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Pretty much everyone in the Sith Empire should stick to decaf, don't you think?
It’s that time of the week again, friends – time for the TORWars podcast! While this was a generally light week for Star Wars: The Old Republic news, we’ve managed to dig up quite a few interesting nuggets that you’ll definitely want to hear. We discuss the progress of the beta, the news about Smugglers and, of course, SWTOR’s first expansion, and the Great Intergalactic Coffee Incident. What am I talking about? Just listen to the show, friends, and all will be revealed! 
NEWS -
- EA is studying WoW for their SWTOR post launch strategy
- Star Wars Saga on Blue Ray launches this week
- Facebook image of the week – Evocii settlement on Hutta
- Facebook – the official SWTOR PAX Prime pics are now up
- Winner of the community fan fiction contest is….Astralfire!
- EU Beta testing is delayed
- No Beta testing this weekend
THE GREAT INTERGALACTIC COFFEE INCIDENT -
DISCUSSION -
- BioWare’s Friday Drop
PAX highlight video
Smuggler progression video
Alexander Freed on SWTOR comics and novels
- Dev Comments
Georg Zoeller on Origin World Instancing
Georg Zoeller on instancing and PvP
Stephen Reid on Beta Weekends
IN DEPTH -
- What should be included in MMO Expansions?
As you can see, we cover a the very latest in TOR news, we go in-depth into the latest reveals about the game, and we throw coffee with our Force powers. More than anything, we certainly hope you enjoy the show! Leave us a comment, below; we genuinely want to hear from you!
[Pic courtesy RubyRed's t-shirts]
TORWars Podcast #77: The Big Subscribers Discussion
Galaxy of Guilds - Stellar Corsairs
Jedi Knight Weekly: Slaying the Dragon
James Ohlen Dishes Out Specific Expertise and PvP Damage Formulas
SWTOR Comic Strip: Fail Hunter Episode 35
You guys are great, I log onto your site more than my facebook because even when news is about the game is scarce, you guys still manage to update the site with fresh quality content.
After hearing about some of your suggestions about future expansions, I believe you guys overlooked the possibility of bringing shape shifters into the game as a class. They could shape shift into an animal form for melee dps or even possibly tanking, then shape shift back to a humanoid form and use a blaster rifle for ranged attacks.
Personally, I would really like to see a genuine space simulator in future expansions. Those epic spaces battles are very much a part of star wars and it should be more than a mini game. If they did do that, then I could definitely see the pilot being viable as a new class. Operations could actually consist of a ground assault and a space assault like in the return of the jedi. And the pilot could either choose man a space fighter or an at-at.
Just throwing out ideas. Keep up the great work.
Yeah I want EPIC Space Battles as well. I want to be a turret gunner on the Death Star defending it from those pesky Republic Fighters who keep trying to blow me up. LOL. Or if they make it like Huttball it might be fun to occasionally blow up the death star. Could be really fun.
Pathos.
I think you guys are kidding yourselves if you think that Bioware will produce an expansion “within a year”. Bioware has shown to take their sweet time with every aspect of this game and I doubt the expansions will be an exception.
Could be, Wiz.
However, BioWare has been working on the first post-launch updates for quite some time and seem very aware that they need to add content quickly. We’re hopeful.
I agree with you guys that using the WoW expansion model would be not good from a customer point of view. They don’t update their game enough by far, and if Bioware’s goal for this game was to create the never ending Bioware story, having to wait one and a half to two years to read the next chapter is a little much for me to swallow, especially since I’m paying monthly for what is supposed to be content updates.
I thought about one class for the Imperials. The Imperial Officer. Think of it as the Grand Moff Tarkin story for the Empire and his rise from lieutenant to supreme omg badass in charge of awesomeness. In game reference would be Grand Moff Kilran.
The Republic class I was having trouble with because literally the only other archetypes that the Rebellion was known for were spies in particular Bothans(which are already being used as Imperial Agents) and Ace Pilots which wouldn’t work in a tunnel shooter planet oriented game.
However, I found a suggestion on the official forums for a “Tech Specialist” class for the Republic kind of like a turret oriented class, not a full pet per say but a class that gains a lot of his ability from his use of turrets on the battlefield separate from his person kind of like the dwarf gun class in WAR except more support oriented than dps perhaps.
I thought about and this works pretty well for the Imperial Officer class as a mirror. The class would center around “commanding” or “controlling” the battlefield as much as it would around combat. It’s that missing buff debuffer support class that has been missing for so long, and I think it could work in this game.
So, what do you think?
