Transmission 031 is in the feed!
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In this episode, we talk about the new video showcasing SWTOR's combat!


The Combat Video was Sweet!

Topics discussed
--- What we've been doing the last week
--- Blood of the Empire web comic
--- Friday Feature's "atmospheric effects"
--- Travel in MMOs, instant or ride along
Main Topic:
--- Nearly 2 hours of combat video goodness

Duration - 145 minutes

15 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm really excited about the combat video. Lots of great stuff in there.

I'm really digging that the combat seems to be heavy on crowd control. All those different knock-backs, stuns, and ways to close the gap quickly should make for very interesting combat (especially PvP). Looks like it's possible to knock opponents over ledges (at least some ledges -- not sure they'll allow it on that stone bridge on Tatooine for example, although that would be awesome!).
It'd be awesome if as a bounty hunter you could use your lasso skill to drag opponents down with you after you get knocked over a ledge -- although it's probably unlikely you'll be able to use any skills while being knocked about, since all these skills seems to come with a short stun.

Every class looked pretty bad-ass, except for the Smuggler, who didn't seem to get all that much exciting screen time. But perhaps that's because his combat style (at least lore-wise) should be the least flashy.

I have a feeling the did the Fan Friday on the same day because they knew some of the graphics in the combat diary look a bit underwhelming (e.g. all the blocky shadows), so they wanted to show off some high-setting graphics with the environmental effects video.

I think the game will look pretty good on release, but I am concerned about all the male character models we've seen so far -- all of them are butt-ugly. The females look considerably better.
Love the cloaks/capes (not a fan of the clipping either, but it's not a huge issue for me). Some of the armours/outfits looked very cool.

And that bit with the jedi and sith facing off on that bridge on Alderaan was sooooo cool. That Sith Warrior charge is sick.

I'm still planning on rolling a Jedi Consular as my main, but that video got me really excited about trying some of the other classes (even the Trooper about whom I'd been feeling 'meh').

Been watching the video a dozen times already, and I'm sure I'll watch it at least a dozen more times. It's probably the biggest insight into game-play we'll get for a while.

Unknown said...

And one question for you, Kalvod, because Suzina probably hasn't seen it: Zillo beast -- possible raid boss in TOR? What do you think? :)

Kalvod | Java Jawa said...

I agree the trooper and bounty hunter look amazing!! I didn't even really consider them an option for myself because i wasn't very interested in them. But now my curiosity is most definitely piqued.

Yes, the Sith vs Jedi on Alderaan bridge was amazing. Very, very cinematic. All the fights look fun & entertaining which is important.

Hmmm, i could see that as a possibility since they stated they are drawing an inspiration for the content from the Saga & The Clone Wars.

I think it would be awesome, but how in the world would anyone take it down? The beast is immune to light sabers, it's hide is thicker than Cortosis!

Yet if they had some fun mechanics were we would have to do mini games to turn on the fuel / gas to bring it down or maybe that would give it a huge debuff or vulnerability. . . . now there's an idea :)

Imagine the scale of it however! It would be HUGE!

Unknown said...

"Yet if they had some fun mechanics were we would have to do mini games to turn on the fuel / gas to bring it down or maybe that would give it a huge debuff or vulnerability. . . . now there's an idea :)"

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. I would love to see a lot of elements like this in raids anyhow, as you and Suzina talked about a while back in your transmission on raiding.
Just running through a dungeon fighting mobs in various numbers and sizes is getting very old -- and it wouldn't feel very Star Wars either. In all the movies there was always different people doing different things. Of course it shouldn't be too broken up, but instances where half your raid goes one way for a while to deactivate some shield or tractor beam or whatever, and the other goes freeing someone, that would be awesome. Also, having you use other skills than just combat would also be interesting, such as computer skills to override some door -- this could involve some short puzzle mini-game, for example.
I also hope there will be some cool NPC interactions like in the flash-point, and that these will have impact on the result of the raid (which seems to be what they're going for, at least in the class story arc -- I hope they do the same thing for larger instances).
There's so many ways to deviate from the standard of a dozen people in a room fighting mobs, move here, move there, tank, spank, heal, repeat, and I hope we'll see at least some.

Kalvod | Java Jawa said...

Yes, it would be nice to see elements from rpg's incorporated into TOR. I think if they drew from the core elements of KOTOR that would be perfect as you had the following:

Use Computer
Mechanics
Stealth
Persuasion
Treat Injury

That would me very fun to do that in a raid enviroment. In fact in all the movies in the larger scenes the character's are always doing various things.

