Posts Tagged ‘classes’

Troopers make some Progress

Today we were blessed with a new release, this time on the progression and stats of the Trooper class.

Like the other classes, Trooper will have quite a number of ways to specialise in order to cater perfectly to each players particular style. This is bound to make it one of the most popular classes, and we haven’t even begun to take into account its survivability and serious damage output capabilities!

Troopers of SWTOR will be the archetypical heavy blast-em class. Think Terminator or Rambo. Most will roam the battle field with heavy armour, and even heavier weapons which should make short work of enemies.

Although they do not possess any force abilities whatsoever, their ever-so-elegant weapons will probably be more than a match for most Jedi.

As we saw there are a number of different armour and weapon combinations already available, including a helmet which is for all intents and purposes identical to those found during the times of Episode III.

Despite its un-canonical nature this armour suit does look sufficiently bad-ass that we should see slim to nil complaints about it.

The two trooper specialisations, Commando and Vanguard look fairly similar, however as always fights are decided in the details, so each will certainly have their own places on the battlefield. At this stage Commando seems to be the stereotypical lock and load, shoot em up class, whilst vanguard is a more tech-savy and environment-aware specialisation. It appears they will even be more than a match for the occasional Sith Inquisitor!

With the release of SWTOR growing ever closer we can only hope Bioware continues producing these revealing, and always appreciated videos. If nothign else, they give players a good idea of what to expect once they begin play, and how they might find themselves facing up with enemies across a galaxy far far away.

Sith Inquisitor Update

Today the SWTOR developers at Bioware released an update on the Sith Inquisitor profession.

Players have been asking for more details on this much awaited profession for some time now, and it was good to finally get the information so many had waited so long to see. This will put many of the professions most excited supporters at ease, and should give them something to talk about and look forward to in up and coming updates.

With the short article came a number of new articles, which included Khem Val, a new companion for the class, and the tech specs on the professions unique vessel, the Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor.

The Interceptor, perhaps unsurprisingly, bares many similarities to Darth Maul’s Sith Interceptor from Star Wars Episode 1. Even further, in many ways it appears to be a scaled up version of a TIE Interceptor, with a similar front window and side panel design.
This is toted as one of the most maneuverable ships in the Sith fleet, so the Inquisitors of SWTOR will be able to live up to their slippery reputations that so many have earned over the years. Also, unlike the usually spartan commodities of the Jedi, The Sith Interceptor has a luxurious interceptor which will make it a joy to pilot, even against numerous enemy forces.

Khem Val, our exemplar sidekick is certainly not one chosen for his looks. In fact, his apparent century long freezing has left his body worse for wear, even if his mind IS as sharp as ever. Khem will perhaps not offer the intellectual conversation afforded by some of the other classes’ sidekicks, but he will be a formidable force in combat and every inquisitor in The Old Republic’s best friend.

Environment Polish

Just today the Bioware developers over at SWTOR released a long article on the way in which they polish environments, characters and objects in Star Wars The Old Republic.

This includes many aspects, ranging from as simple as making the models, to adjusting their textures, finishes and interior and exterior lighting properties. It is vital that the visual designers have all these factors perfectly in balance, otherwise the Game can be hard on the eyes and run extremely poorly.

The number of objects on screen as well as light sources has a direct effect on Frame rate. In fact, it is pretty much the deciding factor in how many fps (frames per second) a players computer will be able to produce. Therefore, to ensure a game which is as smooth to watch as it is to play, developers must analyze all possible environments to ensure that none will excessively lag, or even crash players computers.

The development team also answered a huge wealth of questions, mainly regarding the planned classes of SWTOR. These rectified many issues players had with the game and told us many new facts about game play:

-Healing spec’d classes will still have considerable damage capability, so will be viable in Solo play.
-Different companions will become available as the game progresses, so players won’t grow too bored of their smelly old Wookiee.
-Companions will be upgradable with different armour, weapons and special attacks.
-Armour can affect the class an combat technique of players, such as with Jedi Knight.

