Star Wars: Old Republic Satisfying Exploration Addicts With Codex System

[Tom Goldman]

Star Wars: Old Republic Satisfying Exploration Addicts With Codex System

Explorers and achievement hunters should be very interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic's newly announced codex system.

BioWare recently announced a new addition to Star Wars: The Old Republic [http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Old-Republic-Pc/dp/B001CWXAP2/ref=sr_1_6?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1304806767&sr=1-6] that should please anyone that wants to explore the game's worlds and learn more about their inhabitants. The Old Republic codex is basically a repository for lore, but also doubles as a partial achievement system.

First and foremost, the codex is meant to bring more of the game's story to its players. When players reach a new area, they'll get a codex entry explaining its background or other interesting information. Old Republic principal lead systems designer Damion Schubert reveals that the codex currently features 120,000 words, more than the average Star Wars novel.

But Schubert explains that the codex is more than just a big electronic book. His goal with the codex was to have it impact gameplay to give certain types of players, particularly explorers, a new avenue to have fun. Certain codex entries are given away for free during the game's main storyline or during quests, but others need to be sought out or acquired through a very specific task.

For example, to acquire the entry for the K'lor'slug, players have to journey deep into a tomb where the toughest of K'lor'slugs resides and kill it. Other entries can only be unlocked by doing quests for certain species or by examining specific artifacts. Most codex tasks are designed to be challenging, but not overly tough.

However, the codex will feature one particular section that Schubert and BioWare are planning to wrack players' brains with. The section keeps track of glowing cubes called Datacrons located around the lands of Old Republic that increase players' stats permanently when found. These might be hidden, or they might be in plain view, but in either case won't be easy to get to. The codex will keep track of the Datacrons players have found, and Schubert hopes this will encourage "intrepid explorers" to seek out the paths to them first.

As explained here, the codex isn't an all-out achievement system, as it doesn't appear to be the type of thing that awards players for taking down 500 Salky Hounds. It's more for the explorer that wants to see and find everything interesting on a planet or in a particular category of creature or object. However, it logically hints that achievements will eventually make it into the game at some point for those that just like to hit stuff.

Source: Old Republic Blog [http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20110506]

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[LogicNProportion]

You mean that a BioWare game will have a codex!? SHOCKER!!!

I love this game, and I will promise to cherish it once it is out, but those Fan Friday updates are infamous on the official website for kind of being shit...

This one kind of takes the cake. xD

 

[Ranooth]

O hi there Tome Of Knowledge Codex.

 

[toughguyjoe]

You mean that a BioWare game will have a codex!? SHOCKER!!!

I love this game, and I will promise to cherish it once it is out, but those Fan Friday updates are infamous on the official website for kind of being shit...

This one kind of takes the cake. xD

Nah...the one for the novel takes the cake. Friday update with just Q&A kinda sucks

 

[New Troll]

I'm feeling mixed about this. I hate achievements. Feel it helped ruin WoW for me, though a lot of that was due to the extremely limited backwards compatibility. I am a natural explorer though and don't mind getting rewarded for my efforts. But here's the real kicker for me, I don't have any desire to learn SW lore, not being a fan of the SW universe. I'm mainly just wanting a non-real world to hang out with friends in and explore. But the more information that comes out about The Old Republic, the more it seems the game's going to be too hardcore for a limited gamer like me. If I had that type of time on my hands, I would have just kept playing WoW.

 

[Jamous]

As if I needed more reasons to want this game... Awwwwwwww, not fair. I want it now!

 

[Vrach]

I'm feeling mixed about this. I hate achievements. Feel it helped ruin WoW for me, though a lot of that was due to the extremely limited backwards compatibility. I am a natural explorer though and don't mind getting rewarded for my efforts. But here's the real kicker for me, I don't have any desire to learn SW lore, not being a fan of the SW universe. I'm mainly just wanting a non-real world to hang out with friends in and explore. But the more information that comes out about The Old Republic, the more it seems the game's going to be too hardcore for a limited gamer like me. If I had that type of time on my hands, I would have just kept playing WoW.

How does this news make the game more hardcore?

 

[ionveau]

To be honest guild wars 2 looks much better then this game, This game just looks very robotic, I just dont support MMO clones.

 

[rsvp42]

Feels like the information floodgates are opening wider and wider. Here's hoping they don't keep us waiting too much longer.

 

[rsvp42]

To be honest guild wars 2 looks much better then this game, This game just looks very robotic, I just dont support MMO clones.

I'm glad you called it a clone because it lets the rest of us know that your knowledge of the game is limited, at best.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

Yay a codex in a bioware game. What a surprise.
They better give us some achievements...i mean almost everygame now has then!

