Posts Tagged ‘level’

Warrior Progression

Perhaps the most anticipated class of SWTOR is the much fabled Sith-Warrior. The warrior has its roots in famed Star Wars characters like Darth Vader and Darth Maul, which have proven to be some of the most popular with audiences across the world.

As Sith Warriors advance through the ranks of The Old Republic they are awarded with all kinds of new Armour, weaponry and special abilities. This ensures that as their opponents becoming stronger and more intelligent, the Warrior evolves along with them, ideally to stay one step ahead! At the beginning of the video we see a warrior wielding a basic plasma sword, but then as he continues to develop, little to our surprise, he is equipped with a lightsaber to deal with his enemies more effectively.

As can be seen in the video at the bottom of the page, the two different Warrior paths are vastly different, although perhaps equally powerful. To many players’ surprise, Bioware strayed from traditional Sith Garb of black robes, to more heavy duty armor profession. If nothing else, this really makes the Juggernaut warrior really look like his name sake.

In the footage SWTOR’s Warrior is shown to be an ideal class for solo play, and focuses primarily on lightsaber combat and a handful of dark side abilities. Although not as dependent on the force as their inquisitor brethren, Warriors are still more than capable of throwing down the occasional force choke in the heat of combat. This makes them truly a force to be reckoned with, and we are sure that no republic players will take combat with them lightly.

The jury is still out on whether players will get the extensive customization options like those present in SWG, and so far things do not look promising. With armor that is awarded as you level up the chances of this seem bleak. Even any chance of being able to chose from a wide range of different armors may be out the window, but ideally Bioware will finally realize that variety is the spice of life in SWTOR and we can see a diverse and interesting game like all hope for.

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.