All in all Bioware has taken a positive step forward over the last week and a half to ramp up their customer relations, which has brought them back to the front of the online gaming community.

Miraluka

The Miraluka race from SWTOR is one that is force sensitive by necessity, rather than by choice.

The species evolved on a very remote world, with the disadvantage of having no visible frequencies of light to use to eork their way around. This made it necessary for them to learn to use the force to generate images of their surroundings, the only way in which they could view the world.

Because they have to rely on the force so strongly from an early age, Miralukai are ideal candidates fro Jedi Warriors and Consulars. Until now none are known to have joined the ranks of the Sith, however it is only a matter of time before a few of the more violent members of their ranks feel their way over to the dark side of the force.

In the years after the great war their home world, Alpheridides remained independent, however many Miraluka left home to serve the Republic and its interests. Time and time again on the front lines of battle they have shown their lightsaber skills to be more than a match for any species, regardless of how much of the fight they can actually see. Perhaps having one less sense makes it simpler to concentrate on the fight, rather than getting distracted by the un-necessary idols of the mind.

Although they will not fit particularly well into roles as Smuggler or Trooper, they will be ideal Jedi and we shall see them throughout the galaxy filling this role. Players of these classes will undoubtedly choose the Miraluka, which shall see them thick and heavy within the ranks of the republic. As yet another humanoid race amongst the many, with the only apparent differences being in the eyes, they will be able to take advantage of many of the homely comforts enjoyed by the rest of the galaxy.

Their use of the force for sight begs many questions as to how they will do things such as read the screens of data-pads, but evidently they have mastered such issues centuries in the past. They should therefore be able to fit straight into Republic society, and players of the Miraluka in The Old Republic will almost forget they are playing a species physically devoid of sight.

Updated Advanced Classes

Today a press release by Georg Zoeller, the principal combat designer from Star Wars The Old Republic, detailed many of the combat classes and upgrade the developers at Bioware currently have in the works.

Advanced classes are essentially specialisations chosen by players, which moulds their characters to their play style, making them more effective and powerful in combat. Many of these have been discussed in earlier posts, and they offer players wide ranges of choice in terms of what they wan tto do in game.

Each class has two advanced classes, which are split into three skill trees. There is one tree for each advanced class, then a generic progression tree for the general profession which can be upgraded by players from either side.

Characters level up through experience, and each level can give characters access to new abilities. There are three main sources of these. First, trainers (such as those in Star Wars Galaxies) offer players of their specific profession upgrade choices. Secondly, there are specific advanced-class trainers which offer further specialisation in their chosen field, and finally players can spend points themselves (without what might be valuable guidance from the trainers) in their character’s skill trees.

Much the same as in other MMORPGs, in SWTOR players can look at all the available boxes, and detailed descriptions accompany each one saying what the abilities do, how powerful they are, and what the pre-requisites are. This means players can plan right from their first hour in SWTOR where they would like their character to go, and make choices throughout their game play to achieve this.

As mentioned many times previously each of the advanced classes are good for different things. For example, smuggler’s Gunslinger class offers high Mid – Long rande damage, as well as dual wielding capabilities. In contrast to this, their Scoundrel class offers Close to Mid range damage dealing, some healing capabilities, and they wield short range scatter guns.

Although these classes are quite specific, short range classes still have some long range attacks, and long range classes are likewise, so players will never be left out of the fight due to their advanced-class point choices.

Also in this press release Georg revealed how they are tracking current testers, which includes advanced analysis techniques such as building 3d maps of player deaths. By doing this Bioware hopes to have the game as perfectly balanced and optimised as possible before release, and there should be no bugs, hitches, or otherwise impossible feats required of players when it goes live.

Until then, we look forward to hearing more about class specialisation and hope to see some more great updates.

