Thread on the official forums dedicated to Daniel Erickson MeMe we started a while back has had some new hilarious entries and I just wanted to show them to our visitors as well. In honoring this epic thread I also wanted to make another contribution and also add to the forever growing debate of Star Trek vs Star Wars. I bring you an animated gif: Mr. Spock vs Mr. Erickson. It is rather big, but I think it is worth waiting for it to load.
Darth Hater: “We also heard that in your dialogue system, you are tracking metrics on when people are pausing to see how long they’re taking to make decisions and things like that to really work on the dialogue. So you are getting ton of information from the testers?”
James Ohlen: “We keep on getting more and more information as the testing groups get larger. We had two groups of a thousand players on a shard and that got us a lot of information because it was a lot more people playing together. We were able to see a population that was not indicative of the final game, but it was closer to it because the populations were so much bigger than just a couple hundred. We’re able to use that to make a lot of adjustments; it also validated a lot design decisions we made months earlier. The game really gets a lot better every single month. It is pretty impressive. The developer teams are getting faster at making changes and making adjustments to feedback. Two years ago it would take so long to see a change in the game, but now you see changes every month.”
From what I remember in the past, we have never really gotten a definitive number from a developer about just how many people are involved in “game testing”. If I remember correctly the only estimations of a number came from the statement of “more than I could fit in my office” or something to that effect. (the actual quote escapes me at the moment but it was very similar to that statement)
When they tell me that they have two groups of a thousand players on a shard that gives me a better idea as to how far they are along in the numbers of people that they have allowed in at this point. I figure it is more than two thousand at this point, but at least I now have a baseline reference.
The comment that they were “on a shard” also makes me wonder if they also have the ability of running more than one shard at this time with their current server structure. I am thinking they do and that they may be currently operating several shards at this point in time. Maybe a private in house version for the developers only that showcases the latest builds, maybe a couple for outside the office testers, and etc. I may be way off base, as this is just speculation on my part.
In the end though, with this developer interaction I feel better about the testing process going on at Bioware. One of my fears from the past was that they didn’t have the amount of people testing their game that they needed to find out all that was necessary. That a small minority of people testing would sway the design decisions in directions I as a MMO veteran did not approve of for my gaming time.
With a number of at the very least two thousand testing the game, I feel much better that a wider view of MMO mechanic and game play design is being addressed.
Now if I could just get my hands on it and test out the “Crew skills system” I could die a happy man. 🙂
I am happy to announce I’ll be joining Swtor-Life, in a partnership that we hope will serve the followers or SWTOR, in bringing you news, thoughts and concerns of the up and coming game.
Like Swtorcrafter before me, we see this as a great opportunity in bringing you a better service.
A little about me – Well I’m what you would call an aging gamer of 39. Since the days of Ultima Online, I have been hooked on mmo’s. There after have played many more, and those who do not know me, I’m on the side of the fence that hates WOW, just to get that out of the way 🙂
I will bring you my hope’s, dreams and concerns on TOR. Hopefully they will continue to bring you some humor, and most importantly give you a thought provoking prospective on TOR.
As we all continue to ride the roller coaster ride till launch, lets keep are fingers crossed that the game is all we are hoping for.
For anyone wishing to follow me on Twitter add MrWarlock_
We all hope here at Swtor-Life, will continue to grow and giving you, the TOR faithful a better service in the future.
Welcome to our second day of covering the Penny Arcade Expo and all the Star Wars The Old Republic news that will be pouring out of Boston. Yesterday was a satisfying day for TOR fans because of the officially released trailer and a number of great gameplay videos from both Taral V instance/flashpoint and starting worlds. There was an announcement that we’ll get some more official news today as well so keep refreshing this post for the latest updates.
