I forgot about the datacrons. ALthough some didn't like them, that is again, innovative. (As a side note, it is kind of funny to hear some rather aggresive SWTOR fans accuse GW2 of being a "jumping puzzle" game when one considers the datacrons.)
In particulair to the datacrons, the Jawa ballon, although mind numbingly frustrating when it bugged, was innovative in its whimsy.
Again, a matter of taste in regard to liking/disliking it, but I would consider it innovative.
Only some SWTOR datacrons were jumping puzzles that one could figure out without the assistance of YouTube though. Most Datacrons were too cleverly hidden, or required advanced knowledge of floating platforms, or hidden areas.
To be honest, I tried looking for Datacrons without any assistance and would continually get "stuck" as I searched. It wasn't much fun. GW2 has them beat at least, in that you can explore without ever being "stuck", to find "Vistas". I was stuck in SWTOR 50 times, versus 0 times in GW2, for instance.
I'm not saying GW2 is the better game, but they did have a better gameplay engine.
Also I wanted to get the +10 stat datacron from the fleet but it was continually bugged when I tried. I gave up and quit.
I couldn't count Datacrons as innovative, because it makes SWTOR look bad & buggy.
It was mentioned earlier, but the Legacy system cna be considered innovative. On the other hand, it could be considered innovation gone terribly awry.
As an honnorable mention, I guess trying to fit a somewhat square peg in a somewhat round hole of adapting a Fantasy based combat mechanic into a sci-fi world presents unique challenges. Just ask the developers who worked at Mythic who worked on the never released Centurion MMO.
I loved the equivalent, AA's in EQ. SOE had it right. The AA's could be spent as a person pleased in a huge index of abilities. AA's were hard to obtain individually, so obtaining all abilities was indeed a task. All abilities were in no way needed, they were just "slight extras" .. like +1% mitigation or +1% evasion .. or class specific like Druids "Evacuation" to insta teleport the entire group back to the zone entrance, regardless of the situation. There were many others.
"Premature evacuation" became a common complaint amongst people grouping with druids :-)
Innovative, although it is often used to imply progress, technically only means to introduce something new and doesn't actually connote success.
That was the tack I was taking at least. SWTOR is often described as completely derivative. I was trying to find examples of where Bioware was trying to introduce something new to the genre besides their fourth pillar.
Innovative, although it is often used to imply progress, technically only means to introduce something new and doesn't actually connote success.
That was the tack I was taking at least. SWTOR is often described as completely derivative. I was trying to find examples of where Bioware was trying to introduce something new to the genre besides their fourth pillar.
The Legacy was cross-character though .. I can't think of any other game that carries a form of progress from one character to another (outside of Real Life Money currency denotations attributed to characters on an account, ie gems in GW2).
Innovative, although it is often used to imply progress, technically only means to introduce something new and doesn't actually connote success.
That was the tack I was taking at least. SWTOR is often described as completely derivative. I was trying to find examples of where Bioware was trying to introduce something new to the genre besides their fourth pillar.
The Legacy was cross-character though .. I can't think of any other game that carries a form of progress from one character to another (outside of Real Life Money currency denotations attributed to characters on an account, ie gems in GW2).
As Draron pointed out, WoW's heirloom gear was created to promote alt creation and hasten the alt levelling process.
1. Very story-cutscene heavy levelling process & companions. Well those are just copy & paste things from Bioware singe player games (and also some other s rpg's). Sure it is made on a scale that never was in mmorpg's so if you stretch it I guess it could be called innovation.
For me in mmorpg's those don't feel like they belong in mmorpg's and in example companions even made my gameplay feel worse imo. Very heavy cutscene with Bioware simple dialogue wheel - I don't even like those in newest BW games like DA2 / ME2 and ME3, so kinda no brainer that I did not like it in Swtor. Story telling imho was much better in Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 and Planescape Torment than when it is overly swamped with cutscenes with very limited dialogue options.
Innovative, although it is often used to imply progress, technically only means to introduce something new and doesn't actually connote success.
