One of the big items of news that came from the UK player event SWTORGB, that I especially liked was the information we got on the mysterious “Datacrons”. Credited by Daniel Erickson as the first known person in a community play event to discover one, “Kandycane” brings us this tidbit on the discovery and it’s use from his game play impressions…..
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SWTOR’s current class system is nothing new, Ultima online had this. Even though it did not have a class system in the traditional form we all know now.
Yet, it did give you the ability to take on a number of roles, Mage, Warrior etc.
Something I have been wondering about for quite some time is the level of item one can expect to craft after a “crafting crit” takes place during item creation. Will the created item be on par with raid loot drops, PVP drops, or other drops or rewards from missions?
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My question to you today is:
Based on your normal play style how do you see yourself acquiring the materials you need to craft in SWTOR?
Will you use the auction house mechanic relying on other players to provide the auctions for you to buy, or will you rely on yourself and your companions to gather what you need via the gathering mechanics and the missions?
Read on!
In their latest interview from the PAX East convention of 2011, Darth Hater sat down with Bioware’s creative director, James Ohlen.
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. 🙂
Swtorcrafter Bounty Hunter!
How can a guild best support their crafters in SWTOR, part 2
With the small amount of material available on the crew skills system it is really hard to speculate on what I think will be important for a guild to focus on when trying to support their crafting efforts. I am going to speculate anyway though because it can’t hurt to guess at this stage.
Read on!
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My question to you today,
What can we do to make crafting more fun in SWTOR?
For some people in MMO’s today crafting can sometimes be looked at as simply more than a utilitarian function, a means to help the overall leveling process. As something you do as merely a side thought when you need some type of item in-game. Some people would go so far as to call crafting “boring”, or something they do out of boredom.
To us that thoroughly enjoy these types of systems in MMO’s, we know them to be capable of so much more.
So what can we do to make crafting more fun in SWTOR?
Comments Off on What can we do to make crafting more fun in Star Wars The Old Republic MMO?
The question I want to pose to you today is;
What will your worth be as a crafter in Star Wars The Old Republic MMO?
I think on this subject a lot because to me it is very important. I derive great pleasure from being able to learn all the details about a crafting system in a massively multiplayer online game that I call home away from home.
I then achieve even more pleasure when I am able to take that knowledge and produce the finest items available to me as a master of that craft, in the most efficient manner. Provided that the game system I am in will allow the crafters to produce top-tier items. When I do however find a game that allows this, it is a joy to be a crafter because I know the fame that awaits the diligent, the methodical.
I have been called a “min-maxer” before and that’s ok. To achieve greatness and fame in a crafting arena one must be efficient, and creative. One must use a crafting and in-game economy to maximum effectiveness to be considered a true master.
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We are still digesting all the official news on crafting and PvP we got last week. Personally, I am content for at least a few more weeks because the last week reveal was just so major. Still, there are a lot of great SWTOR related, community created content out there that I had to bring your attention to some of the more important ones.
One of the people I follow on Twitter is Patrick Lambert aka. Darth Dendory and he has his own blog as well. The reason I want to mention him is the very cool SWTOR comic he is making. He is actually creating his comic with 3D models of a super sexy Twil’ek Sith and I would recommend you go through his comics because they are a lot of fun and he puts out a new one quite often.
Ask a Jedi stumbled across some really great news posted on a French site http://www.jeuxvideo.com. Apparently those guys sat down for 6 hours and played Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular. The exciting part of this is that this is the first time (as far as I know) that anyone got a chance to play these Jedi classes. The amazing thing is that the article describing the experience got pulled because the embargo on information is not lifted yet. Luckily, Ask a Jedi saved the article and they even translated it from French. You can read the full article here.
For the first time in months, I am anxious and wondering about what will the official Friday update bring tomorrow? In the meantime make sure to check out the SWTOR community created content.
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There is a feeling of slight unrest within The Old Republic community as of late. We discussed the causes for this in the previous part of this article (which I recommend reading if you haven’t already, otherwise this part will not be so clear) and we’ll try to address some of the concerns in as unbiased manner as possible.
Lets assume that we have 22 weeks left before the game hits open beta and information is then released by everyone. I have made a list of things we should be receiving info on in the time left, based on what Bioware released so far and new game mechanics we all expect to see in the game:
