Alien isn't just something different, it can be something unfamiliar or incompatible with your culture.
Jedi are different from Sith, yet Jedi are in constant contact with Sith, so Sith aren't "alien" to Jedi.
The Imperium is in constant contact with the Eldar, yet the Eldar are alien because so much of their culture and philosophy is incompatible with the Imperium's (and the Eldar wouldn't think twice about killing a billion humans to save a handful of their own. That doesn't help inter-species relations much, does it?)
In Star Wars, the practical definition of alien is a species from another planet, humanoid or not. There are plenty of Near-Human aliens, but they're just that. Aliens.
That works to, people from different countries legally move to america, no longer considered aliens, why? Because they now belong. Aliens doesn't always mean species.
This is going on retardedly to long now.
It's very very SIMPLE. SWTOR will have SPECIES. Species does not always mean ALIEN.
Well if the leaked guide is true, which it seems pretty legit...
No Races besides human in TOR.
Which in my opinion is just completely unacceptable. That was a fan want and need that seemed like a joke to not include a year ago.
Now people have just started to accept it going "O well they will add them in later" or "Who cares, id rather see more models for humans anyways."
The truth is, not having multiple races to choose from isnt going to help the game out in any way, its just plain lazy, thats all there is too it. But then again everything that has been coming from the TOR camp lately has seemed lazy, companions all being the same, talent tree style "Sub classes" (yea right!), not to mention no space to date or anything that even seems remotely star Wars like.
I mean thats what kills it for me, they keep saying all this stuff about how "Heroic" the game is going to be, but to be heroic do you really have to remove every race that wasnt a main character, and every class or proffesion that wasnt shown in gross detail in the movies?
Also just so you know, if the leaked guide is said to be fake or whatever, I still stand by all my comments, the leaked guide only made me speak out, it didnt determine every conclusion i have made.
Including hands-on with the Ratataki. There have been multiple off topic quotes from BioWare stating there would be many more races other than human. Also ithe leaked guide appears to be part of the beta tester FAQ section of the site (or some of the descriptions remind me of a beta build client). Why does every one of these threads start with someone completely uninformed making sweeping statements about a game not even in beta with almost a whole year until launch? It's kind of getting old and pathetic.
They will not "add them in later". They have stated multiple times the game must be solid and all content inclusive for launch, not publish first fix it later. As a matter of fact, Jake and Brian both said this is totally AGAINST the design philosphy at EA and BioWare when it comes to this game, citing that as a major reason many mmo's fail.
In short: The sky is not falling. There will be races other than human, and they will be in at launch.
As I said in that other thread. Little to no information, and people twist it to their preconcieved view of the game. This guy creates a thread about how he KNOWS there are zero races other then human.
And even with the mods even correcting him, people are still going bananas over that.
We know there are aliens in game. We only know of 2 races we can play SO FAR.
I want more information as much as you guys, but out of all the things to go ape poo bananas over in this "leak", I can't believe it was that. I thought it would be the whole area about grouping, since most people here "Know" grouping isn't in this game.
Maybe in the character creation screen, you select a race which allows you to choose from classes. Maybe after selecting a class, you choose a race, and then can customize.
We have a very, very condensed list of things you do, as it looks like this is for testers. Obviously, when you can't even edit video resoluation and such in game, the game is still in a very beta phase. Things are not added.
I'd love someone to prove to me that there are not just humans as a player race. Oh wait :P.
Apparently no one decided to read my OP, I mentioned how Lazy the developers are and thats my whole point.
Rattataki? Are you kidding me? Yea because cosmetically there is such a difference between them and humans? I think people need to stop saying "Hey stop bashing a game thats not out yet!" and start saying "Wheres the real information on the game?"
How about this, if they want me to get excited about the game, why not release some good information, or maybe show me a race that anyone cares about?
Rattataki arent even a real race, they are more like a sub-species if anything. At least Klingons in Star Trek have forhead ridges.
Thats the other thing, who are they making this game for? Everyone keeps saying "O man give it time, it will start looking like Star Wars" When?!