For example take the first large scale scene in A New Hope, you have C-PO & R2-D2 working on the computer trying to slice it to get luke & party out of the trash compactor, while at the same time you have Obi-Wan disabling the tractor beam, than later on we have the main party fighting a legion of storm troopers * well running away from them technically ) but to go into more detail we have Han Solo running into them as a distraction.

Aweosme and very Cinematic. . .

Yea this would definitely be fun. I'm sure we'll see the dialogue even in raids i think, it just seems very 'Bioware' like for them to do so. Especially after showing us all these scenes and flash points highlighting the story aspect of TOR>

Suzina said...

Yeah you're right, I haven't seen the Zillo beast.

I think that the male characters look decent right now. There are big beefy guys and then there are skinny guys. Some have cool faces, some have lame looking faces. I'm hoping there's a lot of customization there, and a lot of them are just randomly generated.

As for the females, they look great! Their legs are a bit skinny, and their arms are a bit too skinny, but as long there are different body types like there are for males, I'll be very very happy with them. I'm not fat, but I'd like to see a slightly chunkier model with more curves as an option.

Suzina said...

And on raiding/group content, I totally agree with separating people's roles.

My favorite instance in SWG is the Tusken King instance because you have to effectively defend 3 locations while other group members do escort missions. It's awesome to know that whatever trouble I'm having at point A, everything also rides on the team at point B.

And that's just normal fighting, mostly. In terms of adding other mechanics like clicking on this or using the correct element on that, we're already seeing that in end-game in MMOs.

There's some things in Lord of the Rings online that go in that cool direction of mixing things up in instances. For example, carrying barrels of black powder to blow up spawn points in Forges... activating the lights in Dark Delving, or activating the correctly colored stone in Zhoghan's fight in DN.

Unknown said...

"There's some things in Lord of the Rings online that go in that cool direction of mixing things up in instances. For example, carrying barrels of black powder to blow up spawn points in Forges... activating the lights in Dark Delving, or activating the correctly colored stone in Zhoghan's fight in DN."

He's called Zholuga, if I recall correctly. And yes, there are a few thing like this which break up the 'target boss and use skill' pattern, but they're still much too rudimentary for my taste.
One of my favorite instances in LOTRO is Fil Gashan -- using the orc armour to sneak by other orcs is great fun. Using the ballistae in that one Mirkwood skirmish is fun also.

So yeah, I hope Bioware can take some of these things and bring them to the next level.

Ajay said...

Great podcast! I'm glad you guys mentioned the capes in the video, not many have noticed that still. I will definitely be wearing one, Lando style.

The Zillo Beast would be intriguing to have in the game in addition to other enormous creatures. I'd expect there will be a few of these mobs around, but not as prevalent as other MMOs out there. Did anyone notice how the Zillo Beast homed in on Palpatine? I think it knew who Palpatine truly was or was just being manipulated by it (leaning towards the former).

Kalvod | Java Jawa said...

Oh i know! I loved that it was intelligent and totally went towards Palps!!!!! It totally had its eye set on him ever since he wanted to give it the toxin.

Check out the commentary w/ Dave Filoni and it has something very funny dealing w/ Palps and the Zillo Beast!

Yea Lando capes are the way to go . . .


. . . "You ever hear about my story at the Battle of Tenab?"

Unknown said...

I was wondering if the Zillo beast was just aware of Palpatine's bad intentions towards it and decided to pick on him for that reason, or if there's something about Zillo beasts and Sith in general (which would be really interesting, but I'm not sure how much sense that would make).

Kalvod | Java Jawa said...

Hmmm, i just assumed it was his bad intentions because it didn't seem to have a vengeance against Anakin & Mace.

But really they could play it both ways.

Unknown said...

I just thought it would be extremely odd for the Zillo beast to single out one particular person in an environment that must seem threatening on all sides (unless Zillo is on par, conscious-wise, with humans/humanoids -- but that's not really how they introduced the beast).
So I figured there is likely something about Palpatine's dark side presence that Zillo responds to. This, I think, is also the only way to explain how Zillo knew where to find Palpatine -- going pretty much straight from the lab to Palps, who was miles away.

Ajay said...

Exactly what I was thinking Fabian. I understood the Zillo Beast picking up on Palpatine's negative vibes when they were together. But, the beast also knew exactly where Palpatine was when he broke out of the lab. Too coincidental! The Zillo Beast is a rather ancient creature, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was more "attuned" to the Force and recognized Palpatine as a dark presence.

Kalvod | Java Jawa said...

Hmm, now thinking on it, that totally makes some good sense! It being attracted to the dark side of the force . Kind of like the Obalisks did to Darth Bane!

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