STO: No One Left Out In The Cold

I really felt Cryptic had another winner on their hands this weekend when I did “Out in the Cold”, the new feature weekly Star Trek Online episode that debuted Saturday. As usual, I’ll direct your attention towards our Chief Editor Tipa’s Federation report for a more detailed account of the mission, but I also echo her thoughts that STO may finally be reaching its potential. Not to mention what a pleasant change it was to log in that afternoon to find fleet chat alive with animated conversation and excitement over the new episode, and to see some new faces (or names, rather?) and some returning ones as well.

From what I gather, the overall reception from the playerbase has been generally positive. I didn’t think anything could top the visual feast I received last week the moment I stepped foot on Defera for “Cold Call”, but I was wrong. But seriously, can anything truly prepare you for a comet tail in your face?

I wanna name her Dottie.

For a second there, scenes from Armageddon actually flashed before my eyes and I half expected Bruce Willis to come over the com to yell at me, “We’ve got a hole to dig up here!” but no. Instead, T’Androma and crew were thrown into a space battle amidst the gas and debris in the giant moving rock’s wake.

That’s beaucoup points for presentation.

Ka boom with a view!

Without giving too much away, I realized that while I was more compelled in “Cold Call” last week by its characters, story and its bit of mystery, I felt that this week’s episode’s forte is in its combat. Both in space and even when it’s on the ground, in underground tunnels that — *gasp* — actually look like underground tunnels, and not like some indoor motor speedway that can seat 200,000.

From the size of environments to the type of story people want, it’s as if the last six months of feedback has been heard and used to craft these weekly episodes. So far, Cryptic’s 2 for 2 in my mind, and if all goes well I’m not expecting the third installment arriving next week to disappoint me either. The real question is, can they keep it up?

They’d Be Crazy To Follow Us, Wouldn’t They?

Today’s update from Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn’t reveal much more than we already know, but hey, if it’s anything space combat-related and gives me another chance to use a cheesy old Star Wars quote in the title, I’ll take it.

What’s nice is that a Game System section has been added, giving a general overview for Space Combat in the Holonet. One thing of note is that the mission types we’ll get in space are slowly starting to take shape — indeed, we’ll probably get to do some Han Solo style maneuvers through asteroid fields, beat the odds in a Luke-vs-the-Death-Star type showdowns, engage in some dogfighting, and even go on some escort missions (ugh, mind already picturing some not-so-pleasant scenarios involving lumbering capital ships).

I also thought the article was written in a way which makes it clear that the space combat component of SWTOR will be a tunnel-shooter mini-game. The emphasis on “lone starship”, and terms like making travel times “literally fly-by” and being put on a “direct course” say more than enough. It’s almost like Bioware’s realizing expectations for space combat were getting out of hand and they need to get more information out there, stat.

With the understanding that space combat is an optional, alternative single-player experience, I guess I was a little surprised to see the results in this poll. Things aren’t looking too positive as at the time of this writing, people who are happy with the feature still outnumber the ones who aren’t — but just barely.

I admit, my first reaction at seeing those numbers is an exasperated What the hell do people want?! On the other hand, even if I don’t exactly sympathize, I’m also starting to see for the first time the cause for all the dissatisfaction. Simply too much time was allowed for speculation and imaginations to run wild. As usual the policy of only talking about what is 100% ready to be shown proves to be a double-edged sword that can either work in your favor or blow up in your face. However, I certainly don’t agree with the vitriolic sentiment that Bioware brought this on themselves (/facepalm), and in fact if PAX is any indication, they’re out there listening to feedback (so long to the Jedi “Wizard”, hopefully?) and I’m hoping for some more substantial news to roll out this weekend.

STO: You Can Cold Call Me Anytime

Last week was a pretty eventful week for me in Star Trek Online, having leveled to Vice Admiral just days after grinding my diplomacy experience to Attache rank. With this flurry of activity, also came a downside. I knew that soon after reaching both these goals, my interest in the game could very well wane again. For some reason, I’m faithful to a fault when it comes to my character in STO; all I want to do is work on T’Andy and I can’t bring myself to start an alt or a Klingon. But just as I was thinking of freezing my subscription (again), STO rolls out their feature weekly episodes.

See, I’m not always impressed by the improvements they add to STO. Sometimes, I even think the decisions they make over there are downright nutty. But I’ll give credit where credit’s due and I’m always grateful when Cryptic exceeds my expectations and comes out with something awesome. And the first ever feature weekly episode, “Cold Call” (detailed wonderfully over at West Karana), which debuted Saturday was an example.

