Posts Tagged ‘PVP’

PvP To be fixed!

Although there have recently been a plethora of complaints from players on the way developers have recently changed the PvP system, this is set to be (if Bioware can be believed) brought back into line with the next update.

Recently updates had the opposite affect when compared to Bioware’s noble goals for Star Wars The Old Republic a few months ago, as they saw things become more linear, unbalanced and in general ass backward.

Hopefully during the significant amount of Data analysis Bioware has done over the last month, which much to players dismay slowed down the game considerably, they will now have the information they require to fix exactly the problems that exist, no more, and no less.

This is often a problem with the MMORPG industry, so It is no surprise it has reared its ugly head in SWTOR. Quite often developers try to fix something, but over do it, meaning something else must then be adjusted. A popular example of this was basically every update in Star Wars Galaxies long 8 year history, as almost all involved some change to a profession that (until the next update) made it excessively powerful.

For the next few weeks no updates are planned, we assume this is because for this period Bioware will be working on cementing their current player base, in order to bring a plethora of new features with the public holidays in the later half of February.

For now, we can wait with open minds, as Bioware IS quite a reliable company, and Star Wars The Old Republic has been in good hands so far. The only worry is that if the constant updating of SWTOR gets out of control, we may see EA step in and do what has made them the bane of the gaming industry, but that is only a last resort!!

Rakghouls Rise Again

Recently announced on the SWTOR website was the fact that the Rise of the Rakghouls saga, recently revealed to players, has not been finished with by the developers yet!

Although part one has now been released and enjoyed by players across servers, a Part two (which has apparently been in the works for more than a year) is now on the way, and should find its way onto live servers in a few months.

Although the first encounter seemed to have a definitive ending, the developers have revealed that they left clues throughout the instance hinting and what can be expected when they return. This has prompted a resurgence of interest in the encounter, as players play through slowly and methodically, in search of the small items, or sounds, or hidden passages, which are promised to be somewhere within the haunted corridors.

The second Rise of the Rakghouls instance is also set to be one of the largest and longest ever yet made. It should take a phenomenal amount of coordination from The Old Republic players, and the developers say this will be worthwhile, as the rewards should be some of the best yet.

Although armour and weapons used by the majority of players are not ones looted from encounter bosses, this is set to change in the future with the developers deciding to take a more WoW-like approach to such matters. Rather than allow players to play through a raid once, they have decided to make more rare drops, so that players are encouraged to come back for seconds, thirds and tenths in order to completely kit their character/s out with the new gear. Although this tactic has proven unpopular with some players in the past, it is a tried and tested feature of the MMORPG industry, as it provides maximum content for minimal development time and expendature.

Lets hope when the RakGhouls rise again the players of SWTOR will find this latest Star Warsy threat a worthy and entertaining one.

 

Beta Numbers Swell Pre-Release

In the largest recruiting drive attempted thus far the Bioware executives have decided to more than double the number of current Beta testers of the past fortnight.

This has included the addition of the first batch of overseas players, including a large number from Australia and Europe. Supposedly this is with the hope to find flaws in the game’s combat system which will be exaggerated by the latency such locations entail, but far more likely is to bring news of the game to countries where it may not get quite as much direct advertising.

With the recent lift on confidentially clauses imposed on testers, we have seen a flood of screenshots and videos of the game make it onto social media sites such as Facebook and Youtube. Whilst this has not caused any problems so far, it has revealed that the game is not quite as flawless as it may have seemed from the early testing.

There are evidently quite a number of bugs with the player combat system, meaning so far battles have been far from balanced.
Trooper is the pick of the bunch as of now, with each being more than a match for 2-3 of any other class. This isn’t helped by the fact that classes such as consular are far from perfect, with many abilities misfiring right when the player is counting on them.

With more than two months to go before the game is released there is still plenty of time to iron these last bugs out. Lets hope this is done with plenty of time to spare, or players might be quite under-impressed after parting with their hard earned money.

Hutt Ball

One new announcement for SWTOR that has created a lot of controversy recently has been that of Hutt Ball, which is set up as a PvP zone on Nar Shaddaa for higher level players.

The game of Hutt Ball is something akin to American Football in outer space, a floating ball spawns in the middle of a trap-ridden field, and each team has to try to take it to the opposing team’s end zone. Although there will be helmets and armour, unlike the NFL Hutt Ball will feature Lightsabers, lasers and the force. There are evidently no rules in this particularly barbaric sport, and as such the prime tactic seems to be just blast the enemy apart then stroll casually to a touchdown.