Sith Pureblood

The Sith Pureblood race, although fairly rare, is the main ruling class of the Sith Order. All of its members are descendants of the original Sith race, discovered millennia ago by Dark Jedi wanderers who landed on Korriban.

The rate of force sensativity in Purebloods is nearly 100% due to their incredibly powerful heritage. It is no surprise then that almost the only classes we can see purebloods playing will be the Sith Warriors and Inquisitors.

The red skin of a Sith Pureblood by in large portrays their attitudes well. This is a race focused on violence and dominance, and they will rarely stop at anything to achieve victory. Along with their red skin, most Purebloods have auburn hair and incredibly pointy eyebrows (for some reason) which are evidently genetic markers of the Ancient sith race.

The innate anger of purebloods makes them some of the most aggressive fighters in SWTOR, and as we all know, the anger fuelled dark side will be strong with them.
It promises to be a popular race for imperial players of the Sith classes, although it is unlikely that Purebloods will be able to do much else. While their anger might make them stronger in the dark side, it will also make them reckless, which is one trait republic players, and even the Sith’s Agent and Bounty Hunter comrades would do well to be aware of.

Twi’lek

The Twi’lek are another very popular race in the Star Wars expanded universe. Their first major appearance was in Episode VI, Return of the Jedi. Here we saw Jabba’s weak minded major-domo, Bib Fortuna, and lithe dancing girl Oola. Although neither were major characters, they aptly displayed the well know traits of this race in The Old Republic.

Twi’leks are humanoid in appearance, although they seem to adopt all kinds of strange coloured skin. Instead of hair on their heads, they have two long brain tails, which like the name suggest do look rather like a long, useless tail. The stereotype that Twi’leks are mainly criminals and prostitutes is ever present in SWTOR, however players of this race will have to chance to break this, if only on occasion.

All Twi’leks are descended one way or another from their home planet of Ryloth. Although Ryloth is not expected to make an appearance in Star Wars the Old Republic it has been a planet of major importance to Twi’leks and Hutts all across the galaxy.

Before the galaxy stumbled upon the Twi’lek home world all was perfect in paradise. However, as they had never experienced any competition whatsoever, the Twi’leks were unprepared for the flood of businessmen and opportunist that came to their world seeking fortune. Ryloth is evidently the only place in the galaxy where the rare (and incredibly valuable) spice Ryll is found, and the owners of the world soon found themselves serving off-world masters including Hutts in mines to produce as much as possible.

Although many Twi’leks were enslaved after the opportunist invasion of their world, many have worked their way free and are now found in all walks of life throughout the Republic and even the Empire. In SWTOR it promises to be a popular race, and we expect them to be able to play most classes, the less law-abiding ones such as Smuggler and Bounty Hunter in particular.

Jedi Knight Progression

Just Yesterday Bioware released a video detailing the way characters will level up, and select their specialities. The video showed fans how the Jedi Knight class will play out in SWTOR, and a bit more of the game’s combat and mission system.

The tag line for the video said ‘As you progress in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, your character grows more powerful, gains experience, discovers new skills, and acquires more advanced gear.’ and it was this, video aside, that has worried many people.

As can be seen from the short animation, when levelling up it seems characters are automatically granted new armour, robes and even lightsabres. As the tag line said, your character acquires more advanced gear. The player does not acquire this gear, but the character. If the video is anything to go by when you increase a rank within the profession this new equiptment is awarded automatically.

This displeased fans of The Old Republic for numerous reasons. Games like Star Wars Galaxies and World of Warcraft largely do away with such freebies, and are far better off for it. At least in Star Wars Galaxies, acquiring the best armour and weapon was something players strived for years to do. Even slight improvements were thought to give a cutting edge, so there was endless hours of repeatable content there just waiting to be taken advantage of.

However, if players are just gifted their weapons and armour, all of this goes out the window. For MMORPGs like SWTOR there is often precious little to do once at the maximum level other than fight other players and strive for better equipment. Without one side of this equation, and the most time consuming side at that, players may find themselves bored once the main quest line is over.