That was the tack I was taking at least. SWTOR is often described as completely derivative. I was trying to find examples of where Bioware was trying to introduce something new to the genre besides their fourth pillar.
The Legacy was cross-character though .. I can't think of any other game that carries a form of progress from one character to another (outside of Real Life Money currency denotations attributed to characters on an account, ie gems in GW2).
As Draron pointed out, WoW's heirloom gear was created to promote alt creation and hasten the alt levelling process.
Heirlooms .. hmm.
The recipient (wearing the heirlooms) wouldn't really advance any other character on the account. Though, graphically they might make a person look special, and leveling would be a helluva lot easier - it affected no other character.
The WoW system isn't really like SWTOR's legacy system though. Not that legacy was interesting or innovative. It was boring and dumb in it's rewards. The concept was there I suppose, although misguided.
It seemed more like SOE's AA's, but with rewards that were not well thought out, cross character.
But in any event, ya, not innovative. Even though it's cross-character, the rewards are pointless.
Innovative, although it is often used to imply progress, technically only means to introduce something new and doesn't actually connote success.
That was the tack I was taking at least. SWTOR is often described as completely derivative. I was trying to find examples of where Bioware was trying to introduce something new to the genre besides their fourth pillar.
Aye, carry on. If I veered off track, it was for informative reasons, sorry!
Disclaimer: Since this is a positive thread i will not point out the huge design flaws and implementation fails for each "Innovation" which made those said innovations range from pointless to unusable.
* Companion system Having someone alongside yourself is a great idea, especially* if the class synergies work out. (Healer + DD, Tank + DD / Healer etc). It could make (and occasionally did!) Leveling more fun. The opportunity to finish a 4 man group task with 2 players is a positive aspect to me.
* Multiple Player votes on story progression in cutscenes.
* Mostly Voiced Dialogues
* Creative use of a very limited animation libary covering 100 of hours of Dialogues. (Spin hand, Wave arm, grab tights)
* Change Weapon trail glow color aka Crystal Color.
* Push / Throw / Pull npcs & players from high ground into pits. I can't think of another game which viable allowed you to use Terrain like that. (And i love pushing stuff over the edge)
Wont lie im probubly gonna pick it up again when im done with Rift's Storm Legion Expansion. but its never gonna be my main game. that will be TSW until WoD shows me wether or not my speculations of VTM not translating at all into a Online system is true or not.
Because i can. I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out. Logic every gamers worst enemy.
and the setting was the worst part of the game. Instead of giving me the Old Republic, they gave me Episode 4-6 but changed the names. Seriously some of the Sith places looked IDENTICAL to Imperial Starships interiors in the movies. The devs should have just made it in Vader's setting if they wanted to reuse all the art and characters and plot.
1) indeed, story in an mmo was pretty new... but be honest, its no innovation, computer games told stories since the early 70s....
2) its amazing, for sure, but its no innovation, john williams wrote them a long time ago.. in a galaxy far away..., influenced by richard wagner as he stated himself.. no innovation, its just great, but nothing new...
3)meh cant agree, jedi knight had great graphics for its time..
4) you said it, star fox, or call it Rebel assault 2,5? nothing new. weve seen this in 1992...
sorry no innovation, its good but nothing new there.....
Originally posted by Karteli
SWTOR had an innovation or two, some more than others:
1) Story detailed environment.
2) The Music was simply hands down amazing. I'd trade in my Darth Malgus doorstop for another disc or 2 on the soundtrack. SWTOR had 6 hours of music in addition to previous KOTOR music.
3) The artwork was brilliant. Any envirornment felt like Star Wars, even if the game wasn't Star Wars'y. When you got close to objects they got clearer (you could read a computer screen if you walked up to it).
4) Added Star Fox! Wouldn't everyone love Star Fox instead of Pokemon? (OK, but gave way to maybe other minigames?)
The rest is left to everyone else to fill in!
What made this game innovative to you?
edit comment: I'm trying to put a positive light on SWTOR.