Oh wow. A lot of grammar errors in there. I swear I wasn’t drunk, but I was kind of rambling and was kind of conceptualizing words as they came to mind, and pesky things like punctuation and words like “it” tend to fall to the way side when I’m doing that, also repeating myself, AND repeating myself . . .
Seriously though, what do you guys think of those class ideas. I admit, it was pretty hard to think of something that could be mirrored on both sides. I think something like this might work though in the game.
Personally, I wanted there to be a Pilot class. Wedge FTW. That seems pretty unlikely as things stand though.
CBC,
I really like your Imperial Officer class idea. I would definitely want to play one.
Wouldn’t a good analog simply be a Republic Officer? Admiral Ackbar and such. How you make that very different from a Trooper and Smuggler I’m not sure. That’s where the BioWare magic comes in!
New classes, to me, are far from needed, especially this early (even for a 1st expansion).
SW:TOR is launching with 8 base classes, each with 2 advanced classes, that will easily support 2-3 builds per advanced class. So… 8 x 2 x 2 = 32 class/role distinctions. That is pretty much even to what WoW offers right now, and is on the conservative side for SW:TOR (since there is likely more, due to us lacking the knowledge of it).
Let them work at balancing what they are bringing first.
As to the comment made by Wiz about content updates and such: You’ll get them, trust me. They won’t just release SW:TOR and say “Pay us, but no new content for a year or two”. 1 operation won’t appease the end-game masses. No way in hell. We will see content updates like any good MMO (WoW, GW, LOTRO), and then the expansion will get released when it is ready.
The downside is, the forums will be littered with players, much like WoW’s is, that rip through the content 2-3x faster than it can be developed, and start whining about wanting more, threatening to quit, etc. And the better part is, more people will do the same, yet not have even DONE the content yet. And the best part? None of these players are the ones with all those fancy sponsors and such. The sponsored guilds and such do their job and relax, without complaints.
… Anyways, tangent there. As long as the game content they offer is of high calibur, I don’t mind waiting within reason. 1-2 years is going to be typical development time for expansions, cause really, if it was any faster, you’d be overlapping content development with the previous expansion and be sacrificing quality.
They also need to use some form of a testing system similar to Blizzard’s for WoW, for testing content, for both expansions and major content. Can’t argue with hundreds of thousands of free testers doing crap you’d never THINK of, for you!
I agree with everything you just said.
I agree with a lot of what has been said above, Zero hit the nail on the head imo with the way he says they will continue to add content lets be honest 1 operation will deff not be enough to keep ppl happy for more than a couple months at least the faster guilds and more hardcore players. but id be shocked if they are not already working on new operations to add to the game not long after launch.
If bio do release enough content there is no need to do expansions too soon as someone who played wow from release i actually missed the original game after they started expanding it and imo breaking a lot as they went.
I do however think when they do release an expansion a new class is a good idea i also feel that was where blizz went wrong only 1 new class since release and they didnt really balance them out at all at least for a long time.
Not too sure what class would be good but tbh adding some kind of cross faction would be good so like smugglers can work for the sith and bounty hunters can work for the republic after all a bounty hunter works for bounties does it really matter who puts up the money?
For classes how about something like an ambassador can come and go as they please maybe used as a buffing and support class. Or go for a specific race type of class so a gungun (think thats the race)warrior a non force wielding melee or a jawa (enginner style class) tbh there is prob a lot of choice and im sure bio will put a poll on what players would like to see closer to the time of an expansion.
If they did add upon the space combat id like the see the ability for guilds to build or buy starships and or space stations and this could open up for a lot of extra pvp stuff almost like a rated BG for guilds to attack or defend their bases
What you guys think of those ideas?
Thanks for bringing up Asheron’s Call. I’ve got a special place in my heart reserved for that game, since it was my first MMORPG. One of the things I loved about it was that the game world felt dynamic owning to their content updates. Something as simple as the fact that there would be snow on the ground in the winter months made Asheron’s Call seem so much more dynamic than even some modern MMORPGs I could name. I’m not sure why the current crop of developers haven’t seen the potential in that.
Asheron’s Call was my first MMO too. Yes, the seasons thing is/was great. =) I actually still have AC loaded up and am lucky enough to have a free account.
About two years ago, I got an invitation to try it again for a free 14 days or something. I actually took them up on the offer, but I think I was still playing Age of Conan pretty heavily at the time, so I don’t think I did much past the new tutorial. The biggest problem for me coming back to it after a decade was just the interface in general. It seems so primitive after playing current generation MMORPGs. Also, the world chat seemed to be filled with l33t kids.
Still, I’m almost tempted to go back and play the game again now while waiting for TOR, just to experience the open world that I loved so much once again.
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