When is it going to look like Star Wars? Because aside from troopers and lightsabers this game bears nothing that any other sci-fi game couldnt. People bashed SWG because it was so "Unlike the movies", well at least it had character, flavor, intrigue, all i see when i look at videos of TOR is poorly placed toys being dragged through a game world fighting each other with comical bolts of light, and yes that is my honest opinion!
Also Wheres these videos everyone keeps talking about? Someone said earlier that the latest videos show fluid animations, someone please link the videos to me, because i have yet to see them.
And again, I said at the start, I didnt base my thoughts solely off the leaked guide, of course everyone uses that as their only point of attack.
Its like I said before, the only thing keeping this game up is the fact that its Bioware, but people need to learn that a companies name means nothing. Cryptic once stood for a noble and radical idea once, and now they are nothing.
Apparently no one decided to read my OP, I mentioned how Lazy the developers are and thats my whole point.
Rattataki? Are you kidding me? Yea because cosmetically there is such a difference between them and humans? I think people need to stop saying "Hey stop bashing a game thats not out yet!" and start saying "Wheres the real information on the game?"
How about this, if they want me to get excited about the game, why not release some good information, or maybe show me a race that anyone cares about?
Rattataki arent even a real race, they are more like a sub-species if anything. At least Klingons in Star Trek have forhead ridges.
Thats the other thing, who are they making this game for? Everyone keeps saying "O man give it time, it will start looking like Star Wars" When?!
When is it going to look like Star Wars? Because aside from troopers and lightsabers this game bears nothing that any other sci-fi game couldnt. People bashed SWG because it was so "Unlike the movies", well at least it had character, flavor, intrigue, all i see when i look at videos of TOR is poorly placed toys being dragged through a game world fighting each other with comical bolts of light, and yes that is my honest opinion!
Also Wheres these videos everyone keeps talking about? Someone said earlier that the latest videos show fluid animations, someone please link the videos to me, because i have yet to see them.
And again, I said at the start, I didnt base my thoughts solely off the leaked guide, of course everyone uses that as their only point of attack.
Its like I said before, the only thing keeping this game up is the fact that its Bioware, but people need to learn that a companies name means nothing. Cryptic once stood for a noble and radical idea once, and now they are nothing.
This post isn't as ridiculous as your first one. I'll try to answer in order:
1) It's likely that we'll only get humanoid (Near-Human) aliens in TOR, as playable characters at least. Why? There's several reasons, but the most likely is voice-overs. It's easy to do voice-overs for humanoid species. The other is lore; Wookiees have been discredited by lore alone. A third might be modeling/animations, which could be construed as developer laziness (though modeling and animation is by no means easy). If you want to play as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, sorry.
2) BioWare doesn't give a crap about your hype level. They'll release information when they think it's ready, because if they don't, you (not you specifically, but critics in general) will rip it apart and nitpick every last detail. They'll do that even when BioWare releases something solid, but in the latter case, BioWare will get less flak from people who are actually interested in the game. Look for some big announcement at E3, perhaps information on PvP, crafting, or another major game system.
3) Rattataki aren't even a real race? Yes, you want the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Sigh.
4) It looks like Star Wars to me. It looks like a more interesting time of Star Wars, when there was an actual war. Not some pathetic little Rebellion going against the big, bad Empire and doing a victory dance with forest Muppets when they win. A war. BioWare has free reign here, so they can put as much character, flavor, and intrigue they want into the game. But you won't feel it until you play it. You think a video can portray things accurately? No. It's always different once you play it.
5) Don't be lazy. Look for them.
6) Once BioWare makes a crappy MMO, I won't hold their name in such respect anymore. Unfortunately, unlike Cryptic, that hasn't happened yet.
There will be other non-humanoid races... well more non humanoid then a human or ratattaki. We'll most probably see zabraks too, but twi-leks, rodians, nautolans, possibly mon calamari, and plenty others, many of which mike outlined pretty well, will most likely be available for play, and they all speak basic.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Originally posted by MMO_Doubter Originally posted by elocke Well...I'm still going to play. I could care less how many races an MMO has. I play for the classes, world and story. Besides, the game isn't out yet so how can anyone possibly be so negative about a game they never played? I don't understand this hate for SWTOR.
