Rumor: The Old Republic's Space Combat Lacks Freedom [UPDATED]

[Kyrian007]

A multiplayer TIE Fighter in an MMO? It's the only reason I would have played it... ever. Now, back to not caring.

 

[Devil's Due]

I, for one, am glad for this. I used to play Star Wars Galaxies in the earliest days and Jump To Lightspeed is what killed it for me. Suddenly nobody seemed to care about the ground; it was all about the space flight now... a space flight system that SUCKED! In my eyes, Star Wars Galaxies was all about the role playing, the character's skill... and then you add this horrible space combat system that relies entirely on the PLAYER'S skill! Oh, and then they have to restrict you by only letting you get better ships when you miraculously manage to fill out your XP bar to the next level! TIE Fighters are crap enough, but now you're telling me that I can only use a CRAP Tie Fighter before I can use a REAL Tie Fighter? WHAT... ARBITRARY... SILLINESS!

Not everyone is a spacer, some give space a chance then give up, but for others we loved it and believe it's what saved SWG for a lot of us, especially for the Chilastra galaxy. (We're heavy spacer's there)

 

[JEBWrench]

And allow me to point you to Bioware stating that it is not on rails [http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=182698]

Looks more like Battlefront's space combat. And Battlefront's combat wasn't on rails.

Hopefully people will read this post.

Wait, where did Bioware say it wasn't on rails? Because their description there? That's describing something like what Kingdom Hearts does.

It's not a rail shooter, it's a space rail shooter (the addition of two axes of movement to dodge meteors and such.

 

[Littaly]

What's so bad about on rail flight sequences? I find those awesome!

I mean yeah, they are from another era, but they are still fun (Lylat Wars anyone?). And I'd rather have a really good on rail sequence than a really intricate, full blown flight sim that collapses under it's own weight.

 

[Talvrae]

well anyway i really dont care about space conent me so...
I always had say i would no do them

 

[Meemaimoh]

I seriously don't care. Honestly, it's a Bioware game. All I really care about in the end is the way my character interacts with the NPCs. That's what they consistently do well enough to keep me coming back, so it's what I want them to perfect for this.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Ah "cinematic experience" this has destroyed gaming..... games are not film....

 

[Fensfield]

This isn't tremendously surprising - most of us not members of the troglodyte 'Hate CCP and seize on absolutely anything might show them up, however vacuous' sub-culture have long realised that when you make a sci-fi game where spaceships are a secondary focus to everything goes on on foot, you will not be making something can replace the primarily-about-spaceships MMOs. Not that that's an inherently bad thing of course; indeed, sci-fi MMOs often have an unfortunate habit of focussing too much on the spaceships or the sandbox - .. not that KotOR doesn't seem to be leaning rather too far the other way in both cases.

But still that said, this sounds a good bit more limited than even I was expecting - though I readily admit, the more limits you impose, the easier it is to make what is available awesome.

 

[uppitycracker]

"Cinematic experience" seems to be what htey're going for with the whole game, which is exactly why I don't see it being any fun to play.

 

[Keava]

I for one am happy that there will be no flight simulator. I dont like shooters/simulators to start with, and would prefer my MMOs to stay just as what they are, without the need of struggling with a genre i never enjoyed.
With subscription based MMORPGs, aiming for rather high customer base, you can't really allow yourself to alienate a huge part of the crowd, that wants a simple experience they are familiar with. We want to be geeky in our quest for 'phat epixxz' so we can clik a shiny icon on our ui and see things happen.
Forcing in a flight sim or any other cross genre elements is good for experimental/innovative productions, not blockbusters.

 

[StANDY1338]

Actually, Jump to Lightspeed was the better of the expansions Galaxies had, and I wouldn't mind a space sim like that in TOR.

Agreed they should just steal that.

 

[Buizel91]

And allow me to point you to Bioware stating that it is not on rails [http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=182698]

I also bring a screenshot of space combat.

Looks more like Battlefront's space combat. And Battlefront's combat wasn't on rails.

Hopefully people will read this post.

*Sigh* why does the escapist fail to read? I'm glad you posted this =)

It's this thread all over again...http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.222925-Halo-Reach-Will-Punish-Quitters-Says-Bungie?page=1

 

[Tom Goldman]

And allow me to point you to Bioware stating that it is not on rails [http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=182698]

I also bring a screenshot of space combat.

Looks more like Battlefront's space combat. And Battlefront's combat wasn't on rails.

Hopefully people will read this post.

*Sigh* why does the escapist fail to read? I'm glad you posted this =)

It's this thread all over again...http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.222925-Halo-Reach-Will-Punish-Quitters-Says-Bungie?page=1

We don't. It is on rails... you can just move a little bit, just as I state in the article. If you understand the definition of "on rails," that's exactly what is described in both the translated article and the PC Gamer article.

 

[quiet_samurai]

And allow me to point you to Bioware stating that it is not on rails [http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=182698]

I also bring a screenshot of space combat.

Looks more like Battlefront's space combat. And Battlefront's combat wasn't on rails.

Hopefully people will read this post.

Now this sems totaly credible. Thank you.

OT: If if does turn out to be a rail shooter, I won't worry. If this game takes off then there will no doubt be patches and expansions later on. I remember back when the game was first announced they said the space/flight aspect of it wasn't their first priority.... or something like that.

 

[Schmittler]

That's not all bad. It would ideal to have a more open space combat, but an on-rails, Star-Fox like combat is just fine with me. Every little bit that keeps it fresh is fine by me.

 

[Hoplon]

This is really disappointing for me and few of my friends. One thing we love about Star Wars Galaxies is that it allowed a large amount of space combat, from small fighters to multiperson ships that required a large crew to operate. Heck, some could say that the space combat was more fun than the ground. A on rails shooter... is just a limitation that disappoints the "spacers" from SWG.

weren't they always going to be disappointed then? This is KotOR on-line, which never had a heavy space component, the rest of the game is not a sand box, why would space be?

Because some of us had hope that BioWare would improve upon the last Star Wars MMO with the features that worked and made them better, while fixing the ones that didn't. To limit players, regardless how heavy they're trying to make their story, is just a down-grade in many fellow SWG player's eyes, which is probably why a lot of us (and surprisingly there is quite a bit of us left) are not interested in KOTOR because of their choices in how they're making this game. To each their own, I suppose.

Reasonable, before the game was announced, but the nearly 2 years ago now it was told to the world that it wouldn't be SWG 2. Yet some people are still "being disappointed" by two year old news.

This confuses me a great deal.

Clearly, this is not the game you are looking for. You should move along.

 

[YodaUnleashed]

It's a shame that space combat is going to be more limited than the rest of the game but it's not exactly the end all for the Old Republic. Sure it's called Star Wars for a reason and space battles are integral to the Star Wars experience and space by its very nature is limitless and infinite but....well....this is a huge game and they can after all only put so much in it during the development time they have. I bet we'll see an expansion or update that improves the space combat post release.

 

[Irridium]

And allow me to point you to Bioware stating that it is not on rails [http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=182698]

Looks more like Battlefront's space combat. And Battlefront's combat wasn't on rails.

Hopefully people will read this post.

Wait, where did Bioware say it wasn't on rails? Because their description there? That's describing something like what Kingdom Hearts does.

It's not a rail shooter, it's a space rail shooter (the addition of two axes of movement to dodge meteors and such.

It appears I either misread or they changed it. Because I'm willing to bet money that they said it wasn't a rail shooter.

Ah well, whats done is done, I'll edit my post.