Darth Hater

Star Wars: The Old Republic News, Interviews, Media & Podcast

  • PAX East: Interview With Hall Hood

    Darth Hater had a conversation about conversation with Hall Hood, Senior Writer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, at this year's PAX East in Boston. Hood is one of the writers involved in the story of the Jedi Knight as well as the Smuggler, and he also wrote the story for the Taral V Flashpoint available for play at the convention.



    As always, the transcript is available after the jump.

  • PAX East: James Ohlen Interview



    The last time we spoke to James Ohlen, Star Wars: The Old Republic Creative Director, it was back at last summer's Gamescom in Germany. He granted us an opportunity to catch up with him at PAX East, and we discussed a bunch of topics ranging from Game Testing and Space Combat to Advanced Classes... and blowing up Alderaan.

    Hit the jump for more.

  • Daniel Erickson on the Dialogue System

    BioWare's Daniel Erickson posted details on the dialogue system in Star Wars: The Old Republic in a thread started by Ewoky.

    The Mass Effect dialogue system worked exceptionally well for keeping the game fast and action-oriented, which is always that team's target. On Dragon Age we went for a more classic RPG approach with more options and the ability to dig into all the little details. The first option in dialogue was usually the most sensible one for a reasonable person in the situation. SWTOR is somewhere in the middle. We keep the story moving (nobody wants to sit there in a multiplayer game while their party member begs an NPC for more backstory) but we present the options based on the situation and the class or faction.

    So in the Flashpoint that Altyrell mentioned, the kill option was on the top because it was an Imperial quest and being darkside is the default for their big faction choices. In the same manner the top option for Smugglers tends to be funny or flirty, Bounty Hunters tend to be all business, Consulars tend to be questioning and wise, etc. Then, of course, the rest of the options enable players to do something totally different with their characters. Want to be a hardcase Smuggler? A wry action hero Bounty Hunter? A charming Inquisitor? Choices are much broader than just good and evil.

    Hope that helps!

    One interesting difference between the Mass Effect and TOR dialogue systems is the positioning of options on the wheel. While in Mass Effect the top (default) option tends to fit good-aligned characters regardless of the character's alignment, the default in TOR character seems to match a character's alignment. Players who found the Mass Effect dialogue choices to be too black and white may see the inclusion of a wider variety of options as a welcome change.

  • Constructive Criticism 2.0

    It has been a while since we have had a constructive criticism post going, so it is time to have one again. Like the previous one, this is where you state your concerns as well as a way to help fix them. This can be directed towards Bioware, or darthhater.com. As long as what you say is a genuine concern and why it is it is fair game. Just remember comments like "Topic X is stupid," won't cut it, go with "Topic X could be improved by adding Y." Remember to be nice and if talking about the game try to go with confirmed facts. (The micro transaction thing is one of those topics that has been talked to death with little confirmation on any level) If you have no complaints just ask a question and I will try to answer it.

  • Kotaku interview confirms conversation competition

    Though the article reveals nothing new from what we have known for some time it is nice to have confirmation on one of the items that we speculated on in our first dissection:

    The dialogue options available in this scenario to Zeshuck and Eisendel would be determined by the skills of their characters and some randomization. "You can either agree or compete on what game dialogue you want to have and what direction the story goes. Because at the end of the day you are making a decision on whether I'm going to kill the captain or save the captain that's a dark side choice, Erik doesn't want that. It's neat to have that potential interaction."


    Hat tip to Chillinvillain.
Forums

Latest Topics

Go To Forums

Most Commented

Go to Articles

Tag Cloud

More