April 16, 2011 by blur
Trying to find out whether our characters can have one name or two names has been one of my ongoing missions since the TOR forum opened. Yet whether we can, or not, is a secret that’s still up there with UFOs, Bigfoot and Elvis being spotted at 7-11. It’s been asked a million times and, only recently, we got the, “it’s still under discussion” brush off.
(Really? Something so simple still under discussion after all these years…?!?)
So it was interesting to read Daniel Erickson’s comments (reproduced below), not in the sense that Darth will be off-limits when creating names… that was always a given. And not even in the sense that you can become a Lord or Darth or some other title through what you do in the game… I’ve pretty much always believed that would be the case.
No folks, what his comment suggests to me is that we’re now going down the path of single character names. And why? Simple. If you name your character, “John Smith”, becoming “Darth John Smith” looks terrible… not only because of the extra name in there (“Darth Smith” or “Darth John” would be much better in a pinch), but also because a Sith would typically change their name when becoming a Darth anyway… and I doubt the game will allow for people suddenly changing their name entirely, or dropping a first or last name to be replaced by their title later on.
(But hey, if the game DOES allow that… great… I just don’t think it will…)
So this, more than anything, suggests to me that we are heading for one-name characters and perhaps the reason Bioware is being so cagey with this information is because it knows there’s a ton of RP people out here who are going to freak out when they are told that their character can only be known by one name and, if that character doesn’t attain a title, will ALWAYS be only known by one name. Honestly, some people are going to absolutely hate that concept.
Your thoughts?
Hey Folks,
Darth and Lord are ranks in the Old Republic time period and while they represent an increasingly smaller percentage of overall Sith, they are clearly not at as rare as only having one or two running around in the galaxy. There are already numerous Darths (Baras, Malgus) we’ve seen who are not on the Dark Council.
It will likely not come as a surprise to most people that the titles of Darth and Lord are story-based rewards (one does not become a Darth by grinding frog-dogs) as are Master, etc. What may come as a surprise is that not everyone who completes a Sith or Jedi story will achieve them. There are always choices and those choices matter in many ways, including your notoriety and the rewards or reputation you earn. Darth will absolutely be off-limits when creating names.
Hope that helps!
Daniel Erickson
Tags: Bioware, character, daniel erickson, name, Roleplay, Star Wars, story, The Old Republic, title
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Posted in Information, Opinion, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic |
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September 13, 2010 by blur
Bioware, of all the PC game companies out there, understands RPGs. And a key component of any RPG — something that everyone does, regardless of playstyle — is name their character.
Thus, it would be handy to know, in relation to TOR:
* Can we have a firstname and lastname, or are we stuck with just one name?
* If we can have a firstname and lastname is that from the start, or does a surname slot unlock at a certain level (similar to what happens in Lord of the Rings Online, for example)?
* Can we use spaces or special characters like ‘
* What is the minimum number of characters per name? Two? Three? Four?
I think they are the main questions at hand and, given this isn’t something I’d consider game-breaking or a “big reveal”, I’ve asked Bioware if there’s any chance of actually getting an answer on it. I’m all too aware that people would love to plot out character names, whether for RP or other purposes, and having some idea of what the guidelines are would be VERY handy.
I wonder if Bioware will reply to me?
Tags: Bioware, character, conventions, level, name, RPG, slot, Star Wars, The Old Republic, unlock
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Posted in Opinion, Star Wars, The Old Republic |
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February 28, 2010 by blur
One of my biggest wishes for TOR isn’t some amazing combat system, although that would be nice. And it’s not some ground breaking, non-leveling system, although that would be nice, too. No, after years of being disappointed by this in MMOs, I’d simply love to see the game feature unique character names based on firstnames and surnames together, rather than firstnames only.
So rather than one person on the server using the name “Troy”, for example, if the server can recognise firstnames AND surnames as one unique name, we could have Troy Smith, Troy Jones, Troy Brown and any other Troy with a different surname, co-existing on the same server.
Basically, we need to get away from this concept that if one person grabs the name, “Troy” or “Luke” or “Steve” that no one else on that server, ever again, can have that name. It’s too limiting, especially over time. Would you guys like to see that? Drop me a line, below and comment.
Tags: Bioware, character, names, Star Wars, The Old Republic, unique, wish
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Posted in Opinion, Rant, The Old Republic |
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December 25, 2009 by blur
Do you envy the people who have to balance the classes in TOR? I don’t!
Imagine a group of BHs gunning down a Jedi… Jedi player: WAH! This isn’t Jedi-like! A Jedi could handle that sort of thing! This is nonsense! Etc.
Imagine a Jedi cutting down a room of spies… Spy players: WAH! Why on earth are we playing this class when Jedi are so overly strong?!?
And so on and so forth, rinse and repeat.
Unless a miracle occurs, I can’t see all the the classes being simultaneously happy with their abilities in TOR.
Tags: balance, Bioware, character, class, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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Posted in Opinion, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic |
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October 6, 2009 by blur
It’s common in MMOs to not be able to create a character of every class. There might be a dozen classes, for example, but you only have six character slots, or something. I’m sure everyone’s come across the concept before.
So, onto TOR… if the theory is that we’ll want to play each class, in order to enjoy each unique storyline, will there be enough character slots to fit every class?
