PAX East stuff

Lots of stuff coming around so I made a thread to make it easier to find for people who don't want to brave the official forums. If others find link to interviews, legal videos and players (people getting to try to flashpoint) feel free to add a link.

Gamewiz's thread official forum<= technically everything should be in there...

Darthhater space combat demo They also have an interview with Daniel Erickson.

At PAX people get to play the Taral V flashpoint...at level 32 with specific classes.
Consular is Ranged DPS
Smuggler is the healer
Trooper is "tankink"
Knight is "melee DPS"

The first video is what happen when you dump people into the shoes of level 32 players:
Taral V flashpoint "HD" fanvideo
The second one is the official version:
Official Taral V dev walkthrough

Some comment from Goerg Zoeller about the Taral V flashpoint and some of the encounters you might see in it:

Quote :

You really can't run an open demo at a show and throw full on boss battle mechanics at a random group of 4 players in a noisy environment, so the opening area for the Flashpoint had some modification done from it's original form to prevent players with no learning time on their characters to from wiping at the front door.

I wouldn't take it as fully indicative of final difficulty or boss battle mechanics - we definitely have a more varied palette than tank and spank in the game

Thanks for making this thread, Az.

Gamewizx's thread is a definite good place to go as well, he's doing a great job keeping on top of information.

Love how we know now that the Guardian DPS's in heavy armor, made me sooooo happy. It's also interesting seeing the Smuggler's healing bots.

Healing bots have an all new meaning now.

I kind of liked the Taral V flashpoint and "not", mostly because I'm not the one playing...

Space combat looks interesting.

As does the flashpoint. Very action-y.

The official Taral V walkthrough was wicked cool, really got me hyped.

I want my JK to wear a skirt like that scoundrel!

Since first hearing about the game my only concerns about ground gameplay have been how's the AI and how will companions act in combat. Thus I was overjoyed to read about a full combat playth-- wait ... no companions? ... and gimped AI ...

It's like being shown an airplane is ready to go, except for all that stuff about it being off the ground.

At least seeing the general UI, graphics inprovements and the flashpoint pacing were interesting.

Back to hibernation for me. The groundhog came out but still didn't see any companions running around.

I think Stry' made a new "groundhog day (- minus Bill Murray)", hehe.

Thx for the post Az, you are awesome as usual! /hi5

Stryklone wrote:

Since first hearing about the game my only concerns about ground gameplay have been how's the AI and how will companions act in combat. Thus I was overjoyed to read about a full combat playth-- wait ... no companions? ... and gimped AI ...

It's like being shown an airplane is ready to go, except for all that stuff about it being off the ground.

At least seeing the general UI, graphics inprovements and the flashpoint pacing were interesting.

Back to hibernation for me. The groundhog came out but still didn't see any companions running around.

Darthhater has an interview has an interview with James Ohlen in which he said that companions are out for Flashpoints and End Game Raids. This made me a little sad because one of there early ideas were to make healing companions (if everyone had them out) viable for Flashpoints so you didn't have to wait around for a healer. If they think having 3 of 20 advance class trees per faction being healing to solve this problem they better have the ability to save and switch between multiple specs at no cost. No word on companions for PvP, but I don't think it is likely at this point.

Godric_Barbarosa wrote:

Darthhater has an interview has an interview with James Ohlen in which he said that companions are out for Flashpoints and End Game Raids. This made me a little sad because one of there early ideas were to make healing companions (if everyone had them out) viable for Flashpoints so you didn't have to wait around for a healer. If they think having 3 of 20 advance class trees per faction being healing to solve this problem they better have the ability to save and switch between multiple specs at no cost. No word on companions for PvP, but I don't think it is likely at this point.

They've clarified since the Ohlen interview. Companions are allowed in Warzones, and ENDGAME flashpoints and raids, not leveling flashpoints at this time.

I can understand them trying to avoid making every class a micromanage pet class, and this is probably something I see changing a good bit before launch. I know they love companion characters, they'll figure out something they'll like. If anything, I can see them changing it to allow companions for endgame flashpoints but keep them out of raids.