 

[ionveau]

To be honest guild wars 2 looks much better then this game, This game just looks very robotic, I just dont support MMO clones.

I'm glad you called it a clone because it lets the rest of us know that your knowledge of the game is limited, at best.

oh please, i can tell a cash in when i see it, and this indeed is a cash in.

You remind me of a warhammer supporter and look who turned out right.

 

[artanis_neravar]

To be honest guild wars 2 looks much better then this game, This game just looks very robotic, I just dont support MMO clones.

I'm glad you called it a clone because it lets the rest of us know that your knowledge of the game is limited, at best.

oh please, i can tell a cash in when i see it, and this indeed is a cash in.

You remind me of a warhammer supporter and look who turned out right.

I'm not so sure you can

 

[Aurgelmir]

However, the codex will feature one particular section that Schubert and BioWare are planning to wrack players' brains with. The section keeps track of glowing cubes called Datacrons located around the lands of Old Republic that increase players' stats permanently when found. These might be hidden, or they might be in plain view, but in either case won't be easy to get to. The codex will keep track of the Datacrons players have found, and Schubert hopes this will encourage "intrepid explorers" to seek out the paths to them first.

So... in order to become competitive in end game I have to explore? And here I thought MMOs tried to move away from wiki based meta games... Because an MMO can never have hidden treasure to cater to the explorer, because after a few months the MMOs wiki will be full of guides and maps showing where to find the stuff.

If there is a limit to how many datacrons you can collect, and gaine them in more ways than just exploring the concept is rather cool.

 

[rsvp42]

To be honest guild wars 2 looks much better then this game, This game just looks very robotic, I just dont support MMO clones.

I'm glad you called it a clone because it lets the rest of us know that your knowledge of the game is limited, at best.

oh please, i can tell a cash in when i see it, and this indeed is a cash in.

And I'm sure you're an authority on such things. I'd be curious to know why you think it's a "cash-in," but I'm getting visions of myself bickering back-and-forth about something you've clearly already made a decision about, so I think I'll avoid that path.

 

[rsvp42]

So... in order to become competitive in end game I have to explore? And here I thought MMOs tried to move away from wiki based meta games... Because an MMO can never have hidden treasure to cater to the explorer, because after a few months the MMOs wiki will be full of guides and maps showing where to find the stuff.

If there is a limit to how many datacrons you can collect, and gaine them in more ways than just exploring the concept is rather cool.

From what I've read, there aren't a huge number of datacrons on each planet. They've said that it doesn't take a huge amount of effort to go out and get them once you know where they are (and you know there will be guides online a week after release). I don't imagine endgame will be too competitive in the early months of the game since there won't be an overabundance of max-level players yet.

 

[Worgen]

I always do like those codex type things, too bad its based on starwars and not something more interesting

 

[Loonerinoes]

Much more monumental than this however was the drop of the 2nd embargo on PVP info the day before Friday! It revealed that indeed a lot of Mythic's influence and ideas on PVP will be in SWTOR, including but not limited to:

-Tanks being actually viable in PVP through 50% damage absorbtion of a nearby buddy and the amount of their absorbed damage added to PVP highscores.

-Universal CC resistance and no diminishing return problems so that no one can get chain CCed through loopholes in CC types.

-Warzones being across the board of all levels and lower level members being buffed up so as that their stats more closely match the upper level members they'll fight and give them a decent enough chance. This should also REALLY help with queue waiting!

-To help close the gap between the disparity of newcomers to PVP and the epic-geared 'pros', the PVP gear shouldn't make the players overtly powerful statwise - no more than 10% is what they're aiming for. So that skill will actually matter more!

And of course...Datacrons are great for exploration too (and btw, no - you can completely ignore them the first time around and when the time comes that you want to min/max your character, you just read a guide, go back and collect them all at max level so you won't be forced to explore as you level up).

Sorry if this post reads a bit too much like that of a fanboy, but it's because this weekend has pretty much finally turned me into one for SWTOR. Not to mention stuff like them deciding to *not* go for flying mounts, because it'd trivialize exploration (not to mention WPvP) and to not implement cross-realm dungeon queues because, in their own words, it'd be damaging to realm community, with the companions taking up the slack, though making it a little more challenging but not impossible.

Before this weekend I thought SWTOR could turn out well...but I wasn't sure just how much of WoW would it ape and how much would it try to spin it in a different direction so I remained tenative. But now...damn...well, I guess I actually got some actual hope for an MMO. Didn't think that'd happen to me again in my lifetime.