Trailers: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Trooper Progression

[Buizel91]

Man, this looks godawful. To think I was expecting this game to be good.

They don't like the game (that isn't released yet) because the unfinished animations are not finished (shock horror)

Dude. You do not put unfinished animations in a trailer. A trailer needs to present what the game has to offer. You don't make the game look like some wonky piece of shit and expect people to buy it. Besides, animations aren't made IN PARTS. By all we have going so far, these will be the final animations before launch.

They are showing what you can do in the game, these trailers are NOT to show what the game looks like (that may be part of it, but for these trailers it's more about "what you can do" etc)

And somehow i doubt it (and even if they are they will be patched) remember this trailer is probably set to easy, and some animation's be getting finalized, lets wait for a game play trailer a few weeks before the release huh?

Seriously WoW's animations weren't great when it was first released (and still aren't) yet (nearly) every gamer and his/her dog loves it, because they look past animations and play games for the enjoyment.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Beep Boop
They could make them shoot confetti everytime an NPC dies...


Commando = TF2 Heavy
Vanguard = Self Important Dick

Armor looked soso

 

[Buizel91]

Wait were those Rackghouls? So that Forest was on Taris?

I thought the Rackghouls were wiped out with syrum?

Oooh god that means one thing

they are breeding!

 

[ace_of_something]

So looking foreward to being a Commando!

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Wait were those Rackghouls? So that Forest was on Taris?

I thought the Rackghouls were wiped out with syrum?

Oooh god that means one thing

they are breeding!

I more surprised to see TREES ON TARIS.

 

[Buizel91]

Wait were those Rackghouls? So that Forest was on Taris?

I thought the Rackghouls were wiped out with syrum?

Oooh god that means one thing

they are breeding!

I more surprised to see TREES ON TARIS.

Probably started growing after the Bombardment, plus if you look on Kotor 1, Taris is just a BIG city, it doesn't cover the whole planet

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Wait were those Rackghouls? So that Forest was on Taris?

I thought the Rackghouls were wiped out with syrum?

Oooh god that means one thing

they are breeding!

I more surprised to see TREES ON TARIS.

Probably started growing after the Bombardment, plus if you look on Kotor 1, Taris is just a BIG city, it doesn't cover the whole planet

THOSE DAMN DIRTY SITH! THEY BLEW IT UP!

 

[rsvp42]

They don't like the game (that isn't released yet) because the unfinished animations are not finished (shock horror) the enemy A.I looks to easy (but they are probably set to easy for the trailer) and there is no customization options (because 50 pieces of armour were not shown in the trailer)

Just ignore them, they will soon learn.

The only problem with the animations are how they transition from one clip to another. The actual clips themselves are on par with any other MMO, they just need a little work smoothing the transitions.

Also there is no significant A.I. in this trailer, just staged fights to show off Trooper abilities.

What we have here is truth in advertising. If you've ever seen a Machinima for a game like WoW, that's basically what these trailers are: in-game animation pieced together to--in this case--show off some armor and abilities. These aren't cutscenes where motion is crafted to flow seamlessly and play well to camera.

I have a feeling a lot of people will change their tune once it's out. The way animations flow during normal combat trailers like Taral V have (so far) looked quite smooth.

 

[Buizel91]

They are showing what you can do in the game, the trailers are NOT to show what the game looks like (that may be part of it, but for these trailers it's more about "what you can do" etc)

And somehow i doubt it (and even if they are they will be patched) remember this trailer is probably set to easy, and some animation's be getting finalized, lets wait for a game play trailer a few weeks before the release huh?

Seriously WoW's animations weren't great when it was first released (and still aren't) yet (nearly) every gamer and his/her dog loves it, because they look past animations and play games for the enjoyment.

They are also showing HOW you can do it. Otherwise they wouldn't show the trooper gunning people down.

What are they trying to show if not the animations? "Yeah you can totally shoot people and shit BUT NOT LIKE THIS, IGNORE THIS WE JUST PUT THIS HERE BECAUSE WE'RE IDIOTS".

WoW's animations were very good. They made the skills feel responsive and the combat feel fast-paced. So far, all I see from ToR is choppy.

And let's not compare this to a game that was released like 5 years ago shall we? MMO standards have evolved (just look at the GW2 trailers), it isn't far-fetched to expect more from one with such heavy funding.

Yeh forgot to add that bit :$ my bad.

As i was saying, they are showing you what you can do, and how you may want to advance your character, this trailer really shouldn't be judged on it's animations (even though they will piss a couple of people off) I'm sure i have seen better gameplay trailers for this game.

