KOTOR MMO All But Confirmed, but who actually wants it?

[SilentHunter7]

Some common complaints of Mass Effect:

-conversation wheel
-too much FPS combat in an RPG
-LOAD TIMES

But for all that, I think it's a great game. Load times don't bother me a tad, and the conversation wheel was only mildly annoying while being a nice new way to communicate. As for the combat, it was a great idea to put real-time combat into an RPG, but it overpowered the game.

I liked the conversation wheel, and the real-time combat. But the thing that killed ME for me was the gargantuan amount of crashes, and gamebreaking glitches I got in the PC version, and BioWare's reluctance to release a patch. Story and gameplay was good, but having to restart the final boss 3 times due to the permanent overheat glitch ruined it for me.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Make - Hard to drive.

Story - I wasn't attached to anybody after the first playthrough

Dialog - Someone should have told them that the conversation wheel is just stupid.

Combat - Another meh thing. Grenades were useless as the game goes on and biotics kicked your ass everytime unless you were a vanguard/adept when I tryed playing.

Graphics - On my 480i tv KOTOR looked better because this was just to bright and I dunno the graphics just looked terrible in my opinion. THAT FUCKING BLUE LIGHT THAT DOESN'T LEAVE YOU ALONE.

 

[EvolutionKills]

Honestly, I really liked the conversation wheel. The point was to keep the dialogue flowing and natural. The idea being, that if you don't require the player to read through EVERY sentence of every option, and then making him decide which one to pick. Instead you pick a feeling or a topic, and Shepard takes it from there. Seeing your character actually participate in the conversation, as opposed to just being talked at, was a nice change. So I liked the new direction they took with the conversations, as opposed to branching dialogue trees full of text.


As much as I loved KOTOR, I always wanted to do more than just select my target. I always wanted to be able to wield that lightsaber myself. While ME lacks any of our favorite Star Wars standards, it was a relief to be able to actually USE the weapons available. The action was fun, the auto-cover system was adequate (and relatively bug-free considering it wasn't tied to any button to use), and the weapons and upgrades where interesting. Granted the squad AI could have used a little more work, but I was more than able to compensate for that with a good eye and reflexes. Granted it wasn't 'Call of Duty 4', but fun all the same.


The MAKO could be a *****, and a lot of the 'explore this world for the sake of exploring it' seemed a little dumb. How in the hell they thought it was a good idea to create terrain with nothing but mountains and cliffs for some of these worlds is beyond me. Constantly driving uphill in the MAKO isn't fun. Still, it was easier with WASD than the controller. Also the load times on the PC weren't bad at all.


But back to the MMO...


I love real-time combat that I actually control. The problem with this and MMO's is the LAG issue. Having large central servers can totally fuck with your connection if you're not close, leaving you at a disadvantage. One of the reason I stopped playing Guild Wars was the fact that I could never get a decent Ping (i.e. below 120). Even though the combat was automated (in so far as your character would keep attacking anything that got close enough), I was tired of lagging out and missing entire parts of the fight. Now imagine if you have complete control, like in the old Jedi Knight games, what kind of problem this would cause. So unless they have some way to fix that, I can't help but believe that they'll stick with the 'real-time-turn-based-combat' that it's famous for.


As for the plot, you've got me there. Now assuming that most everyone can or will be playing a Jedi in this game (as opposed to making it some hard to obtain goal like in Galaxies), they'd have to take that into account. Probably some sort of conflict involving Jedi vs Sith (I can see a new set of Alliance/Horde-esque jokes brewing) in near open warfare. Problem is that everyone should have an equal opportunity to be that 'special' galaxy shaping someone. So yeah, figuring out how to mesh a great storyline into an MMO and still give ALL of the players a hand in the outcome would be a difficult challenge indeed.


Maybe each server is an instanced galaxy, with an emphasis on the outcome of a war. Players can play on all sides of the conflict, pushing their and their faction's agenda. Once one side or the other is victorious, the server starts over from the beginning...


Just thinking out loud...

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Honestly, I really liked the conversation wheel. The point was to keep the dialogue flowing and natural. The idea being, that if you don't require the player to read through EVERY sentence of every option, and then making him decide which one to pick. Instead you pick a feeling or a topic, and Shepard takes it from there. Seeing your character actually participate in the conversation, as opposed to just being talked at, was a nice change. So I liked the new direction they took with the conversations, as opposed to branching dialogue trees full of text.