Aside from being something of an out of place mini-game, what has also caused a stir is the fact that it will create factional in-fighting, and perhaps even encourage it. Draws for games are entirely random, so it is very likely that same faction teams will come up against each other, and be after the scalps of allies they usually rally behind on the battlefield.

On the SWTOR forums there have been a lot of complaints of this particular instance being a joke, or not a serious addition to what is meant to be a canonical star wars game, but these complaints have generally been ignored by great effect by the developers.

Beta testers that have enjoyed the instance already have come away with glowingly positive reviews, which seems to have halted the cries of many critics, however with upcoming updates on the horizon there is still plenty of room for changes in the way this particular mini-game works.

That aside, so far Hutt Ball looks like a very entertaining endeavour for any keen player, and it should give the often grinding gears within factions to one up each other.

Alderaan

Alderaan will unsurprisingly be one of the most important and affluent worlds in The Old Republic. Since the early days of galactic government, it’s long line of nobility has been at the forefront of inter-system politics. However, the Treaty of Coruscant did not sit well with many of the nobility, and this saw the planet’s withdrawal from the Republic. Unfortunately this opinion on intergalactic politics was not shared by vast swathes of the population, so consequently decades of civil war were to follow.

Alderaan still has an environment that is just the way it has been for millennia, which is quite a rarity during the times of The Old Republic. It’s environment is a peaceful one, devoid of many of the large predators found on other more treacherous worlds. The planet’s tranquillity attracts many tourists, and is perhaps what inspires their political traditions of peace and understanding.

During the Great War Alderaan was temporarily invaded by the Empire, but this occupation has left its mark on the environment, as well as the people. Some of its noble families have since adopted parts of the Empire’s mentality, which has sparked a number of problematic recent events.

More and more we are seeing both the Republic and Empire lend their support to the noble families of the planet which is only throwing more fuel on the potential blaze that is Alderaan during the events of SWTOR.

From the video Hope we are already aware that Alderaan will be one of the major war zones of TOR. There will be large Jedi and Sith forces on the ground, with many opportunities for both player vs player and player vs computer combat. This should make Alderaan a very popular locale for advanced players, although the thought of huge amounts of combat happening at a world famous for its peaceful ways may seem odd to many.

Throughout all Star Wars literature a large focus has been on Alderaan and it’s inhabitants, so it really came as no surprise when it was included in SWTOR. Lets just hope that the developers can portray the mythical planet in all its glory, as never before have fans really had the opportunity to explore it.

Forum Guilding on TOR

Just earlier this week the developers of The Old Republic released a new forum tool allowing players to join guilds with their accounts, and have this recognised officially once the game begins.

In the morning an Email went out to all subscribers detailing this system, and within twenty four hours there were more than sixteen thousand guilds. This a huge number, especially when many already have between ten and twenty members. In previous estimates we had the number of unofficially guilded members sitting at around six thousand, but with this update it appears we were very much clearly mistaken.

Although many of these guilds may have been made by spammers, or people just messing around, they still go to show just how fast news spreads on the internet when so many are interested. This lesson was learned the hard way by Bioware today, as the servers which they believed adequate were easily overloaded by the huge influx of traffic.

So far when creating guilds on the forums players can choose the faction of the guild, as well as one focus out of Rp, PvP and PvE. They can also set certain requirements such as voice chat, forum participation or community play, however most guilds are friendly enough to not discriminate against possible candidates in this way. Players also choose the location of their guild, US East, West or Europe. According to Bioware based on this choice their guild name will be reserved on an appropriate server when the game goes live, making sure that dedicated members of the community are not beaten at the gun by those with super fast internet or line-cutting skills at TOR retailers.

One thing which disappointed some players was the maximum length of guild names. This made it impossible for one of the game’s biggest guilds, The Grand Army of The Republic, to have their chosen name. Rather, they had to settle for Republic Grand Army.

As the number of guilds continues to sky rocket Bioware will have to find some way to change the sign up process to make it less exploitable. Perhaps making a minimum number of members would fix this, otherwise they may find their servers again overwhelmed by floods of data in the future.

PvP in The Old Republic

Almost all MMORPGs contain Player versus Player combat, and SWTOR will not change this trend. PvP gives players a chance to face off against each other and test their skills in relation to everyone else.

