TORWars editors, Jeff and David got their eager hands on the Alderaan PvP Warzone last week and are beyond ready (bad embargo!) to reveal their first impressions. First up, J.W. Hollis…

Love turret. Kiss turret. Defend turret.

Jeff Hollis:
The Alderaan Civil War PvP Warzone is obviously well planned and mapped out. The zone itself is very fairly balanced in its overall design. Players start in a ship, hovering over the battlefield. When the battle starts, players hop on speeder bikes, exit the ship, and then land in a pre-designated area on one end of the Warzone. From this landing location, they run out and try to gain control over one of the guns that sit idle in the contested zone.

Also, while the Warzone is not entirely symmetrical – it retains enough variety to keep the zone appearing realistic – the zone is balanced, so that one side doesn’t have any advantages over the other.

There are three turrets, which are really just “control points,” that each side is trying to dominate. The field is small enough, and the landing areas for each side so perfectly placed, that both sides can easily reach any of the guns very quickly. There are no long runs to reach an objective. Because of this, all three turrets are in dispute constantly.

Generally speaking, players have to destroy their enemies, then they have a few seconds to gain control of a particular turret. Once they do this, they then have to defend that turret, because the enemy is going to be there in mere moments. It’s pretty dynamic, and the pace is constant.

When a player clicks on a turret’s control panel, a short timer activates, and then the gun comes under that side’s control. The turret then begins to fire on the enemy ship. This is a small touch, but it’s immersive, and very different from other MMO PvP battlefields. Your side is not just scoring points by controlling a node. In other MMOs, when those points reach some arbitrary number, your team wins. Instead, in the Alderaan Warzone, you’re controlling a gun, which is destroying your opponents’ ship. If your side controls two or even all three guns, you are damaging that enemy ship more quickly. When their ship is destroyed, they can no longer send troops on speeder bikes to the Alderaan Warzone, and you win.

When it comes to class balance, I couldn’t find any glaring inadequacies. I both played, or closely observed, most of the classes in the game as they tried to kill one another in the Alderaan Warzone. While there were classes I clearly preferred to play, it was because they simply suited my tastes and play style. I wasn’t able to identify a class that was overpowered.

These ain't no 'Clone' warriors. Vive la différence!

One of the things that appeared to make the game more balanced was the fact that the characters were not at all easy to kill. Even the squishiest healer or ranged DPS class could sustain a decent number of hits before going down. Further, crowd control was far less irritating than in other MMO battlefields. For example, I noticed that I was able to take someone out of the fight for a few seconds with a good Force Choke, but then they were able to break away. At no point was anyone “Feared” consecutively for eighteen seconds, or stun locked until they were dead. This combination – minimal crowd control, and hard to kill characters – made for a much more enjoyable PvP experience.

Beyond all that, the Warzone was recognizable to any veteran player of MMO PvP battlegrounds. For example, the Consulars and Inquisitors I played were Force users; this seemed very similar to spell casters in other MMOs. The Sith Warriors and Jedi Knights were the melee classes – warriors and paladins. The Smugglers and Agents were ranged DPS classes, with some stealth mechanics thrown into the mix. At no point did I find myself saying “WTF is that?” when I ran into an enemy. It seemed like a very familiar experience, but wrapped in a Star Wars skin. Beyond that, TOR’s PvP appeared to have iterated itself into something better than what is currently being offered in other MMOs.

Force Charge and Force Leap. Yep, they're as fun as they sound

David Moore:
Is it time for me to throw in my 10 credits? Alrighty. Here goes.

My first five to ten minutes of PvP time were spent frantically trying to come to grips with my level 20 Jedi Consular and her two full hotbars of brand new skills. Which of these skills were my attacks? Which were short or long term buffs? Which handy skill let me escape from crowd controlling stuns?

I also spent the early minutes of PvP accidentally shoving skills off my hotbar in a hectic, spam-clicking frenzy as I attempted to fight. I did find a tiny “Lock” icon on the hotbar, but somehow I still managed to remove skill icons haphazardly. I’m sure this will be fixed in the next build. In fact, a revised UI is about to prop and they have probably sorted out “skill bar protection for idiots” like myself.

I agree that the Alderaan map seems well thought out and fair. I will add that there are two outer turrets; one on the right and one on the left-hand side of the map and they are fairly easy to get to. The third turret sits in the center of the map above a large round building. There are tunnels beneath this structure where many battles are sure to rage. Later, while playing as a Sith Marauder I chased an injured Jedi with the merest smidge of health through these tunnels. Despite my many attacks they did manage to slip away and survive. I wasn’t aggressive enough and I failed my Dark Side masters. I won’t make that mistake twice.

When you die in the Alderaan battle you will respawn back on your starship. You’ll hit your party buff skill (each class seems to have at least one at level 20), hop right back on a speeder bike and zip back down into the Warzone.

By opening your Map overlay you’ll see which of the turrets is neutral or under your team’s control. A gun in the enemy’s hands will be colored red. You’ll want to get there and grab it back. The adage “Fight directly on the objective, not out in the field” comes to mind as good strategic advice to follow in the Alderaan Civil War.

'Member when Dark Vader and Oldie Finobi had that light saver battle? That was neato.

As Jeff mentioned, using your stun/CC skills on an enemy guarding a node is most pleasurable. As a Sith Warrior, ‘Force Charging’ a player and then ‘Force Choking’ them out of their turret guarding is mighty satisfying. ‘Force Leaping’ at enemies while playing a Jedi was also great fun. You can leap from a fair distance, up the steps and in close to an enemy guarding a turret. It was also quite cool to see Agents and Smugglers ducking behind cover and sniping at players, much like you might find in an FPS match. Thankfully, without the instant headshot kills.

Overall, Alderaan was great fun. The design of the battlefield felt fair. Eight versus eight felt like the right number of players. You felt important to your team, but didn’t feel as if victory rested on your shoulders alone. Characters had good survivability, but not frustratingly so. At one point I had six enemy players whaling on me and it still took a good 10 or 15 seconds before I fell. Plenty of time for my teammates to zip in for a rescue. Ahem, Jeff? Where were you buddy?