Star Wars: The Old Republic's Smugglers Get Wookiee Companions

[HeySeansOnline]

Well this is cool, but Han Solo found Chewbacca and they became friends. It was a special thing, Chewbacca gave Han the Wookie life debt and- oh screw it I want a wookie.

Also I hope we can get a Nogrhi Bodyguard at some point.

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

"I survived smuggling school and all I got was this stupid wookie"

 

[mad825]

So Bioware is getting desperate now by trying to replicate the old trilogy?

hm, I'll ponder on this.

 

[Jared]

Hah! I want a wookie! Be like the silly sidekick of games!

 

[ThaBenMan]

It'd be interesting if there was some sort of system, like instances in WoW, where you're joined by your companion only in certain areas or missions where you're the only player there. That would go a long way toward making your companion feel more special and unique, instead of walking past 5 other Smugglers, with their own Bowdaars in tow, on your way someplace.

I agree that it is kind of lame, like a second-rate Han and Chewie. His backstory is kind of interesting, but he could have been something a lot more cool.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Nothing has interested me in this game thus far...and this still doesn't drag me in. Essentially we're getting pets in this game? I'm not dissing the game or anything, just saying my only attitude towards this game is nothing but indifference.

 

[Saltyk]

It'd be interesting if there was some sort of system, like instances in WoW, where you're joined by your companion only in certain areas or missions where you're the only player there. That would go a long way toward making your companion feel more special and unique, instead of walking past 5 other Smugglers, with their own Bowdaars in tow, on your way someplace.

I agree that it is kind of lame, like a second-rate Han and Chewie. His backstory is kind of interesting, but he could have been something a lot more cool.

My working theory is that your companions will only join you in Story Missions. And nothing else. When you decide to continue the story, you'll end up selecting which companions you will need. The powerful warrior? The sly smuggler? The handy astromech droid? And then continue on with your mission(s). Perhaps changing members if you need to. I'm curious if Bioware will let player characters take the place of a companion or just tag along to help.

Outside of the story, I think you'll travel alone and have the option to join with other players for grinding, exploring, and maybe some form of Instances.

This is all conjecture based on what I've read on the official page. I could be wrong, but I'm confident it will play close to this. After all why make a MMORPG if you can't play with (and fight) other players?

I'm still waiting for them to tell me what the companion for the Sith Warrior will be:
I'm hoping for either that blind girl from KOTOR 2, or HK-47.

Or a Hutt!

The Sith Warrior companion is a Twi'lek named Vette
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/biographies/vette

HK-47 will be in it though. He apparently guards Darth Revan's tomb. Looks like a story or perhaps an Instance will take you there.

 

[The Austin]

Honestly, my only complaint with this game is that you can't customize your companions. It sucks that 10 thousand smugglers are all going to have the same wookie.

 

[Brotherofwill]

Every smuggler will get the same companion? What are they thinking? Also, this is 3000 years before the movies, it has every damn right to be different.

Bioware is aware they are making an MMO, right? Everything I seen about this game implies otherwise.

It is an MMO. But each character class is their own KOTOR story.
If you play solo, you basically get eight KOTOR's.

Except that you don't make any difference in the game-world and therefore it will never be as engaging as KotOR.

Totally. I'll take 1 well written, well executed storyline over 8 flimsy ones, thank you very much.

How lame will it be to see 100+ identical Wookies running around in towns? Strange.

I also have to echo the sentiment that Han Solo was special because he had a Wookie tag along. It wasn't the Wookie that made both characters cool, it was Han Solo and the Wookie. You can't just tag on a Wookie to a lifeless MMO player-controlled character and expect magic to happen.

Something tells me Bioware might be approaching the MMO from the wrong angle. It's Bioware, I'm sure it'll be well written and scripted and all, and I'm sure all the cash they blow on it will mean it's balanced, but trying to replicated a personal, companion story in an MMO space just doesn't strike me as very productive. I always thought people play MMOs to socialize with other peoplee and create their own story rather than having one written for them, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Eldarion]

Becoming a smuggler in The Old Republic will reflect the life of Han Solo in every way possible.

My interest in this game goes down another notch. I'd like my character to be my character, not a knock off of the biggest douche is the movies.

 

[Vincent33]

This is just bad marketing, Bioware, get a grip. You are marketing this like a single player game. We haven't heard a single thing about multi player experience.

I'm sure you get more options for customization of your characters, more ships, more companions; it's just that Bioware likes to feed us a single byte of information at a time.

All this "Han Solo" thing is just playing safe; they have a lot of money invested in this and instead of taking risks they use tried and successful motifs.

The companion thing can be easily done right, ex. in Guild Wars 1 companions were always in the same spot in the city, but they join you when you venture to fight. Also, a lot of the gamplay demos hint that a large part of the game will be story-based instances.

But nothing will make me buy this game if it turns that a large part of the game is going to be mindless grind ala WoW.

 

[Saltyk]

This is just bad marketing, Bioware, get a grip. You are marketing this like a single player game. We haven't heard a single thing about multi player experience.

I'm sure you get more options for customization of your characters, more ships, more companions; it's just that Bioware likes to feed us a single byte of information at a time.

All this "Han Solo" thing is just playing safe; they have a lot of money invested in this and instead of taking risks they use tried and successful motives.

The companion thing can be easily done right, ex. in Guild Wars 1 companions were always in the same spot in the city, but they join you when you venture to fight. Also, a lot of the gamplay demos hint that a large part of the game will be story-based instances.

But nothing will make me buy this game if it turns that a large part of the game is going to be mindless grind ala WoW.

Actually, I've seen something where they talk about the multiplayer. Or at least pay it lip service. I remember they said that Bounty Hunters and Jedi will be just like you imagine them from lvl 1. That means Jet Packs and acrobatic insanity at lvl 1. They also said that every class will be balanced. Jedi and Sith will not overpower every other class. Troopers can fight on equal ground with Sith. Also showed what looked like PvP and they said something that each class will have certain advantages in PvP. Bounty hunters will be able to use their jet packs to create distant between them and Jedi for example. Think I saw it on Gametrailers.com or something along those lines.

I have some high hopes for this game. I might actually get into a MMO if they do it right.

 

[uppitycracker]

sounds like something they'd do in SWG these days

 

[Captain Ninja]

this looks fantastic, to every one saying that there just recreating the original trilogy, calm down you don't have to use the Wookie you go solo if you really want to, but theirs a lot of people out there who have always wanted to play the Han Solo experience so let them. The story they have for this looks great and i hardly think its just re doing the original trilogy.

 

[viranimus]

I dunno.. Seems like to me that this is being done to combat the notion of Sith/Jedi/bounty hunter imbalance.

Honestly without doing something like this, do you really see alot of people gravitating to anything over than sith/jedi/Bhunter? Really. Who wants to be a faceless trooper or agent? Without adding wookies, I suspect smuggler was pretty low on peoples priority lists. But hey, what do I know?