SWTOR had an innovation or two, some more than others:
1) Story detailed environment.
2) The Music was simply hands down amazing. I'd trade in my Darth Malgus doorstop for another disc or 2 on the soundtrack. SWTOR had 6 hours of music in addition to previous KOTOR music.
3) The artwork was brilliant. Any envirornment felt like Star Wars, even if the game wasn't Star Wars'y. When you got close to objects they got clearer (you could read a computer screen if you walked up to it).
4) Added Star Fox! Wouldn't everyone love Star Fox instead of Pokemon? (OK, but gave way to maybe other minigames?)
The rest is left to everyone else to fill in!
What made this game innovative to you?
edit comment: I'm trying to put a positive light on SWTOR.
Good music and artwork is not innovation. And putting single player elements such as story and space on rails in an MMORPG is not innovation either, it's just plain stupid and shows a lack of understanding of the MMORPG genre which was what everyone said Bioware lacked and they were right.
Innovative, although it is often used to imply progress, technically only means to introduce something new and doesn't actually connote success.
That was the tack I was taking at least. SWTOR is often described as completely derivative. I was trying to find examples of where Bioware was trying to introduce something new to the genre besides their fourth pillar.
Aye, carry on. If I veered off track, it was for informative reasons, sorry!
There is a failed innovation and successful innovation. SW:TOR is all failed innovations because it is about introducing single player elements in an MMORPG but a watered down version of what you see in a single player game. It is just stupid and based on ignorance of the genre.
While SWTOR didn’t make a giant leap forward for MMOs it does treat us to four innovations that make the game more enjoyable.
Companions
The companion scheme in SWTOR is an innovation. It comes from BioWares’ RPG single player games, and it provides the player with incredible support. First, there are the different roles the companions play; you can have a healer, a damage dealer or a tank with you at all times. Second, the companions not being used can be sent on missions to support your crafting, or to look for presents that improve your relationship with your companions; or, in the case of slicing, to simply make you some cash. These companions do not mitigate the need for grouping with other players to do heroics, instances, and operations. You can fall in love with your companion and even marry them. Way to go BioWare!
Story Archs
While BioWare is not the first MMO to have story lines, they have taken these stories to new heights. Your story develops your character in ways that previously only roleplaying could. These stories make you want to level up alts just to see what their story is. It’s these stories that create the Star Wars feel in the game. Luke had his story, now you have yours.
Non-Player Character Conversations
In stead of presenting us with text boxes to tell our story BioWare brings us the art of conversation with the virtual world. Some people don’t like this and skip right over it, but the immersion that can be had from following the conversations is undeniable. The fact that you can choose how your character responds gives you control over your character’s development and makes your story more interesting.
Crafting
BioWare breaks new ground in the crafting area by removing the need to spend countless hours farming for materials. Your companions can do this for you, for a price, of course, while you continue your game play. I find the crafting to be useful, something I can’t say about a lot of games. I have leveled to 400 armstech, armortech, and biotech. The arms and armor gave me better equipment then what dropped, and often better equipment than the quests rewards. Of course you can’t make end game quality armor, but you can make a suit of armor that provides a good beginning place for the end game. Kudos on the crafting BioWare.
Evolution is a slow process. Some want to see giant leaps in each new MMO that comes out, but it doesn’t work that way. Tiny steps in each new MMO are what we should expect. SWTOR takes some innovative steps that will be copied in future MMOs.
Ahnog
Hokey religions are no replacement for a good blaster at your side.
While SWTOR didn’t make a giant leap forward for MMOs it does treat us to four innovations that make the game more enjoyable.
Companions
The companion scheme in SWTOR is an innovation. It comes from BioWares’ RPG single player games, and it provides the player with incredible support. First, there are the different roles the companions play; you can have a healer, a damage dealer or a tank with you at all times. Second, the companions not being used can be sent on missions to support your crafting, or to look for presents that improve your relationship with your companions; or, in the case of slicing, to simply make you some cash. These companions do not mitigate the need for grouping with other players to do heroics, instances, and operations. You can fall in love with your companion and even marry them. Way to go BioWare!
