SWTOR Comic Con News
I’ve started digging through some news coming out of SDCC. It’s all pretty spread out but there is one post on the SWTOR forums that has lots of links and some bullet points for consideration.
Things of note:
- Exclusive Collector Edition shop announced; items in the “lounge” will not give players any advantages to power in-game; some cosmetic, some weapons and armor. Also similar items will be available to ALL players through other means in-game but with different looks.
- Cosmetic modification to weapons has been confirmed. Similarly the color stone you will receive through the pre-order bonus will be “gold” and add certain effects to your weapon as well as just modifying the color.
- Sharding technology (multiple instances of a zone) has been confirmed to be in-game, however they assure us it will only be used very “sparingly”. Upon the initial release they may use it to ensure server stability due to the large number of players logging on, but then after the population stabilizes they will try to use it less and less often or remove it entirely.
- Advanced Class re-speccing is confirmed to be in-game for launch. It will be free the first time you do it, then it will become more and more “expensive” and “difficult”.
- Due to overwhelming feedback received in response to the current speeders we have seen in-game, Bioware has decided to totally re-tool their entire philosophy in regards to mounts. Instead of having a system where players start with slower, less attractive speeders that “do not look great” and then “upgrade” them, NOW they are remodeling speeders so they are all aesthetically more pleasing to the player-base as a whole.
- An unannounced feature will unlock new races and species to players. This is speculated to be the “Legacy” system in SWTOR.
- Each class will have approximately 30 abilities at level 50.
- Ship interior customization is currently being planned for the future, but WILL NOT be in-game at launch.
- Titles will be in-game and very plentiful and are totally cosmetic.
- There are no currently plans for a Mac client, however Bioware confirms that SWTOR “runs great” in Bootcamp.
- New Jedi Consular Companion announced: Nadia. VO’d by actress Holly Fields.
- Companion Customization including appearance, weapons, skin color, etc. has been confirmed. Companion AI, such as abilities/tactics will also be customizable as in other Bioware titles such as Dragon Age.
- 17 major planets and a large number of minor planets will be available at launch. Bioware plans to add MANY more planets in the future and create “DECADES” of continued content updates. Also one planet confirmed to be strictly for Level 50 single-player content.
- Ship Customization confirmed in-game; Interior customization however planned for a later date.
- HK-47 is in-game as expected.
- Companion Character death is now NOT in-game unlike previously stated. “…don’t want players to lose companions and have them gone forever.”
Things I thought interesting are highlighted. I’m disappointed that the pre-order crystal is just an ugly gold color. The way I first read the text on the pre-order page made it sound like the crystal would allow you to pick the color of your lightsaber. That sounded like a good idea, because I like to be able to pick the color. I’m a fan of Mace Windu’s purple but I like to have blue or green occasionally.
Ship interior customization is great to hear. That is won’t be available at launch is not surprising. I just hope it’s more akin to SWG’s system (place things anywhere, any orientation) than LOTRO’s system (place thing on hooks). But I full expect something like LOTRO’s.
That you can unlock new species is an interesting concept. Might add incentive to start over and replay with a new character. I tend to stick with one character as a main that I will put work into advancing (ie reputation grinds, improving gear at top level, raiding, etc) but I also will make several characters to experience the different aspects. I have one main in LOTRO and STO at the top levels with reasonable gear. But I also have several other characters at various levels.
1 Comment
Maarkean · July 26, 2011 at 10:48 am
For some reason I can’t wordpress to put lines between my bottom paragraphs. It just clumps together like that no matter what I do. Sorry for the eye strain.
Comments are closed.