It is generally not necessary to have rewards for participating in player combat, because most people just do it for fun. However, by having milestones for participants to work towards, and things for them to win, The Old Republic could attract many players who would otherwise not bother with PvP. This is always beneficial, because not only does it create more participants, but it gets a steady stream of newer players entering battles, meaning people do not get bored fighting the same groups over and over again.

In most MMOs player combat happens mostly when players are nearing or at the top level. This is due to the fact that it is incredibly difficult for newer players to compete with those with more experience, as they are usually vastly more powerful. Some games have solved this issue by creating level specific battle areas, such as World of Warcraft. This is one good trait of WoW (of the very few it possesses) that the Bioware developers could learn from. We already know that there are level specific flashpoints in TOR, and these could be accompanied by level specific warzones, instead of only ones for experienced players.

In the other Star Wars MMORPG, Galaxies, players were able to change factions, and flag themselves as pvp enabled whenever and wherever they were in the galaxy. It is unlikely that players will be able to change factions in TOR, because there are set professions and races for each, so a change of faction would be effectively making a new character. Like WoW, SWTOR is not a sandbox style game, so factions are expected to work in much the same way they did in Warcraft.

This means we will see set territories for the Empire and Republic, some of which will be safe zones and some much more hostile. Pvp warzones have also been revealed, where players from each faction will have attack/defend type objectives or even capture the flag. These should be similar to the Battlefields in SWG, in that you can arrange a group of your faction then be drawn against an equal group from the other side. So far they look very entertaining.

It came as a great disappoint to many when the developers of SWTOR said there would be not a player bounty system like there was in SWG. In Galaxies there were many carebear players that opposed the system, as they claimed it interfered with their roleplay. Although these rolepayers were almost unanimously incorrect in their claims, they were very vocal and SOE often took their considerations into account when designing new content for Galaxies. It seems this same breed of players has come out crying against a player bounty system in Star Wars The Old Republic, however there is still hope, and time for the developers to implement such a system (which would please the vast majority).

The ranks and kill counts in SWG were a post NGE addition to the game which livened up PvP for all involved. The ranks provided short term buffs and other items for highly positioned officers, and the kill counts provided all the motivation necessary for many to engage in PvP combat. In order to keep their high ranks, players had to participate every week in factional activities, and this system did a great job of keeping people involved.

Hopefully in The Old Republic we will see some kind of rank system, and even though it might sound a bit silly to have a Bounty Hunter out ranking a Sith in the Empire, we saw this time and time again in the Star Wars films and literature (such as Lando, a complete stranger to the rebellion, being promoted to General just for helping two rebels escape Cloud City).

Following is a video of the Alderaan Warzone for TOR:

Bounty Hunter

The less, lets say, morally constrained, players of SWTOR will have the ability, no, privilege, of playing as a bounty hunter. For a price, they will hunt down and bring to some form of justice republic operatives and law breakers alike.

At this point, the bounty hunter class of Star Wars The Old Republic seems to have a lot, at least visually, in common with the bounty hunters of the Star Wars Films, Boba and Jango Fett. Hopefully however, we will see some significant customisation options so not every hunter in town will be the Heavy armour and jet-pack wearing, flame thrower and rifle wielding clone depicted so far in concept art.

A Player versus Player Bounty hunter system is also something many are looking forward to, however the outlook has been somewhat bleak. PvP action is a big part of any MMORPG, however it is often opposed by the more… carebear… members of the community. To once again take Galaxies as an example, player bounty systems can generate endless content for the hunters and hunted alike, and generally do not disrupt the rest of the game in any fashion. Lets hope SWTOR will take a page out of their predecessor’s book and implement such a system, and not decide to ignore such an easy opportunity for endless content as current rumours suggest they might.

The Fett characters from star wars canon have always been immensely popular with dedicated fans and casual watchers alike. Even though Boba Fett says something like six lines over the two films he features in, he is one of the most revered and intriguing characters, as can be seen from the huge amount of merchandise said character produced. Perhaps it is this lack of speech and action which makes him such an attractive character, as it gives him a shroud of mystery under which to conduct his business.

The bad-ass feeling players get from playing a mercenary class motivated solely by financial gain, such as bounty hunter, will ensure its popularity in SWTOR, and perhaps we will see some players rise to the legendary status of Boba Fett, the character they emulate, within the realm of their server.