Story Archs
While BioWare is not the first MMO to have story lines, they have taken these stories to new heights. Your story develops your character in ways that previously only roleplaying could. These stories make you want to level up alts just to see what their story is. It’s these stories that create the Star Wars feel in the game. Luke had his story, now you have yours.
Non-Player Character Conversations
In stead of presenting us with text boxes to tell our story BioWare brings us the art of conversation with the virtual world. Some people don’t like this and skip right over it, but the immersion that can be had from following the conversations is undeniable. The fact that you can choose how your character responds gives you control over your character’s development and makes your story more interesting.
Crafting
BioWare breaks new ground in the crafting area by removing the need to spend countless hours farming for materials. Your companions can do this for you, for a price, of course, while you continue your game play. I find the crafting to be useful, something I can’t say about a lot of games. I have leveled to 400 armstech, armortech, and biotech. The arms and armor gave me better equipment then what dropped, and often better equipment than the quests rewards. Of course you can’t make end game quality armor, but you can make a suit of armor that provides a good beginning place for the end game. Kudos on the crafting BioWare.
Evolution is a slow process. Some want to see giant leaps in each new MMO that comes out, but it doesn’t work that way. Tiny steps in each new MMO are what we should expect. SWTOR takes some innovative steps that will be copied in future MMOs.
I think the way they handled Crafting, the indepth stories with branches (bringing single player level story depth to an MMO) the companion system, and the fact that it was fully voiced were innovative. They took AOC Tortage and basically upgraded that experience across the entire game with regard to both voice and story. I wish they wouldn't tell you in advance if your choices are Good or Bad before making them, that would have been more interesting. I think there is an option to turn that off, I forget, but it shouldn't be in there at all.
I will come back to play my level 42 character once the game goes Free to Play. Current enjoying GW2 and coincidentally also level 42 lol.
I wish they wouldn't tell you in advance if your choices are Good or Bad before making them, that would have been more interesting. I think there is an option to turn that off, I forget, but it shouldn't be in there at all.
There's an option to turn it off, yea. I keep it off personally when playing through a storyline for the first time.
SWTOR had an innovation or two, some more than others:
....
edit comment: I'm trying to put a positive light on SWTOR.
I will never get tired of repeating how much I love this game. Never ever in my life (and im 50) have played more fun and great game. Everything done to perfection, great sw feeling, incredible realistic fighting, ful voiced questing (now I can not force myself anymore to read normal questing in other games or maybe only with 1st alt), movement of avatars that obey to laws of physics, ... everything. Have leveled 8 alts to max, 8 still waiting. Was fun for all. In all this time have not encountered a single crippling bug if any at all.
Can not judge however about pvp and end game as I could not care less.
But otherwise have played strait for 7 to 8 months ranging from half hour to 18 hours per day, time permitting. And still continue to be subbed despite in last 2 to 3 months playing other games, now of course MOP, then will return to GW2 or Rift, .... and then for sure back to Swtor.
Main problem as I see was they wanted too perfect game, have invested incredible ammount of money and time for this superb experience. They have decent sub numbers now but guess investment did not returned. Partially blame to haters. No single game in history besides wow had such hatting community. But there is no single game not being bashed. About wow, not even Blizzard will be able ever to repeat their success.
The ONLY thing differing SWToR from ANY other game was the Mulitple Choice story lines. Period.
[ ... ]
Multiple choice = / = kill <-> don't kill
Personally, I had the feeling most of the "choices" I got to make boiled down to whether I should kill someone or let him live. The few times when I got to choose between two ways to the same end I always chose the shorter/easier one (funny enough that was a "dark decision" most of the time.
Also some decisions in the game had the whole dark-light, good-bad thing either upside down or down right arbitrarily.
For me the biggest innovation was something I can't quite explain about the PvP that made me actually enjoy it. I found my PvP side in that game - strangely enough - in Huttball.
