Star Wars: The Old Republic to have choreographed combat
by James Egan 
Nov 10th 2008 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, New titles, PvP, Star Wars: The Old Republic
For some MMO players, nothing kills immersion more than the constant reminder that your avatar is a hollow, ephemeral character model, with every weapon strike that passes right through your ghostly form driving that point home. Star Wars: The Old Republic has a new take on MMO combat that should come as welcome news to anyone who faults the way combat looks in most massively multiplayer online titles.Bioware president Greg Zeschuk has told videogaming247 that combatants in SWTOR won't be 'swinging through each other', largely due to the fact that choreography will play a major role in the forthcoming title's combat system. "Star Wars is choreographed, it's elegant; it's big, powerful moves and lightning bolt flashes, but in a way that makes sense visually and aesthetically. One of the goals we have is to create this choreographed type of combat that looks as though it could be taking place in a Star Wars movie," he recently commented to videogaming247.
Is this a welcome change for you as an MMO player, or is the way avatar combat presently looks in most massively multiplayer titles fine for you?
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BioWare has finally unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, their new MMO! Massively's got you covered on all the details -- from liveblogging the announcement to screenshot galleries and more. Join us in the Galaxy far, far away! |
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Caldruid said on 3:11PM 11-10-2008
Please stop. You're killing me. That sounds so cool. I hate waiting. Lightsabers that actually clash at impact. OMG.
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Vrain said on 3:15PM 11-10-2008
As much as I like the auto-attack combat in WAR (and other similar games) the genre needs something new. AoC was a step in the right direction, but the DDR combos didn't interest me at all and hampered the good of the aoe melee attacks and directional basic attacks. If Bioware can do something new without it becoming tedious I'll definitely be interested.
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djpostman1 said on 3:19PM 11-10-2008
Im still not sure about this game. With the story driven game play, and the combat....just have to wait and see. Im not getting my hopes up, because i really think its going to be a hit or miss with this game. I still want to know more about the PVP, but im also not keeping my hopes up. I'm more excited for Earthrise right now.
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Conquests.of said on 4:18PM 11-10-2008
As soon as i see moves and cooldowns, i'll feel very disappointed, a notch to be added towards the WoW clonation.
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RogueJedi86 said on 4:38PM 11-10-2008
Because WoW invented cooldowns and abilities, right?
Conquests said on 5:11PM 11-10-2008
It's not important who invented it, it's important that after WoW there is NOT A SINGLE MMO that doesn't use it
Coldbrand said on 5:45PM 11-10-2008
It's like you're really an unwitting marketing pitch for Blizzard! Yes, all games which now feature cooldowns, despite them being present in MMOs long since before, are now simply including them to emulate your favorite MMO.
PeterD said on 4:41PM 11-10-2008
Considering that both Knights of the Old Republic games had this it would be unforgivable for SWTOR not to have it as well. I doubt I'd even buy the game if they cut such a fundamental feature of the series.
"As soon as i see moves and cooldowns, i'll feel very disappointed, a notch to be added towards the WoW clonation."
You're kidding me right? Almost every major MMO ever made has made use of skills and cooldowns, that's not a WoW thing, that's an MMO thing. What would you prefer - a twitch based FPS style game with no special abilities? That would get dull FAST.
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Conquests.of said on 5:25PM 11-10-2008
Every mmo? You were prolly born right after WoW was made, cause Planetside or Neocron had no such a thing.
Celestro said on 8:53PM 11-10-2008
"Every mmo? You were prolly born right after WoW was made, cause Planetside or Neocron had no such a thing."
Whatever credibility you may have once had is now gone.
Joe_the_mad26 said on 5:49PM 11-10-2008
Bantha poop, I've been out of the loop for a bit; it's good to get back into things, and boy did I pick a great moment. Words can not express my joy at this bit of news concerning combat in TOR, especially where it revolves around Lightsaber and Blade combat.
I agree completely with the article in that nothing can take from a immersion experience more than having your weapon pass through a mob as if they were not there. And, as PeterD stated, KotOR implemented this feature, and as such, it would be near to impossible to not have this included in TOR, regardless of it's new MMO form.
As for the question of the cool downs, yes, it's true that almost every major MMO has utilized a cool-down system of some sort. Everquest, considered by many to be the father of modern MMOs as opposed to Ultima, was one of the first to set the guidelines for the cool down system. However, in regards to TOR, cool downs may or may not play a role in the Choreographed battles. Likely, it will be more akin to a pattern system, much like the one used in the Console version of Mass Effect for getting past security locks.
Once more Bioware has given me another reason to thank the powers that this title is in their hands. Unlike some others, I have no doubts what so ever in the sheer level of fulfillment that TOR will bring to the MMO table.
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Darkdust said on 6:34PM 11-10-2008
I'm interested to see how well it works for ranged combat, dodging, etc.
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Skypp said on 6:43PM 11-10-2008
This game is promising everything and hardly any of it is truly done. Its starting to creep into Shadowbane/Conan territory. Bioware needs to check itself in with reality, and very quickly at that.
Conan proved that players don't care what you eventually put out, they care about what you SAID you would put out, and when you find yourself screwed by the technology just not existing yet, your "fans" won't give 2 craps about your excuses.
CANCELED.
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fatpanda said on 9:41PM 11-10-2008
I have way more faith in Bioware than I ever had in Funcom. Yes a lot of developers promise the moon and deliver swiss cheese (whatever the F@@k that means!)
but if anyone can do it Bioware can and will. They don't live in caves, the know about the backlash of AOC and not to long ago Vanguard. They REALLY are aware of what Sony did to SWG.
With all the cool stuff they've mentioned they plan on doing they have yet to mention anything regarding and other classes, housing, space combat or even spaceships. They will reveal all of that when they a damn sure they can deliver it. So everything they have talked about they are sure they can deliver.
Ingrod said on 1:00AM 11-11-2008
What promising?
From anouncement to now they only said three thinks:
Strorytelling driving
Companions
Choreografic combat (perhaps colision?)
AoC and WAR have colision, SWG pre-NGE have well choregrafied animations, nothing new or an over the top promise. Combat "fun and starwarsy" was an NGE promise too xD
Now: storytelling, companions, same stuff than in other Bioware titles, no more explained about new game mechanics or innovative combat system, PvP system, quest system, space combat or travel, housing, player cities, etc.
I call it "hype control" not "over promising features"
We need much more information.
Samael said on 11:47PM 11-10-2008
I have full faith in BioWare, they have never let me down in the past. If they are making an MMO, it would be of the highest quality. This would be a fantastic feature, I really cant wait to get my hands on this game, really its too long a wait for this one.
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Syme said on 10:59AM 11-11-2008
I have no serious complaint about the basic combat animations in a game like WoW, but choreographed combat would be a great feature. And because it is so much a part of the Star Wars experience, it does seem like an important feature to implement.
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