As much as I loved KOTOR, I always wanted to do more than just select my target. I always wanted to be able to wield that lightsaber myself. While ME lacks any of our favorite Star Wars standards, it was a relief to be able to actually USE the weapons available. The action was fun, the auto-cover system was adequate (and relatively bug-free considering it wasn't tied to any button to use), and the weapons and upgrades where interesting. Granted the squad AI could have used a little more work, but I was more than able to compensate for that with a good eye and reflexes. Granted it wasn't 'Call of Duty 4', but fun all the same.


The MAKO could be a *****, and a lot of the 'explore this world for the sake of exploring it' seemed a little dumb. How in the hell they thought it was a good idea to create terrain with nothing but mountains and cliffs for some of these worlds is beyond me. Constantly driving uphill in the MAKO isn't fun. Still, it was easier with WASD than the controller. Also the load times on the PC weren't bad at all.


But back to the MMO...


I love real-time combat that I actually control. The problem with this and MMO's is the LAG issue. Having large central servers can totally fuck with your connection if you're not close, leaving you at a disadvantage. One of the reason I stopped playing Guild Wars was the fact that I could never get a decent Ping (i.e. below 120). Even though the combat was automated (in so far as your character would keep attacking anything that got close enough), I was tired of lagging out and missing entire parts of the fight. Now imagine if you have complete control, like in the old Jedi Knight games, what kind of problem this would cause. So unless they have some way to fix that, I can't help but believe that they'll stick with the 'real-time-turn-based-combat' that it's famous for.


As for the plot, you've got me there. Now assuming that most everyone can or will be playing a Jedi in this game (as opposed to making it some hard to obtain goal like in Galaxies), they'd have to take that into account. Probably some sort of conflict involving Jedi vs Sith (I can see a new set of Alliance/Horde-esque jokes brewing) in near open warfare. Problem is that everyone should have an equal opportunity to be that 'special' galaxy shaping someone. So yeah, figuring out how to mesh a great storyline into an MMO and still give ALL of the players a hand in the outcome would be a difficult challenge indeed.


Maybe each server is an instanced galaxy, with an emphasis on the outcome of a war. Players can play on all sides of the conflict, pushing their and their faction's agenda. Once one side or the other is victorious, the server starts over from the beginning...


Just thinking out loud...

I would rather read all the dialog out instead of having to reload and re-do the last hour because my guy went physco on them.

 

[Theik]

I'm actually looking forward to the KotoR MMO. Bioware has always been a great game design company, I played and liked nearly all of their games, so I have faith in them making something nice.

That, and I suppose I'm more of a social player, I actually like having to interact with other people. But I suppose being unable to mind trick everybody into giving you stuff would be a turn off for the more socially-rejected types.

 

[EvolutionKills]

I'm actually looking forward to the KotoR MMO. Bioware has always been a great game design company, I played and liked nearly all of their games, so I have faith in them making something nice.

That, and I suppose I'm more of a social player, I actually like having to interact with other people. But I suppose being unable to mind trick everybody into giving you stuff would be a turn off for the more socially-rejected types.

I just don't like MMO's. Not because I don't like dealing with people, that's not the case at all. I hate dealing with retarded ass-hats that take the anonymity of the internet for granted. Leet speak and penis jokes have no place in Star Wars, and unfortunate that's that kind of crap that comes with an MMO. I'm afraid that the other players, more so than the game itself, would ruin it for me.

 

[Alias_Raz0r]

Personally i think its going to be interesting
Bioware have always made good RPGs
So id like to see how they deal with an MMORPG

 

[runtheplacered]

I'm actually looking forward to the KotoR MMO. Bioware has always been a great game design company, I played and liked nearly all of their games, so I have faith in them making something nice.

That, and I suppose I'm more of a social player, I actually like having to interact with other people. But I suppose being unable to mind trick everybody into giving you stuff would be a turn off for the more socially-rejected types.

I just don't like MMO's. Not because I don't like dealing with people, that's not the case at all. I hate dealing with retarded ass-hats that take the anonymity of the internet for granted. Leet speak and penis jokes have no place in Star Wars, and unfortunate that's that kind of crap that comes with an MMO. I'm afraid that the other players, more so than the game itself, would ruin it for me.

So, it's not the MMO's you hate, it's the people. Maybe you should find a decent clan to run around with? There are friendly people playing MMO's, they're just not as outspoken as the others. For the period that I played LOTRO I met some incredibly friendly people. In fact, I can't really think of any jerks that I met on that game. Somehow that game was troll-free.