Originally posted by daltanious
[ ... ] movement of avatars that obey to laws of physics, ... [ ... ]
You should try a male asura engineer in GW2 and run around with your flamethrower kit out. Stopping actually makes him almost topple over and try to keep his balance by extending a leg in the direction opposite to the momentum.
I remember disliking the walking and jumping animation right from the start in SWToR. Nothing looked like it had mass and weight. It was all very ... theatric.
SWTOR had an innovation or two, some more than others:
1) Story detailed environment.
Lotro has story, AoC has story even WoW has story
2) The Music was simply hands down amazing. I'd trade in my Darth Malgus doorstop for another disc or 2 on the soundtrack. SWTOR had 6 hours of music in addition to previous KOTOR music.
AoC sound track is way better and most SWTOR soundtrack doesn't even feels like SW music at all.
3) The artwork was brilliant. Any envirornment felt like Star Wars, even if the game wasn't Star Wars'y. When you got close to objects they got clearer (you could read a computer screen if you walked up to it).
Hoth and Tattoine doesn't even feel like in the movie: as desert worlds. Most of the environments doesn't even feels realistic. Ex military base set lower than the perimeter around. Turrets placed in useless areas. Settings that doesn't blend with the surroundings.
4) Added Star Fox! Wouldn't everyone love Star Fox instead of Pokemon? (OK, but gave way to maybe other minigames?)
SWG had 3d free roaming space sim and there is even way more 3d movement in Wow with flying mounts
The rest is left to everyone else to fill in!
TOR innovation was to have fully voiced quests and well lack most of the AAA MMO features @launch. Another innovation is to have mandatory pets for single player game play and no pet class for grouped content.
What made this game innovative to you?
Failing harder than TabulaRasa with an even bigger budget and time frame to make the game.
edit comment: I'm trying to put a positive light on SWTOR.
Positive: they can hardly make worse... (still they did adding even more CC in PvP in 1.4 and nerfing the less powerful classes: Trooper)
While SWTOR didn’t make a giant leap forward for MMOs it does treat us to four innovations that make the game more enjoyable.
Companions
The companion scheme in SWTOR is an innovation. It comes from BioWares’ RPG single player games, and it provides the player with incredible support. First, there are the different roles the companions play; you can have a healer, a damage dealer or a tank with you at all times. Second, the companions not being used can be sent on missions to support your crafting, or to look for presents that improve your relationship with your companions; or, in the case of slicing, to simply make you some cash. These companions do not mitigate the need for grouping with other players to do heroics, instances, and operations. You can fall in love with your companion and even marry them. Way to go BioWare!
Story Archs
While BioWare is not the first MMO to have story lines, they have taken these stories to new heights. Your story develops your character in ways that previously only roleplaying could. These stories make you want to level up alts just to see what their story is. It’s these stories that create the Star Wars feel in the game. Luke had his story, now you have yours.
Non-Player Character Conversations
In stead of presenting us with text boxes to tell our story BioWare brings us the art of conversation with the virtual world. Some people don’t like this and skip right over it, but the immersion that can be had from following the conversations is undeniable. The fact that you can choose how your character responds gives you control over your character’s development and makes your story more interesting.
Crafting
BioWare breaks new ground in the crafting area by removing the need to spend countless hours farming for materials. Your companions can do this for you, for a price, of course, while you continue your game play. I find the crafting to be useful, something I can’t say about a lot of games. I have leveled to 400 armstech, armortech, and biotech. The arms and armor gave me better equipment then what dropped, and often better equipment than the quests rewards. Of course you can’t make end game quality armor, but you can make a suit of armor that provides a good beginning place for the end game. Kudos on the crafting BioWare.