I suppose if we are locked to one faction per server, and there are only four to six classes per faction, we’ll be OK. After all, four to six character slots is the norm in MMOs, anyway.
But if we can play both factions on the same server, or here’s a lower number of character slots, is it possible that we will have to spread our classes across multiple servers… if we want to play all the storylines, that is? (I know there are people who really don’t want to play multiple storylines). What do you guys think? Any thoughts?
Tags: Bioware, character, slots, Star Wars, story, storyline, The Old Republic, TOR
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Posted in Opinion, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic |
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February 1, 2009 by blur
If BioWare puts in voice for NPCs, and related stuff, they NEED to ensure it lasts the length of the game. Not do an Age of Conan and have everyone talking Level 1-20, and then silent beyond. It’s the kind of thing, I think, that needs to be all or nothing.
Now, given that the single player KOTOR games had voice, it would seem a no-brainer to do, however, MMOs are such large beasts, it would truly mean a herculean effort if BioWare wanted to do it uniformly across the board (which I think it needs to do). What do you guys think?
Tags: Bioware, character, narration, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR, voiceovers
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Posted in Opinion, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic |
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January 19, 2009 by blur
Let’s talk about classes. Specifically, let’s talk about Force-using and Non-Force using classes. It’s my guess that you will log into the game and select Republic or Sith for your character’s faction. Let’s assume Republic for this example.
Your class choices are:
Jedi Guardian (Nuker)
Jedi Consular (Healer)
Jedi Sentinel (Tank)
Mandalorian Supercommando (Nuker)
Medical Droid (Healer)
Republic Soldier (Tank)
Can you see what I’ve done there? I’ve offered a Force using and a non-Force using of each of the Holy Trinity of classes. I’ve also bad a bit of fun by saying the non-Force using Medic could be a Medic droid (as there’s an insane number of people who want to play droids), but really, you could insert any sort of specialist healer there.
Now, does that make a number of assumptions about the game? Of course. I don’t deny that. Even the concept of having the Holy Trinity involved is an assumption. But we have to start somewhere and it’s my belief that the game isn’t just about Sith and Jedi (ie: we already know there’s a non-Force using Soldier class), so what I’ve proposed there is possible, to my mind.
At the end of the day, I think playing a Mandalorian Supercommando would be a cool alternative to a nuker Jedi. I think playing a Medical Droid would be a cool alternative to a healing Jedi. And I think playing a Republic Soldier would be a cool alternative to playing a Jedi tank. And that’s what the devs will be wanting to provide, right? Cool alternatives, so that not everyone is a Jedi or Sith?
Tags: Bioware, character, classes, MMORPG, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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Posted in Opinion, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic |
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November 16, 2008 by blur
Since before this game was officially announced, a healthy debate raged between many of us over on the main BioWare forums (remember how we used to debate everything in ONE thread, guys?), relating to the concept of levels versus skills-based progression.
Generally-speaking, it was the more old-school MMO gamers who preferred skills-based progression and while the retort to this was, “This won’t be SWG…” be advised that most were suggesting it because of their experiences in Ultima Online, not SWG.
Meanwhile, and again generally-speaking, it seemed to be the newer MMO gamers who preferred levels. After all, levels is what they had grown up with in games like WoW and, indeed, many BioWare RPG players also couldn’t see past the concept of levels.
And, lo and behold, TOR will have levels.
That doesn’t mean I have to like it, nor the old-school gamers who I see creating threads on the topic every day. But rather than fight something that’s already decided, I think it’s time to shift attention to a level-based issue that really annoys me.
Ever play an MMO where the levels, essentially, mean nothing? Virtually every MMO I’ve ever played has had a level system that means nothing. Say you’re level 36… is it really so radically different to being level 42? Level 48? These games that push people into the 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond are just… well, to be frank, there’s no point to it for the gamer.
But sure, there’s a point to it for the company in question… it hopes to keep its mice on the treadmill for extra time, the more levels there are to achieve. I find this kind of repulsive, myself. I’d rather have a game that had a cursory 20 levels, or whatever, and the rest of the game was about the content, moreso that repetitive tasks to gain levels.
The BioWare RPGs were kind of like this, with low level caps, so I wonder if this game will follow suit? If it slavishly follows the WoW model, and others, I suppose that will be out the window, but we can dream, I suppose, right readers?
My ideal would be leveling to something like Level 20 via a series of ‘noob quests’, at which point the game decides you are maxed out, and the rest of the game is about adventuring and enjoying the story. And, yes, even ‘phat lewt’ if you’re into that kind of thing.
What’s your ideal?
Tags: Bioware, character, level, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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Posted in Opinion, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic |
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October 22, 2008 by blur
Now, I know the mere thought of only being able to play one character per server would probably make the average WoW kiddies head cave in, which is almost reason enough to do it but, more seriously, the real reason for doing this would be because if the game is designed to be so customisable and cool, one character is all anyone ever needs to be.
Does your guild have an over abundance of medics? That’s cool, you just re-spec your character to start being more combat oriented. You don’t have to re-roll a new character. In this way, people become their character and grow more attached to their avatar because that avatar is “them”. That’s it. That’s their only footprint in the game world. And I also think people treat characters differently when you know you aren’t grouped with, or assisting a mere alt of someone else’s.
Your thoughts?
Tags: Bioware, character, server, single, Star Wars, The Old Republic, TOR
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Posted in Opinion, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic |
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