Schwen, the groundhog seemed a decent metaphor: Sometimes he doesn't get what he likes until after Spring!

Godric, I'm sad, too.

The two big TOR selling points (other than Star Wars) have been a BioWare story and BioWare companions. Over the years I've learned to not trust companions in BioWare games. Telling a Baldur's Gate guy to come next to you could just as well mean he's off for a jaunt around the world. Battle-hardened warriors in Mass Effect can shoot a hailstorm of pain just fine but can't step through an open door without help.

This time, I figured BioWare wouldn't have put so much mouth time on companions unless they had found ways to overcome those problems. Now companions are being scaled back in combat usage. That's not a signal all is going like BioWare planned.

I'm not happy when BioWare stumbles. Now we'll be waiting for first a healer spec, and that is too easy to morph into waiting for the absolute best healer spec. And the fewer times I use companions, the less I'm likely to think of them as anything more than extra storage space instead of as the story elements BioWare wants me to immerse with. On the half-full glass side, I'd rather not have companions at all in combat if they don't know how to walk thorugh an open door.

For some odd reason this little saying popped somehow into my brain: " ... part of what you know is always wrong." I'll go on anyways.

Darn those groundhogs! hehe. I hear ya on the BW "stumbles".

Stryklone wrote:

This time, I figured BioWare wouldn't have put so much mouth time on companions unless they had found ways to overcome those problems. Now companions are being scaled back in combat usage. That's not a signal all is going like BioWare planned.

Stry, I think the restrictions on companions in certain situations has more to do with feedback from testing than with problems with the UI. I get the feeling that some people have problems managing companions in group situations rather than problems with the AI, but I cpuld be wrong.

Forcing everyone to use companions in such a situation creates accessibility issues for those who can't manage them. Making companions optional in such situations make for balance issues. It really is a tough situation for them. Personally, I think it is a bad idea to let people get used to having a companion in solo situations and then remove them in groups, but then I never had an problems managing my pets in other games.

Yea it's an odd problem. I don't have a problem managing pets, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it 24/7. Some people can't do it, which you'd hope that to help them the companion AI would be brilliant.

Seems we can use them up until endgame for flashpoints, but we can't use them at level cap for endgame flashpoints or raids. I wonder how that'll change before launch, if at all.

Yeah, my biggest problem with companions isn't their stupidity, even though it bugs me... it's the fact that my star wars fantasy doesn't necessarily include a wacky and wild gang of idiots tagging after me all the time. Especially not if they're the same wacky and wild gang someone else has.

In MMO's, I create my posse's with friends, not with NPC's. Becaue friends can walk through doors

Last week we had 3 reasons for companions: crafting, combat, and story. Now we have 2.

Someone on the TOR forums suggested questing without companions could be the "Hard" mode. Since not using them would then be a player choice, the unbalance/more difficulty would also be a player choice.

At least then "LFG: need 1 hlr" is only an option instead of required.

Without companions at endgame we'll see a lot more people reaching endgame without knowing how to do it. And using a real-world analogy, what's the point of getting engaged when you can look into the future and already see the divorce?

Nothing good comes from schizophrenic design. In other words, I'd rather have TOR stuck with KotOR's turret shooter (with multiplayer option) or go to 3D space bubbles than the poor middle ground of a non-multiplayer space roller coaster. Now companion use is also going to a poor middle ground.

I wasn't thrilled on finding out TOR would have combat companions until I found out TOR really wasn't going to combat innovate. Then companions would be a consolation prize, a way to give more combat choices both in which companion was chosen and for interesting tactics. Pulling them out of usefulness is now one less element to separate TOR from other MMOs.

To paraphrase serial marriager/divorcer Lewis Grizzard: Instead of getting married, save yourself a lot of time and stress -- walk up to a woman you can't stand and give her your house.

Oh well, that's why I was so focused on learning about combat companions. I went back to some old TOR forum posts where even then (June '10) I had misgivings if they could do it pathing and AI right. I'd rather have been proven wrong.