how BW can keep up (over the long term) with the ravenous content appetites of players.
  • theunwarshed's avatar
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    #87 theunwarshed Posted 10/22/2011 8:51:34 PM
    it's a good first step. i was never one of those advocating the, "TOR has no innovation" mantra. it's obvious to anyone whose played in beta that the story/vo/grouping mechanics/dialogue wheel are all mmorpg innovations that (as i said) make this game a pleasant departure from your typical mmorpg.

    we have very little info regarding the "elder game". it would be great to see BW turn it into something more that the standard fare. Ilum looks fun and all, but it is essentially a planet-sized pvp instance from the looks of it. my hope is that it won't be just that. that it will tie into an as yet unannounced meta game of all out war between the SE and GR involving territorial conquest, guild ships/guild warfare, evolving space combat into mp, etc. players will be able to make names for themselves not only in the crafting venue but as great war heroes and politicians (a player run political system).

    this would be a game worth playing for years to come.
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