 

[Alcari]

Been thinking for a bit. What if, when they say "massively multiplayer elements", they put you in your single-player campaign, but your party is made up of other players? At special markers in-game, they would allow parties to meet, and of course there would be a multiplayer mode for parties against one another. They'd have to allow far more than two other players in your party at any time, but the balance could be corrected by simply ramping up difficulty. This way, ol' Bioware would be creating a campaign for the main character and all the side characters, and whenever you've finished the main campaign, you can always turn to learning much more about your companions' general templates. Of course there's the mentor role, which would have to be played by someone who has proven themselves experienced. The robot roles would have to be "auditioned" for somehow, to make sure that the people playing the robots know how to do it correctly. And, of course, if you can't find enough people for a full party, there would be some backup AI and the story could continue. If someone in your party can't get on for a day, but they shouldn't miss the story, then a vote should be called and they can either continue the main storyline or flesh out a side storyline.

I recall a little company known as Blizzard making something that sounds a lot like what you describe.

 

[Slash12]

Like everyone else, this is a let down for me. I loved Kotor 1 and 2 (1 a little more), but I can only see the game as a single player game, plus I hate monthly fees with a passion. Although, if it comes out without a monthly fee I'll probably end up picking it up anyway, just because I loved the other ones so much, they were 2 of the few games that I replay.

 

[VVL]

Yeah, I played Diablo 2 for the first time a couple weeks ago. It would be like a half-ripoff.

 

[Imperator_2]

Maybe they'll have it worked out kind of like Freelancer: You only start the multiplayer part when you've finished the single-player part. That way, we can have the best of both worlds.
Hey if Bioware's in charge, we have absolutely nothing to worry about.

 

[KurstDisciple]

From what I have read this just seems to be an MMO based around the KotOR universe, not a KotOR 3. So while I am sure it won't be a WoW clone with bio at the helm, it could be if it wants to be because I will not be playing it for a story. Now if they decide to merge KotOR 3 and KotOR the MMO, I'm sure bio would know what it was doing. There are three ways I could see this going down at the moment for merging.

A) they could do it in a Guildwars type clone, which I wouldn't mind seeing because I always thought the KotOR cities were always lacking people.

B) Or they could do along the lines of a more fleshed out online mode for NWN. As in rather than player created modules being thrown online, there would be a mix of Developer and Player modules to choose from. Which would effectively give us the Single player and the MMO aspects in a decent package.

C) and the last way I could see them going is in the DNDO direction whereas rather than just a lobby based system, its a lobby based system where you are paired up with people the same ways through the story as you are. Which would be neat as well in considering if we were to just play with friends, the other characters would be predictable to a T.

Now to address the trolls on MMOs, with the first two the story would effectively be safe from those whose only goals are to kill immersion. And the last one would be harder to break by these people. In addition for the second option, from what I've seen this type of game has always attracted a different type than the normal MMO players so hopefully the trend will continue that way.

In summary, Bioware should know what they're doing, and before they are an MMO maker, I'm sure they will be an RPG maker and at least throw us a bone when it comes to that.

 

[Imperator_2]

I wonder, will the assholes be the Sith or the Mandalorians?

 

[RastaMan420]

I would be much more happy about the KotOR MMO if everyone, including me wasn't really waiting all this time for a true sequel to the franchise....I mean we waited....around 5 years to see what happened to Revan after KotOR 1, and right when our hopes are raised about the announcement of a KotOR title, it turns out to be ANOTHER tedius MMO. I feel as if they just stuck a big knife in the middle of the KotOR chain of events. The continuity feels broken up now, like there's a large gap in the story arc with the existance of this MMO. If they were patient, they could have patched up the original KotOR story line with the good old single player we know and love, THEN make a nice MMO for KotOR. But that's just me.

 

[Proto Cloud]

Why do you torture us Bioware? Why can't you just finish the Mass Effect trilogy before doing this? Damn, I really wanted to finish the trilogy sooner rather than later.

 

[geldonyetich]

I'm a gamer. I play games. Preferably good games.

Will KOTOR the MMO that is "all but confirmed" be a good game?

Gee, I think maybe I'll suspend my judgment until I actually hear a feature set, hmm?

I'm thinking this won't be a KOTOR MMO so much as KOTOR Neverwinter Nights flavor (hence a "MMO component") but time will tell.