You don't? A huge IP half-assed for an MMO. Lots of iconic material (space & aliens) left out. Sound anything like STO? Not saying this is going to happen, but it is a possibility, and if it does happen - BioWare will be cursed throughout the MMO world. BioWare really needs to open up and show us everything that will be in the game, because a lot of people are getting a bad feeling. Right now, space combat, PvP, and end game would save it for me, but people are going to start looking in other directions if BioWare doesn't start showing something great. Otherwise, it'll just be KOTOR fans buying and then qutting after a few months. A lot of people say "It's BioWare, so I'm not worried", but it's not just BioWare - it's EA too, and we have seen their magic touch on MMOs before.
Again, no I don't understand it, because the game isn't out yet! You said "sound anything like STO?" I say NO, because just as with STO, I gave it the benefit of the doubt up to the point I actually played it. After having played the live version, I can now safely say STO is horrible. I'm not going to point my finger at every game in development now and expect them all to suck. I'll leave that up to those more cynical/negative than myself who apparently love to troll these forums.
Well...I'm still going to play. I could care less how many races an MMO has. I play for the classes, world and story.
Besides, the game isn't out yet so how can anyone possibly be so negative about a game they never played? I don't understand this hate for SWTOR.
You don't?
A huge IP half-assed for an MMO. Lots of iconic material (space & aliens) left out. Sound anything like STO? Not saying this is going to happen, but it is a possibility, and if it does happen - BioWare will be cursed throughout the MMO world.
BioWare really needs to open up and show us everything that will be in the game, because a lot of people are getting a bad feeling. Right now, space combat, PvP, and end game would save it for me, but people are going to start looking in other directions if BioWare doesn't start showing something great. Otherwise, it'll just be KOTOR fans buying and then qutting after a few months.
A lot of people say "It's BioWare, so I'm not worried", but it's not just BioWare - it's EA too, and we have seen their magic touch on MMOs before.
Half-assed?
See, people like you are the very definition of ANNOYING.
1.) The game isn't done yet.
2.) We hardly know ANYTHING about what is done.
3.) They've already released information on a new playable race, so the basis of this whole thread is just retarded to begin with.
4.) The game still has another YEAR to be in production. And there's likely well over a year's worth of information we know nothing about.
But above all else...............
IT
IS
NOT
DONE
Playing: *sigh* back to WoW -------- Waiting for: SW:TOR, APB, WoD --------- Played and loved: Eve and WoW -------- Played and hated: WoW:WotLK, Warhammer, every single F2P
Let's not jump to conclusions guys, this is a basic play guide (still unverified) from November of last year, and they have already announced an additional race: the Rattataki.
Beat me to it.
Wasn't this guide also found in the "trash" thread? It's old, at the time Human may have been the only playable race.
Ummm, I don't mean to be provocative but thje Rattaki are are just a human race with grey skin and bald.
I think many of us were hoping for slightly 'less human' races - even SWG managed to give us Ithorian, Trandoshan and Bothan.
Now we understand what Bioware means by 'other races' I bet we can expect one of the next playable species to be Chiss which is... a human race with green skin (and red eyes).
Well...I'm still going to play. I could care less how many races an MMO has. I play for the classes, world and story.
Besides, the game isn't out yet so how can anyone possibly be so negative about a game they never played? I don't understand this hate for SWTOR.
You don't?
A huge IP half-assed for an MMO. Lots of iconic material (space & aliens) left out. Sound anything like STO? Not saying this is going to happen, but it is a possibility, and if it does happen - BioWare will be cursed throughout the MMO world.
BioWare really needs to open up and show us everything that will be in the game, because a lot of people are getting a bad feeling. Right now, space combat, PvP, and end game would save it for me, but people are going to start looking in other directions if BioWare doesn't start showing something great. Otherwise, it'll just be KOTOR fans buying and then qutting after a few months.