Plus i'm guessing (as i have stated) this is on an easier setting the A.I just seemed to dumb-fucked for this to be the finished thing (this is being released in 2012 remember...i think :$ )

I say just wait till we get a PROPER gameplay trailer, and not these class ones. Some things don't add up, i mean look how beautiful the space stages look, it just seems...strange...

 

[BillyMFMays]

Although the game is not finished, what we see in the trailers are the best representations that both EA and Bioware are comfortable with showing us before the game's release. As with most games, there can and will be final touches to polish the game. For the most part, however, it will look very similar. Again, this is what they feel most comfortable with showing us. They can improve on models and animations during alpha and beta testing as with most of the games in the genre.

It isn't really fair to judge a game by just the trailers and the trailers alone, but keep in mind that there is a gigantic industry that focuses around just trying to get us to impulse buy the game just by how it looks. Sometimes they are successful and sometimes they are not. What really bugs me about this and the other trailers for The Old Republic is that they are trying to market the game already when they haven't started beta testing yet. I know that the original intention was to show us how the progression would play out in the game, but to me, it failed at the actual explanation. It was just a montage of cool people in cool armor shooting cool guns at cool enemies. That seems to be the formula for creating a generic trailer.

So on one hand, we have the rational thought that explains that this is an unfinished game and they are just trying to show us how it looks so far and to show how the game plays. On the other hand, this content is also being used as marketing material to spark the public's interest in this game. So would it be better if EA and Bioware just stopped releasing trailers until the beta test and near the release and stuck with text and graphic explanations about the game's features, or should they continue with the trailers and game play demos?


PS: Also, I can't recall a 3D MMORPG that actually has "amazing" animations. Some are pretty
decent, but it is just something that developers of the genre really care about.

EDIT: There were some posts earlier that already stated a number of the points made in this post as well. They kind of just popped up while I was writing.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

Man, this looks godawful. To think I was expecting this game to be good.

They don't like the game (that isn't released yet) because the unfinished animations are not finished (shock horror)

Dude. You do not put unfinished animations in a trailer. A trailer needs to present what the game has to offer. You don't make the game look like some wonky piece of shit and expect people to buy it. Besides, animations aren't made IN PARTS. By all we have going so far, these will be the final animations before launch.

Isn't that what Blizzard did with Diablo 3?Halfbaked ingame animations as trailers...

 

[JoshGod]

Why is it with these progression trailers that it seems to always be between either a dps or a tank?

Mostly because healing skills generally aren't that flashy to watch, I'd imagine - but you'll notice the commando does use a healing ability in this video. The advanced classes are generally dps/healer vs dps/tank. The recent exception among these trailers was the sith warrior, which has no healing tree.

A lot of the healing trees were added in more recently, which is another reason you don't see them in the earlier progression trailers.

Why is it with these progression trailers that it seems to always be between either a dps or a tank?

I agree, I looked up the 2 branches each class has and most of them are either DPS or tank in one form or another. Definitely unimpressed.

That's not true. 6 out of the 8 classes have a healing tree.

Well if no one cared for the healer class, then it would not exist so there should be someone who would like that, and with regards to your responce to harkwell we mean specifically the specialisations, of which there are two options and have so far all been either more damage or more armour.

 

[ZeroMachine]

I was so looking forward to this game until they began releasing trailers. I am disappointed in Bioware. The KotOR games were great (Although the second was just about the buggiest thing I've ever played).

What happened?

The only thing that happened was that you decided to judge a 200 hr game by a 2 min trailer.

Spoiler

Anyways, glad to finally see this. I was planning on going Trooper for my first class.

Why is it with these progression trailers that it seems to always be between either a dps or a tank?

I agree, I looked up the 2 branches each class has and most of them are either DPS or tank in one form or another. Definitely unimpressed.

Er... the Trooper healed someone in this very trailer...

 

[Spencer Petersen]

Man, this looks godawful. To think I was expecting this game to be good.

They don't like the game (that isn't released yet) because the unfinished animations are not finished (shock horror)

Dude. You do not put unfinished animations in a trailer. A trailer needs to present what the game has to offer. You don't make the game look like some wonky piece of shit and expect people to buy it. Besides, animations aren't made IN PARTS. By all we have going so far, these will be the final animations before launch.

Isn't that what Blizzard did with Diablo 3?Halfbaked ingame animations as trailers...

Half baked ingame animations with a 19 minute gameplay video, demonstration of multiple named skills with distinct effects on different enemy types, a full demonstration of the environment and its uses in combat, a full fledged boss fight and further explanation of how you can expand and make your abilities unique.

