GotMMOG?

BioWare put out some more updates on the class system, namely more info on the Sith Warrior and Advanced Classes.

Sith Warrior Class

Frankly, I haven’t really been following every little detail of what they’ve been posting so I don’t really know what the “update” is beyond noticing the Marauder specialization, which I’m guessing was there before, and the addition of the Known Associates: Vette piece which ties into the other update (Companion Characters).

Honestly, I’d been thinking about rolling a Sith Warrior to start only because, well, the Jedi’s been done. Lucas’s craptastic first trilogy (or rather second depending on how you look at it) had one bright spot: Darth Maul…unfortunately, Darth Maul was taken from us too soon. Alas, while Darth Vader is technically a Sith…well, I guess it depends on how you look at it.

Gah…let the fanboys figure it out. The reality is, who doesn’t want to specialize as a Marauder and dual-wield lightsabers? My only hang up is the whole “heavy armor” crap. I guess they couldn’t figure out a better way to do it (or maybe because I’m not that much of a fanboy I haven’t read any novels and thus don’t know about some mystical Sith heavy armor sect). “It” being finding a way to enhance the character without having to rely solely on buffs. Then again, I guess that’s what the Sith Inquisitor is supposed to be.  I suppose the Sith Warrior wouldn’t be a tank without armor.

Advanced Classes

As for those advanced classes, this is getting a bit worrisome. Don’t get me wrong. I love “prestige classes”–in fact, a friend and I have been designing an MMO that includes prestige classes because they’re a great idea–but that’s not the problem. The problem is that the advance classes also come with two skill sets. Correction, make that THREE skill sets (2 + a shared skill set). FFS!

Consider these skill sets belong to the Advanced Class which you advance into from a regular class–which I’m also assuming has at least one skill set. Now, granted, WoW’s talent trees are essentially skill set analogs and most if not all of WoW’s classes have three talent trees (and thus three skill sets). But, that was it. Let’s say the regular class level gives you at least one skill set. Now, you’re looking at four skill trees to manage.

Obviously, the hard core gamer is going to be right at home. You’re looking at some serious customization (let’s hope it doesn’t cost you a million credits to respec) which is nice in a way but I think it’s going to be a problem for more casual players. Why does it matter? Well, while most games can survive on a nice subset of hard core gamers (think 100k or so), each new MMO has to get past the burden of migrating people over. You as a new player on a new MMO have to start from scratch investing time (and money) getting up to speed on the game and learning from your mistakes. And, with each nerf (you know it’s going to happen with a game this complex) that great “healer” spec you set up is going to need to be respec’d or may not be as powerful as it used to be.

I almost think BioWare needs to look at the idea of having a set of templates that let you eek out a decent amount of power/efficiency from your chosen class while still allowing the power gamer the ability to fine tune those skill trees like mad. You can almost feel the fear as peeps look at those skill trees and wonder if they’re making the right decision–a decision that will cost them thousands if not more credits/gold/whatever later when they’re at the end game and realize they needed a different branch of skills.

Companions

True to the KOTOR (or TOR??) universe and BioWare’s legacy, they’ve introduced companions.  I’m guessing they’ll work like the SP RPG companions to some extent–though balanced for a MMOG. I guess in a way Cryptic beat them to the punch with the whole bridge officer system (click on Bridge). But, obviously, they’ll be a lot more useful beyond adding a button to your action bar. Adding special quests along with just being there (assuming the AI’s solid) as you’re romping around the SW Universe. They’ve spotlighted one companion named Vette (as in Corvette??).

It’s nice to see that BioWare’s really trying to shoehorn in their SP RPG expertise into this game. Whether it’ll work, of course, will remain to be seen. I’m crossing my fingers. Should be hilarious though when people start to talk about companions being nerfed. “Dammit, they nerfed Vette…now she pisses her pants at the sight of a Sith Warrior!”

Is there a game yet?

All in all, it’s great to see the detail going into this game. While I’m definitely waiting for the axe to fall when we start to get some real data (i.e. late beta or an open beta) about how the game feels when played. Complexity doesn’t make a game good (hello Vanguard?) but then again, neither does simplicity. It’s all about balance…or at least wrapping the complexity in something that makes it easier to navigate if you don’t want it.

Stay tuned!

g afk

Sorta old news (by a few days but, you know, it’s the Internet), but BioWare posted a video going over combat (at a high level) in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

It all looks great. Bounty Hunters using grapples to pull a ranged enemy into melee range, ranged types (I’m guessing still Bounty Hunters / Trooper) calling in strikes, Jedi and Sith going on Force-nasty on each other.

The big question is how that’s all going to balance out. The vid shows a lot of knock-backs and -downs which look fine and good (and awesome) but I’m guessing those are based on a percentage which may vary depending on your opponent and perhaps on whether you’re attacking NPCs or PCs. I can imagine a lot of players complaining about frequent knockbacks getting themselves killed.

Of course, how a non-Jedi/Sith is going to cope against a Jedi/Sith might mean the Force-sensitive classes are going to get nerfed in ways that ruin the feel of those characters.  They did mention they’re still balancing the classes out.

Good luck with that. Many an MMO has littered the halls with nerfed classes post-launch despite devs’ best efforts to balance the game against any one class standing out. We’ll just have to see I guess.

g afk

It seems EA’s execs in all their wisdom stupidity decided that consolidating Mythic and BioWare into a single group made more sense cents. This comes with the departure of one of Mythic’s co-founders, Mark Jacobs.

Anyone who’s gone through a merger or acquisition at a company knows the “merging” of companies, especially with different cultures, proceses, and philosophies is never going to be smooth. And, the end product is rarely as ideal as the pencil pushers make it out to be. After all, it’s always done based on the numbers, not the spirit or vision, that make the deal look good to investors.

I don’t doubt they’ll  smooth things out and eventually some sort of norm will come back to the two developers (or rather, one). However, they’re going to probably lose a bunch of people…usually the most talented and best of the bunch that helped drive previous games to the peaks they achieved. Still, they single dev group that remains will figure things out and eventually make it work.

Here’s hoping they’ll finish ME2 before everything goes to hell (e.g. the team mergers start). Time will tell…

g afk