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Space Combat confirmed as "tunnel shooter."

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  • #1 Jamis

    I read this originally on massively.com, but they are siting a German TOR fan site which reports to have advanced info on space combat in TOR.  Apparently they got a sneak peek at the upcoming edition of PC Action magazine, a German PC Gamer type magazine, which details how space combat works.  They describe it as a "tunnel shooter" in which you fly a predefined path.  It's not as complicated as the X-Wing or TIE fighter games, and is aimed at more of a casual audience.  There will be Death Star trench run type experiences.  There is also no PVP for space combat.

    So this sounds to me a little like Star Fox or something maybe?  You can move your ship, but you are always moving forward down a predefined path.  What does everything else think of this assuming it's true.  I was hoping for something more then that, but honestly it's not at all a deal breaker for me.

    Link to the massively article:

    http://www.massively.com/2010/08/08/rumor-the-old-republic-space-combat-on-rails/

  • #2 DramaticExit

    Aye, I don't expect too much at this stage. My hope would be that if they release with something very limited then, at some point in the future, they flesh it out. It's a pretty obvious and Star-Warsy part of the game to expand on :)

    e: Just seen the official (115 pages before a new thread was opened) discussion. Worth reposting is the official: "UPDATE [1]: To clarify, Space Combat is not a Turret Shooter "

  • #3 Raeth

    Ouch. I honestly didn't expect a rail shooter. If it is, I hope its only a placeholder and they replace or add to it on the first expansion.

  • #4 John_Roy

    Quote from Raeth
    Ouch. I honestly didn't expect a rail shooter. If it is, I hope its only a placeholder and they replace or add to it on the first expansion.

    Is any one here familliar with "tunnel shooters?"  Can you move your ship at all or just "ride the ride" and fire away?  Would love some more info.  Thanks.

  • #5 Kelrekk

    Ever play Star Fox? Gonna be something like that i expect.

  • #6 John_Roy

    Quote from Kelrekk
    Ever play Star Fox? Gonna be something like that i expect.

    I never did.  I have a huge gap in my video game history.  Everything between Sega Genesis "Ghouls and Ghosts" and "KOTOR" is a blank time where I played no console games at all, so the concept of "rail shooter" is vague and mysterious to me, unfortunately.

  • #7 nuDEMON

    I found this post via the Dev Tracker on the official forums.

    http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=3815248#edit3815248

    This is a quote from Sean Dahlberg in that post:

    "UPDATE [1]: To clarify, Space Combat is not a Turret Shooter (this is probably obvious after seeing the screenshot but some people were mentioning it in the other thread)."

    The screenshot he links to is here:

    http://www.swtor-station.com/index.php?p=news&newsid=396

  • #8 nuDEMON

    *Don't know why there's nothing in my first post..."

    I found this post via the Dev Tracker on the official forums.

    http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=3815248#edit3815248

    This is a quote from Sean Dahlberg in that post:

    "UPDATE: To clarify, Space Combat is not a Turret Shooter (this is probably obvious after seeing the screenshot but some people were mentioning it in the other thread)."

    The screenshot he links to is here:

    http://www.swtor-station.com/index.php?p=news&newsid=396

  • #9 Raeth

    A rail shooter is basically where you can move a cursor or reticule around the screen to aim at different areas and sometimes 'veer' down different paths or avoid obstacles, but essentially you don't have true control over where your ships goes. Think of Time Crisis in arcades. You can shoot and duck, but you can't change your mind and go through the back door instead of the front or something.

    I'm intrigued by 'tunnel' shooter. Is this different to 'rail' or is it just more politically correct to say tunnel as it doesn't sound like you're stuck on rails as much?

  • #10 Kaziel

    Quote from John_Roy
    Quote from Kelrekk
    Ever play Star Fox? Gonna be something like that i expect.

    I never did.  I have a huge gap in my video game history.  Everything between Sega Genesis "Ghouls and Ghosts" and "KOTOR" is a blank time where I played no console games at all, so the concept of "rail shooter" is vague and mysterious to me, unfortunately.


    The basic idea of a rail shooter is a game where you follow a predetermined path (as if you were a train on "rails"), aiming and shooting around the screen.

    There are basically two variants on the Rail Shooter:
    <list type="ordered">First there's the First-Person Rail Shooter. If you've ever been to an arcade and seen a game that has a light gun of some sort, you know this type. The "House of the Dead" and "Time Crisis" series are probably two of the more successful games in this genre. While the classic form of this Rail Shooter wouldn't work for space combat, anyone who's played KOTOR has... they could very easily take the turret mini-game from KOTOR and transform it into a workable game to play for space combat.
    Second there are the movable ship rail shooter which is the type of game, as the name may imply, where you move the ship around the screen shooting at stuff, but your constant forward movement keeps you going  along a set path. For an example, here's  a clip from the gameplay for Star Fox 64: http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/starfox64/video/6168866/star-fox-64-gameplay-movie-2[/list]

    Anyway, if this is true (and I actually considered it a real possibility right after they announced space combat) then I'm leaning more towards the second idea compared to the first.

  • #11 gstommylee

    Sean updated said its not a turret shooter according to image posted at http://www.swtor-station.com.&nbsp; Its possible where your limited in a pre-defined space. We just have to wait and find out as more details come out especially a video.

  • #12 Caliber

    Quote from gstommylee
    Sean updated said its not a turret shooter according to image posted at http://www.swtor-station.com.&nbsp; Its possible where your limited in a pre-defined space. We just have to wait and find out as more details come out especially a video. 

    Exactly.

    This is second-hand information with no word from Bioware other than that space combat will not be a turret shooter. There's no reason to worry about anything yet.

    The Fatman - PvP - East Coast

  • #13 Kaziel

    Quote from gstommylee
    Sean updated said its not a turret shooter according to image posted at http://www.swtor-station.com.&nbsp; Its possible where your limited in a pre-defined space. We just have to wait and find out as more details come out especially a video.
    If it turns out to be true, very cool!

  • #14 John_Roy

    Thanks for the info on rail shooters.  If it's the second kind you mention, that could be cool.  I checked your link but I couldn't find the part where Sean comments on it not being a turret shooter.  I also can't speak any German, though, so it may have hid in plain sight.

  • #15 chronium

    Quote from gstommylee
    Sean updated said its not a turret shooter according to image posted at http://www.swtor-station.com.&nbsp; Its possible where your limited in a pre-defined space. We just have to wait and find out as more details come out especially a video. 

    Well really that means absolutely nothing since the turret shooter has absolutely nothing to do with rail shooters.

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