Trailers: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Trooper Progression

[JoshGod]

My complaint is that all specialisations are dps or tank, it just seems uninspired.

Again, you'll have to clarify what you mean by "specializations".

Here is a link to the classes in swtor, http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/classes. If we go into for example the bounty hunter, http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/classes/bounty-hunter. Then click on specializations there are two options, one is better armour the other better guns.

Okay, yes - these are what I've been referring to as "advanced classes." I think you should realize that those are far from detailed accounts of the actual roles each class can play. Each advanced class has one shared (by both advanced classes) set of "talent" trees and two unique talent trees corresponding to a type of role they can play in a group.

Using the bounty hunter example:
If you choose the Powertech advanced class, your two unique trees will be a tanking tree and a dps tree (which means you can be primarily dps, primarily tank, or some hybrid of the two).

On the other hand, if you choose mercenary, your two unique trees will be a healing tree and a dps tree (with a dps style different from the powertech style, like specializing in dual pistol use over single pistol, etc).

If you put more points into the shared tree, you'll beef up core aspects of your class, as well as emphasize special abilities unique to your class as a whole.

So in every class, you have the option of at least 4 discrete playstyles, and all three discrete group roles (with the exceptions of Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior, which do not have healing trees, but instead one tanking tree and 3 forms of melee dps each).

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20110408

fair enough, is there anywhere you can find the abilities within the skill trees?

 

[Vrach]

This is cool and all but you know 99% of players are going to be jedi or sith.

Nope, polls indicate 60:40 so far in favour of Force classes.

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.

200 hr / class* and that's just the main plot, but yah, agreed with your general point ^_^

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.

Animations have consistently improved over the years/months and continue to improve still. You need to check your facts.

as a KoToR fan, it looks weaker than that game did.

Spoiler: Yeah, no

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.

Do tell me, how do you show off gameplay without using animations? I'm just dying to know
Oh and watch these two videos and explain to me, how is the latter choppy compared to the first?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-0rdJBPfB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ayNgd_60qw

 

[winter2]

Nobody expects the Sith Inquisition!!

 

[Vrach]

Animations have consistently improved over the years/months and continue to improve still. You need to check your facts.

Doesn't matter if they still look godawful. The game is nearing beta stage, there's little time left to rework all their animations.

Every single one needs work? And this is not doable in the space of 7 months? Can't say I'd agree with you there. Also, they look pretty good already, I honestly can't see what you're talking about, few choppy things here and there perhaps (though when I have to force myself to look for them, it's not indicative of them being much of an issue personally), but nothing that needs a ton of work.

Do tell me, how do you show off gameplay without using animations? I'm just dying to know

I dunno. How does this translate into an "animations aren't bad" argument?"

It was in response to your "They are also showing HOW you can do it. Otherwise they wouldn't show the trooper gunning people down.". How do you show off a class if you don't use animations, it's primary combat animation to be precise?

Oh and watch these two videos and explain to me, how is the latter choppy compared to the first?

They're pretty similar actually. Which isn't good for TOR.
Showing off animations in detail, you can clearly see the keyframes they used to make the saber slashes. It's more evident than in other games because of the afterglow sabers leave behind.
The saber combat itself (you know, the focus of the entire SW universe) is also crap. In the video you linked yourself:
5:03 - lightsaber hits random invisible wall
5:05 - lightsaber hits hilt of enemy lightsaber, acts as if it hit the shaft itself
5:19 - lightsaber dick-slash
immediately after 5:19 - lightsaber hits enemy shoulder. Enemy recoils as if hit was coming from the other side.

I understand this is mostly due to the fact that it's an MMO. But if you wanna make a point, don't compare it to a game that came out 5 years ago.

You're the one who made the comparison, I'm merely replying to your point. And similar? WoW has a literal handful of animations, TOR boasts far more of them, choreography and better reaction. I really can't see how you can watch that compilation video and say the word "similar", I've played WoW for years, they are miles apart.

But fine, go ahead and compare it to anything else, gimme a few links of better animations in an MMO. As for the videos, keep in mind that one is a compilation, so it may well not have the latest build in it for every single animation (not to mention, the vid itself is slightly older, not sure how old). That said, it's again honestly a struggle for me to see what you're talking about. Yes, the choreography isn't 100% perfect but it's well within reasonable range, especially for an MMO and to be frank, is there another MMO that's even doing choreography for combat?

 

[TWRule]

fair enough, is there anywhere you can find the abilities within the skill trees?

Not yet that I know of - you may be able to find a couple basic descriptions of the tree abilities from press impressions floating around. There are skill lists of some of the core class abilities, but not really anything specific available for the skill trees.

 

[fundayz]

Doesn't matter if they still look godawful. The game is nearing beta stage, there's little time left to rework all their animations.

It's already in Closed Beta. The game was supposed to release in spring but got pushed back. I expect some improvements by launch, but not the night-and-day differences some people expect.

They're pretty similar actually. Which isn't good for TOR.
Showing off animations in detail, you can clearly see the keyframes they used to make the saber slashes. It's more evident than in other games because of the afterglow sabers leave behind.
The saber combat itself (you know, the focus of the entire SW universe) is also crap. In the video you linked yourself:
5:03 - lightsaber hits random invisible wall
5:05 - lightsaber hits hilt of enemy lightsaber, acts as if it hit the shaft itself
5:19 - lightsaber dick-slash
immediately after 5:19 - lightsaber hits enemy shoulder. Enemy recoils as if hit was coming from the other side.

Which is funny since they always brag about how well their combat is choreographed.

Anyway, this isn't new. Every in-game trailer for SWTOR makes the game look slow, bland, and boring.

Add to that the fact that the game is going to play almost exactly like WoW (the developers literally said "if you don't follow WoW then you will fail") and you have the most overhyped MMO of the decade.

 

[Calvar Draveir]

The animations aren't finished? But they're in beta already? They'd need to get a whole lot better. Although they're competent for the average MMO. The average MMO has crappy animations, BTW.

 

[Setch Dreskar]

Ok now barring the fact that none of us have played this... does this look really generic to anyone else? It just seems so akward... I don't know the comabt just looks like any other MMO except everyone is ranged-DPS.

Would be interesting to see how it actually plays but the trailer was very stiff, and if this is going to have a heavy PvP focus I think combat should be alot more fluid. But thats just my opinion.

 

[Jjkaybomb]

Compared to the class videos Guild Wars 2 has been showing off, this seems kindve bland. Not only in the presentation and fancy camera editing, but in the game's environments and graphics. not that MMO's have to have top of the line graphics, but this doesnt look very visually appealing at all.

This trailer is not really convincing me to buy this game.