Latest Video:
Latest News:
Paraphrasing: Crafting is complex and intricate and involves a lot of social interaction – Daniel Erickson (source: Jen’jidai Guild)
“There is our own version of the slave leia costume” – James Ohlen (source: Jen’jidai Guild)
There will be no day/night cycle in the game at release. Some planets have multiple moons/suns – too hard to implement (source: Darth Hater)
Line at SWTOR booth at PAX is so long that David Bass (senior community manager) just told the tail of the line that they won’t be able to play today!!! It’s 10:15am (tweeted by Jen’jidai Guild)
Images from the show floor:
Click for Full Size
CRR Crew + Erickson = awesome
Torocast, DartHater, MER
You can check out our Day One coverage in the posts bellow:
Visitors of Penny Arcade Expo have been busy recording various gameplay sessions all throughout day 1 of the convention and we have gathered all the relevant videos in this one post. There is some more footage of Taral V flashpoint as well as some starting planets gameplay. We also have Daniel Erickson giving a few more presentation of various planets and I suspect we will be seeing all of these videos as downloadable content from the official site. Until then enjoy.
Taral V Jedi Knight group gameplay
Video shows full in-game cinematic for the instance telling us the background story of why are we fighting this hard fight. Flashpoint footage is from the first third of the instance and the person playing is a clicker (you have been warned). Quality is Full HD and the video is worth your bandwidth.
Taral V Jedi Knight group gameplay – Last Boss
Video shows the last third of Taral V instance including the fight (and wipe) with the last boss. *spoiler alert* Last boss seems to have an add so it requires some coordination and unfortunately the Trooper died and Jedi Knight was not able to take aggro from the healers quickly enough (not his fault). The person playing seems to be a veteran MMO player and you can see just how smooth the gameplay is when played by a knowledgeable player. The video is HD and gets 5 stars from me.
Taral V Jedi Sage group gameplay
Jungle part of Taral V from the Jedi Sage perspective. Video is HD with detailed shot of the UI in the end
Bounty Hunter Hutta gameplay
We see the starting zone for Bounty Hunter with some great cutscenes and a chubby BH as our protagonist. HD quality is available and I recommend watching it this way because it brings out the best out of the game footage.
Hoth – presented by Daniel Erickson
We see some areas of Hoth with surprising volcanic activity and future questing grounds set inside ice caves and ship graveyards. Available in HD quality as well. Thanks to Engrey for the footage.
Tatooine – presented by Daniel Erickson
Official trailer showing in-game footage of Tatooine vistas.
Sith Warrior – 14 minutes on Korriban
The video shows all cutscenes and footage from questing inside a cave on Korriban. This is footage similar to the one we’ve see at Gamescom last year, but nice to see it again.
Darth Hater just released a video they shot at the SWTOR booth at Pax East where a demonstration of the Space Combat feature was held live. Presentation was hosted by Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid and the footage is amazing in all of its Full HD glory. The video shows awesome footage of the space map and then shows us space combat inside an asteroid field. Darth Hater is working on one of their famous dissections of the video and you can find it here.
To start their Penny Arcade Expo presence with a bang Bioware released a new trailer for Star Wars The Old republic that consists of mostly in-game footage. We have Jawas, Rancors, PvP action, force powers and all that Star Wars goodness we’re all dying for. You can find the official news posting about the trailer here and here’s an excerpt:
Tension between the Republic and the Empire is running high. The uneasy truce established by the Treaty of Coruscant is quickly tearing apart at the seams, and a return to all-out war has begun in all but official terms. A new generation of heroes, both light and dark, emerges to face the difficulties of these chaotic times, and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this most desperate age.
Premade group has a level 32 Scoundrel (source: Guild Umbra Tweet)
First images from the booth and the queue line:
Click to see full size
Click for full size (thanks to Guild Umbra)
Image by Mos Eisley Radio
With only an hour left before #SWTORPAX kicks off SWTOR Life is following the happenings at the convention Minute by Minute as news pour in. We will scour the internet and all the affiliated fansites in search for all that Old Republic goodness. Feel free to bookmark this post because we will be updating it live with new information. In preparation you can check out our other Penny Arcade Expo East articles:
Penny Arcade Expo in Boston is about to open its doors to the gaming enthusiasts in about 30-60 minutes and excitement is mounting. The Old Republic fans are anxiously waiting for the Friday Update that will kick start PAX. I was thinking of starting a poll on what people think the big PAX Friday Update will be with options like “Next phase of beta” and “release date”, but I figure with only several hours away we’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime enjoy this image sent to Twitter by Guild Umbra of a line forming at PAX gates.
