Huttball Comes to SWTOR

Huttball, the new pvp warzone shown to be in The Old Republic is an open warzone that allows players to fight their own faction as well as the opposing one in a game of essentially bloodball (from games workshop).

It looks and sounds fun to me and unlike some other people, those who like to wine about anything new or different, I don’t see it as breaking story immersion any more than being able to swoop race, play pazzak or an arena would be since you would compete noagainst your own faction as well as with the other faction, often non-violently, in those games and people seem to want those in the game as they fit the story. Relax and just think of it this way, the Hutts are neutral in the war and will do anything to make a buck or to amuse themselves. I think they need to have a way to bet on games for it to truly fit in, story wise though.

Watch the Preview here:

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110819

Question of the Week # 2

Do you play, or have you ever played, pen and paper rpg's?

The Eternity Vault

After watching the recent release of the eternity vault game play I find i'm more excited then before about trying raiding in SWTOR.  It looks like it will require alot of group cooperation to do the operations and that they will be a challenge.

The thing that worries me is how they plan on doing difficulty for the operations, they keep saying there will be adjustable difficulties, and I see several possible problems.  The most obvious if that they make them too easy, or not give better look for doing it on harder modes. As long as they at least follow the normal vs. heroic difficulty of WOW it won't be to bad.  Ideally they should make the normal mode the eight man operation and the heroic mode the 16 man thus making it a true challenge for those only used to smaller raids and making both sizes of operations used by all raiders.

I wonder if they're going to go with the standard raid timer lockouts?

Hawk Sighting

I saw a really cool and interesting thing this morning.  I was sitting outside and up flies a hawk on the hunt, landing two feet from me and looking for a bird to pounce on.  He sat there for about 10 minutes just waiting and watching until one of the small birds left the amall evergreen tree in my back yard then bam.  It took seconds from launch to strike to flying away with the birn in its talons, and i must say one of the neatest things I've sen in years.

Friday Update

This friday's SWTOR update is on the consular and includes a class trailer, see link below.

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/jedi-consular

Arena's in The Old Republic

Should there be arenas in the old republic seems to be a question making the rounds lately.  Myself I'm not a fan of the arena system, though I love open world pvp and enjoy battlegrounds, I think it would be a good thing for the old republic as long as they don't continually rebalance the whole game like in wow because of it.  I think that they should just accept that classed aren't necessarily balanced 1 on 1 vs. each other, and I think that's a good thing, and that's a good thing.  If they feel rebalancing is required make the changes pvp only and make it so certain classes have weaknesses and strengths vs. certain other classes.  I see no problem if a trooper could almost always take out a imperial agent but the agent could almost always take out another class, as long as each class ended up with a class they better against and one they were weaker than.  I would also say make arenas for say 4 people so there would be a good variety of classes, I would think it would be easier to balance a 4 vs. 4 battle to be close to even in class mechanics than try to balance a 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2 and try to make every class balanced against all others. Make it so the optimal arena 4 man team contains 1 of every class.

Guilding

I was just listening to the new Multiverse podcast, Guildcast and it made me think.  I don't run a guild, I've tried it and been an officer in a couple and found running a guild to be too much for me, I'm just not the type of person who makes a good guild leader, and only an adequate officer.  I have found I now have to opposite problem when i play a game, finding a good guild.  I find I'm often at a loss in how to find a good, fun guild.  Part of that is me as I'm often quiet in chat (both text and voice), and I enjoy wandering off the path and often play solo.  But I like grouping with a good group and love raiding.  I'm thinking that i'm going to have to turn over a new leaf in SWTOR and begin actively pushing and hunting down guilds, not sure if I should try guild hopping until I find a good one though like many of the people I know, it seems pretty annoying. I'm more a find a guild stay with guild person, so it will be an interesting trip.

Check out the 1st episode of the Guildcast

http://vagary.tv/multiverse/

I killed My Companion

At SDCC they revealed that companions in The Old Republic that they decided to forgo allowing a character to get his companions killed because the companions are to important for overall gameplay, and that people would do it just to see if they could really do it. I can understand their point but maybe they should try to go a middle route.  Maybe they should allow a companion to be critically injured instead of killed and take the companion out of play for a set period of time, say month, thus allowing a character suffer consequences for their actions. They could even increase, maybe double, the penalty period each time.  This would still allow for actions having consequences but save the character from permanently being screwed.

An interesting point on digital publishing

I ran across this when looking for a copy of a book that I wanted to read again, Eyes of Silver, and thought it was a good read.

http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=1049

Server Choice

I find I'm always confused about what servers to choose when I start a mmo.  I love playing on a pvp server for the adrenaline rush i get from unexpected world pvp and the thrill knowing that it could happen anytime.  Pve servers on the other hand seems to be better for, well pve, and I enjoy raiding and stuff.  As for rp servers I'm not sure never actually played on one but have always been curious about them, and they sound like fun.  You see the problem I have.

TOR is Coming

So, Star Wars The Old Republic is almost here and like allot of people i was sucked in and preordered the game, the digital deluxe version.  I must say I'm looking forward to it its been a while since a mmorpg has been able keep my interest for a while.  Everquest was my 1st mmo and i enjoyed it but was never sucked right into an mmo until WOW and i played that until about half way through burning crusade, but vanilla was the best.  After wow I tried a number of other mmo's such as Eve, WAR, Allods, and Rift, but none kept my interest for more than a few months, and from everything i've heard and seen this may be the one to get me back into the mmo scene.  I've missed having a game i can be excited to sit down and play when i have time and raid with friends, and who knows I might be able to fast-talk my brother and sister into dropping WOW and joining me.

Watch the new developer wackthrough

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110729