Evolution is a slow process. Some want to see giant leaps in each new MMO that comes out, but it doesn’t work that way. Tiny steps in each new MMO are what we should expect. SWTOR takes some innovative steps that will be copied in future MMOs.
companions? i think Lotro had them before swtor
crafting? what crafting?
the game other than huge story and video conversations has none innovation
not to mention that the game still dont have things that are standard in today MMO times
fan of SWG, XCOM, Defiance, Global Agenda, Need For Speed, all Star Wars single player games. And waiting the darn STAR CITIZEN
the game other than huge story and video conversations has none innovation
not to mention that the game still dont have things that are standard in today MMO times
SWTOR did offer full voice, although I would have personally liked in-game voice, without cutscenes.
DCUO had full voice first though, although the total number of different voice actors in SWTOR was unprecendeted. No innovation I can see, unless you consider spending a huge amount an innovation :-)
Crafting, yeah, can't see it as an innovation, although companions did all the crafting. Fallen Earth for instance, let players queue crafting while they played, albeit without companions. In Fallen Earth its just a time sink. If you wanted to craft a piece of armor or a weapon it would take X minutes / hours, depending on the item complexity, value, and/or usefullness. Crafted items would go on a countdown while you played. As long as you had the mats, you could queue as much as you wanted .. I never found a limit, though I never queued enough stuff to take more than a day to craft everything I wanted. Queue 20 items, log off, and the next day they were all waiting for you.
Story Arc's - each class has a unique story, even if it's uncontrollable. I don't think that was ever done to the level SWTOR took it. SWTOR's story innovation was never in question though, was it?
Comments
Only some SWTOR datacrons were jumping puzzles that one could figure out without the assistance of YouTube though. Most Datacrons were too cleverly hidden, or required advanced knowledge of floating platforms, or hidden areas.
To be honest, I tried looking for Datacrons without any assistance and would continually get "stuck" as I searched. It wasn't much fun. GW2 has them beat at least, in that you can explore without ever being "stuck", to find "Vistas". I was stuck in SWTOR 50 times, versus 0 times in GW2, for instance.
I'm not saying GW2 is the better game, but they did have a better gameplay engine.
Also I wanted to get the +10 stat datacron from the fleet but it was continually bugged when I tried. I gave up and quit.
I couldn't count Datacrons as innovative, because it makes SWTOR look bad & buggy.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
I loved the equivalent, AA's in EQ. SOE had it right. The AA's could be spent as a person pleased in a huge index of abilities. AA's were hard to obtain individually, so obtaining all abilities was indeed a task. All abilities were in no way needed, they were just "slight extras" .. like +1% mitigation or +1% evasion .. or class specific like Druids "Evacuation" to insta teleport the entire group back to the zone entrance, regardless of the situation. There were many others.
"Premature evacuation" became a common complaint amongst people grouping with druids :-)
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
Innovative, although it is often used to imply progress, technically only means to introduce something new and doesn't actually connote success.
That was the tack I was taking at least. SWTOR is often described as completely derivative. I was trying to find examples of where Bioware was trying to introduce something new to the genre besides their fourth pillar.
The Legacy was cross-character though .. I can't think of any other game that carries a form of progress from one character to another (outside of Real Life Money currency denotations attributed to characters on an account, ie gems in GW2).
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
As Draron pointed out, WoW's heirloom gear was created to promote alt creation and hasten the alt levelling process.
1. Very story-cutscene heavy levelling process & companions. Well those are just copy & paste things from Bioware singe player games (and also some other s rpg's). Sure it is made on a scale that never was in mmorpg's so if you stretch it I guess it could be called innovation.
For me in mmorpg's those don't feel like they belong in mmorpg's and in example companions even made my gameplay feel worse imo. Very heavy cutscene with Bioware simple dialogue wheel - I don't even like those in newest BW games like DA2 / ME2 and ME3, so kinda no brainer that I did not like it in Swtor. Story telling imho was much better in Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 and Planescape Torment than when it is overly swamped with cutscenes with very limited dialogue options.
Aside of that creative? Don't see much.
Heirlooms .. hmm.
The recipient (wearing the heirlooms) wouldn't really advance any other character on the account. Though, graphically they might make a person look special, and leveling would be a helluva lot easier - it affected no other character.