In game like Galaxies fighting opposing players was always interesting, as it was impossible to tell just where their strengths or weaknesses were. They had fully customised armour, weapons and clothing, so what worked on one player could fail catastrophically on another almost identical one. Without this customisation factor, SWTOR will suffer greatly. Especially in a game with such a lethargic combat system, giving all players of each profession the same gear will leave PvPers at least with precious little need for skill, and few challenges on the battlefield, as most opponents will fight, act and look the same.

Following is the video released by Bioware yesterday.

Jedi Knight

The Jedi Knight class in SWTOR will embody the height of Jedi power and combat finesse. Trained in advanced Lightsaber combat and force capabilities, they are more than a match for any on the battlefield.

As per the Jedi way, they are removed from their families at an early age and learn the ways of the force until they are ready to venture out into the galaxy on their own, as fully fledged knights.

The Knight class will be one of the main tanking professions on the Republic side. This is due to a combination of heavy armour, force barriers and lightsaber deflection, which makes them all but walking brick walls.

Although they do not take advantage of the dark side of the force, they benefit from supreme clarity in the face of adversity, which more than makes up for them not using such anger-fuelled powers as force lightning. Although they are very able combatants, most Jedi resort to force only as a last resort. Instead, they are well versed in diplomacy, and will always try to talk down potential enemies.

Jedi Knight comes in two flavours in SWTOR. There are Jedi Sentinels and Guardians.
Guardians come equipped with heavy armour, and are steadfast leaders of Republic troops. Although the armour may hamper their agility, their Lightsaber prowess makes them able to deflect attacks from all directions.

Jedi Sentinels are the more damage oriented of the two sub-classes. They wield two lightsabers for superior damage, and use the force to seek out weaknesses in their opponents defences.

The company the Jedi Knight gets to enjoy is the droid T7-01. In many ways similar to T3 from the KOTOR series, this droid of The Old Republic will provide combat backup, as well as advanced computing and slicing skills. With a perfect computational memory it’s records of field work will be invaluable, and many Knights will find it becoming their best friend after just the first mission.

For Knights and T7-01, the council has provided the Defender star ship. This ship was designed at the height of the war for use by the Council, and although it is based on a standard civilian corvette class ship, it has been heavily modified. The Defender sports many forms of attack, and is more than capable of standing up to a pummelling, which should get it past many an Imperial blockade.

Human

Like all Star Wars canon material, Humans will play a, if not the, major part in SWTOR. Although it is unclear why Humans seem to dominate this diverse galaxy far far away, where there are many different species, we will once again see humans posessing a commanding role in all affairs.

For the sake of our readers attention spans, we will omit the basic information about what Humans look and perform like. I hope most of you have at least a passing understanding of this already.

In SWTOR things will be no different to normal, although the degrees of customisation may vary. It is unlikely that we will see quite the same calibre of customisation available in other games, such as Star Wars Galaxies, due to the slightly cartoon-ified graphics. Rather than having thousands of combinations, things should be more like they were in the original Kotor games.

We can expect then that Human players will be given a choice of Female or Male, as well as options in skin colour, hair style and colour, and general face shape.Perhaps even height and build will be available choices. All these possible differences will make them quite a diverse race, as I am sure everyone will know from their daily lives in the real world.

The Human race will be able to be any class, unlike some of the others, and will be seen on both factions. This will make them quite abundant, and there should be a wide variety of gear and weaponry tailored to their anatomy.

Although the Humans in SWTOR will not have quite the same physical power of other races, such as Sith Pureblood, they have agility and cunning on their side. This will make them more than a match for most in hand to hand combat, and they should be expert infiltrators and spies.

All in all, Human looks like a capable race, although perhaps a little un-exciting seeing as we are in the Star Wars universe. Regardless, it will undoubtedly get a large number of players and most likely be the prolific species in the The Old Republic.