A lot of people say "It's BioWare, so I'm not worried", but it's not just BioWare - it's EA too, and we have seen their magic touch on MMOs before.
Half-assed?
See, people like you are the very definition of ANNOYING.
1.) The game isn't done yet.
2.) We hardly know ANYTHING about what is done.
3.) They've already released information on a new playable race, so the basis of this whole thread is just retarded to begin with.
4.) The game still has another YEAR to be in production. And there's likely well over a year's worth of information we know nothing about.
But above all else...............
IT
IS
NOT
DONE
Not done yet?
It should be.
There's less than a year to launch and it's now not just in Alpha but in remote Friends and Family Alpha.
Then there's still Beta to go - and they need to launch around March 2011 according to EA CEO.
So, if everything is on schedule, then yes, they are pretty much done. What they are doing now is likely to be tweaking.
Well...I'm still going to play. I could care less how many races an MMO has. I play for the classes, world and story.
Besides, the game isn't out yet so how can anyone possibly be so negative about a game they never played? I don't understand this hate for SWTOR.
You don't?
A huge IP half-assed for an MMO. Lots of iconic material (space & aliens) left out. Sound anything like STO? Not saying this is going to happen, but it is a possibility, and if it does happen - BioWare will be cursed throughout the MMO world.
BioWare really needs to open up and show us everything that will be in the game, because a lot of people are getting a bad feeling. Right now, space combat, PvP, and end game would save it for me, but people are going to start looking in other directions if BioWare doesn't start showing something great. Otherwise, it'll just be KOTOR fans buying and then qutting after a few months.
A lot of people say "It's BioWare, so I'm not worried", but it's not just BioWare - it's EA too, and we have seen their magic touch on MMOs before.
Half-assed?
See, people like you are the very definition of ANNOYING.
1.) The game isn't done yet.
2.) We hardly know ANYTHING about what is done.
3.) They've already released information on a new playable race, so the basis of this whole thread is just retarded to begin with.
4.) The game still has another YEAR to be in production. And there's likely well over a year's worth of information we know nothing about.
But above all else...............
IT
IS
NOT
DONE
Not done yet?
It should be.
There's less than a year to launch and it's now not just in Alpha but in remote Friends and Family Alpha.
Then there's still Beta to go - and they need to launch around March 2011 according to EA CEO.
So, if everything is on schedule, then yes, they are pretty much done. What they are doing now is likely to be tweaking.
Information taken from an interview may 14th:
"The Old Republic is in a pretty advanced state now - is this a satisfying stage in development?
All the major systems are in place now, which means art is going up by amazing milestones every time we hit a new build. All the art's coming in – this is a huge content game. It takes a tonne of time. We have more outfits, more species, more stuff than any other game would ever attempt. We're also starting to get the loot in, the gear and the equipment. We've got eight classes with all their different class stories, so it's not OK if by level 20 your trooper doesn't look like a trooper or your bounty hunter doesn't look like a bounty hunter, and instead it looks like everybody got drunk and went to the thrift store. That means we had to do more class specific art just for one class than many games would attempt in their entirety.
I love production. You come in and every day, or every week, something amazing came into the game. I am so excited for people to see the E3 build that it hurts me."
Sounds like E3 will be pretty telling this year. I'm sure there will be massive responses by both those excited for the game and those that choose to hate the game. Lets try and remember folks, just because the information on it hasn't been released, it doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't been created. A year is a long time to release information, its also a long time to polish.
On game testing from the same article
"The game suffered a minor delay recently. Do you foresee further ones?
We're on track for spring next year. It's about getting those alpha dates, getting all the content in and getting everything tested. Again, BioWare has an advantage here, even though it's our first MMOG, because we make content games. Our games are huge. It's what we do. We know how to scale an 80-hour RPG already. Scaling it up so it's exponentially bigger was a huge challenge, but we knew what we were getting into. As we see the content pour into the game, the main challenge is tracing and testing the world's biggest BioWare game – actually checking, "Hey, does this work right if I made this decision 140 hours ago?"