The trailer looks good as long as you ignore what it was demonstrating. Its ok the animations are choppy, that not what it was about. Its ok the combat looked like it just consisted of clicking on inert enemies and using a skill every once in a while, they'll fix that later. Its ok that the AI didn't know how to do anything but stand still and shoot, that's not important now. Its ok it didn't show mission structure besides a guy shooting a computer console and then running away, they'll work on that later. Its ok that it didn't show any RPG elements or actual use of named abilities, that's for later. Its ok it didn't show any level design but a valley and a place with chest high walls, the level design team is still working on it.

So what did the trailer show? It showed that you can specialize in 2 different trees, both apparently capable of tanking and dealing damage, with 1 heal ability. It showed that shooting things happens. It showed that the game might actually exist. That's about it.

 

[manythings]

Why is it with these progression trailers that it seems to always be between either a dps or a tank?

agreed.
also note the beyond impossible body shape and (even for ingame standards) bad and shallow movement animations.
*sigh* what happened to the bioware I knew and loved D:?

Or... maybe you know jack about the game? Just a guess from someone who has done crazy things like looked at anything about it rather than videos they have had waiting for months to release at staggered intervals... just a guess.

 

[Blindrooster]

Wait were those Rackghouls? So that Forest was on Taris?

I thought the Rackghouls were wiped out with syrum?

Oooh god that means one thing

they are breeding!

Life will find a way

OT, I'm excited for this game. def going smuggler though.

 

[seditary]

I like the armor designs, showing a progression while still being pretty much in universe.

 

[Caligulove]

Trailers like these make me doubt so many people would pit Jedi or Sith on impulse. Probably the only reason why I played Jedi in KotOR is because you had to. Though, if I had to be a denizen of the Star Wars universe, I always thought Han Solo or Smugglers were infinitely cooler and more badass than the Jedi- who become more and more like superpowered pricks than good characters in the prequels.

 

[rsvp42]

Man, this looks godawful. To think I was expecting this game to be good.

They don't like the game (that isn't released yet) because the unfinished animations are not finished (shock horror)

Dude. You do not put unfinished animations in a trailer. A trailer needs to present what the game has to offer. You don't make the game look like some wonky piece of shit and expect people to buy it. Besides, animations aren't made IN PARTS. By all we have going so far, these will be the final animations before launch.

Isn't that what Blizzard did with Diablo 3?Halfbaked ingame animations as trailers...

Half baked ingame animations with a 19 minute gameplay video, demonstration of multiple named skills with distinct effects on different enemy types, a full demonstration of the environment and its uses in combat, a full fledged boss fight and further explanation of how you can expand and make your abilities unique.

The trailer looks good as long as you ignore what it was demonstrating. Its ok the animations are choppy, that not what it was about. Its ok the combat looked like it just consisted of clicking on inert enemies and using a skill every once in a while, they'll fix that later. Its ok that the AI didn't know how to do anything but stand still and shoot, that's not important now. Its ok it didn't show mission structure besides a guy shooting a computer console and then running away, they'll work on that later. Its ok that it didn't show any RPG elements or actual use of named abilities, that's for later. Its ok it didn't show any level design but a valley and a place with chest high walls, the level design team is still working on it.

So what did the trailer show? It showed that you can specialize in 2 different trees, both apparently capable of tanking and dealing damage, with 1 heal ability. It showed that shooting things happens. It showed that the game might actually exist. That's about it.

Dude if you'd followed the game, you'd know that these trailers are primarily to show a few armor types for each Advanced Class. A secondary goal is showing a few abilities, some of which we haven't seen before. These are just little treats, not big trailers meant to sell the whole game.

Here are some other types of trailers:
Fate of the Galaxy - This one is all about the overall game and shows both combat and story while giving an overview of the situation in the game. This is more of a traditional marketing trailer.

Taral V Developer Walkthrough - This showcases the first section of a multiplayer story instance in the game, complete with developer commentary and explanation. Rather broad and not aimed at the MMO veterans per se, but gives a good look at the flow of combat and the different roles.

Sith Inquisitor - This one is about showcasing a specific class and giving a taste of its abilities and the tone of its story in the game.

I'm not trying to patronize you or anything, I'm just pointing out that there are different trailers with specific goals. Part of this is that they do updates every Friday so they split up their information into smaller chunks like this.

Also, why are people talking about AI when these are all staged scenarios?

 

[Faerillis]

Alright, so I love Star Wars and I look forward to trying SWTOR but that looks really bland. Also, unless I am misremembering (in which case please correct me, I have not been following this religiously), BioWare plans to make it more individualistic which kind of undermines the point of an MMO.

Also, and this irks me in any game, I realize Vanguard has 'guard' in its name but the vanguard does not have anything to do with guarding. The Vanguard goes in first, not blocking. How about Officer, Elite, Guardian or Warden? Just annoys me.