Friday Update - Maps In Space

The final spot in the HoloNet has been filled with a space map.

Unlike the last map update this offering is good, in fact it's darn good. It may not offer any good usable new info but on the cool factor it score 9/10.

 

With planet views, ships with a quick overview coupled with the stunning gfx this is a very welcome addition to the site. 

If only BioWare could do this for the classes and other aspects of the HoloNet I think I would loose my freaking mind.

It's a huge step forward to making the TOR site look more like a gaming site that the fans want.

Friday's News From GamesCon

Watch live streaming video from biowaretv at livestream.com

Friday Update 24th Sep

With the current convection season over BW over at SWTOR seem to have got back into the swing of bringing us cool updates.

The current web comic Blood of the Empire come to a head with the final installment, along with the Smuggler video (leaked 2 weeks ago) we get info on the smugglers ship. This is by far the most iconic ship that came from the movies.

We also get a look at the Smugglers companion the Wookiee, 1 last part to note is they have the Twi’lek confirmed as a smuggler playable species. (ok we new this but now its in black and white)



Lets start off the the Web comic, Blood of the Empire #12 not going to tell you here what happens you can read for yourself. But 1 thing I will say is the seems a funny ending for this series. A few times over the last 12 issues, were very confusion jumping all over the place, so I guess this strange ending is kind of fitting.

I'm going to bypass the Smuggler video, as I have already posted about this.

CORELLIAN XS
by far Han Solo's ship is is the most iconic in all the Star Wars movies. It almost has a staring roll and takes on its very own persona. The Smuggler would not be complete with out his ship, it is a part of who he is, how he lives and conducts himself. More than any other playable class, the Smuggler see's his ship as an extinction to himself.



The XS stock light can be found here there's a few screen the above video and some extra info. You can feel the scale of the ship in the video, and like the Jedi and Sith ships is massive.



The last real info is the biography of Bowdaar, the Smuggler's Wookiee companion. Anyone who did not think the Wookiee would not be a companion of the Smuggler is... well crazy. We get a nice back story to Bowdaar, and he seems to be all we would hope for and more.
Bowdaar is the mean fighting no hold bared fighter, we have come to love from the movies.
You can find all the info on Bowdaar here enjoy :)

TOR Tunnel Shooter And You

If you are following TOR at all, its hard to miss the debate that is going on in the swtor forums, about the latest update on space combat.

So you may ask yourself how does this type of space combat update affect you and everything around you.
Well let get to the basics here with what a tunnel shooter is.

A tunnel shooter is where you get zipped along a given route.
This is a predetermined path and you have very little control over your direction and speed. The only thing you can do is move around some objects that are placed in your way and shoot targets as they arrive.
PC Gamer released some info on the combat, not a lot mind you, but you do get a small understanding of where space is heading.

Quests will take from 2-20 min's. So they are described as snacks, and alternative game play feature. They are depicted are fast paced mini games in space.
Quests update on the fly (is you wish) these type of small quest lines will attract the casual gamer who does not spend hours at a time playing in the MMO world.
Missions are atm single player only, with speculation on adding multi player missions and PvP at a later date.

The reasoning behind this approach goes back to JTL from SWG update, and how drastically different it was to the rest of the game. So instead of having a more free play experience, they opted for a scripted more controlled gaming system.
Though no matter what you did in space you can not get the same feeling as you would trough your ground combat. Unless that was just to jump from 1 ship to another and fight hand to hand like you would on 1 of the many given worlds.

Many avid followers of TOR have voiced there outrage to this style of game-play. The way many see it you cant PvP on a rail, you need to have free roaming, be-able to control your speed direction and play with others.
Racing round a track in space is not a good formula for good space PvP.


One major question that many have passed by is, will it be fun ? I'm sure it will be. But this is an

MMO and TOR having a tag of being a single player MMO, this type of single player mission ain't helping BW rep in any way shape or form. Its more of a duck shoot than a fight sim, which what a lot of followers expected when space was announced.

The fastest trigger wins on this type of play, very little in the way of tactics will be taken into account.

Time will tell on this 1, i'm not holding much hope that a full go anywhere multi player space experience will come around anytime soon.

Like many others around the forums, I think this game just took 1 massive step backwards, in terms of the that all important Star Wars multi player experience, that we were all looking to live in for many years to come.