Are you relying on the beta for a lot of that testing?
Open beta should not be finding those problems. Beta will happen when we think we're done – when we think it's good. That's when we open it up to people to say 'Nope, you're game's crap – all of these things are bad'. If you try to use your beta testers as bug QA, you miss your beta window and the ability to improve the quality. Your people should not be out there telling you things that you already know. You should have fixed those things first."
Sounds like they are reserving beta or the players to point out the harshness of the game mechanics and balance/gameplay tweaks amongst other things.
I am sure they will release some races that are not "humans with tinted skin..". But I almost expect them to offer other races in a cash shop sort of system like DDO does. Except you won't see the bonuses from those races like you do in DDO.
I think one of the things they wanted to avoid, is having aliens that are known for almost never speaking common, being a main character that has tons and tons and tons of dialogue in common. Else they would be dubbing it all in their tongue...
As was just posted in the previous post, it is mentioned they are adding more races/outfits/etc. I guess someone should prove to me they are not doing that.
Comments
That works to, people from different countries legally move to america, no longer considered aliens, why? Because they now belong. Aliens doesn't always mean species.
This is going on retardedly to long now.
It's very very SIMPLE. SWTOR will have SPECIES. Species does not always mean ALIEN.
Doubter started this.
Hey all, let's just keep flaming to a minimum of "0".
Stating opposing viewpoints is part of what a forum is about. Using strong arguments with compelling examples are the best weapons here.
Flaming your fellow forumites is not acceptable.
Code of Conduct to refresh the memory:
http://www.mmorpg.com/disclaimers.cfm#conduct
Multiple Races were confirmed by BioWare in the interview with Galactic Struggle here, http://www.thegalacticstruggle.com/2010/05/13/star-wars-the-old-republic-reveal-playable-species-with-our-hands-on/
Including hands-on with the Ratataki. There have been multiple off topic quotes from BioWare stating there would be many more races other than human. Also ithe leaked guide appears to be part of the beta tester FAQ section of the site (or some of the descriptions remind me of a beta build client). Why does every one of these threads start with someone completely uninformed making sweeping statements about a game not even in beta with almost a whole year until launch? It's kind of getting old and pathetic.
They will not "add them in later". They have stated multiple times the game must be solid and all content inclusive for launch, not publish first fix it later. As a matter of fact, Jake and Brian both said this is totally AGAINST the design philosphy at EA and BioWare when it comes to this game, citing that as a major reason many mmo's fail.
In short: The sky is not falling. There will be races other than human, and they will be in at launch.
Matt Damon will be guest starring as Darth Vader. Joke, it was a joke, relax, guy.
Lol. Wow.
As I said in that other thread. Little to no information, and people twist it to their preconcieved view of the game. This guy creates a thread about how he KNOWS there are zero races other then human.
And even with the mods even correcting him, people are still going bananas over that.
We know there are aliens in game. We only know of 2 races we can play SO FAR.
I want more information as much as you guys, but out of all the things to go ape poo bananas over in this "leak", I can't believe it was that. I thought it would be the whole area about grouping, since most people here "Know" grouping isn't in this game.
Maybe in the character creation screen, you select a race which allows you to choose from classes. Maybe after selecting a class, you choose a race, and then can customize.
We have a very, very condensed list of things you do, as it looks like this is for testers. Obviously, when you can't even edit video resoluation and such in game, the game is still in a very beta phase. Things are not added.
I'd love someone to prove to me that there are not just humans as a player race. Oh wait :P.
Apparently no one decided to read my OP, I mentioned how Lazy the developers are and thats my whole point.
Rattataki? Are you kidding me? Yea because cosmetically there is such a difference between them and humans? I think people need to stop saying "Hey stop bashing a game thats not out yet!" and start saying "Wheres the real information on the game?"
How about this, if they want me to get excited about the game, why not release some good information, or maybe show me a race that anyone cares about?
Rattataki arent even a real race, they are more like a sub-species if anything. At least Klingons in Star Trek have forhead ridges.