The WoW system isn't really like SWTOR's legacy system though. Not that legacy was interesting or innovative. It was boring and dumb in it's rewards. The concept was there I suppose, although misguided.
It seemed more like SOE's AA's, but with rewards that were not well thought out, cross character.
But in any event, ya, not innovative. Even though it's cross-character, the rewards are pointless.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
Aye, carry on. If I veered off track, it was for informative reasons, sorry!
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
Disclaimer:
Since this is a positive thread i will not point out the huge design flaws and implementation fails for each "Innovation" which made those said innovations range from pointless to unusable.
* Companion system
Having someone alongside yourself is a great idea, especially* if the class synergies work out. (Healer + DD, Tank + DD / Healer etc). It could make (and occasionally did!) Leveling more fun.
The opportunity to finish a 4 man group task with 2 players is a positive aspect to me.
* Multiple Player votes on story progression in cutscenes.
* Mostly Voiced Dialogues
* Creative use of a very limited animation libary covering 100 of hours of Dialogues. (Spin hand, Wave arm, grab tights)
* Change Weapon trail glow color aka Crystal Color.
* Push / Throw / Pull npcs & players from high ground into pits.
I can't think of another game which viable allowed you to use Terrain like that. (And i love pushing stuff over the edge)
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
I don't think you know what innovation means...
and the setting was the worst part of the game. Instead of giving me the Old Republic, they gave me Episode 4-6 but changed the names. Seriously some of the Sith places looked IDENTICAL to Imperial Starships interiors in the movies. The devs should have just made it in Vader's setting if they wanted to reuse all the art and characters and plot.
Story thing - Aoc (though swtor takes it further)
Pvp tank stuff - warhammer (and the mechanics in war made it work better)
The only "innovations" I can think of are
1 shoe horning in a on the rails shooter
2 crafting system where you don't actually craft
Good music and artwork is not innovation. And putting single player elements such as story and space on rails in an MMORPG is not innovation either, it's just plain stupid and shows a lack of understanding of the MMORPG genre which was what everyone said Bioware lacked and they were right.
My gaming blog
There is a failed innovation and successful innovation. SW:TOR is all failed innovations because it is about introducing single player elements in an MMORPG but a watered down version of what you see in a single player game. It is just stupid and based on ignorance of the genre.
My gaming blog
While SWTOR didn’t make a giant leap forward for MMOs it does treat us to four innovations that make the game more enjoyable.
Companions
The companion scheme in SWTOR is an innovation. It comes from BioWares’ RPG single player games, and it provides the player with incredible support. First, there are the different roles the companions play; you can have a healer, a damage dealer or a tank with you at all times. Second, the companions not being used can be sent on missions to support your crafting, or to look for presents that improve your relationship with your companions; or, in the case of slicing, to simply make you some cash. These companions do not mitigate the need for grouping with other players to do heroics, instances, and operations. You can fall in love with your companion and even marry them. Way to go BioWare!
Story Archs
While BioWare is not the first MMO to have story lines, they have taken these stories to new heights. Your story develops your character in ways that previously only roleplaying could. These stories make you want to level up alts just to see what their story is. It’s these stories that create the Star Wars feel in the game. Luke had his story, now you have yours.
Non-Player Character Conversations
In stead of presenting us with text boxes to tell our story BioWare brings us the art of conversation with the virtual world. Some people don’t like this and skip right over it, but the immersion that can be had from following the conversations is undeniable. The fact that you can choose how your character responds gives you control over your character’s development and makes your story more interesting.
Crafting
BioWare breaks new ground in the crafting area by removing the need to spend countless hours farming for materials. Your companions can do this for you, for a price, of course, while you continue your game play. I find the crafting to be useful, something I can’t say about a lot of games. I have leveled to 400 armstech, armortech, and biotech. The arms and armor gave me better equipment then what dropped, and often better equipment than the quests rewards. Of course you can’t make end game quality armor, but you can make a suit of armor that provides a good beginning place for the end game. Kudos on the crafting BioWare.