Color me blown away.

“Cold Call” wasn’t a long mission by any means, but from beginning to end, I felt like I was part of something coherent. Like my fleetmate the Combat Archaeologist observed while we were in the in-game chat yesterday, it felt like being in an actual Star Trek episode in some ways, complete with all the ingredients of a great story:

A dash of diplomacy…

"Quick question, Ambassador -- anyone ever tell you your vessel looks like a Republic warship? Oh, you don't even know what that means? Never mind then."

A beautiful planet with an intriguing population…

Honestly, the most gorgeous place in the game by far. Right off the bat, it felt like a city that was full of life, with NPCs milling about and Deferi ships dotting the sky.

Like the financial district at lunch time.

Mix in a ruthless (but oftentimes humorous) foe in the form of the Breen…

Oh, they’re fun to fight too.

"Like the Romulans say, 'Never turn your back on a Breen!'"

Throw in a healthy dose of ground combat…

"And stay down!"

Add some space combat for flavor…

"Sorry, Defera, but I'm going to be leaving your orbit with more space junk."

Finish it off with just a hint of mystery…

"I solve a puzzle and then nothing? Illogical!"

And everything comes together to create this intense, plot-oriented experience. In theory, there was nothing new — still the same type of mission to escort, find and kill enemies, do some patrols…but I was surprised at what a difference the details of the weekly episode made. When all is said and done, it’s just another mission, but I had a great time with it and feel that the devs deserve a pat on the back and a huge thank you from me for all the effort put into its design. This is why I play STO, and why I’ll continue to play STO if the future weekly feature episodes are released at this caliber.

Well played, Cryptic, well played.

And while I’m showering the devs my appreciation, might as well thank them too  for my fluidic space tribble!

"Whoa, so fluidic that my brains are turning to mush."

Looking forward to “Episode 2: Out in the Cold” next week.

You Came In That Thing?

A short space combat video was revealed earlier this week on the Star Wars: The Old Republic website, so it makes sense that they would tie the Friday update in to it as well. The new page “Starships” has been added to the Holonet (guess this also means more material for future updates) and currently only features the two classes that have already been confirmed: Corellian Defender (formerly the Vanguard?) for the Jedi Order, and the Fury-class for the Sith.

Presumably the other four ship slots that are still blanked out are the ones for the Trooper, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent classes, but based on the space combat trailer I think it’s possible to make informed guesses as to which one is for which. Ship models are apparently designed specifically to match the player class types, but as far as I know other than the cosmetic differences they’ll all function pretty much the same way. Keeping things fair and all that jazz.

A Fan Friday was also released, complete with a Developer Corner that reveals the names and some details of the remaining Advanced Classes. I concede I felt a little awkward reading through a couple of these. If anything is subject to change, I sure hope it’ll be some of the names.

Trooper: Commando and Vanguard
Smuggler: Scoundrel and Gunslinger
Jedi Knight: Jedi Sentinel and Jedi Guardian
Jedi Consular: Jedi Shadow and Jedi Wizard

Bounty Hunter: Powertech and Mercenary
Sith Warrior: Sith Juggernaut and Sith Marauder
Imperial Agent: Operative and Sniper
Sith Inquisitor: Sith Sorcerer and Sith Assassin

Eep, “Jedi Wizard”? Really, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I just take comfort in the fact that at least both Advanced Classes for the Bounty Hunter sound respectable.

Now Let’s Blow This Thing And Go Home

Yesterday a new Star Wars: The Old Republic space combat video was released as a special for Gamescom 2010. Short as it was, I was very excited when I saw it.

I was also able to pick up the latest issue of PC Gamer yesterday which features space combat in SWTOR, so I wanted to wait until I had the opportunity to peruse it before I put my thoughts together. It was nice having some reading material to go with the awesome imagery from the new trailer, because in a way the footage and the new article complemented each other very well. Like sources have already confirmed, space combat can be described as a “tunnel shooter”, but damn…being on rails has never looked and felt so good.

There are several things I took from the PC Gamer article. First is that while space combat is an important and anticipated feature in SWTOR, gameplay is likely to be a heavily directed and controlled experience. Second is that for better or worse, Bioware is taking space combat in very specific direction, and that is to capture the most iconic and memorable space action moments from the movies and somehow recreate them in their own way for the game, so I would be expecting to do some trench runs and asteroid dodging.