Thats the other thing, who are they making this game for? Everyone keeps saying "O man give it time, it will start looking like Star Wars" When?!
When is it going to look like Star Wars? Because aside from troopers and lightsabers this game bears nothing that any other sci-fi game couldnt. People bashed SWG because it was so "Unlike the movies", well at least it had character, flavor, intrigue, all i see when i look at videos of TOR is poorly placed toys being dragged through a game world fighting each other with comical bolts of light, and yes that is my honest opinion!
Also Wheres these videos everyone keeps talking about? Someone said earlier that the latest videos show fluid animations, someone please link the videos to me, because i have yet to see them.
And again, I said at the start, I didnt base my thoughts solely off the leaked guide, of course everyone uses that as their only point of attack.
Its like I said before, the only thing keeping this game up is the fact that its Bioware, but people need to learn that a companies name means nothing. Cryptic once stood for a noble and radical idea once, and now they are nothing.
This post isn't as ridiculous as your first one. I'll try to answer in order:
1) It's likely that we'll only get humanoid (Near-Human) aliens in TOR, as playable characters at least. Why? There's several reasons, but the most likely is voice-overs. It's easy to do voice-overs for humanoid species. The other is lore; Wookiees have been discredited by lore alone. A third might be modeling/animations, which could be construed as developer laziness (though modeling and animation is by no means easy). If you want to play as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, sorry.
2) BioWare doesn't give a crap about your hype level. They'll release information when they think it's ready, because if they don't, you (not you specifically, but critics in general) will rip it apart and nitpick every last detail. They'll do that even when BioWare releases something solid, but in the latter case, BioWare will get less flak from people who are actually interested in the game. Look for some big announcement at E3, perhaps information on PvP, crafting, or another major game system.
3) Rattataki aren't even a real race? Yes, you want the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Sigh.
4) It looks like Star Wars to me. It looks like a more interesting time of Star Wars, when there was an actual war. Not some pathetic little Rebellion going against the big, bad Empire and doing a victory dance with forest Muppets when they win. A war. BioWare has free reign here, so they can put as much character, flavor, and intrigue they want into the game. But you won't feel it until you play it. You think a video can portray things accurately? No. It's always different once you play it.
5) Don't be lazy. Look for them.
6) Once BioWare makes a crappy MMO, I won't hold their name in such respect anymore. Unfortunately, unlike Cryptic, that hasn't happened yet.
Common sense prevailed.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
There will be other non-humanoid races... well more non humanoid then a human or ratattaki. We'll most probably see zabraks too, but twi-leks, rodians, nautolans, possibly mon calamari, and plenty others, many of which mike outlined pretty well, will most likely be available for play, and they all speak basic.
I can see now where this is coming from: OP wanted to be a tribble or Ewok.
I'm afraid chances will be very slim for that, but who knows, we can only hope.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I laughed out loud.
A huge IP half-assed for an MMO. Lots of iconic material (space & aliens) left out. Sound anything like STO? Not saying this is going to happen, but it is a possibility, and if it does happen - BioWare will be cursed throughout the MMO world.
BioWare really needs to open up and show us everything that will be in the game, because a lot of people are getting a bad feeling. Right now, space combat, PvP, and end game would save it for me, but people are going to start looking in other directions if BioWare doesn't start showing something great. Otherwise, it'll just be KOTOR fans buying and then qutting after a few months.
A lot of people say "It's BioWare, so I'm not worried", but it's not just BioWare - it's EA too, and we have seen their magic touch on MMOs before.
Again, no I don't understand it, because the game isn't out yet! You said "sound anything like STO?" I say NO, because just as with STO, I gave it the benefit of the doubt up to the point I actually played it. After having played the live version, I can now safely say STO is horrible. I'm not going to point my finger at every game in development now and expect them all to suck. I'll leave that up to those more cynical/negative than myself who apparently love to troll these forums.
Half-assed?
See, people like you are the very definition of ANNOYING.
1.) The game isn't done yet.
2.) We hardly know ANYTHING about what is done.
