Questions
by Cody "Micajah" Bye and Media Group C

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Answers
by James Ohlen (Lead Designer), Gordon Walton (Studio Director) and
Rich Vogel (Studio Director)




The announcement of a Star Wars-based MMO from BioWare and LucasArts
came as no surprised to anyone that's been following the industry for
the last few months. After EA's CEO John Riccitiello href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/38472" target="_blank">made
a comment to a
reporter at E3 2008, the cat was undoubtedly out of the bag.
However,
the details of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1422"
target="_blank">Star Wars: The Old Republic - and
the official announcement - were still
months away. When Ten Ton Hammer's managing editor, Cody "Micajah" Bye,
was given the chance to ask a number of questions to the BioWare game
designers at the official SWTOR announcement, he jumped at the chance.
In the following interview, you'll
find answers to questions regarding space combat, level caps, Force
potential, and whether the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/38805" target="_blank">Jedi
and target="_blank">Sith will destroy every other
character in their path. If you want gameplay based answers to your
questions , this is the place to look!



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The level
cap was one of many things that BioWare zipped their lips about.

What kind of level cap do
you have in mind?




James Ohlen:
We are going to have a level based system, and we are going to have a
level cap, When we know what that is we'll share it with you.



Gordon Walton:
There are a lot of thing that we aren't going to be able to share with
you simply because they're still in development. BioWare games go
through a lot of iteration before we ever settle on something.



We'd rather give you real information than blow smoke up
your....whatever. When we share something with the community, we've
played through that part of the game enough that we're confident that
it's going to be in the final game.



We're really, really committed to no overhyping the game.



Rich Vogel:
It's BioWare and it's Star Wars. Overhyping the game could be very
easily done. We want to make sure we meet the expectations of the game,




Is there any space-based
aspect to the game?




James: We
can say that we're going to have different worlds for you to explore
and that you're going to have a method of travel from world to world.
But again, we can't go into any details on how you go from
world-to-world. I know it's a little disappointing, but it's something
we definitely can't talk about at this point.



You stated that you're
bringing "Star Wars combat" to the MMO space. Does that mean you're
bringing combat from other games, like Jade Empire or Mass Effect, to
the genre?




James:
Basically, when we call it Star Wars combat, what we want to bring to
the MMO space is combat that feels like it's coming from the Star Wars
movies. Typically, MMO combat is very slow and is really caveman combat
where you run up to a creature and hit the creature over the head with
your weapon.



As you saw from the gameplay movie, we're leaning more towards combat
that looks much more visceral and that it could've come from the movie.
You've having lightsaber duels and blaster-like combat that is
fast-paced and also heroic.



One thing that we don't want to have happen in our game is the
situation where you get a bunch of players together to beat up one guy.
That's just not very heroic and it's something that we don't want to
have happen in our game. We're looking for much more heroic battles
where you're the group that's outnumbered. If you think about the
movies, the heroes are the ones that are heroic because they're
fighting against the odds.



With thousands of years
to choose from in the Star Wars universe, what made you guys decide to
go back to the Old Republic era rather than picking something new?




James: We're
actually basing this game 300 years after the events of the Knights of
the Old Republic. 300 years is a long time. For example, think back to
1708 in our time; the Napoleonic Wars hadn't even happened yet! That's
how much time has passed.


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SWTOR takes
place 300 years after the events of KOTOR II.

That way we have a lot of freedom, but we're also able to pull things
that people enjoyed from the Knights of the Old Republic. We might be
able to do some cameos with those characters that can live for more
than 300 years. We can also take the themes from KOTOR I and II and
explore them more in our game.



There are quite a few questions at the end of the Knights of the Old
Republic II that we can answer in SW: TOR.



Are you prepared for a world where there going to be hundreds of people
clamoring to be Jedi and Sith? Will you be encouraging players to take
a look at other classes besides those two?




Yes and yes. Within our own company, we've been doing surveys on what
classes people would want to play, and it generally gives us a good
idea of what the populations are going to look like on a particular
origin world, especially if a class is going to be more popular. That
allows us to make certain decisions.



We also definitely want to encourage players to try other classes. We
have a system in place to do that, but - again - we can't talk about it
yet because it hasn't been finalized. It's pretty exciting.



One of the things that may be different about our game than other MMOs
is the amount of replayability in the game. When you play a Jedi from
level 1 to whatever our cap is going to be, and then you start a new
character that's a Sith and go all the way through that character's
story, you won't actually see any content that's the same. It's a
completely different experience. It's almost like playing a completely
different game.



There's going to be a big appeal to go and try those other classes.
Plus, because you're adventuring with your buddies, people are going to
tell you some of the exciting stuff that's going on with their classes.
You may get bits that are spoilers, but there's honestly so much story
with each class that you probably won't remember.



Gordon: One
thing that we should cover about this, and it's one of the challenges,
is this idea that all the other classes are wimps and that the Jedi
rule. But if you actually think about it, the Jedi are getting popped
by people that aren't Jedi all the time. That and not everyone's
fantasy is going to be to play a Jedi.


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The Jedi are
not all-powerful beings in SWTOR.

James: Every
class in our game is heroic. If you look at the universe, heroic
characters are able to really give the Jedi a challenge every time.
Jango Fett and Boba Fett are two great example. Jango Fett is able to
take out a Jedi in the Attack of the Clones movie - he may get killed
by the highest level Jedi in Mace Windu - and Boba Fett essentially
incapicitates Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi who is then rescued
by Han Solo.  



There are definitely different people that can take out the Jedi. And
also the clone troopers in Episode III. The may have had the upper
hand, but imagine if there was an Elite Clone Trooper! If you're the
best of the best, you can probably kill a Jedi.



Rich: We
certainly don't imagine that Jedi can one shot everything.



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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