Evolution is a slow process. Some want to see giant leaps in each new MMO that comes out, but it doesn’t work that way. Tiny steps in each new MMO are what we should expect. SWTOR takes some innovative steps that will be copied in future MMOs.
Ahnog
Hokey religions are no replacement for a good blaster at your side.
I'm here, I'm here!
Ahnog
Hokey religions are no replacement for a good blaster at your side.
Agree with these completely.
I think the way they handled Crafting, the indepth stories with branches (bringing single player level story depth to an MMO) the companion system, and the fact that it was fully voiced were innovative. They took AOC Tortage and basically upgraded that experience across the entire game with regard to both voice and story. I wish they wouldn't tell you in advance if your choices are Good or Bad before making them, that would have been more interesting. I think there is an option to turn that off, I forget, but it shouldn't be in there at all.
I will come back to play my level 42 character once the game goes Free to Play. Current enjoying GW2 and coincidentally also level 42 lol.
There Is Always Hope!
There's an option to turn it off, yea. I keep it off personally when playing through a storyline for the first time.
I will never get tired of repeating how much I love this game. Never ever in my life (and im 50) have played more fun and great game. Everything done to perfection, great sw feeling, incredible realistic fighting, ful voiced questing (now I can not force myself anymore to read normal questing in other games or maybe only with 1st alt), movement of avatars that obey to laws of physics, ... everything. Have leveled 8 alts to max, 8 still waiting. Was fun for all. In all this time have not encountered a single crippling bug if any at all.
Can not judge however about pvp and end game as I could not care less.
But otherwise have played strait for 7 to 8 months ranging from half hour to 18 hours per day, time permitting. And still continue to be subbed despite in last 2 to 3 months playing other games, now of course MOP, then will return to GW2 or Rift, .... and then for sure back to Swtor.
Main problem as I see was they wanted too perfect game, have invested incredible ammount of money and time for this superb experience. They have decent sub numbers now but guess investment did not returned. Partially blame to haters. No single game in history besides wow had such hatting community. But there is no single game not being bashed. About wow, not even Blizzard will be able ever to repeat their success.
Multiple choice = / = kill <-> don't kill
Personally, I had the feeling most of the "choices" I got to make boiled down to whether I should kill someone or let him live. The few times when I got to choose between two ways to the same end I always chose the shorter/easier one (funny enough that was a "dark decision" most of the time.
Also some decisions in the game had the whole dark-light, good-bad thing either upside down or down right arbitrarily.
For me the biggest innovation was something I can't quite explain about the PvP that made me actually enjoy it. I found my PvP side in that game - strangely enough - in Huttball.
You should try a male asura engineer in GW2 and run around with your flamethrower kit out. Stopping actually makes him almost topple over and try to keep his balance by extending a leg in the direction opposite to the momentum.
I remember disliking the walking and jumping animation right from the start in SWToR. Nothing looked like it had mass and weight. It was all very ... theatric.
companions? i think Lotro had them before swtor
crafting? what crafting?
the game other than huge story and video conversations has none innovation
not to mention that the game still dont have things that are standard in today MMO times
SWTOR did offer full voice, although I would have personally liked in-game voice, without cutscenes.
DCUO had full voice first though, although the total number of different voice actors in SWTOR was unprecendeted. No innovation I can see, unless you consider spending a huge amount an innovation :-)
Crafting, yeah, can't see it as an innovation, although companions did all the crafting. Fallen Earth for instance, let players queue crafting while they played, albeit without companions. In Fallen Earth its just a time sink. If you wanted to craft a piece of armor or a weapon it would take X minutes / hours, depending on the item complexity, value, and/or usefullness. Crafted items would go on a countdown while you played. As long as you had the mats, you could queue as much as you wanted .. I never found a limit, though I never queued enough stuff to take more than a day to craft everything I wanted. Queue 20 items, log off, and the next day they were all waiting for you.
Story Arc's - each class has a unique story, even if it's uncontrollable. I don't think that was ever done to the level SWTOR took it. SWTOR's story innovation was never in question though, was it?
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.