My gut feeling is that the devs have a very good idea of what they want players to see and feel while they are experiencing space combat, and presumably utilizing things like “hot spots”, cinematics and a “tunnel shooter” style is their way of strongly steering us towards all of that.  After thinking about it, I realized I don’t have much of a problem with this. So space combat isn’t going to entail a “fly-anywhere-you-want” type of gameplay, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done well or won’t be fun. In fact, I’m more comfortable with the fact that Bioware appears to have a clear direction in which they want to take space combat, as well as concrete goals they seem to be actively pursuing. Despite all the information we’ve gotten on space combat in the recent weeks, I still get the feeling that Bioware is being really careful when it comes to the topic; it’s a fine line between feeding the hype and releasing what they know they can deliver.

In any case, I think they have been pretty transparent with what they have revealed so far. On rails or not, I would rather have a polished space experience at launch complete with well-defined objectives than a half-assed, muddled end product that doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going, which might be the case if they were trying to please everybody. I’m certainly not trying to appease people who are still less than impressed by SWTOR’s space combat, but what I saw from the video did indicate to me how much care and work must have been put into it — everything from the ship movements, visuals, sound effects, voice work, music, etc. A part of me does kinda hope that the quality of the trailer might have at least lifted the spirits of some of those who were disappointed before.

Another thing I realized after reading the PC Gamer piece was that there is a lot of potential for space combat. All throughout the entire article was a sense of hope and suggestion that what we get at launch will continue to be a work-in-progress that may one day contain more aspects of space combat, perhaps features like difficulty levels, PvP and co-op gameplay or even missions in space that would affect players on the ground. The positive angle makes me think that people who maybe aren’t so happy with space combat right now can look forward to future possibilities.

There’s more to the article, but it would be too much to go into the finer details. A few things I do want to mention is that there are plenty of nice images (some that are very similar to what we see in the trailer) and a lot of interesting speculations, such as mission types and ship classes. Related to the latter, I noticed at least six different models of ships in the video and recognized the two that were confirmed (Corellian Vanguard-class for Jedi Knights and Consulars, Fury-class imperial for Sith Warriors and Inquisitors).

One last thing is that there was also an offhand comparison to the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron games when describing the gameplay. After watching the video I can definitely see that. Gotta say, I loved that game back in the day when I played it on the N64…just please, all I ask is leave out the repetitive, irritating “Rogue Squadron, where’s our cover?!?!” type dialogue, which quite possibly was the most annoying video game line of all time.

Weighing In On SWTOR Space Combat Rumors

Here’s generally my rule regarding rumors and hearsay when it comes to high profile games — take everything with a grain of salt. Unless it is information that has come through official channels or has been talked about or confirmed by a dev or the company, I don’t usually write about it until more has been substantiated. That said, there has been rumors over the last few days about the state of space combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it all started from a write-up about an upcoming article on PC Action, a German magazine (Google translation of it can be found here).

The story has led to an explosion of speculation and interpretation, people claiming SWTOR space combat will be “on rails” or nothing more than a “tunnel shooter.” While devs have not made anything official yet, what they have done is acknowledge the discussions and encourage feedback on the forums. That’s not a confirmation by any means, but it does give me the impression that there might be something to this story. That’s part of the reason I’ve decided to write about this, but the main motivation has been of course Hunter’s post on his take on the topic.

Back in June, Hunter and I made a friendly bet with each other about whether or not there will be space combat in SWTOR. A few weeks ago, it appeared victory was mine! But little did I know that our simple little wager would become so much more complicated. The crux of the issue, of course, is defining what space combat actually is. And for the most part, I agree with him — there has to be a line drawn somewhere. For example, I think we would both agree that a turret based shooter, space combat is not. That’s why I was a bit concerned when I heard the first murmurings of “on rails”‘ and “tunnel shooter”, because I started wondering what this might mean for our bet. Hey, on the bright side, at least I’m not QQing about the actual game! I’ve got 10 credits and my pride riding on this, people!

Okay, all joking aside though, Hunter and I can at least rest assured space combat will not play out like, in his words, a “duck hunt.” From the community manager’s post on the official forums:

UPDATE [1]: To clarify, Space Combat is not a Turret Shooter (this is probably obvious after seeing the screenshot but some people were mentioning it in the other thread).