3.) They've already released information on a new playable race, so the basis of this whole thread is just retarded to begin with.
4.) The game still has another YEAR to be in production. And there's likely well over a year's worth of information we know nothing about.
But above all else...............
IT
IS
NOT
DONE
Playing: *sigh* back to WoW
--------
Waiting for: SW:TOR, APB, WoD
---------
Played and loved: Eve and WoW
--------
Played and hated: WoW:WotLK, Warhammer, every single F2P
I hope it's not true because I would love to play a wookie.
Our spirit was here long before you
Long before us
And long will it be after your pride brings you to your end
Ummm, I don't mean to be provocative but thje Rattaki are are just a human race with grey skin and bald.
I think many of us were hoping for slightly 'less human' races - even SWG managed to give us Ithorian, Trandoshan and Bothan.
Now we understand what Bioware means by 'other races' I bet we can expect one of the next playable species to be Chiss which is... a human race with green skin (and red eyes).
Not done yet?
It should be.
There's less than a year to launch and it's now not just in Alpha but in remote Friends and Family Alpha.
Then there's still Beta to go - and they need to launch around March 2011 according to EA CEO.
So, if everything is on schedule, then yes, they are pretty much done. What they are doing now is likely to be tweaking.
They've already announced other playable races. You guys are scratching for stuff now.
Information taken from an interview may 14th:
"The Old Republic is in a pretty advanced state now - is this a satisfying stage in development?
All the major systems are in place now, which means art is going up by amazing milestones every time we hit a new build. All the art's coming in – this is a huge content game. It takes a tonne of time. We have more outfits, more species, more stuff than any other game would ever attempt. We're also starting to get the loot in, the gear and the equipment. We've got eight classes with all their different class stories, so it's not OK if by level 20 your trooper doesn't look like a trooper or your bounty hunter doesn't look like a bounty hunter, and instead it looks like everybody got drunk and went to the thrift store. That means we had to do more class specific art just for one class than many games would attempt in their entirety.
I love production. You come in and every day, or every week, something amazing came into the game. I am so excited for people to see the E3 build that it hurts me."
Sounds like E3 will be pretty telling this year. I'm sure there will be massive responses by both those excited for the game and those that choose to hate the game. Lets try and remember folks, just because the information on it hasn't been released, it doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't been created. A year is a long time to release information, its also a long time to polish.
On game testing from the same article
"The game suffered a minor delay recently. Do you foresee further ones?
We're on track for spring next year. It's about getting those alpha dates, getting all the content in and getting everything tested. Again, BioWare has an advantage here, even though it's our first MMOG, because we make content games. Our games are huge. It's what we do. We know how to scale an 80-hour RPG already. Scaling it up so it's exponentially bigger was a huge challenge, but we knew what we were getting into. As we see the content pour into the game, the main challenge is tracing and testing the world's biggest BioWare game – actually checking, "Hey, does this work right if I made this decision 140 hours ago?"
Are you relying on the beta for a lot of that testing?
Open beta should not be finding those problems. Beta will happen when we think we're done – when we think it's good. That's when we open it up to people to say 'Nope, you're game's crap – all of these things are bad'. If you try to use your beta testers as bug QA, you miss your beta window and the ability to improve the quality. Your people should not be out there telling you things that you already know. You should have fixed those things first."
Sounds like they are reserving beta or the players to point out the harshness of the game mechanics and balance/gameplay tweaks amongst other things.
I am sure they will release some races that are not "humans with tinted skin..". But I almost expect them to offer other races in a cash shop sort of system like DDO does. Except you won't see the bonuses from those races like you do in DDO.
I think one of the things they wanted to avoid, is having aliens that are known for almost never speaking common, being a main character that has tons and tons and tons of dialogue in common. Else they would be dubbing it all in their tongue...
As was just posted in the previous post, it is mentioned they are adding more races/outfits/etc. I guess someone should prove to me they are not doing that.
1. Almost all species in Star Wars a capable of speaking "common".
2. In Star Wars, the universal language is called "Basic", not common.