That’s great news for both of us. And my own prediction for space combat remains the same — most likely scripted and instanced, possibly including cinematics, at these designated “hot spots” that players can travel to in order to initiate the action. The information in the PC Action write-up hasn’t really refuted that. To be honest, I think most people expected a polished and worthwhile space experience, but nothing overly elaborate. After all, SWTOR is first and foremost an MMO, not a flight simulator. The main game is driven by the individual class stories; space combat is and has always been a “side game” in my mind, perhaps even optional. Predefined paths, limited weapons, or repeatable quests be damned, I think as long as the gameplay doesn’t feel trivial, or that it’s thrown in as an afterthought, I would consider it space combat.

The problem is that it’s just so subjective. Realistically, Hunter and I might not even be able to settle our bet until the game launches and we get to try out the space content for ourselves. But I think that’s okay though. The most important thing is, I consider Hunter a good blog friend, and what has come out of our friendly wager is an opportunity for me to discuss news about SWTOR with someone else who seems just as passionate about the game as I am. That’s always a good thing in my mind, because God knows the blogosphere is the only place I can find others with whom to share my enthusiasm and love for SWTOR. No doubt we’ll both be keeping our eyes out for more information on this subject. I for one am not giving up convincing him that I’m owed my 10 credits!

Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, let’s take some time to think about the PC Action write-up. Even if it all turns out to be true, is space combat being on rails and pushed along from behind really that bad? Jaramukhti, a commenter on this blog, has likened this style of gameplay to Star Fox, which like he pointed out was an awesome game with some pretty fun flight mechanics.

Like I said, and like what Hunter has already alluded to, if you were looking for game with a huge emphasis on space combat and free flight, an MMO probably isn’t what you should have been looking for in the first place. Bioware has never claimed SWTOR would be a game centered around space combat, so why demand it to be? On the contrary, what they’ve always emphasized is story and we should expect all development to be built upon that. Personally, I’m happy enough with the fact that space content is even included. Hence I’m neither excited nor disappointed about the article.

It’s truly perplexing to see words like “ruined” and “deal-breaker” when it comes to the discussions I’ve seen pop up in the last couple of days about this topic. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I can’t help but wonder how people can be so affected (read: freaked out) by the new information that’s come out about space combat, authentic or not. In my view, misgivings should be reserved for bigger things instead of wasting energy complaining about something that’s an “extra” and that has never been touted as a main feature. A few weeks ago, we didn’t even know for sure if there was going to be any content based in space, let alone space combat. If the game excited you before then, why should these new rumors change anything?

For what it’s worth, I am looking forward to seeing the upcoming issue of PC Gamer that’s due on newsstands in another week or so, now more than ever. Hopefully, some answers about space combat will be provided there.

She’s Back

T'Androma, back in the captain's chair.

Yesterday, I reactivated my Star Trek Online subscription, as planned. I’d been waiting for a reason to re-sub, and Season 2 is it. The update probably won’t go live until closer to the end of the month, but I wanted a chance to update the client and get myself reacquainted with the game controls before that happens.

I hadn’t planned on logging into the Tribble test server — as much as I was looking forward to the new content, it didn’t make much sense to spoil it for myself before it even has a chance to go live — but the day happened to mark the beginning  of another Tribble Test Weekend, and heaven knows I’m a sucker for free in-game rewards. I plan to test what I can without going overboard, and hope it’ll be enough to obtain the “surprise” Tribble.

On the test server tonight, I had just enough time to start the first couple of Undine missions and fight my way to their native realm. And I have to say, I am absolutely floored by Cryptic’s take on Fluidic space — it’s beautiful, it’s enchanting…and just a little trippy. And just as I’d gotten used to the flight controls again, those sneaky “Trikes” and their new abilities give me a run for my money. I have a feeling the Undine story is going to be the most interesting one yet.

Like someone spilled a little water into sector space.

I am also truly amazed at how much the Season Two: Ancient Enemies update will be bringing to STO. Tomorrow, I plan to pop into Tribble again to try my hand at some diplomacy. There’s more to life than running into a fight guns blazing, and it’s time for Admiral T’Androma to learn something about the delicate art of negotiation.  Subtlety has never been her strong suit, so here’s hoping she doesn’t spark any galactic wars with her Vulcan candor.

Back on the live Holodeck server, I went ahead and bought the Mirror Universe uniforms (evidently, great minds think alike!) which I’d been dying for ever since I found out they were being offered in the C-Store. But oh no, it was never intended for my captain…

Looking sharp there, Sleer.

Finally, the beard and the uniform come together on the U.S.S. Taiga's First Officer.